Sidepodcast

USF1, It Could Be So Very Much Worse

The USF1 team may be coming under increasingly vocal criticism for the way they've managed their Formula 1 entry so far, but Stuart Taylor of the wonderful Chain Bear, today reminds that if left to Bernie, the situation could be much worse.

Stuart apologises for his use of the German accent. You can view more of his F1 illustrations here.

Daily: 13th November 2009

Friday at last and we have survived another week. It was quite a busy day on Sidepodcast yesterday as we told you some of our plans for the off season, and then came up with a brand new plan as well. It's all go here, I tell ya! Meanwhile, here are some of the things we're talking about:

• We had our first breakout thread for a while yesterday as the FIA kicked off about the leaking of yet more information regarding Briatore. This isn't the first time they've said that leaking is bad, but what are they actually doing about it?
• Joe reported on his blog that the FIA would be looking at overtaking (perhaps instead of leaking?) and they were assembling a crack team of consultants including Michael Schumacher and Hermann Tilke. Oh dear.
• F1 Wolf has a post looking at the new Brawn merchandise now that they can scrawl Champions all over everything. I don't quite understand why Button's hat is completely different to the rest of the stuff, but if I had to have anything, I'd have that. Less highlighter, more blue. Good stuff.

That'll do it for now. As ever, let us know what you have planned for this weekend, particularly if it is exciting, but even if it isn't. We always like to know! I will see you in the comments.

Ancillary F1 - Tilke Engineering

• Length: 3:14 
• Size: 3.1 MB 
• File: ancillary3.mp3 
• Transcript: ancillary3.pdf 
• Torrent: ancillary3.torrent 

This is Sidepodcast’s mini series – Ancillary F1. We’re talking about the companies that are around the grid, supporting the teams, but not getting much of the glory. We’ve looked at Bridgestone, and McLaren Electronic Systems, and today it’s the turn of Tilke Engineering.

Hermann Tilke trained as an architect and engineer, but was a racer before he decided to start designing tracks. He competed in touring cars, and endurance racing, mostly on the Nurburgring circuit. As the resident expert on that particular course, after he set up Tilke Engineering in 1984, the organisers turned to him to provide a new access road at the circuit.

The first big racing track job Tilke Engineering undertook was in the mid-90s, and the task was to shorten the Austrian Osterreichring into the safer A1-Ring. The changes were clearly a success in the eyes of Bernie Ecclestone, as the design of the brand new Malaysia circuit in 1999 was entrusted to Tilke Engineering. Since then, every new Formula 1 track has been designed by the company and many more historical layouts have been touched by the hand of Tilke.

Revisions made to existing circuits include lengthening Fuji, neutering Hockenheim, and fiddling with his old favourite, the Nurburgring.

Hermann Tilke himself doesn’t just design the track and hand it over to the company’s 130 architects and engineers. He gets involved at every opportunity, from initially selecting the area, to deciding what buildings will be nearby, and of course, designing the entire infrastructure that will have to cope with a Grand Prix weekend. When that special moment comes, the first race at a new circuit, Tilke likes to be there, along with those colleagues that were involved. He says that they know the track inside out, whereas the locals may still need a bit of guidance.

Despite being Ecclestone’s go-to guy for track designs, Tilke Engineering has come under fire for producing boring races. Bahrain and Valencia are the first tracks that spring to mind, both benefiting from the traditional Tilke style of long straights and sharp corners, but with very little to distinguish them. Turkey could be considered a successful circuit design, but even that has just the one Turn 8 super-corner and the rest pales into obscurity. Despite this, Tilke himself says that he tries to add flavours of the local culture, for example in China, some of the grandstands have roofs that commemorate the traditional Chinese lotus leaf.

Regardless, the future of Formula 1 looks to be Tilke shaped, with Abu Dhabi, Cape Town, and Korea all signed up to receive the Hermann hand of engineering. The plans for a revamped Donington Park also bear a familiar insignia .
Many fans are saddened by the lack of circuits that are formed through more natural processes than a man and his Bulldozer. Silverstone came to being on an old airfield and features some of the more memorable corners on the calendar. With so many new Tilkedromes signed up for future calendars, it seems inevitable that we will lose some of the original, and some might say best, racetracks. Ecclestone clearly isn’t a sentimental person.

That’s it for this edition of Ancillary F1. Don’t forget to leave your thoughts on Sidepodcast.com, whether about this series or about Tilke and his designs. I’ll be back tomorrow with another Ancillary company.

Theme music: Porter Block, Second Wind.

Hermann Tilke - Circuit Designer

This article was originally written for BellaOnline, but is republished here for posterity.

The majority of work carried out on Formula 1 circuits, either building new ones or making adjustments to existing tracks, is carried out by Tilke Engineering. This company was started up by Hermann Tilke, who has a lot of experience in building the circuits and racing on them.

He started out as a touring car racer, particularly on the old Nuburgring, and after retiring and setting up his company, was given the job of redesigning small sections of it. This successful job meant he was given other circuit contracts, and since then he hasn’t looked back.

The new races on the calendar in Bahrain, China, Valencia, Turkey and Singapore were all designed by Tilke Engineering, and there are many more to come. The company has also secured contracts to redesign many existing circuits, including Barcelona, Nurburgring, and Donington.

There are some elements of Tilke’s designs that stand out, particularly a hairpin at the first corner, to try and make overtaking a possibility. Whilst some elements have been well received, the exciting Turn 8 at Turkey as an example, there’s a general feeling of dissatisfaction with the designs. They are all quite similar, with a seemingly standard selection of straights and corners. They’re also quite flat, which gets rid of the element of undulation in a circuit.

Valencia in particular has not been received well at all, with the location coming under fire, before even looking at the track detail. A long course, with about 25 corners, none of them particularly stand out as a key area. The only major part of the track was the bridge, which was already there and had to be incorporated in the design. It seems as though Tilke Engineering is running out of ideas.

Perhaps this is because the same company is designing all of them, and it’s time we got some fresh eyes to take a look at what Formula 1 needs. Tilke often asserts his desire to design a track with overtaking in mind, but somehow this never seems to come to fruition.

Of course, it could just be that there aren’t many options in designing an F1 corner. I’ve seen tracks for junior Formulas where a hairpin was so tight, the cars could barely get round. This wouldn’t look good in the top motorsport series. Either way, it seems as though we should at least let someone else have a go at the designs. A monopoly is never a good thing, especially when it comes to creativity and ultimately, fan enjoyment.