Video shows what South Korea’s F1 track will look like in 2010

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Here’s a video 3D rendering of South Korea’s new F1 track which will be on the F1 calendar in 2010. I hadn’t seen it before but it looks like it was posted on Youtube a few weeks ago.

It’s difficult to know how accurate the video representation of the circuit is. Taking it at face value, it seems to share some innovations with Yas Island, home of this weekend’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

In particular the run-off areas seem quite small, perhaps because they’re planning to use the same Tecpro barriers found at Abu Dhabi.

Having said that some of the barrier details look completely unrealistic – the piles of tyres on the inside of some corners, for instance.

The unusual final turn loops around a bay full of yachts which seems to be a pre-requisite for new tracks at the moment.

The 2010 South Korean Grand Prix will be held on the 15-17th of October.

2010 South Korean Grand Prix

Thanks to edisonlsm via Twitter for the tip.

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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57 comments on “Video shows what South Korea’s F1 track will look like in 2010”

  1. Fabulous music!

    I wonder whether the track will be as narrow as it appears near the end of the clip, or if that’s just bad animation.

    1. Prisoner Monkeys
      26th October 2009, 23:52

      Ugh, I found the music made it really un-watchable.

  2. I find it on youtube today, but it’s from 1 month ago.

    This circuit is like Abu Dhabi, there’s some places really fast and another really slows (What I don’t like)

    And at the video have something similar to a city inside the circuit @_@ I think that it will probably be an hotel or anything like this, because at this place actually don’t have anything…

  3. I dont think the music and the budget will make the racing better Mr. Tilke! and can you please design a better track! they are all the same!

    Ha Ha Ha! 2:33 is Lewis going to start rapping now!

  4. There is nothing like 80s rock music… ;)

  5. They should put some yachts on the runway at Silverstone. That’ll guarantee them a race at any price.

  6. Less architecture and more great corners PLEASE. All these new circuits are boring and exactly the same.

    1. Yeap the buildings aren’t what makes it a great circuit. It makes it look good on TV, but if the track is boring, no amount of pretty pictures of buildings is going to make a race exciting.

  7. can we have a design a f1 track compitition, because i have some ideas

    1. yeah good idea. using MSpaint or something simple.

    2. We did that last year… but there’s no reason not to run it again. Might make for some interest during the off-season. :D

    3. i think that would be an awsome idea. get on that and put up a poll and see if anyone wants to do it. I have ideas too and would love to have a friendly little contest of it. maybe everyone can turn in their idea have the best put up and then everyone vote on the best

  8. Terry Fabulous
    26th October 2009, 21:43

    Reason #568 that F1 has it’s head up it’s backside

    On a four minute video showing a new circuit, the first three minutes is spent showing VIP areas and buildings. The last minute shows the actual track!

    1. Good point!

    2. and a sort of horribly sped up weird video, a fly over or a driver position at normal speed would have been nicer… unless this is predicting how cars will race next year, err..

  9. HounslowBusGarage
    26th October 2009, 21:48

    It’s flat. And all the corners are constant radius. What’s there to like?

  10. Or the track is quite a lot narrow or the cars are represented in a wrong scale, but something is wrong in this video, I’m afraid.

    On the other hand, they will need to go faster if they want to show us a pit-stop with refuelling!!!!

  11. Great music, songs name is Joe Satriani – Summer Song ..and its a shame about the track, gunna be exactly the same as Valencia.

    1. sorry it is satriani but the song I think it is Motorcycle Driver

  12. I hate to be a party pooper, but I giggle at all of the commercial buildings shown around the track. None of them exist now (I live in Korea), and none of them will probably exist on raceday, if there is a race day. The Korean in the video said they only have 55% of the funding for the track (it may be 55% completion, my Korean is poor). Either way, the location is too far off the beaten path to attract that number and type of commercial activity. And the wonderful yachts in the marina? I doubt there are that many in the whole country. At Bernie’s prices, I’m not even planning on going to the race, if there is one…

  13. Everyone who has commented so far seems to be criticising the track (either that or praising the air guitar music!) so I’m going to be nice and look for positives…

    1. The track has a few interesting looking corners on the second half of the lap
    2. The city built around the circuit should look good
    3. The marina was curved, so it will look different to all the other marina’s in F1
    4. South Korea is in many ways like Japan, where F1 is very popular, so perhaps there is potential for F1 to be sucessful there
    5.It has a huge straight so overtaking should be possible

    OK, some of those were rubbish, but at least my glass is half full!

    1. 1. Those corners are similar to Hungary, which isn’t very interesting at all
      2. That won’t improve the racing
      3. Marvellous. It wasn’t the fact that we were getting marinas at all the new tracks, it was that they were all boring straight ones!
      4. I agree, but I seem to remember the promoters spewing out a load of ignorant BS
      5. It seems to be the requirement now that circuits should just have one overtaking opportunity. Why not have series of overtaking-friendly corners.

      Sorry, but I’m really not optimistic about this track, it’s just another soulless Tilkedrome where the facilities come first and the track second. I bet it will have a lap time of about 1:30 and there will be 56-57 laps.

  14. In 20 or so attempts, Tilke hasn’t designed a track remotely as exciting as Spa, Suzuka or Interlagos.

    1. What about Otodrom in Istanbul?

      1. he hasn’t designed a track like spa, suzuka or interlagos in a country that gives a damn!

        1. and how is that Tilke’s fault? Both Sepang and Istanbul tracks are really good and I must say I like altitude changes and corner after the back straight in Bahrain.

          Turkey is passionate about F1, they just can’t afford tickets with their income…

      2. I think I’m in the minority, but I don’t really like Istanbul Park. Too much runoff area. No punishment for drivers who run off the track.

      3. What about otodrom, best of the worst in my book. I’m getting fed up with the bernie show, is he trying to irritate the fans of f1? He is a dicktator (I know the spelling is off, I tried it) I only watch 1/2 the races anymore since most are trash tracks. I used to be all decked out in f1 gear. I think my love for the sport is leaving me beacuse of this tool and the loser making crap tracks that my 4 year old son could make better for viewing. I’ve gotta say with JPM doing so good in nascar I’m watchinig that quite a bit now. I didn’t think that would be possible, but it is thanks to bernie and his billions which aren’t enough for him.

  15. HounslowBusGarage
    26th October 2009, 22:39

    @ Now I’m Scared.
    As far as I can understand this track and development is on reclaimed land that has been released for development in 2008. Do you think that’s correct?
    Has any construction actually started on the permanent part of the race track itself? I’m sure the additional part around the Marina already exists.
    I don’t think the Marina is actualy built yet, is it?

  16. how does tilke keep getting work? he has a blueprint for an f1 track which he tweaks slightly for each country. they are all the same. elavation is needed, changing radius corners are needed, challenge the drivers. i hate tilke! never met him but id love to slap him.

    1. I don’t think it’s fair to blame Tilke. Tilke’s firm has to design the track within the constraints set down by the track developer / owner, and the design standards set by the FIA.

      The track owner / developer determines where the track is going to be located. When the track owner / developer determines that the track is going to be on reclaimed land, there is no scope for massive elevation changes. Tilke’s firm has to work within the realm of the possible. There are also standards set down by the FIA that further limits what is and isn’t allowed.

      I’m sure if Tilke was given free rein over a project, and unlimited budget and no safety standards to comply with, then we’d end up with a track that rivals the best in the world.

      If you’re looking for someone to blame, blame the track developers / owners, and the FIA safety / design standards. There are the mechanisms that limit the awesomeness of the track, not Tilke’s skills.

      1. My sentiments exactly!

      2. That argument just doesn’t fly. Most of Tilke’s circuits have been identical, some don’t even have an identity if you don’t look at the buildings. Why? Because they all have the same format of a fast straight between two slow corners. Tilke needs to be a bit more creative than that.

  17. Mussolini's Pet Cat
    27th October 2009, 0:01

    shame they dont go over that bridge, might have made it interesting.

  18. I think i’ve figured out bernie’s secret plan: he’s going to sell the rights to f1 to the home and garden network, and it’s going to become a yearly tour of the world’s great tracksidE facilities. The racing will be there for a bit of fun on the side as a spport event, kind of like F1 Rocks.

    Seriously, what the hell? I get that facilities are important, but they are a means to an end after all, not the central feature of a track.

  19. Prisoner Monkeys
    27th October 2009, 3:57

    I have so say: if the circuit is going to be as shown, racing in and around high-tech steel-and-glass superstructures, it’s going to be one of the best-looking on the calendar.

    I also like the flow across the top section of the circuit. If they manage to introduce some undulations, we could have another Silverstone-like Maggots-Beckkets-Chapel section on our hands. And I can’t see how that’s a bad thing.

  20. Thatchers Bulldog
    27th October 2009, 4:50

    I think there is over zealous expectation of over taking in that video. They look like Scalectrix cars. However I’m all for new tracks.

  21. Should build a glass tunnel into and under the harbour and run the track through that…

    1. Mark Hitchcock
      27th October 2009, 8:17

      haha, great idea.

      They could put a few loop-de-loops in as well. F1 cars are (or were) supposed to have enough downforce to be able to drive upside down, might as well make use of it.

      1. LOL! That’s some idea!
        We can have gaps on the track too. So that the cars can get to sail in the air!

  22. The music is by Joe Satriani for anyone interested and it’s called Motorcycle Driver

  23. The music is by Joe Satriani and is called Motorcycle Driver for anyone that’s interested.

  24. A street circuit should be a circuit that runs through an urban area, not an urban area built around a circuit.

    If Bernie likes street circuits so much why not plant some temporary commercial buildings around and in between the tracks at Spa, Interlagos and Suzuka?

  25. The Background music is kind of annoying….

  26. If this doesn’t make you cringe try opening the Korean GP website. Fantastically horible!

  27. I’ve managed to translate the video text; makes interesting reading :P

    Grandstand: Why are we building so many seats? Noone will come! So, to claim your free ticket please write to the: Please make F1 in South Korea look respectable and not like Valencia, Turkey, Malaysia and China appeal, c/o B Ecclestones, Londonshire.

    Entrance Building: We had to start somewhere, so we built this really cheesey oriental looking pagoda structure thing. Hopefully it’ll have blown over by the time the race comes. Guards: be on the look out for a man called ‘Fattio Blabbatory’ he be banned.

    Formula One Pit: The only place anything will actually happen all weekend.

    Team Building: The FIA santioned handbag swinging room is the last door on the left. Interior decor by J Trulli.

    Race Control Building: The place where the race script is written by JJ Abrams. Who will be the good guy, who will be the bad guy? F1 isn’t like any normal pantomime, the scripts are dynamic and change all the time — before, after and even DURING the race!

    Media Center: Expect to see lot’s of journalists enjoying our Healthy Soup but please refrain from telling them what it actually is. If they ask, tell them it’s chicken.

    Permanent Pit: Like the other pit, but this one is designed for actual racing cars.

    Subtitle: These are the buildings that will be built thanks to the billions of dollars of profit we will make from hosting a Grand Prix. Yippie!
    Do not fall asleep during the rest of this presentation, we will be asking questions later!

  28. The final layout has been changed compared to what we saw till now. After the permanent pits they´ll build a hairpin and two sucking slow corners instead of the initially shown lefthander followed by a long sweeping left leading into (IMHO) best part of the circuit.
    That´s what I was afraid of. Please take a look at a former layout of Bahrain (which I had preferred).

    1. HounslowBusGarage
      27th October 2009, 22:11

      Has the coastline changed too?
      There was a sort of radius around the harbour that doesn’t appear on the linked diagram either.

      1. Prisoner Monkeys
        29th October 2009, 8:29

        Hounslow, the image zomtec linked to is of the original plan for Bahrain. It has nothing to do with South Korea.

  29. that track looks awful to me already.

  30. boo korean gp…should opt for USA or france gp….is any new circuit in f1 that doesn’t include city, marina, or tilke???…tilke most decent f1 circuit must be instanbul and sepang. other than that..it’s a crap to me.

  31. do they really need to show us what a pitstop looks like?

    from the corporate feel of this video, i have a feeling this is aimed at Korean investors with no real knowledge or interest in F1. I wouldn’t rely on this video for any realistic idea of the finished track.

    1. HounslowBusGarage
      28th October 2009, 20:58

      As you say, daft hairpins now instead of the fast left hand sweeper.
      Almost every corner has been changed on the ‘permanent’ circuit (including a ‘dog leg’ chicane just before the pits) but the pit lane entry from the GP track now seems in a far more sensible place.
      I’m trying to find out how far advanced the building of the town and marina are; does anyone know?

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