A Word On Silverstone And New Circuits

Some of the readers of this Blog like to point out that I have a few favourite bones of contention. Ferrari, the FIA and cronies are all favourite targets of mine. And then there's Hermann Tilke, whose circuits I loathe completely. OK, I have changed my mind slightly about Sepang. Out of all the dogs he designed, this one isn't quite so bad. Shanghai takes the cake for that one.

At least in Sepang we get some nice turns like Turns 5/6 and Turn 12/13 which is quite nice and most importantly, fast. But still he loves his slow corners, which I really hate, both as a spectator and when driving on the track. Tilke likes technical circuits where getting it absolutely right is essential. Its easier to lose time than to gain time on his circuits.

But most of all I hate the way he turned the fabulous Oesterreichring into that god awful castrated A1 Ring. And what in God's name did he do with Hockenheim? No more flat out blasts into the forest. At the Fuji circuit in Japan he turned a fantastic flat out sweep before the main straight into an absolutely shambolic mess of tight slow hairpins.

Whats more all this man's circuits have the same features. All have that same feel and from a spectators' viewpoint they all look the same.

Looking around the forums around the internet, you'd find many who would agree to my point of view. And then I found this article on GrandPrix.com. I couldn't agree more with Robert Sinfield.

I shudder to think what Tilke is planning to do to Silverstone. I've driven there before and I'll say this, its a billion trillion gazillion times nicer than Sepang. OK so it doesn't have the fancy corporate facilities or the jumbo pit areas or the fancy grandstands. But its got corners. And fast ones too.

It should be fairly obvious that these old circuits have the best layouts and provide year on year the best racing. I can't wait for the circus this year to reach Suzuka, Spa and Silverstone. It should be a cracker. So Sinfield is right. Just leave the Silverstone layout alone and build that fancy grandstand.