This video is sponsored by Curiosity Stream. Get your promo code for free access after
the video.
These days, pretty much all of the new F1 tracks are under the design and architecture
of Hermann Tilke. There is a lot of resentment for Hermann Tilke,
particularly among Formula 1 fans for what is perceived as his samey-samey designs and
boring race tracks. I thought it would be interesting to look of the history of Hermann
Tilke designed tracks in F1 and see what elements make up the essence of a classic Tlke circuit.
I won’t be looking at his street circuits as these are whole different beasts where
he has to repurpose existing road layouts to suit single-seater racing. I’ll also
be ignoring tracks that already existed but Tilke came in and rejigged a few corners.
Instead I’m focussing on the tracks where he’s essentially had a huge say over their
entire design and infrastructure: his purpose built circuits.
Let’s start at the beginning, then. [MALAYSIA 1999]
The Sepang F1 circuit looks like it was designed to solve an overtaking problem in F1. At the
time of the video being produced, we’ve just watched the Monaco GP where everyone
has come out saying the cars are too wide and the circuit is too narrow and slow to
overtake. Well, Tilke has built the exact opposite here.
Malaysia is the Anti-Monaco. It’s so wide. So wide. People were stunned
at how wide it was when we first rocked up here. It’s twenty metres at its widest and
16 metres at its narrowest. For reference, the widest part of Silverstone ( a not particularly
narrow track) is only fifteen metres across down the Hanger Straight.
It’ll definitely open up overtaking opportunities if you can get 10 cars side by side, right?
And you know what else makes things exciting? Really hard braking zones. And to make these
all you need is a really long straight into a really tight corner.
Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom. Nailed it. [T1, 4, 9, 15]
So now let’s give the drivers something that’ll feel challenging. What they love
is a really fast, but not-quite-flat-out corner. So here we go [T5,6,10,12,13]
And as we’re modern and sophisticated, we’re not going to make circuits feel organic as
if they’ve wound their way out of the landscape beneath them. Instead almost all our corners
are going to be very precise with a lot of fixed radii, as if each turn was pencilled
in with no more than two flicks of a pair of compasses.
The interesting parts of Malaysia are the ‘snaily’ turns oue and two which work
very well together as a way to get cars to battle side by side, in and out through different
lines and the incredibly hard turn fourteen which is blind and goes from fast to tight
almost imperceptibly and is crucial to get right for the back straight it precedes.
At the time it was also notable for its outrageous architecture with the huge canopied grandstands,
modern passive pit paddock and media buildings being something the likes of which we hadn’t
seen before at a race event. This was the new benchmark. Up to this point
teams and media were basically used to turning up and working out of a greasy shed for the
weekend. Not anymore. Malaysia, now gone from the calendar, was
actually well liked. It was challenging, fast and gave opportunity for overtaking and battle.
So remember this: huge straights; tight, heavy breaking zones; long fast esses; digitally
precise turns and huge, extravagant, modern facilities.
Tilke’s next full circuit was Bahrain [TITLE CARD]
Bahrain is also well liked. But Tilke didn’t exactly break open the box of new ideas in
building it. You’ve got your long back-to-back straights
into tight braking zones [T1, T4] You’ve got a turn one, turn two switchback
combo that opens on the exit but this time more of a zigging chicane than the snail of
Malaysia. Its trickiest corner, turn 10 is a fast corner
into a suddenly tight hairpin that steers through the braking zone, like Turn 14 in
Malaysia but sharper and downhill instead of uphill.
You’ve again got the fast, but not-quite-flat-out bit to make the drivers feel challenged and
a general sense, one again, of the corners being precisely graphed in rather than carved
out of the geography. It’s also very wide and full of very modern,
showy buildings and facilities. So far, so Tilke.
And actually, once again it was very well received with drivers liking the challenge
and the races proving pretty fun in general - even more so once it moved to the cool of
night. So at this point it’s fair to say Tilke
was bringing a modern flair to F1 and lifting it very much into the 21st century with his
model of cutting edge, clean decadence that fitted the brand Bernie Ecclestone was building.
2004 also brought us to Shanghai, China. We can kind of see China as… Malaysia - but
more. You like these back-to-back long straights?
We’ve got them - but longer! You like width? This track is twenty metres
wide! You like a snaily turn one/turn two? We’ve
got it - but even snailier! Fast esses in the middle sector? Boom - we’ve
got that too. Hard braking zones? Only the hardest for you
[T6, 11, 14] You like a big pit building? We’ve built
a monster. Let’s throw in a high speed kink from Bahrain
for good measure and baddi boom badda bing, we’re done.
China is… fine. In my opinion it’s just fine. Your feet will stay warm because no
socks are getting blown off here. The ultra squiggly turns one and two are a
nice unique feature but otherwise the circuit sort of just… is. And it’s at this point
we started to realise Hermann Tilke has a certain style.
2005 brought us Istanbul Park in Turkey. Now, people liked Turkey. But let’s get
the stock ingredients out of the way first. Long straights, big buildings, heavy braking
zones, high speed kink a la Bahrain and China, small radius corner, small radius corner,
small radius corner, small radius corner, small radius corner, and a sweeping back and
forth bit. Of note is this “W section” at the end
of the circuit - tight hairpinny turns that fold back and forth that encourage a bit of
side-by-side action as the optimal side of the track switches back and forth. You’d
often catch a battle going on down here. But Turkey’s most iconic offering was its
killer Turn Eight. And people loved it. Turn Eight was a long, long, long fast corner
that isn’t quite flat out but was super fast and you kind of have to hold on for dear
life as you navigate four apexes (or apices). Drivers loved it for the challenge and spectators
loved it for the thrill of seeings the raw, unadulterated grip levels of an F1 car in
action. The peak G force through Turn Eight is 5G
with an average lateral force of 3.5G through the whole corner. Five G is five times the
force of gravity. It’s hefty. I hope you like Turn Eight cause you’re
going to see it again. And again. But first we head to Abu Dhabi. Yas Marina
Circuit debuted in 2009 and seems to have been designed specifically to be super dull
both to drive and to watch. But it is flashy as all hell with a colour
changing hotel looming over the circuit, so you can always look at that if the race bores
you. To be honest, until Abu Dhabi came along people
weren’t super bothered about Tilke. There was some mild disgruntlement over some of
his circuit modifications but this track here in Abu Dhabi really opened up the argument
that Tilke was far more interested in creating fancy facilities and opulent architecture
and was less interested in putting thought into the circuits themselves as his bag of
tricks was becoming stale and uninspired. So what’s the deal with Yas Marina, then?
Well it’s got your back-to-back straights as usual. Your tight corners are here. Your
hard braking zones are here. It makes a half-hearted attempt at a fast,
left/right ess in sector one but it’s nothing to write home about.
Other than that it’s just kind of… turn, turn, turn, turn, turn, turn, turn, turn,
turn, turn, turn, turn, turn, turn, turn, turn.
Look at these corners. There’s nothing to them at all. It’s like Hermann bought a
bunch of off-the-shelf pieces and slotted them together. And because they’re mostly
slow and feed one into the other it’s very hard to overtake.
And as the circuit is built on artificial, reclaimed land it’s as flat as a pancake
and doesn’t even have any elevation change to bring… something to its character.
Weirdest of all, though: the start finish straight is very short and is bookended by
two slowish, not-very-aggressive corners to there’s very little opportunity for action
here. It’s like the track was custom built to ward off excitement. So weird.
So when people think of Tilke, this is what they think of. Cookie cutter, lazy, uninspired
design with too many dollar shifted to shiny buildings instead of a few minutes thinking
about the racing. [BUDGET SLIDER Shiny hotel ---- racing quality]
Booo. The next year we went to Korea.
Deflated PacMan circuit, Korea, was fine but bizarrely it was built in the middle of nowhere
with the plan being to build a city around it over time. Unfortunately the world’s
economy collapsed around the same time so that didn’t happen in the end.
Anyway, let’s give this track our usual once over: back-to-back long straights, harsh
braking into tight corners, high speed esses, a fast bit that tightens up, and then a tight
W-section like at the end of Turkey. Check, check, check.
But there are actually some nice details in the Korea circuit. There is a lot of elevation
change and the circuit winds up down and around various gradients.
The middle part of the circuit feels like a much more old-school natural circuit than
any of his previous works. Turns 14 to 18 are supposed to feel more like
a street circuit as (eventually) these would actually have been streets with buildings
rising up around them, giving the circuit a very hybrid feel.
Also note how Tilke is fond of a medium speed double corner, seen here in turns one and
two but also in Yas Marina, Turkey and Malaysia. It will also pop up again in his reworking
of the Mexico track, which we won’t be covering in this video.
Tilke then built the Buddh International Circuit which debuted the following year.
Boom - architecture. Boom - long straights (these two back-to-back).
Tight, heavy braking zones - it’s got them. Medium speed double corner - oh yes indeed.
We’re back to the old Turn 1, turn 2 tight corner switching back and opening up and we
also see the return of a Turkey Turn 8 clone - the endless, fast, multi apex corner popping
up as turn ten here. Clearly he was happy with how well that one was received.
It’s missing the fast sweeping esses we’ve seen at every track so far but he does throw
in a terrible slow, mickey-mouse section a la Yas Marina.
What India has that is quite fun is - after the turn one/two chicane the track rises steeply
to a blind hairpin at the crest of the hill which immediately gives you a second chance
at an overtake before the long back straight. Furthermore, the hairpin at the end of the
back straight is very, very wide on entry but narrows dramatically on exit. I mean,
really it should be the other way around to allow cars to stay side by side on alternate
lines as they accelerate out and down to the next complex but it’s an interesting bit
of playing with track width that we don’t often see.
So India was a fine enough circuit with plenty of elements that gave opportunity for racing.
Here we’re seeing Tilke once again piecing together bits that he thinks have worked in
his previous tracks but thinking a little more about how to flow on section to the next.
He does play more with elevation in India that he has previously, too. We saw a bit
of this in Turkey, but this dramatic rise to the hairpin at turn three works really
well and he loved it so much he cloned it for his very next circuit
[COTA] Circuit of the Americas’ Turn One is straight
uphill into a hairpin and it’s great. Cars can brake even later, the apex is half-blind
and we often see people trying all sorts into this corner.
Looking at the circuit as a whole, we again have long old straights (though none in pairs
this time), your usual tight braking zones, a fast kink, some of your double corners and
another Turkey Turn 8 style number right here. Now, here’s where Tilke tries something
different. Instead of his usual single high speed left/right ess (seen in Bahrain, China,
Abu Dhabi and Korea), he threads a whole bunch of esses together in an emulation of Silverstone’s
Maggots/Becketts. Each corner is slightly different in speed, radius and approach. It’s
a tremendous challenge and loved by drivers and spectators alike.
People really like COTA. It’s a decent, fun track and we often see racing and action
here. Tilke got them to move the very earth around from under the track to work in some
extra elevation changes, expanding on his toolbox of what works well. Surely we see
a string of better and better tracks as he continues to improve from here.
[SOCHI] Oh dear.
OK, so Sochi is just incredibly naff and it’s easy to see why.
Even though he’s thrown in another Turkey Turn 8 facsimile in here, the rest of the
circuit is a flat and lazy Yas Marina approach. Cookie cutter corners, lots of medium speed
double-turns. His usual tight-in/fast out opening two corners and, other than a fast
kink off the pit straight, it’s just a dull corner-into-corner-into-corner layout that
gives you very little to do. Again, it’s like he built the track from
off the shelf parts rather than putting any thought into it. It feels way too clinical
and cold. And that was the last of the original Tilke
designs. For now. But coming up next year is the Vietnam Grand Prix in Hanoi which is
part street circuit and part custom track. Looking at it I think we can see Tilke’s
fingerprints all over it from its long straights, to its Maggots/Becketts clone to its long
Turn 8 style corner to its fast corners into a tight corner to this snaily boy right here.
It’s Tilke as hell. Will it work? Maybe. I think Tilke is far
better than we, the moaning spectators, give him credit for and Abu Dhabi and Sochi unfortunately
stand out as the sore thumbs among some very healthy fingers. China is a bit meh, but the
others? There’s a lot of fun to be had in his portfolio.
However - I think it’s very clear we need more diversity in our circuit designers as
his works are all very samey and have very similar flavours. F1 could sell a ‘Build
Your Own Hermann Tilke’ circuit from a box of about five different shapes.
The calendar needs a nice mix of circuit like Spa that sweep across the rolling landscape,
like Monaco that winds through tricky streets, like Malaysia with its fast, wide challenges,
like Monza with its high-power, full throttle drag racings. The new circuits need this kind
of diversity too. They need to feel unique and have their own character.
Even if Hermann Tilke is the greatest track designer we could ask for, he’s not enough.
You don’t want every painting to be a Van Gogh or every flower to be a rose. Let’s
get some new people in to try something new.
This video was brought to you by Curiosity Stream, an expansive video on demand service
founded by John Hendricks who founded the Discovery Channel. From just $2.99 a month
you can get unlimited access to over 2000 documentaries and non fiction titles, including
exclusive originals. You viewers of Chain Bear F1 can get 30 days
free by going to curiositystream.com/chainbearf1 and using the promo code chainbearf1.
If you want to segue in nicely from channels like mine, why not use your promo code to
have a look at Science Shorts, which are bitesize films exploring a particular scientific curiosity
like how to give artificial prosthetics the sense of touch, how astronomers track meteors
and whether smart devices are just the first step towards cyborgs being part of everyday
life. Go to curiositystream.com/chainbearf1 with
the promo code chainbearf1 and get 30 days free access to wherever your curiosity takes
you.`