2013 Korean Grand Prix

[zeph]

Not to take anything away from Hulkenberg's fabulous drive today, but seeing how neither Alonso nor Hamilton could overtake him on the straights with DRS enabled, I think a considerable part of the credit goes to Sauber and the new tires.

[Sevach]

Great jobs from Kimi and Hulk, Webber (did he just give up though?) was doing good too.

[Ciro Pabón]

Well, this track is one of the worst I've seen. Some say you cannot blame the track. I say you can. Pirelli is a pile of manure.

Here, Pirelli is a pile of manure on top of a steaming hot mountain of rotten fertilizer.

Curve number one is very close to the starting line, so there is almost no possibility to overtake at the start...

No. I cannot do this. I was going to describe the many ways this track is wrong. I cannot.

Anyway....

The race is under safety car right now, so I spent a few minutes tracing the track, which I haven't in my collection.

Just in case someone is interested (masochism?) and want to watch the track with a little more detail, there you go:

Korean International Circuit track for Google Earth

The race, any race, even a foot race between first grade girls from your local kindergarden, is almost doomed from the start in this kind of track.

Besides, it's incredible how pervertedly evil, how stupid (sorry, I have been rendered speechless, I cannot find the proper adjective here) the pit lane entrance and exit is.

A first year student (not of civil engineering but of topography) could design a better curve with his eyes closed.

Simple: I've never ever seen an exit that puts you right into the racing line.

The guy that designed that pit lane should be hanged by his bollocks from the highest pole in the circuit and left there as a lesson for future track designers.

No wonder many of you have complained about the race being the epitome of boredom. There is no way to propose an interesting race in this kind of a sorry parking-lot-track I just have seen. You have to understand I have been away from F1 tracks for a while, but my god, what's this?

What has happened here? Did they pick the most retarded designers and forced them to draw a track on a napkin while drunk?

Not since Las Vegas, when the race was actually held in the parking lot of Caesar's Palace, I have seen such a sloppy job.

I thought the Koreans have been screwed by Bernard Ecclestone, when they financed a doomed business. After all, all the money you can produce from this indescribable track (and 50% more, on top of that), was transferred directly to Mr. Ecclestone pockets.

It seems that Tilke managed to also screw them...

This "thing" they call a circuit should inspire us to create a new rule for the Sporting Code:

"You shall not hold a race in a country where people does not know how to create a track".

Now we have two white elephants made in Korea: the famous Ryugyong Hotel and this thing they call a circuit.

This is a master design compared with the track. This is Bauhaus design compared with the track. This is the Mona Lisa compared with the track.

[Traction]

The battling between Alonso and Hamilton was superb, interesting to see Alonso slipping up and leaving the door open for Lewis to retake his position. It could have been a different race if he made it stick.

Quote of the race" when you going to call me in man, these tyres are f$&@?d"...Lewis Hamilton.

[LionKing]

???
Do you really think the Koreans themselves designed the track?

It is a Tilke track...

[ringo]

Mercedes made a mistake with the setup strategy. The diff and the topspeed was a no no.
Being fast in sector 2 doesn't help if you can't overtake there. Having topspeed is cheap insurance against any issues that will put you behind slower cars.
Hulk driver of the race and romain. However he clearly had a traction and top speed advantage. Reminds me of malaysia 2010 with the force india of Sutil.
Any how, save for the redbull on fire and the crashes, this race left more to be desired.
There was too much tyre saving.

As for Kimi, he got very lucky again.

[Poleman]

Not taking anything away from Hulk as it was a tremendous drive,but what saved his day was the Sauber's traction out of turn 2-3 and last corner...Mercedes traction was sooo poor it was painful to watch.Everywhere else he was preety much ordinary but so was Alonso in the Ferrari (which was also painful to watch). Overall not a bad race from 1st place down...Sigh 2014 can't come soon enough.

[GitanesBlondes]

Great post Ciro.

There is nothing logical about this idiotic circuit.

Sector 3 is essentially impossible to overtake in.

[Traction]

Mercedes made a mistake with the setup strategy. The diff and the topspeed was a no no.
Being fast in sector 2 doesn't help if you can't overtake there. Having topspeed is cheap insurance against any issues that will put you behind slower cars.
Hulk driver of the race and romain. However he clearly had a traction and top speed advantage. Reminds me of malaysia 2010 with the force india of Sutil.
Any how, save for the redbull on fire and the crashes, this race left more to be desired.
There was too much tyre saving.

As for Kimi, he got very lucky again.

I agree...as the commentators were saying, Mercedes seemed to be almost confused as to what decisions needed to be made at times

[Traction]

[quote="Poleman"]Not taking anything away from Hulk as it was a tremendous drive,but what saved his day was the Sauber's traction out of turn 2-3 and last corner...Mercedes traction was sooo poor it was painful to watch.Everywhere else he was preety much ordinary but so was Alonso in the Ferrari (which was also painful to watch). Overall not a bad race from 1st place down...Sigh 2014 can't come soon enough.[/

With traction like that Sauber must have some form of traction control!

[Mandrake]

Not taking anything away from Hulk as it was a tremendous drive,but what saved his day was the Sauber's traction out of turn 2-3 and last corner...Mercedes traction was sooo poor it was painful to watch.Everywhere else he was preety much ordinary but so was Alonso in the Ferrari (which was also painful to watch). Overall not a bad race from 1st place down...Sigh 2014 can't come soon enough.

Every car has its strenghts and HUL made absolutely no mistake and used the car to his advantage. Alonso was all over the place today and got lucky to be in 6th place.

[ringo]

Rosberg wing was also a highlight. And Perez right front.
Vettel i feel is no longer happy with winning races. He's desperately trying to make it look like he had any threats from Lotus, when they were nowhere close. His only issues in race are wondering if his race engineer is being facetious with the state of the tyres.
Again painful race of mercedes. I don't know what the heck they were doing with the high downforce plan. They should forget about challenging redbull, just focus on keeping others behind and praying for a vettel retirement or sick day.

[Poleman]

With traction like that Sauber must have some form of traction control!

Yeah that came to my mind too...After RB now the traction control farce will start for Sauber... Although im not convinced that RB is 100% "legal" but ok all this BS gone way to far...

[Traction]

Rosberg wing was also a highlight. And Perez right front.
Vettel i feel is no longer happy with winning races. He's desperately trying to make it look like he had any threats from Lotus, when they were nowhere close. His only issues in race are wondering if his race engineer is being facetious with the state of the tyres.
Again painful race of mercedes. I don't know what the heck they were doing with the high downforce plan. They should forget about challenging redbull, just focus on keeping others behind and praying for a vettel retirement or sick day.

What rubbish

[Poleman]

Every car has its strenghts and HUL made absolutely no mistake and used the car to his advantage. Alonso was all over the place today and got lucky to be in 6th place.

I don't think that needs any special talent to just floor it out of 2 single corners and fly to the distance...Preety much thats all he needed to do as effectively he didnt have to do anything else for the part of the lap apart for keeping the car in the grey part.Every single driver would do just the same.Still a nice drive though but not THAT special.