Hermann Tilke

Daily #F1 News and Comment: Wednesday 23rd April 2014

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This page will be updated throughout the day. Please if you are on Twitter press the tweet button below. If you re-write and tweet individual story headlines don’t forget to include #F1. You may not realise how hugely important this is and has helped grow our community significantly. Previously on TheJudge13 On This Day in … Read more

Daily #F1 News and Comment: Friday 9th August 2013

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This page will be updated throughout the day. Please if you are on Twitter press the press the tweet button below. If you re-write and tweet individual story headlines (tweeted) with links, please make sure you use #F1. Sauber’s Russian investment 06:44 (Updated 17:00) Vettel’s influence is minimal 11:15 Sochi’s problems solved? 11:40 India’s absence … Read more

Austin GP Review

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In no particular order, here are the post race threads to be gathered together…

The track and the race: Hat’s off to Mr. Tilke, it seems like he’s finally getting to grips with how to design a track. The topography makes the circuit visually really interesting and the combination of the 3 sectors made for an excellent race. “Turn 2 to turn 9 is probably the best sector I’ve driven in F1”, commented Jenson.

The race itself was tremendous with battles up and down the grid. There were concerns about overtaking but this was clearly not a problem, in fact at times we were back to the same old problem of the FOM TV director not really sure what to show.

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HRT Engineers worried about safety, Villenueve: ‘Vettel’s a child’, COTA wins Global award, Partially sighted driver wins Indy 500, Rosberg on Schumacher, Alonso/Vettel title permutations, RB to join elite club, US GP record: F1’s smallest winning margin

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HRT price tag 40m euros: Thesan Capital (who we think are Banco Popular in disguise – see news yesterday) have most reasonably come clean today and suggested they would be happy to receive back their original investment of 40m euro’s. I bet they would, these are the last desperate scrabbling to realise some cash back on what was a ridiculous venture destined to fail.

If someone pays Thesan 40m euro then there is still 10’s of millions more for the new owners to find to get the team back on its feet again after paying off the debt. Of course there is the prize money from coming last this year, and whilst prize money in F1 is a closely guarded secret, I believe 12th is worth only about 7.5m euro ($10m). The likelihood is HRT will just cease to exist.

The reason I say this, is because there has been for 3 years agreement among the teams for a 13th team to race. This has never happened due to the inability of anyone to get the required funding for an F1 start up. Buying HRT is worse than starting a new team as there will be debts, unpaid wages, a factory in Madrid that would be better located in the UK – why pay anything for them? The prize money is insignificant compared to the rest of the costs.

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Massa honoured as Buddh InternationaI Circuit (BIC) name a kerb after him

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It appears Felipe Massa had an impact on the BIC, beyond anything he could have imagines when he retired from the inaugural 2011 Indian GP with broken left suspension after hitting a kerb. Some drivers have corners or grandstands named after them but it appears the first kerb in F1 to be named will be the new ‘Massa kerb’ at turn 8, says the BIC.

Its fascinating when F1 returns to a new circuit for the first time following its inaugural event. All kinds of snagging is required after the first race and no wonder when the entire facility is often only finally completed a couple of weeks before the F1 circus arrives.

Korea was no exception. The pit lane entrance and exit were so badly conceived by Tilke that for year 2 the FIA took an unprecidented step by deploying a set of traffic lights at the exit of the pit lane to prevent cars re-joining the track in the path of others approaching turn 1 at high-speed. The pit lane entrance was also redesigned because the final turn was a blind apex, taken flat out but the problem was the drivers couldn’t see in advance those cars slowing to enter the pit lane – a highly dangerous situation. For year 2 the entrance was moved but even this wasn’t sufficient and prior to this years event the final corner was flattened to give better visibility for the drivers as the entered the curve.

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S. Korea, Ecclestone and the Emperor’s new clothes

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The Korean GP is held at the Korea International Circuit is a 5.62 km (3.49 mi) Herman Tilke designed circuit located near the port city of Mokpo. It is estimasted the cost of building the 135,000 capacity facility (including Tilke’s fee) was around $264 million (250 billion won). The promoters of the race are Korea Auto Valley Operation (KAVO – a joint venture between the mysterious M-Bridge Holdings and Jeollanam-do regional government) and the inaugural race in 2010 was close to being called off due to delays in construction. 

Crowds in the past 2 years at the Korean Grand Prix have hardly been significant in their absence. Empty grandstands and comments about no atmosphere at the circuit from TV reporters hardly substantiate the organisers claim to have sold 85,000 tickets last year. Even if we believe this exaggerated figure when compared to the venue’s 135,000 capacity, this indifference from the Korean public is not really helping the organisers financial woes. The Korean Times in its article “is it worth the tax payers money” tells us the local government will lose $60m every time they hold the race.

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