Circuit of The Americas today announced that it has been declared ready to host the 2012 F1 United States GP by Charlie Whiting, who directs racing, safety and technical matters for the FIA. Whiting visited the Central Texas racing circuit as part of a scheduled pre-race inspection and approved the circuit for “Grade 1” status, hence appropriate to host an F1 race.
Post here all non technical related topics about Formula One. This includes race results, discussions, testing analysis etc. TV coverage and other personal questions should be in Off topic chat.
Pup wrote:Sakhir was carved directly from stone like Petra - or to be more precise, Naqsh-i Rustam, as the architecture is clearly Persian. It's a difficult comparison.
I can't avoid the trolling: so Michelangelo carves the David out of the marble and Tilke can only do Bahrain International Circuit? Interesting...
I am not amazed by F1 cars in Monaco. I want to see them driving in the A8 highway: Variable radius corners, negative banking, and extreme narrowings that Tilke has never dreamed off. Oh, yes, and "beautiful" weather tops it all.
"Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future." Niels Bohr
Slightly off topic ... Michelangelo had the luxury of metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals while Tilke was stuck with common limestone of the Eocene and Miocene epochs.
An artist, he is not - but I wouldn't be hard on him. Yes, you can nitpick it, but I think the important point is that the basic idea behind the track is the product of a racing fan rather than a technician. There's a definite appeal to that, and I think the end result is going to be really nice.
I wouldn't want this to become a trend, though. It's cool to have one track that brings together some of the great bits of other circuits around the world, but to have more is to risk losing the individuality of each circuit.
That drawing fits to a tee my opinion of Hellmund. Well-meaning and enthusiastic, but also naive and a tad short on self-criticism. (eagerly awaiting the inevitable deconstruction of that little statement)