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Austin circuit plans released | Formula 1 | Formula 1 news, live F1 | ESPN F1

Its pretty much official, a Formula 1 circuit near Austin is going to be built for the 2012 season.

Quote from the first link above...

 

I've seen the circuit layout. Car and Driver has a photo of designer Hermann Tilke's render.

Track Layout for Austin F1 Circuit Unveiled - Car and Driver Blog

There's a quadruple-apex right-hand corner that appears directly inspired by Istanbul Park's famous Turn 8 left-hander, with just as many apexes.

The Austin GP circuit also borrows a lot of inspiration from other existing F1 tracks. Should be interesting to watch once it opens.

 

They could of said and 1/2 of Suzuka as it is clockwise and anit-clockwise.

It looks like it might be an OK track, the long back straight is slightly downhill and about 1km in length, so speeds should get up there a bit. That uphill into the first corner is quite interesting. Overall I think Tilke got lazy though on this design as stated it incorporates a few of his other penned circuits corners. I know the drivers really enjoy the Istanbul 4 apex so I'm sure they will enjoy it in Austin as well. Going to try and make it for the first event in 2012 for sure.

 

haha its only like 4 hours away from me ^_^

 

T1 is certainly interesting, as has been said many times. I think it looks like a fantastic design that will be challenging to the racers, and fun to watch for the fans.

Most importantly, the track is 15 miles from my doorstep, and I dream of the day where I can send my Fit singing down a 50 foot wide straight away.

 

On a non-F1 related note, I wonder how "friendly" this Austin track will be for punters who'd like to rent the track for private trackdays?

From what I've heard, F1 tracks have a tendency to be expensive for privateer use. I'm hoping that isn't the case here.

 

They are probably still deciding on the business plan for that part, but being that we have two other road race tracks in the area, one of which gets a lot of the business a track like this normally would (driver training for medical, law enforcement, etc) they may open it up to the public a bit. Bill Dollahite's plan out at Driveway seems to work well. 3 licenses, which open up different parts of the track, but no monthly fees. Get the license, and that allows you to run the track on a timed fee basis whenever they have driver days open, which is several times per week.

 

This is an F1 track, not a road racing track. Have you seen how those cars handle and the technique of driving? This track will be no where near as fun as a road racing track for actual cars. Im not saying you wont have fun on an F1 track but its meant for F1 cars. Gonna feel like a slow hotdog being thrown down a hallway. just sayin

 

Well yes, but Silverstone (UK) and Sepang (Malaysia) are fine examples of fully-functioning F1 tracks that do perfectly well as road race tracks too. The Nurburgring GP circuit (Germany) and the Circuit de Catalunya (Spain) even play host to truck races. I kid you not.

Silverstone in particular actually lends itself well to drifting competitions. It's the venue of Autocar's annual Sideways Challenge, where they take a complex of four or five corners, soak them with water, and get people to drift through all of them with changeable grip levels. All with road cars.

I don't see why being a F1 track would be any hindrance to road racing. I've followed F1 since 1998 and I know for a fact a lot of circuits do double-duty on non-F1 race weekends. These circuits pay an exorbitant fee to F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone just to host one round, one weekend a year of F1 - which amounts to little over four days. They'd probably do well to recoup their costs elsewhere.

 

Yeah, I'm well aware of that. I think it is something about just driving the tiny fit on those straights, which is exactly what you are getting at, that would be amusing. Like walking out on to the middle of a pro-sports field with all the lights on.

As far as the Fit performing on an F1 track is concerned, about the only thing I can say that it has in it's favor is momentum for the turns, and with some decent high speed sections that snake around, it could be entertaining.

I agree though, a small track that actually makes you feel like you are going fast, and requires quicker thinking to stay in a racing line, is a lot more fun.