The Spanish Grand Prix – What track?
- This topic has 39 replies, 28 voices, and was last updated 13 years, 3 months ago by
.
- Posts
With all this global expansion in F1 they are going to cut a few races.
Money aside from the whole issue, they may cut Valencia or Catelunya, so we have only one Spanish Grand Prix. Which track do you think should stay.
They are both really dull, neither are all that challenging, and only in exceptional circumstances do they produce something worth watching. Here’s how I see the two of them…
Catelunya, a track with a little bit of history, a great testing ground due to the variation of corners. More a challenge to the engineers than the drivers, it’s very difficult to overtake, and reliability aside it can be very predictable. What little character and danger it had has been taken away from from it by health and safety. It looks OK but nothing special, quite a groovy stand on the main straight but it’s nothing compared to what they have looming over Shanghai.
Valencia, a track with very little history, a bit more driver testing than car testing but still, no really hard corners, certainly none that can really punish the driver with a crash. Over taking is hard, but I think it is more possible than Catelunya, Kobayashi certainly proved that. What Valencia has over Catelunya is the look of the place, not really all that glamorous with the dockyard in the background but at least you can tell what track it is at first glance. (Especially with all the blue bits)
So my vote would be for Valencia, because it is easier (slightly) to overtake and it looks more unique.
I know these are far from the most popular tracks out there, so I know it’s a tough choice.
(PS. my first ever post on these forums)
Welcome to the forum :).
I disagree that the Valencia street circuit has no difficult corners, drivers make mistakes there all the time, but unlike Singapore or Monaco there’s usually run off to disguise it.
Personally my favourite Spanish track is Ricardo Tormo, even that isn’t very good though, I would rather they went to Estoril. If I had to choose between the current two? Barcelona to stay.
I think stay at Barcelona, but get rid of the final chicane.
Based on what I’ve understood of the 2013 regulations, Barcelona could be a challenging circuits with the new cars.
I think Valencia is better than Catalunya. This year’s European Grand Prix had a fair bit of attrition and it was the best race in Spain for years. If Spain could only have one race, I would give it to Valencia, I don’t really know much about Spain’s other racing circuits.
Spain has a knack for creating f1 standard circuits, most being built for testing rather than racing and therefore being known for being boring. Motorland is different though, it looks a much more challenging and overtaking friendly track than the 2 mentioned. Alternatively, why not a proper street track in spain, Madrid perhaps?
glad someone brought up the final chicane at barca, was there a few years ago and could not see the point of it at all, get shot of it!
The idea is to slow the cars down into the final turn so that the drivers can get closer together down the main straight.
+1 for Motorland Aragon..
the look of the cars racing past the cobblestone hill would be amazing; http://www.zimbio.com/pictures/P-8nTzwDXXF/MotoGP+of+Aragon+Practice
I prefer Valencia. Both tracks have great final sectors, but the sheer pace and ‘oh crap!’ factor of Sector 3 at Valencia just nips it. That said neither track is that memorable.
Prisoner Monkeys said it’s supposed to make them closer down the straight, it hasn’t worked though, they still can’t really pass.
@prisoner monkeys, if the mickey mouse chicane was away we might get passing at the last corner cos you can pass no where else, which is a pity as its agreat place foe watching F1 (abeit passing)
Bring back Montjuic Parc, what an incredible and beautiful circuit. However always linked to this track would be the safety aspect and i am assuming that running modern f1 cars around such a fast sweeping street circuit would be a problem. And runoff areas such as those found on streets in Valencia and Singapore would not be available.
However in my opinion the best ever Spanish circuit, a shame its been consigned to the history books, both circuits we have today are some of the most boring neither promoting overtaking or excitement.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.