Valencia urban circuit pictures

[Principessa]

Hi all,

As you all know we've been on holiday to Valencia last week, so we had the lucky coincidence that the first race held at the new street circuit was during the weekend when we were there.

Here are some pictures of the circuit. Although there is still a lot of work to do, it promises to be a beautiful race in 3 weeks.


First corner of the circuit.


Harbour building next to the circuit


Straight line that is leading to corner before the bridge




The much talked about bridge really does look beautiful

[MattF1]

Looks great, cant wait for this race.

[freedom_honda]

whats with the run-off area?!
its a street circuit.
its meant to be narrow and unforgiven.

[Principessa]

[Principessa]

whats with the run-off area?!
its a street circuit.
its meant to be narrow and unforgiven.

Well freedom_honda, at quite a lot of places the circuit is very narrow, but the run-off area is so big because of safety before entering the bridge. During the race we saw last Sunday, quite a few cars went off in that corner. If the run-off area wouldn't be so large, they would end up in the sea

[Principessa]

During the week, we went back to cycle around the street circuit. This however was made impossible as a lot of parts were closed by gates and fences. Still we were able to make some good shots and we made it to the bridge and into the pits and pitlane.


Tinglado n°4 -> The pits of the Formula One. This is an old fisherman hall. You also have Tinglado n°5 where garages were made and I believe that it will be used by the GP2 teams.


One of the trucks of the GTA was still standing there. (Yes it was from the Ferrari team)


The pitlane


Starting grid. Here cars and trucks drive over every day. Still on the sides there is still a lot of work.


Pit entry


Paintings on the garage doors

[Principessa]

The bridge is quite interesting to see. She has a rotation system to turn open the bridge so that boats can leave the harbour. Normally during the Valencian race there will be no boats in the harbour that have to leave as the bridge won't open (obviously). Vijay Mallya though will bring his huge yacht to Valencia and I'm sure Briatore and Raikkonen and some other big stars will do the same

[Principessa]

I hope that you all enjoy the pictures I've put up

For those who will attend the European Grand Prix at Valencia, please wear a hat or take an umbrella with you! It is so incredibly hot over there. The heat isn't the real problem, but the sun is really bright and burns your skin in just a little while. To be honest, the sun can really hurt your skin. Just a tip

[Scotracer]

I've played the track on rFactor and the last corner is so unforgiving and it's a right bastard to judge the pitlane to be aggressive into it. I suspect there'll be a few incidents there

[Ciro Pabón]

Thanks, Principessa, nice pictures. The track is nicer than the cars. I like the edges painted with the colours of the town.

[modbaraban]

I hate to be so negative here but... I watched that recent GTS race and when I tuned in I though it's St Petersbough street circuit (USA) or something like that - i.e. typical American street course. The track is completely flat and boxed, all you see on the TV screen is concrete and tarmac 90% of the time. Yuck! The reason I hate Sakhir is not the layout, but its dull and monotonous landsape (desert in that case). It's the same with Valencia. I expected to see some nice buildings around, but it seemed the track is in the middle of nowhere.

Also the track is quite fast and tight. Most of the overtaking attempts ended in crashes or at least some minor contact. I guess it may turn out to be more dangerous than Monte Carlo for the F1 cars.

[ziilman]

Hi there, i would just like to know..
from the photos i have looked at, it seems that from the grand stands,
one can only see the track through the horrible fencing that has been put up.
i know it is necessary, but surely it can ruin the viewing of the race for the spectators??

[timbo]

Also the track is quite fast and tight. Most of the overtaking attempts ended in crashes or at least some minor contact. I guess it may turn out to be more dangerous than Monte Carlo for the F1 cars.

Track scares the hell out of me. It looks like Monaco and Montreal merged. I think it would be SC fest.

[Saribro]

The track is completely flat and boxed, all you see on the TV screen is concrete and tarmac 90% of the time. Yuck!

Yeah, while the layout seems interesting, actually watching it is extremely boring. The lack of visual variation also makes it hard to get orientated and figure out where the cars are.
I can't say I'm confident about this track :/.

[timbo]

The lack of visual variation also makes it hard to get orientated and figure out where the cars are.

Also true! I finaly understand what buggs me watching some american street circuits.
And I think it is very easy to deal with - you just need to paint barriers different for each section of the track.