Have Your Say: Should F1 Drivers be Involved in Circuit Design?

[Steve Worrell]

I don't see any reason why not. I have to say I have a new appreciation for Herman Tilke tracks after playing F1 2017, some of them are quite fun to drive. The problem is they aren't necessarily very fun to watch.

 

[Dan Allen]

Current drivers - NO
Ex drivers - YES

 

[Waylander974]

In my opinion, drivers should be involved. For equal challenge, all drivers should post a point of view of their ideal track. But circuit design is not the job of the drivers. They should be only consulted for improvements and advices according to their experience.

 

[ears]

Wasn't Michael Schumacher involved with the redevelopment of the Nurburgring?

 

[Gringo]

Area 27 looks good.

That *does* look pretty good - look at the complete lack of tight hairpins.

Agreed, Area 27 looks like a great layout. The pit lane is unique, I have never seen a u-trun in a pit lane before. Very nice. Thanks for pointing this track out.

Oh and the the question at hand. Yes I think that circuit design would benefit from the input of drivers.

 

[seb solo]

NO Dont let Lewis have a say in the layout of Miami.No driver should. A good driver will race anywhere.
No self gain manipulation wanted.

 

[keto95]

Why not? It can't be worse than those boring 100-in-a-dozen-tracks from Tilke.

 

[ears]

No self gain manipulation wanted.

I don't believe any driver would draw any benefit from designing a circuit that they would enjoy driving. Their peers have enough talent to be able to master that track too.

However, a driver may be influenced by the characteristics of the car they drive.

In the many years between design and implementation, though, the strengths and weaknesses of their car compared to others may well change. And who's to say he'd be a Mercedes driver, even an F1 driver, by the time the event happened?

 

[budlix]

Of course yes. Same as butchers should be involved in surgery.

 

[Koen Verlinde]

Drivers are meant to drive tracks, not design what they think is best for them.

 

[VirtuaIceMan]

Yeah why not? To give Tilke their/his due, they do more than just circuit shape, including facilities, etc

 

[Leonardo Chaves]

Wasn't Michael Schumacher involved with the redevelopment of the Nurburgring?

He helped with the chicane before the final corner.
It was faster, more open before, i'm not sure it was an improvement specially in terms of overtaking.

Senna had a big hand in turning the old Interlagos into the current layout.

 

[Patrick van der Meulen]

I would say, if it is for input then yes. But for decisions or even veto’ing hell no. And on the other hand. Look at Baku. The first race there was boring and despised. The track was ridiculed. The races in the following years where nothing less than the most interesting and spectacular race of the season.

Though why Bernie Ecclestone brought F1 to Azerbaijan is very, very, very highly questionable... But it’s an example of how a potential boring track can be quite nice and produce interesting results in the end.

But also, as some already mentioned, it would be nice if track architects would given the space to design tracks on much more natural spaces and surroundings. But thanks to safespace (western) politics these days it’s much harder to do so. With thanks to environment fundamentalists who travels by filthy touringcars, and fly polluting air planes (with CO2 compensation on their ticket to buy off their conscience) to lobby around the globe... Or wreck places up as antifa...

/edit: corrected some typo's

 

[Damage Inc]

No, what we need to get away from is tracks designed around F1 and nothing else, we need more flowing tracks and not stop start F1 crap.

 

[Jens Christian Jensen]

Well. Lewis Hamilton turning architectual regarding dev of racetracks... Sure!!! why not... giving the space to overtake if possible.

Kevin Magnussen was in the dev of the Copenhagen (Could be) circuit from 2020... so why not let the drivers get a saying regarding track development... It could give the furture tracks some twist...

I say "Yay" to letting the drivers in on track development...

 

[Jamiedh303]

I thought they already were (some examples already given above)!

It occurs to me that there should be some input from drivers, as there should be from others, such as engineers, TV broadcasters and other stakeholders. Focussing more on drivers, if they were to contribute, then it should also involve drivers/teams from other classes to, so viable variants can be designed in also. I like the idea of ex-drivers, still involved with the sport, to be involved.

I realise that this stakeholder approach I am talking about would increase time and cost of new track development/creation, but I would hope the quality would improve and make tracks more sustainable. So many great tracks have not stood the test of time as regards to technology advancements or safety requirements. Perhaps having a stakeholder approach would make tracks more sustainable and less 'vanilla' as so many new tracks are.

 

[Thombike]

Yes and No. Yes, if for this job from all drivers 3 or 4 participating in this proces, but not only from top team, beacouse like Hamilton need this - He knows every strong and weak points of his car, so as one and only, he need the best variations for his car and drive style. Tht's why NO. Team/drivers mix...From merc, Haas, Sauber and Renault one driver workshop day, why not. They must then find best way to fast AND spectacular racing.

 

[Richard Dastardly]

Whatever they do they need to stop making every straight perfectly straight and every corner perfectly constant radius. Make the straights curve little and add little variation into the corners by making all them slightly tighten or open. Also add little irregular camber and small elevations into the corners.

We love Spa. Everyone loves Spa. But - most of Spa is a bunch of straights connected by constant radius turns. What most people love about Spa ( other than Eau Rouge-Radillon and Pouhon or whatever the current name is ) is that it's *fast*. That's what pissed me off so much about the new bus stop, it doesn't fit - La Source is slow enough and that is way faster than the horrible bus stop. As well as that, the corners are all different radius.

The Nordschleife is *fast*. Brands Hatch is fast ( admittedly you wouldn't build Brands today given how hard it is for fast cars to pass anything there ). All these driver's tracks we love flow from fairly fast corner to different fairly fast corner, mostly, and any slow parts are not particularily slow. Constant radius is ok, you just have to vary the entry & exit. And yes, more camber & elevation changes mid corner would really improve things.

I've really come to like Croft - for an old airfield circuit without a giant budget they made something really nice out of it. It has a hairpin, but the corners before it are progressively slower so it doesn't spoil the flow at all.

 

[Dennis Phelan]

Read my postscript

 

[Sky]

can't be any worse than the **** tracks that keep getting built.