I miss the old Hockenheim

[Bram Hengeveld]

When the Hockenheim GP was still awesome!

 

[Ho3n3r]

Yeah it was pretty epic. Do you know what the actual reason was for deforming it into the relative mickey-mouse circuit it is now? It seems like a waste to me...

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

Maybe for the spectators? On the infield that is now the actual race track you can see the drivers coming by a lot more times.

Big loss for TV viewers imo, this was such a cool racetrack to watch F1 on.

 

[Ho3n3r]

And it had some epic races too - Barrichello's first win from 18th I think, Mika Salo's awesome drive in 1999 to let Irvine win, and I think Berger's 2nd last win in 1994.

I think the spectators would still love the old circuit more.

 

[Alexander Macdonald]

Look at his hand at 39:eek:

 

[Felix Luding]

they built the new track to earn more money and to get more spectators. they had space for 83000 spectators on the old track, now they have space for 120000 spectators. the funny thing is that they earn less money and have less spectators than before lol
this is the "Ostkurve" (0:50 in the video) on the old track today

 

[Michael Brown]

I think it was because spectators were complaining that they weren't seeing enough action, as vast majority of the grandstands were in the stadium section, and all the overtakes took place at the chicanes where few grandstands were located. This became apparent at the 2000 Grand Prix, where Rubens Barrichello won from 18th. Jean Alesi also crashed out, which sparked safety concerns. I read somewhere that the FIA intoduced restrictions on track length to force the change on the track (I think it was tracks can't be longer than 6km; Hockenheim was 6.3km; Spa is 7km). Couldn't they have just increased safety and spectator viewing?

The 2001 redesign left the original track unchanged, except for turn 1 isn't as tight as before and leads on to a slight right hand curve, allowing it to be taken faster. Other than that, the original track wasn't touched. I don't know why they demolished the old track unless they thought it was beyond safety help. I would have build an infield layout for F1 to use, and keep the original layout.

By the FIA's reasoning, Monaco also should not be on the calendar. Something's up.

 

[Ho3n3r]

So financially it made sense - race-wise, not so much.

And on the topic of Monaco - other than the glamour and history, it's the worst race of the year, every year. In my opinion, it should be binned anyway.

 

[Luke McVicar]

Would of been cheaper to add some more stands then redesign the whole thing, besides the old track was 10 times better then the crap track they have now.

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

@Felix: that picture is real horror

 

[Kyle Constable]

Surely they could just rebuild it onto the current tilked layout?

 

[Markus Neumann]

I didn't much like the track back then and I like it even less now (easily the most boring out of all F1 tracks).

However, I've always liked tracks that go through a forest. Obviously the trees are a safety concern, but still - tracks like the old Hockenheim or Spa are just kinda nice, even though the trees are a problem in several ways

 

[Michael Brown]

Surely they could just rebuild it onto the current tilked layout?

Yeah.

To me it's still one of my favourite tracks because the stadium section is still there, which to me is a better spectacle than Abu Dhabi.

Actually what I think they should have done was have a sharp right hander (maybe 3rd gear) before the first chicane. That way we get at least one forest straight.

 

[Eric Stranne]

they built the new track to earn more money and to get more spectators. they had space for 83000 spectators on the old track, now they have space for 120000 spectators. the funny thing is that they earn less money and have less spectators than before lol
this is the "Ostkurve" (0:50 in the video) on the old track today

Haha, translate Ostkurve to swedish and you either get "East corner" which is what it means, or you get "Cheese corner"

Made me giggle

 

[Ho3n3r]

Solution - can't they take the old layout and build it in the middle of the desert in Qatar or Kuwait or something? Then the trees ain't a problem.

The track was very flat to start with anyways.

 

[Erik Tveit]

Solution - can't they take the old layout and build it in the middle of the desert in Qatar or Kuwait or something? Then the trees ain't a problem.

The track was very flat to start with anyways.

They probably could. But Bernie still just want money..

 

[Hampus Andersson]

Boring When you drove it you just sat there on full throttle and did nothing.

What i always liked about Hockenheim is this, from 1:00

It´s like a go-cart track and in qualifying it looked like the golden years of DTM when they pretty much had the whole car on the big curbs etc.

 

[Felix Luding]

Boring When you drove it you just sat there on full throttle and did nothing.

What i always liked about Hockenheim is this, from 1:00

It´s like a go-cart track and in qualifying it looked like the golden years of DTM when they pretty much had the whole car on the big curbs etc.

you like it because this is a part of the old track

this is how the track looks today: http://www.motor-talk.de/forum/aktion/Attachment.html?attachmentId=498965

 

[Michael Brown]

That reminds me: is Jim Clark's memorial still in the forest?

 

[Hampus Andersson]

you like it because this is a part of the old track

this is how the track looks today: http://www.motor-talk.de/forum/aktion/Attachment.html?attachmentId=498965

No i like it because i like to turn the wheel more then i like to have the throttle planted on a straightaway