Valencia gets a lick of paint and turn names
The promoters of the European Grand Prix at Valencia have reacted to criticism of the track’s appearance by painting parts of it green.
They hope this will make it easier for television viewers to distinguish between the 25 corners on the 5.4km track.
According to promoter Valmor Sports:
Valencia Street Circuit this year has a new colour in its design, this colour is green to simulate the grass and to give more colour to the path. This green colour will be more attraction [sic] to the television cameras that follow the Formula 1.
Two of the corners on the track have now been given names. Turn eight (the right-hander before the bridge) is now called Curva Marca Leyenda and turn 25 (the left-hander which brings cars back onto the start/finish straight (has been named Curva Boluda).
The track certainly needs something to make it appear more distinctive on television. This may help but from reading the comments on this earlier article I suspect most people would prefer the circuit received more drastic treatment.
The organisers have also laid a 2m-wide strip of artificial grass at the exit of turn 20 to discourage drivers from using the run-off there as an extension of the circuit. And exit kerbs at turn five, ten and 14 have been replaced by a 25mm high ‘slant’.
Read more: “Not the most interesting circuit” – what the drivers say about Valencia
Kate said on 23rd June 2010, 0:20
Oh dear…somehow I don’t think that is the solution to the track’s problems.
Sush Meerkat said on 23rd June 2010, 0:36
Come on Kate, its green paint like they put on the tyres, it means eco friendly!.
GO GREEN!.
I actually have a lovely green tshirt made by Ksubi, and I’ve noticed a definite decrease in consumption of Lucozade when I wear it.
newnhamlea1 (@newnhamlea1) said on 23rd June 2010, 1:09
I personally think some grass and grvel would do the trick…or a tyre barrier?
Mouse_Nightshirt (@mouse_nightshirt) said on 23rd June 2010, 1:53
I think pits full of fire and spikes would be just what Valencia needs to “spice up” the show!
HG (@hg) said on 23rd June 2010, 4:08
lol .
US_Peter (@us_peter) said on 23rd June 2010, 7:11
Or how about some shortcuts?!
Mike said on 23rd June 2010, 7:49
A loop the loop!
Weeeeeeeeeeeeee!
Mike said on 23rd June 2010, 7:52
Or better yet, You know how F1 cars can travel upside down at high speed due to forces the car generates?
BasCB said on 23rd June 2010, 9:33
They must have misunderstood. We wanted them to put some green in there, i.e. Trees, not paint the tarmac and walls green!
footfarmer said on 23rd June 2010, 15:53
seems odd to me on the street circuits they don’t paint the walls the red green and yellow colours of the three timed sectors.. then you;d know where on the track the cars are and at least it wouldn’t be so bland..
macahan (@macahan) said on 23rd June 2010, 1:09
Wow now that will solve ALL problems with the track. Give it some green and it will help overtaking and make exciting racing (maybe if they paint all of it green and cause grip levels to go WAY down.. Now that would make it very interesting)…
Sigh.. Track needs something more.. Zzznnooor fest.. Let see if I can manage to stay awake THIS year (failed the last two years).. Track got a awesome total of 4 on track overtakes in the two years it been used.. Granted Catalunya had only 2 each the last 2 years and this year had 11. But I will not hold my breath in hope of a exciting race with many overtakes (well unless Ferrari or McLaren decided they want to start towards the rear and fight their way up the grid again)
David A said on 23rd June 2010, 2:53
“Track needs something more”
Like a bulldozer? Or some TNT? :P
Tiomkin said on 23rd June 2010, 8:33
Killing my self laughing. Golden comment.
BasCB said on 23rd June 2010, 9:34
Well if you wake up, you might have a better chance of finding out what corner they are in. That is a very big improvement :-(
Prisoner Monkeys (@prisoner-monkeys) said on 23rd June 2010, 1:34
Ah-ha! I knew it could be done!
Other circuits take note: you can now have tarmac run-off AND the illusion of having grassy verges.
bosyber said on 23rd June 2010, 11:04
I guess Bernie told Valencia: be more like Abu Dhabi – so they looked, saw they have a lot of buildings around already, and decided they needed the green, as the rest of their race was almost as interesting as the last one of 2009.
Icthyes (@icthyes) said on 23rd June 2010, 1:52
Here’s an idea: grow some real grass on it. Then it will be greener in all senses of the word.
joe said on 23rd June 2010, 7:40
have a grass section, like rally cross.
Mouse_Nightshirt (@mouse_nightshirt) said on 23rd June 2010, 1:53
Keith, typo:
“most people would prefer tge circuit received more drastic treatment.”
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine) said on 23rd June 2010, 8:02
Fixed it thanks, and added a paragraph about two of the corners getting names.
Nelson PK said on 23rd June 2010, 4:09
how bout a giant statue of adrian newey whose mouth is a tunnel like monaco?
feynman said on 23rd June 2010, 16:56
… and the tunnel exit ???
hmmm, goatse style, I like it.
wasiF1 said on 23rd June 2010, 5:13
How will painting green will help improve good racing?
I don’t think that this is a good solution.
GeeMac said on 23rd June 2010, 5:41
Just pull the barriers in a wee bit… that way its a bit more of a challenge for the drivers and we can make out the car park … uh.. I mean the circuit a lot better.
Fahad Alam said on 23rd June 2010, 7:26
Lets just raise the amount of overtaking and cut the track in half,tighten the crcuit and put tnt on it………………….!!!!!
Andrew White said on 23rd June 2010, 7:57
Painting the walls blue did absolutely nothing last year, and I expect the same this year. It’s just a gimmick to try and get round the problem that the track is terrible.
alan said on 23rd June 2010, 8:34
The nice patterns at the side of the Bahrain track did nothing for the race, what difference is green paint going to make?
Sean Newman said on 23rd June 2010, 8:54
The painting is a good idea. It won’t make a difference to the racing but anything that adds character to a track is worthwhile.
The way the sport is viewed is VERY important. Very often the actual speed of the cars is lost. That is because the cameras zoom right in and pan with the cars. More static shots are need to show the speed. Then even Valencia will be spectacular as the cars hurtle between the walls.
bosyber said on 23rd June 2010, 11:05
Except the walls are a bit far away, so that hurtling does not come of so well.
Sean Newman said on 23rd June 2010, 13:26
The static shots should not be zoomed in. The walls would be very apparent.
The idea would be to simulate the sort of views a spectator would have. I’ve been to lots of GPs and you really get a feel for speed and that doesn’t filter through onto the TV screen.
Anthony said on 23rd June 2010, 9:28
There’s one thing the Valencia track needs: A dozen bulldozers and some track designers that have a brain (Tilke doesn’t)
Alex said on 23rd June 2010, 10:13
Just scrap this track and go to the avus ring. I mean, 2 loooooong straights followed by hairpins, how overtake-friendly do you want to have your track :D. And it’s an autobahn, so there will probably be trees around the track to add to the fake impression that f1 is green. And the surface will also be dirty, which is bad for tires but good for spectacle.
dsob (@dsob) said on 23rd June 2010, 10:14
painted green……………..is this the next step in F1′s ‘green initiative’ ?
oh, and may I suggest the use of C4, rather than TNT…it smokes much less, so is therefore much more environmentally friendly
…lordy, green paint, fake grass and named 2 corners…………yup, that’ll spice up the show, all right….they’ve fixed everything that was wrong with the venue, and still had enough euros left to buy ices for everyone ……….. EGAD!