F1 Fanatic

With Paul Ricard rumoured to be on the 2013 calender in place of Spa, it might be worth seeing what people think of the actual circuit.

I quite like the layout of it, but I’m worried that the open nature of the track and general nature of it won’t make it very visually appealing. The colours may be pretty, but it seems to be flat with little scenery- although the surrounding country may be nice there is a lack of trees or buildings on the very side of the track, and I can imagine it viewing like a more open Valencia, looking almost industrial. I think I watched a GT championship race on TV once and it looked fairly dull.

Also I was wondering if anybody has actually visited? I doesn’t look spectator friendly- after all it is a test track primarily. Sure they may be able to build some grandstands, although space that isn’t run-off looks like it could be at a premium, but it also doesn’t look like there are a huge number of viewing facilities for general admission.

Ignoring that it is replacing Spa, I’d like to know what everybody thinks of the place as though it were a new circuit entering the calender and not replacing a historic venue.

The other issue I’ve thought of with TV viewing is that seeing F1 cars cutting a line through a mess of various turns like this will look a bit stupid. And I can imagine those blue lines as cameras pan giving me a headache. In some ways the flat run-off reminds me of the most boring looking parts of Abu Dhabi.

http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?q=paul+ricard&um=1&hl=en&safe=off&sa=N&biw=1366&bih=667&tbm=isch&tbnid=RFFzXaxc1ghMWM:&imgrefurl=http://www.drive-a-formula-1.com/circuits-formule-1/paul-ricard-httt.htm&docid=UU9uCcMLpPlZtM&w=500&h=304&ei=z-JeTpOvL8KX8QPgto2qAw&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=413&vpy=303&dur=409&hovh=174&hovw=287&tx=156&ty=64&page=1&tbnh=128&tbnw=211&start=0&ndsp=15&ved=1t:429,r:6,s:0

Also, I remember Bernie mentioning short-cuts as an idea a while back. The many layouts on this track are probably just what he had in mind- strange that seeing as he owns the track and all…

Doesn’t Paul Ricard have sprinklers too? ;)

I like the track, the last sector is pretty much the same as it always has been; Signes is a ferocious corner.

It’d be nice if they could use the full Mistral Straight, but it’s 1.8km long – I don’t know if that falls within FIA guidelines for straight lengths.

The blue and red lines everywhere look unsightly at first but having watched a couple of GT races there you don’t really notice them.

I’m guessing they will use the full 6,x km layout, not the shortened version used in the late 80s?

IIRC FIA’s maximum length for a straight is 2 km, so Mistral is not too long – but they might still have the chicane in the middle.

I think the circuit layout itself is pretty good, it might actually be even too fast for F1 cars. T1-2 and Signes are probably easily flat out in a modern F1 car – and that leaves just the mickey mouse sections at the far ends of the circuits. Of course there are no real elevation changes, but most Tilkedromes are flat anyway, so it wouldn’t be anything strange if a “new” circuit was flat as well.

I was joking about the shortcuts lol. I do like the circuit itself, and I don’t think it would be a bad thing if the flowing curves were used in the middle of Mistral. And if it’s watchable on the TV then at least it has that going for it.

It’s only about 300m longer than the straight at Fuji …

Actually I was thinking more about the run-off area, but from aerial shots the onboards I’ve seen don’t do it justice.

I’d expect them to use the full Mistral with chicane in the centre (solution 5B) as they do for the LMS (F1 needs the speed; LMS needs the space).

My worry is that there won’t be enough seating for the fans as it is almost entirely general admission.

I think Alianora is right on the track layout there. I fully agree with here on the crowd capacities, although it might be novel to start with just a temporary grandstand and the rest being GA for the first modern F1 race there, if it keeps ticket prices low to get in as many as possible. A 50.000 crowd would probably be stretching it already.

I do think the stripes make watching it on TV pretty bad, I know I minded watching the LMS cars there for a long time. And it was pretty hard to see on what part of the track they actually were, as the stripes are the same everywhere.