Tilke designing new circuit in Russia

F1 Fanatic Round-up

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In the round-up: Hermann Tilke’s company is working on a new racing circuit in Russia, near St Petersburg.

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Lewis Hamilton’s feat of winning at least one race every season is impressive regardless of the quality of the machinery he’s had, Ed argues:

How many wins did Mark Webber have in 2013? And Massa in 2010, 2011, 2012 or 2013? Raikkonen won how many races last year? Vettel in 2014?

All of these had cars capable of winning races, none of them got a single one in those years. So winning in every season is a very impressive statistic from Hamilton.
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59 comments on “Tilke designing new circuit in Russia”

  1. The Tilke circuit near St Petersburg looks like a track designed for motorbikes. No hairpins, only large radius turns. Wouldn’t be surprised if they host a MotoGP round in 2018 or something.

    1. I had the same thought when I saw it… at least, it doesn’t look even remotely like it’s being designed for F1 use.

      Think the website has just assumed Tilke + Track = F1.

      1. Tommy Scragend
        26th October 2016, 10:14

        I always assume Tilke + Track = Dull.

        1. The article describes him as “legendary”, so we must be both wrong!

        2. Scragend, Where’d you get that idea?

    2. It looks a downside better than Sochi…

    3. Yep, very similar to Assen.

    4. @andae23, if you look more closely at the way the article is written, it doesn’t actually claim that the circuit would be a Grade 1 circuit (i.e. for F1) – the reference to F1 is an allusion to the fact that Tilke has designed circuits which are on the current F1 calendar.

  2. Don’t normally agree with villeneuve but have to say that Kvyat hasn’t performed this or last year. Don’t think he deserved the promotion to start with tbh. Gasly has done a good job in gp2 this year so I am surprised not to see him racing in f1 next year.

    1. It’s obvious that with the major change in regs that red bull want experienced drivers for in the new cars for feedback… And to be honest gastly isn’t that impressive, I don’t see any massive advantage of replacing Kyvat with him

    2. Kvyat only really was bad first half of the season. At that time gasly wasn’t showing it yet. Last year was good. It made sense to replace him with max, this year. I think we are now finally in the last 3—4 races seeing the old kvyat back.

      Looks like redbull now have two good team mate setups, both pushing eachother to a higher level.

      As for not getting rid of kvyat, probably also some sponsor money and Russian market interest to cover.

    3. Red Bull knows a lot more about gasly and kvyat and they are pretty ruthless, so gasly is probably not good enough for f1 if they prefer kvyat.

    4. Last year Kvyat outplayed Ricciardo, despite having constant mechanical problems. Kvyat was pretty good in Red Bull this year despite of mechanical problems in all qualification. But now Sainz can’t do anything with Toro Rosso as well. They running old poor Ferrari engines, while rest keep improving them.

  3. It’s been 30 years since that dramatic 1986 Adelaide GP- amazing. That race was recently rated the #1 best GP in history by Motor Sport Magazine; I disagree, that had to be the ’57 German GP.

    1. Is there a way to watch the entire 57 German Grandprix?

      1. Watching the entire GP is probably impossible but here is a 20-minute highlight film:
        https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6c0Edbb8ELU

    2. The Adelaide race wasn’t that great, and none of us watched the 57 race. All conjecture

    3. Canada 2011? Spain 2016? Hungary 2014?

      Just to name a few.

  4. COTD. You cant compare Hamilton winning a race in every season to a Vettel, Raikonnen, Massa or Webber. They didn’t start their careers in cars that could win races. Seb started with TR back when they ciukdnt score points regularly even though he did win with them. Kimi and Massa with Sauber, Webber with Minardi. So that nullifies the argument because they all didnt start with a top team. Hamilton has always had a car capable of winning races in every year, maybe not a lot of races but they could win at least one race. I would say that Hamilton hasnt won in a car that wasnt capable of winning a race like Seb in TR. Also JB outscored Hamilton in 2011. Before you call me a Rosberg fanboy i Shall say that I dislike Rosberg Hamilton the most and Kimi is down there too.

    1. Hamilton also won a championship with every team he was with… Including constructors…

      Say what you will, Hamilton is fast becoming second greatest of all time

      1. Well, on that basis, so did Fangio.

        1. Senna, Prost, Stewart, and Lauda never did that.

      2. @jureo

        Second behind who? Hamilton is not better than either Senna or Schumacher.

        1. For me real metric is race wins and championship wins. Most other things are subjective.

          Hamilton is now close to Alain Prost in wins and Alain Prost is second.

          Maybe Rosberg will become a world champion this year, but Hamilton will likeley equal or beat Prost in race wins. And after that who knows, maybe Lewis will never win a championship again, maybe he will win 4-5 more… up to him and his team.

    2. The argument isn’t nullified actually. The article clearly lists specific years of drivers that had race winning cars (because their teammate won and almost won the WDC) Had those drivers started with a top team, there’s still no guarantee they would have won any races, the fact that they have since had race winning cars and didn’t win races with them is the point of the argument. Ham is fortunate enough to have had a top team from the start which must clearly show he was worthy of a seat in said top team. F1 is a sport based on the machinery you have, I don’t know why people always try to down play driver’s achievements just because they had a dominant car, that’s the whole point of F1.

    3. The Toro Rosso Seb won a race in was an Adrian Newey Red Bull chassis with a Ferrari engine in it– no reason he couldn’t win a race with a combination like that.

      Hamilton is the only current driver who’s won a driver’s championship in a car that didn’t win the constructor’s championship.

      1. That’s because his teammate was a joke and couldnt bring results with the fastest car in the field (heikki).

        Now, if Lewis loses this years championship he’ll instantly be rated below Seb, who never lost when he had the same opportunity. This includes reliability set backs, he had more than Webber did (as verified by this very website).

      2. The Toro Rosso Seb won a race in was an Adrian Newey Red Bull chassis with a Ferrari engine in it– no reason he couldn’t win a race with a combination like that.

        The Adrian Newey Red Bull RB4 chassis finished 7th in the WCC with just 29 points and one podium (Coulthard in the Canadian GP where numerous frontrunners retired or ran into other issues). To win a race with their B-team (and not even relying on retirements), was a great achievement.

  5. That circuit looks a little bit “Catalunya meets Paul Ricard”

    1. That circuit looks a lot like a korea with a shorter second straight.. atleast if that long straight is the start/finnish and if it’s an anti-clockwise track.

    2. I was thinking Paul Ricard when I first saw it

  6. That St Petersburg track looks very much like a modern Tilke circuit. Definitely more suited for MotoGP than F1 though. Still, I’d take it over Sochi.

  7. Really great footage coming out directly from the teams. Is this the way we are going? We do need real journalists then to uncover what the teams do NOT want to tell us.

    Let me add this nugget from Red bull and DC for the roundup – the history of pitstops (from Red Bull TV) – a great watch, some insights, talks with a lot of mechanics and nicely showing how much F1 is a teamsport with more and more attention for every detail

    1. The article about Hamilton using top notch medical advice to stay on top of his jet setting life is also a good example of where F1 can be top notch with things. I am sure other drivers use at least part of that too (as do likely many other people who travel as frequently and can afford it), but i really think there is so much more interesting stories and developments to be told.

      That also is what I take from the Abiteboul interview – that there is just so much more that F1 could and should show to fans to create a more interesting experience for followers of the sport. I am sure that more interaction with fans (including going deep with solid journalists who know the sport) would also help take out the “mundane” feeling of so many races, as a good talk can also make drivers, engineers, directors, etc. come to new insights about themselves, about others etc.

  8. The St Petersburg circuit looks awesome! Very flowing, fast… why did we get Sochi?

  9. Jesus wept. The Sun? Really? Did nobody tell that rag you can buy melatonin over the counter in any Boots? It’s a hormone produced by most living thing, so I’m also fairly sure Nasa hasn’t had anything to do with it.

    1. Thought the same thing

    2. Melatonin has been used as an over the counter drug by people who travel a lot for over 15 years. I really don’t get where the NASA analogy comes from…

      The usefulness of melatonin has also never been established in double-blind studies, so I’m not sure that it will give him a huge advantage.

      Putting on sunglasses at the right time might actually be more helpful at controlling your sleep-wake cycle.

      1. @paeschli, it is The Sun, a newspaper which has an open contempt for knowledge and facts, unless it happens to relate to sex or violence, and glorifies in its ignorance.

    3. My mother takes it to help with a sleep disorder.

      She must be an F1 driver or an astronaut, I guess.

      ;)

      1. Filipe baby, Grat’s mamma is much faster than you. Did you get the message? Confirm.

  10. I don’t like BP because of their attitude during Deepwater Horizon. I don’t like McLaren for personal reasons that I can’t discuss in public. So for me it is a match made in heaven! I hope they enjoy each other. :)

    1. Is that you Martin?!

      1. Fudge Kobayashi (@)
        26th October 2016, 10:45

        @brawngp lmao

      2. Hahahaha, classic……

  11. I presume then that the BP deal would see the end of the longstanding Mobil 1 relationship

    1. Exxon Mobil are jumping ship to Redbull

      1. Green and yellow McLaren?

  12. Completely agree with Kvyat, and cannot understand the stewards decision regarding that incident.

    1. Penalties are given out according to who is on the receiving end. Shows exactly how f1 is run… whoever is perceived as higher status gets the run of luck

    2. 1 They move at the same time
      2 The move happens before the braking zone
      3 Kvyat was never side by side with Perez, not even his front wheels with Perez’s rears
      4 There was plenty of room on the right, you are a F1 driver, I expect you to have the reflexes to react to actions around you
      5 There was plenty of time to back-off, he tried to make the corner as usual even though there was a car in front of him, the collision was avoidable (he should know how to handle a brake paddle by now, with all the practice with Vettal and all)
      6 And this one might, just might render the previous arguments pointless. I don’t like the guy, he is a waste of a seat, he should be at Sauber, where the really average are

  13. rosbergwillstillloseit
    26th October 2016, 10:08

    kvyat has much talent, he just needs to show it next season so he can go to renault in 2018 and sainz maybe to ferrari if raikkonen decides to retire even if i really want to see him for another 10+ years

    1. I can’t consider your opinions as sensible with that ridiculous user name.

  14. …that moment when you realize that your treasured, personally addressed Jackie Stewart autograph is actually signed on a photo of François Cevert…

  15. Kvyat maybe is not the best. But he is surely a good driver.

  16. why this this one man have a monopoly of designing tracks that are to be used in international racing?? why?? I just can not fathom it… I have seen far better track designs made by racing fans for computer racing games… and this guy gets paid, and probably a lot… how come it is only one person??? please someone explain why other people are not given a go… Tilke has had about 20 years in doing this and the majority of his tracks are so sterile.

  17. Checked.
    Nice to see a blog from 12 years old F1 fans….

  18. Not another Tilke circuit, it’s ridiculous, they should be using different people.Awful !!!

  19. Max never drove for the Red Bull young drivers program and can’t be called a product of Marko training.
    It was his father Jos Verstappen who educated him race wise.

    Nice blog btw, keep it up. :)

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