Korean International Circuit: your verdict

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Despite months of doubt over whether the race would actually go ahead, and in spite of a downpour on race day, the Korean Grand Prix did take place and produced a race to remember.

So what’s the verdict on F1’s newest circuit? Is the Korean International Circuit a worthwhile addition to the calendar?

The drivers were largely positive about the new venue, albeit with some reservations over the pit lane entrance and exit.

But we should take their views with a pinch of salt – they tend to toe the PR line of praising new tracks and many were gushing in their praise before they’d even driven it.

An interesting layout

The track’s configuration is a cut above some of the bland recent additions to the calendar – particularly Yas Marina and Valencia. Turns 7/8/9, 11/12 and 17/18 were all being tackled at impressive speeds and showed off the capabilities of the cars.

The latter part of the lap was all the more interesting for being enclosed by barriers with limited run-off – though Mark Webber would surely have wished that wasn’t the case at turn 12.

The track also boasted the standard long straights bookended by tight hairpins designed to facilitate overtaking. Due to the race conditions on Sunday the jury is still out on whether they would provide overtaking opportunities in dry weather.

Of course the biggest problem with the track was that it wasn’t entirely ready. On Friday night walls were moved and kerbs raised but the concrete wasn’t fully set on the latter come practice on Saturday morning.

On top of that the drivers had to grapple with a track surface that offered very little grip. Having been laid just days earlier, the surface was oily, and dust from the ongoing construction work made matters worse.

Half a race

Already facing a tricky new track with an unpredictable surface, the drivers really didn’t need was the addition of water.

But it arrived by the bucket load on Saturday night. This caused a long and frustrating delay to the start of the race.

As happened at Fuji three years ago, Charlie Whiting in race control decided to leave the cars circulating behind the safety car for over a quarter of the race distance at the start.

Postponing a race start because of rain is one thing, but was it really necessary to waste that much time behind the safety car? You have to wonder if it was a plan to ensure the race got to at least 75% distance, allowing full points to be awarded.

Almost half the entire race distance – 26 of the 55 laps were spent behind the safety car. If the “75% race distance” rule applied to green flag running, this would have been a half-points race.

For many of those laps it seemed the track was not as wet as it had been during other recent wet races – Shanghai in 2009 and Silverstone in 2008 spring to mind.

The drivers struggled with poor visibility, which some blamed on the walled-in sections at the beginning and end of the lap. During the safety car period Jenson Button told his team:

Because of the way the track is with the walls and the stands the water isn’t going anywhere.
Jenson Button

To those watching the race who were unaware of the organisers’ master plan to erect buildings around the ‘street track’ portions of the lap it must have seemed rather strange that this brand new circuit was ill-equipped to cope with the rain.

A lot to like

But for all the problems caused by the late completion of the circuit and the dreadful weather on Sunday, there’s a lot to like about Korea’s F1 track.

The organisers have said the track will be in better shape next year but I feel that could be a mixed blessing. Even without the rain, the low-grip surface promised to make Sunday’s race an exciting one.

Will it still be there next year? Or will the surface have matured and the circuit polished into another of the sterile affairs that blight the modern F1 calendar? I hope not.

Did you go to the Korean Grand Prix? Tell us about your experience here: Korean International Circuit – spectators’ experiences

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    70 comments on “Korean International Circuit: your verdict”

    1. I like the track, although we really need to see a race in dry conditions. The mix of straights, low speed and high speed corners, and walls at the end seems to challenge all the cars and drivers.

      This particular race was exciting and boring all in one….I fell asleep during the delay…

      1. I like the track, although we really need to see a race in dry conditions.

        I think we were robbed of some fantastic first lap slipstreaming and side-by-side action on the run to turn 3. If the race hadn’t have started behind the safety car, or had have been dry, we would have been in for some treat. I hope we get that next year.

        1. I agree. I was really looking forward to seeing that 1st lap in the dry.

      2. I liked the “floaty” bits in the second half, kinda reminded me of Zandvoort, sorta, and the hugging the wall round the last corner and then strightlining the opposite kerb were a lot of fun too.

        Slightly concerned about the straights though, it didn’t seem to be that easy to grab and hold onto the expected tow … might have been the weather of course, but a wet China saw all sorts of passes down its long back-straight in the rain.
        The concern has to be he’s actually built another Valencia. Long straights that superficially look like overtaking hotspots, but actually deceive and disappoint, and it’s yet more follow the leader in the dry. We’ll see next year I s’pose.

      3. I think it was a great race for reasons that had nothing to do with the track, which is sort of a shame really because this track has oodles of charm as a racing track and I look forward to seeing what it has to show in years to come.

    2. If the “75% race distance” rule applied to green flag running, this would have been a half-points race

      that’s not a bad idea!.

    3. I liked it, and although we had an eventful race, I was slightly disappointed that we didn’t get a dry race. It would have been fascinating to see if we got a repeat of Montreal, with odd tyre strategies and overtakes. But it looks good and is reasonably easy to follow on TV. One complaint I often have about some the newer tracks is that they lack distinctive features to make them intelligible to a TV audience – Sepang is particularly bad for this – so unless you’ve been round it 100 times on a computer game it’s quite difficult to tell which bit you’re looking at. This was less of a problem with Korea and, if the cityscape is forthcoming, it should get even better in this respect. I particularly liked watching the cars travel through the final concreted curve before the pit entrance, which gives a terrific impression of speed that you often don’t get with acres of run off.

      1. I think the reverse, Sepang is easier to get a grip on.

        Every time they showed turn 4 I thought they were just showing a replay of turn 1, I was hella confused.

        The layout of Korea looked interesting, but at the moment it’s even more souless than the average Tilkedrome and I found it almost impossible to tell one corner from the next…

    4. Turns 5/6 ruin the first sector, I don’t know why they’re in there. I like turn 11. The rest of them I feel rather indifferent too. There’s some nice camber changes and abit of elevation too.

      Turn 17 isn’t much for an F1 car, but it’s rather iconic and the turn 18 kink adds character, especially when all the cars kept kicking up dust on it during all the sessions before the race. The same with turn 16, it had its own character until they fixed it.

      There’s alot of things on this Korean circuit, that had it been built 40 years ago, things like turn 16 or the dubious pit entry would be logged down as one of those ”It’s just how the track is” historical things that added to the circuit. Nowadays everyone has an opinion and nothing is good enough.

      I wasn’t a fan of the camera angles, having shots of the cars head-on as they go down the straights doesn’t give any sense of speed at all. They need less head on shots and pan shots, FOM’s camera angles/shots are pretty awful in general though…

      1. I can understand where you’re coming from on the lack of sense of speed with a head-on shot. However, side shots fail to allow you to tell what the cars are doing strategically in their pass. Then it would be the same image over and over of the cars going by quickly without being able to tell quite what their doing in regards to one another. Personally, I’d much rather be able to see what the cars are doing to defend and attack, especially considering there WAS a side shot that was shown on occasion.

        1. I don’t think that’s entirely true. Of course, a dead-on side shot would result in one car being obscured by the other. But if the side-shot was at an angle, there wouldn’t be that problem.

        2. The best shot I’ve seen this year is at Spa just before Eau Rouge where the camera pans right to left and shows the cars disappear over the hill.. Fantastic, and amazing for getting a sesne at home of the speed and grip these cars have..!!! ;-)

        3. They may have not shown side shots, otherwise it’d have been pretty obvious how bland the rest of the circuit was apart from the race track.

    5. I like the addition of S. Korea to the calendar but I think the jury must remain out on this track, until we see a dry race without dirt and water on the track.

      It’s interesting though that I’m really not truly impressed by the circuit itself, I think the new tracks that have been introduced in the recent past have set the bar so low that fans become excited about a track that is mediocre at best.

    6. I think the track will remain an inherantly good one, I think if the track grips up going off line won’t bring such a penalty and the tracks inherant suitibility to overtaking might come through.

      As well as that, we where deprived of the first lap, at a track like this the first lap is likley to put cars out of position so it’s a shame really.

      Also the track looked good in FP so I reckon it’s just a well designed track overall. It’ll need a good dry race though.

      1. Actually I am not so sure it will grip up a lot. How many races are they going to have here in the year until the next GP?

        And with building still going on around the track, it is bound to be dirty for another 2-3 years yet.

        But i do think it has a pretty good design, and some of the things the drivers said sounded like honest respect for a solid job done

    7. i like the layout very much only the beggining of the track common why put 3straights after each other???

      1. CarsVsChildren
        28th October 2010, 13:46

        My guess is to provide a conundrum when setting up your car.

        Do you go for straight line speed (and the possibility to overtake/defend down the straights) or go for high downforce to blitz the field through the twisty second and third sectors, therefore being far enough ahead that you are safe on the straights.

        Quite clever if you ask me.

    8. Wasn’t impressed before the weekend, but I really enjoyed the fast changes of direction, off-camber bends, close barriers etc.
      Even ignoring the race (which was more a demonstration of what a slippery surface does for a race than how good the track is) it’s definitely one of the better new tracks in recent years.

    9. It looks to have two or three overtaking spots, so hopefully we can exicting races regardless of whether it is wet or dry.

    10. One of Tilke’s best in my opinion.

      1. agree. becuase it rains. just like china. but is it going to be interesting when its dry? too hard to say @ the moment

        1. Playing the track on the new F1 game (hardley conclusive i know) it seems to have a really nice flow to it and there are spots for action.

          You have to be able to deal with a lot of different situations in lap which I like.

          Whether it works for F1 cars proper or not remains to be seen. But it seems like a good track on paper / simulation.

    11. I, for the most part, enjoyed the circuit. But the first half of the lap is straight – hairpin – straight – hairpin – straight – hairpin – hairpin – hairpin.

      Is it possible to have two straights connected with anything other than a hairpin? The three hair pins at Turns 4/5/6 were ridiculous – I’d change that into a sweeping 180.

      Also, is it possible to have a straight that isn’t as straight as a ruler? That long back straight would be just as fast and twice as interesting with a kink or two in it.

      However, I thought the last corner and entry onto the start finish straight was a work of pure (sadistic, evil) genius.

      1. Pretty much agree on all counts. Cool avatar, by the by.

      2. Disagree… straights with kinks with them and you’re almost certainly ending up with Valencia V2. You can’t attack if you’re going to have to duck and dive in between walls down a straight.

    12. Agree is one of the better new tracks. The lack of grip was looking good for an exciting race. One thing to be addresed is the pit lane entrance and exit. Most of the drivers complained about it.

    13. As I said to my father after the race, I think the rain deprived us of an interesting race. The circuit has potential, but we’ve no idea how it’ll do under normal racing conditions, which is a shame. It looks like it could be one of the better new additions to the calender. If it comes down to choosing between it and one of the older circuits facing the axe, though, I’d pick to keep Spa any day of the week.

    14. though Mark Webber would surely have wished that wasn’t the case at turn 12.

      Yuppers, and especially Nico Rosberg!!

    15. I’ll hold my verdict until there is a dry race at the track. It seems alright although the relatively small crowd leaves questions as to whether this race will actually be profitable (especially considering the fees Bernie is probably charging).

      Furthermore, the scenary around the track was appalling. I know the spectacle is on the track, but the place looked bland. Again, I’m sure in future years when the proposed marina around the sweeping final corner, as well as it’s adjoining city for sector 3 are finally built, the track may have a bit more character.

      Let’s wait until 2011 before signing this track off, but overall I would say we should congratulate Tilke on this one, especially compared with his recent creations.

      1. CarsVsChildren
        28th October 2010, 13:56

        Wasn’t it 80-90,000 on race day?

        For a race that was nearly cancelled, being held in the middle of nowhere, in the pouring rain, in a country with little to no motorsport history, on an unfinished circut, that’s pretty damn impressive to me.

        Expect a lot fans more next year. The sound of an f1 car is more addictive than crack cocaine wrapped in chocolate flavoured coffee.

        1. If you live here (I do) long enough you learn to severely discount anything you hear about a government’s achievements.

          Did you see the article in the Korean English newspapers that said that students were given tickets and employees were told to sell them?

          Korea’s 1st F1 hits lots of speed bumps
          “Another problem with tickets was that the local government gave thousands of free passes to university students to make sure the stands were filled. The local government also required its officials to sell tickets to their family and friends. ”
          http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2927568

          And did you see the bumper-to-bumper traffic still trying to get to the race from the helicopter shots around lap 15 of the race?

          I don’t think they’ll have the same “numbers” next year. And I sincerely doubt that they’ll have many foreigners (if any), either.

          1. Sounds pretty much like the stunts in China to get full grandstands.

            On the other hand I would hope that next year people would actually dare order tickets and travel-packages in advance, as well as some of the people who visited this year turning up again.

            But the traffic and housing sound like they will need quite a lot of work in the year up to next race to make it work.

            I really like reading your knowledgable comments on the situation in Korea and the circuit here, so thanks for those updates in the last weeks Chris Yu Rhee

    16. I think Charlie delayed the start and ran it behind the safety car although the rain wasn’t that hard because the track was brand new and an unknown quantity. Allowing the race to start on even moderately bad conditions on a fresh unused track was too much of a risk. If same amount of rain fell on next year’s Korean GP or at Brazil in 2 weeks time, I am sure Charlie won’t advocate so many laps under the safety car.

    17. very important result. Quite possibly the decisive moment of the 2010 season. Driving in very dificult conditions, and finishing almost in the dark. So far so good. We need to see how the racing develops in the next years, but i’ll give the track, an 8 out of 10.

    18. Personally I think the track layout is quite good, apart from the obvious shortcomings of the pitlane entry, the surface of the pit boxes and the inadequate drainage. I however do think it was ludicrous to run a Formula 1 race on a circuit that no cars had ever raced on before and hope that that situation is never allowed to happen again.

      I’d really love to hear about the experience of Korean people who attended –

      How did they enjoy the uncovered stands?
      How about access to the circuit? were they caught in the gridlock to or from the race?
      Was their experience a positive one? Will they go back next year?
      Was it easy to find accommodation etc?

    19. I’ve gone from hating it to liking it to disliking it.

      The pit straight is of barely any consequence so it’s a shame Turn 1 isn’t tighter. The main straight is nice and long and a tight exit leading onto another tight exit is the standard way to promote overtaking. But then that’s it.

      The lap really goes downhill from there. The Turn 5-6-7 section is pointless and just spreads the cars out. We did see a nice bit of overtaking into Turn 5 though.

      Finally although the last section is nice and sweeping, it’s just far too many corners that in the dry will space the cars out and prevent overtaking into Turn 1. Turns 16-17-18 are a real gem of a section though, but the pit-lane entry has to be sorted out (someone came up with the idea of having a bridge, that would be great, not least because it would minimise the penalty of a pit-stop and open up the possibility of interesting strategy differences).

      The tarmac and facilities I think will be fine next year. But the layout needs a bit of work.

    20. i Liked the track very much, hopefully next year those who were there to watch it in the stands will have much more parking, a much larger road and of course hotels in the area.
      As i said before, this track can provide real good racing, now we´ll have to wait till next year.

    21. I think it’s better than most Tilke efforts. It doesn’t feel quite so overdesigned like Abu Dhabi, Valencia and Singapore.

      It’s quite interesting that the three sectors challenge the cars in different ways. Having the walls in places there as opposed to acres of run off and a white line is definitely a nice change, we want to see the drivers being punished for mistakes – but it does seem a bit “if you build it they will come” by building the “street circuit” and then hoping the streets will actually become streets afterwards.

      Pit lane entry was stupid, though – really obvious the drivers weren’t going to like that.

      On a separate note I totally agree about these “Safety Car Grands Prix”. One day we’ll run a full “distance”, whether it be 50% or 75%, and crown a race winner without a green flag lap, or at best only a handful of laps. The sport would be better off running a race the next day than trying something like that – the PR would surely be as bad as the US GP farce if they just went round behind the SC long enough to call it a result.

    22. I think we’ll truly know on a dry race day, but I think we’ve got a great track on our hands. Layout is brilliant.

    23. HounslowBusGarage
      27th October 2010, 17:53

      I was surpised to see how bumpy the circuit appeared to be. Perhaps though, the cars seemed to being thrown about a bit more than they really were becaus eof the head-on shot on the main straight.
      There needs to be a serious re-examination of the pit entry and the pit exit.
      What is the extra hairpin at turn 5 actually for?
      Is it to limit the accelaration of the cars and to try to keep their speed down as they come to 7?
      After all, the tarmac for the ‘proper’ route from 5 straight to 7 is ready and waiting for use, as per the original layout.
      I had deep reservations about the walls and I suspect that Webber and Petrov dislike them too, interesting to read Button’s comment that the walls stop the water vapour from being disipated – just like the forest at Spa or Hockenheim.
      Moving the walls back to increase runoff when the ‘cityscape’ has been developed around the final sector may not be possible.
      But the major problem with the cityscape has yet to become apparent. Not even the Koreans can build a marina and a huge development instantly, so assuming the construction gets going on this area before next October, there will be at least two more (possibley three) races where part of the lap is affected by dust, dirt and debris from the surrounding construction.

      1. HBS, I think you’ve seen my comments on the development of the area in other threads, but this is one of the remotest parts of Korea.

        “We have successfully held the F1 event by building one of the finest circuits in the world in South Jeolla, which is one of the most underdeveloped areas in Korea,” he (Governor Park Joon-yung) said.” (bold added)
        http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2927568

        Successfully? 거지말쟁이! (liar) Apologies for the Korean if it’s not right, it’s not my first language.

        As to the walls, they should be taken down before next year, if not sooner. They won’t be needed anytime soon.
        NO ONE in their right mind would build that “city” they show in all of the pretty pictures the architect drew up, especially right now. I live here, and have for a LONG time. The real estate market, both residential and commercial, is flat in the major cities, so who in the heck would invest in something that is over 400km from Seoul?
        Just pretty pictures…

    24. I think it’s a great circuit. A modern track with elements of some classic venues.

    25. Overall it is a good track I think. It gave us one of the best qualifying session this year. Maybe that was because it was a new track, but I do not think so. It is all about courage and trusting your car in the last sector, and Vettel drove his car right to the edges, which is very hard.

      The race was destroyed by rain though and the spray was making visibility poor. I think though that this was because of the lack of wind. Buildings around the track wont help.

      My proposal with the bridge still stands. It would really be spectacular!

    26. For me the race was seen through jaded, sleep deprived eyes due to getting up so early. I will reserve my opinion until Korea 2011 and when it is not a wet grands prix. All I have to say is that is appears alot better than Valencia, but then running the cars down aisle 2 of your local Sainsbury’s would be more interesting than that!

    27. Agostini Diego
      27th October 2010, 20:54

      I really like this circuit.

    28. SF Bay Area F1 Fan
      27th October 2010, 21:09

      It is really unacceptable that a brand new track had such poor drainage. I admit that the terrain is flat, but then so are most freeways and motorways. The design feature employed by civil engineers is a 1.5% – 2% cross slope on straights to help the storm water to “run off” the pavement. Who feel asleep while designing the roadway profile? What a shame!

      1. No one fell asleep. The construction/paving company probably didn’t think about it, or didn’t follow the specifications Tilke wrote.

        If Samsung, LG, or Daewoo had built the track, there wouldn’t have been any problems.

        Remember, this is the land of “almost right.”

        Singapore spectacle vs. Korean debacle.
        http://www.topcar.co.za/news/news-articles/singapore-spectacle-vs-korean-debacle

        Going to Incheon airport there are several speed camera sites on the freeway, except there are either: 1. only two cameras for a four-lane road, or 2. the cameras are all grouped over one or two of the four lanes.

        The entire track was unacceptable. They can’t blame the rain because it rains about the same time every year, and it is possible to do construction in the rain. (duh)

        It’s just a shame all-around.

        BTW-My dad’s from San Mateo. I love S.F.! Is Ghiradelli’s still there? It’s been a long time since I’ve been stateside.

    29. Like others have said, I’ll hold my verdict until we get a dry race.

    30. It was good. I expected some parts to be less flowing. Instead also some curves of the middle part are quite fast and demanding.
      What I don’t like is the infamous curve 10 (too short and slow, to me) and the slow 5 and 6, that didn’t inspire that much.
      Overall it is thumb up, absolutely.
      I think that this lay out can work to a exciting race evel if whether is dry.

    31. The circuit itself is the best of the Tilke Drome only thing that was missing was a Turn-8. This is it’s first year so yes when it comes around in 2011 many will have a tough time to recognize it.

      How can one can make a low grip surface?

    32. Track is not bad overall. A dry race will be a better benchmark.

      Will there be a big problem of a very dusty track for the next 4 years because of massive construction, as the city around the circuit will only be completed in 2021.

    33. Why is it that Tilke is the only track designer? It’s like the same old, same old. I’m sure there are other designers that would bring some different creativity to the party. It’s time to start thinking out of the Tilke box.

      1. That’s a question we’ve asked for years, here. No reply…

        1. CarsVsChildren
          28th October 2010, 14:01

          A guess would be that he has a kickback arrangement with Bernie.

      2. Mostly because Tilke doesn’t just design tracks. His company is usually the one that constructs them too. And of his construction projects, they’ve all been delivered on time and with quality (unlike Korea…)

        1. “And of his construction projects, they’ve all been delivered on time and with quality (unlike Korea…)”

          And I thought that I was the only one that noticed this…

          Does anyone think that they should move the safety walls on the left side of the track just before the main straight? I was completely stunned to see the drivers going up on the curbs right next to the wall. Someone’s gonna hit that wall hard eventually.

    34. its very exciting and intresting circuit for both drivers and fans.

    35. As I said to my father after the race, I think the rain deprived us of an interesting race.

      No, the rain helped give us the great race! I loved it but I was worried concerned about the lack of fans until 20 minutes after the race began.

    36. I love the first three straights and the last three corners. The rest… not so much.

      Yeongam is the Asian Magny-Cours. Some corners based on details from other tracks, produces some pretty good racing, but will struggle being in the middle of nowhere.

      And if you’re wondering why the stands were full on raceday – students were given free tickets and government employees were required to sell tickets.

      http://tinyurl.com/2g4eu3w

      1. The race could have been a great chance for Korea to show off, but instead became an embarrassment.

        “The event was plagued by ticketing chaos, clueless volunteers, shoddy infrastructure and a shortage of hotels in the area that forced employees of Mercedes-Benz to sleep in love motel rooms for which they were charged $310 per night. (The normal rate is 30,000 to 50,000 won, or $26.80 to $44.70.)”

        Unfortunately, this is what I expected. I’ve lived here too long to expect anything different.
        Hearing stories about hotels “letting out” their paying guests’ rooms during the day, and having their guests find the resultant used condoms etc. in their rooms when they get back at night.

        Uncle Bernie should have pulled the plug in August, September at the latest.

        I live here, and decided to go camping instead and record the race on my VCR.

        My LazyBoy recliner was so comfortable, I could pause the race for “pit stops”, fast forward through the laps led by the safety car, and I wasn’t getting rained on…

        Maybe next year I’ll go. Maybe.

        1. One question, did you actually get to record the complete race with the delays and all?

          1. Yup.
            I ran out of tape on the live broadcast, then my satellite went on the fritz when I tried to record the second broadcast, but finally recorded the third broadcast the following Wednesday @ 2:30AM. I had to avoid all news sources and all my F1 e-mails until I watched the tape.

            It was ok because I actually didn’t have time to wath the race until Thursday night anyways… LOL

            1. Wow, quite an adventure there :-D

              Good thing you got several chances for taping it! I hope you enjoyed it after zapping past the first 16 laps, I think it was well worth the trouble.

    37. Good track. Er, the track was great. The drivers said so too.

    38. Well, I was there and I have to say, beside of the weather condition, the chaos on Saturday when we try to leave the track, the lack of infrastructure, I like the track. We had a fantastic view from our Grand Stand. I have to admit that for the 1st. GP Korea was not really ready. Some thought they are going to an Opera with wearing high heels -:)or they brought their 1 year old baby to the track. Well, lets hope this will change in 2011. I am sure that the Korean will do everything to improve the conditions.
      Overall it was a good weekend and race, at least for me.

      Cheers

      Andy

    39. Turns 5 and 6 ruin the first sector, but the rest of the track is epic:D

      Turn 17/18 could probably become as iconic as Turn 8!

    40. SF Bay Area F1 Fan
      31st October 2010, 1:34

      Chris – Yes, Ghiradelli’s, North Beach, Golden Gate Bridge, and Laguna Seca are all alive and thriving in the Bay Area.

      I would really like to find out if anyone on F1 Fanatic knows the real reason why Tilke has been involved in most (if not every) F1 tracks developed in the last decade. I don’t buy the explanation that his is the only company that can deliver projects on time. I design and construct freeways and roadways in California, and there are dozens of well-established Engineers/Architects/Construction Contractors just here in California who meet or beat schedules on multi-billion dollar projects every year. Why, really, is competition from other designers not entertained? In any other arena, this would be considered outright nepotism.

      By the way, surprise of surprises, Tilke is already involved with the upcoming circuit in Texas!

      1. I think it’s a matter of supply and demand.

        It takes a lot of effort to cozy up to the FIA, and since they aren’t building new tracks every day, it isn’t worth the time. Sort of like the construction market in Calif.

        Turner, Morley, Kiewit, etc., have strongholds in their respective areas that are hard to infiltrate.

        Racetrack design is probably a much more close-knit group of contractors and customers than public works.

        Man, I don’t miss doing construction in Calif!

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