Haters gonna hate.
You must be gangster. I am actually quite gangster myself. Tilke tracks lack the #SWAG older tracks do. Generally speaking, older circuits were more sweeping in nature and despite the #YOLO security standards of the time, take a look at the Villeneuve-Arnoux battle at Dijon. While the track isn’t that amazing, it does have some sweepy sections and mostly medium speed bends, which catered to both drivers and their constant overtaking of each other.
‘Le’ Hermann Tilke however, despite claiming to have driven the Nordschleife countless times, generally enjoys dead-on straights, which look dreadfully boring on TV and you’ll note older tracks typically only have 1 or two, while most of Tilke’s tracks have nothing but straights in between the corners. Imagine Spa being dead on between Blanchimont and La Source; doesn’t seem that exciting.
Another thing with Tilke’s tracks is the fact they simply have too many corners, and especially ones that provide little overtaking possibilities. While I like your point that comes down to ‘if you’re good enough, you can overtake anywhere’ in an ironic manner, I think we need to look no further than Hamilton on Massa in Loews hairpin at Monaco in 2011 for how easy that goes wrong in some corners, both drivers being multiple race winners and experienced. Sure, you could overtake in every corner if you’d try, but you can also run 50 miles in any kind of shoe, but you’d rather use a pair of shoes that are catered towards running, wouldn’t you?
You’ve touched upon a nice subject yourself before; flow. While I certainly don’t mind all the tracks on F1 2010 or other games, a lot of his tracks are, because they’re not sweeping and feature so many (slowish) corners, they never really stick as badly as a track like Spa.
As for:
Admit it, you probably loved the Abu Dhabi layout until you discovered *gasp* it’s a Tilke track.
I know you didn’t direct this at me, but were you going meta by hating the haters? Silliness aside, I actually remember looking at the trackmap in 2009 and thinking it looked dreadful, the name Tilke didn’t exactly help.
However, I still don’t hate the guy. Some of us have also redesigned tracks by other designers and I think the layout of the 90s Argentine GP for instance is much worse than any Tilke-track. While I severely dislike the lack of diversity in his tracks, as in, 7 kilometer circuits, high speed, slow speed, things that made past tracks stand out, he does operate on the FIA’s and Bernie’s wishes. He is the designer, but I think a lot of people tend to blame him for the lack of runoff areas, the same track length over and again and costly circuits in the middle of nowhere, while it’s a sign of the times and he is commissioned to do so.
Not to mention; some of the Tilke tracks produced rather dull races this year, but we had an amazing season. Most Tilke tracks have debuted in seasons with a lot less on-track action and the field being much further apart. People are starting to lose patience with Monaco, but 5-7 years ago, people would not dare blame the layout for boring races, since it was Monaco. It’s easier to blame a non-historic race. It’s probably partially the races were boring as is, but the newer tracks seemed to be a bit more boring. I might not like the layouts, but he raised the bar on trackside design and despite improvements could be made, I’d generally say his tracks are decent, with some good ones.
(You’ll have to excuse my silly undertones, as I’m a bit allergic to internet catchphrases in serious discussion.) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
