2021 Formula 1 Calendar threadFormula 1 

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Jeddah Street Circuit has been revealed.
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It's being promised as F1's fastest ever street circuit. 27 corners (a lot of them pretty close to flat out) and no meaningful straights? This is going to be worse than Valencia. Sector 1 and 2 are long, single-file and high speed - the combination that spreads the field out so quickly.

Still, it's a lot better than an abomination of 90 degree bends, and the sections of high speed corners look fun to drive and rewarding when the drivers get it right.

1:35.xxx is the laptime done in this little video. At 6.175km long, that's ~18km/h faster than Baku for reference.
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/...ah-street-circuit.510sgifKIWp5SrqbvQrSER.html
 
From the models they've produced, this looks like a very permanent stop-gap Street Circuit while the Saudi's build a proper track to host a race.

Of course, as with every modern "Street Circuit", it's just a permanent circuit with the walls too close. Look at sector 1, it's basically the Silverstone clone from Austin but with nowhere for cars to go if they fall slightly out of the groove. This is Sochi under lights, but at least the corners actually feel different. Only half of the track is on currently existing roads, so why the walls need to be so close baffles me.
New Project(1).jpg

This track is going to need some super-abrasive surface that causes multiple-stop races or it'll be a dull affair unfortunately. The USP of this track seems to be "Fastest Ever Street Circuit", but 27 corners doesn't sound like the kind of thing that would allow such a title. Apparently it could have 3 DRS zones. Within those DRS zones will be 6 "official" corners. We saw from Valencia that a million wiggles down a straight does not help at all.
 
Sometimes it sucks to be right about things, like how much of a definite snoozefest skipper this round will be.

Let's make sure viewing figures are very low - I honestly think it's safe to assume we will miss nothing. What an absolute cop-out of an entire affair. Looks like Tilke squinted his eyes at Monaco and vaguely traced it, making sure to break out the ruler wherever inspiration failed to strike.

The only interesting things around this race will be off-track, and likely not too positive.

EDIT: It also occurs to me that the "fastest street circuit" title is tenuous at best, whilst the Circuit de La Sarthe still contains public roads, I reckon Hunandieres has something to say about it - I'm not about to crunch any numbers though, because I don't see anyone leaping up to defend Jeddah's provenance.
 
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MaxAttack
EDIT: It also occurs to me that the "fastest street circuit" title is tenuous at best, whilst the Circuit de La Sarthe still contains public roads, I reckon Hunandieres has something to say about it - I'm not about to crunch any numbers though, because I don't see anyone leaping up to defend Jeddah's provenance.
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They're claiming from Simulations that lap speeds of 252.8km/h are possible (Monza 264.4, Silverstone 251.6). For that kind of laptime, pole should be a 1:27.935. From the Assetto Corsa hotlap F1 released, that car did a 1:35. This of course assumes that the track will be super-grippy and cleaned up by the time of qualifying, but 8 seconds is a lot to invent when all the corners are already high-speed.
The Le Mans quali lap record is 255.8km/h.
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They hope for DRS zones from T18-22, T25-27 and 27-1. Watching the onboards, there is no way anyone is getting alongside in that first DRS zone. Not only is it suicide through those wiggles into a 5th gear corner with no runoff, but 15-17 is about as single-file as you can get with speeds that'll stop anyone being anywhere near close to another.

The start straight is about the same length as the start straight at the Hungaroring (800~m), or the second longest straight at Baku. It's fine for circuits to have long wiggly bits that cars can't realistically follow through (Maggotts/Becketts, < clone at Austin, Castle section at Baku, Suzuka esses), just make sure it's not all the circuit is, and put a straight or something different soon after them to break it up. This is why the final sectors at Abu Dhabi, Sochi and Barcelona don't work. There's no advantage to taking a different line, so everyone has to sit single-file and will therefore spread out when all the corners are walled in and fast.
 
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Liquid
Obsession with imitating Monaco.
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Monaco is not compatible with the modern cars but it has character, heritage, a legacy, and elevation changes, which this circuit has none of.

Dear God, please don't let this race be the title decider.
 
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Just watched the onboard lap for the Jeddah circuit, and that is just absolutely dreadful. I thought it would be a lot better than Sochi because of the lack of 90 degree turns, but nope. The circuit is so narrow, there's hardly any room for 2 cars to go side by side. And than Turn 1 is awful; it's another very slow and sharp turn after a long straight, it looks like it was forced just so the track can have an overtaking spot.

That said, the obvious fact of the country considering human rights as simply a mere suggestion doesn't help with the circuit either. #WeRaceAsmOney
 
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MaxAttack
Looks like Tilke squinted his eyes at Monaco and vaguely traced it, making sure to break out the ruler wherever inspiration failed to strike.
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I wonder how much actual freedom he had to do anything interesting here. The existing roads are dull, and the section of land given is so long and narrow that it feels like there's very limited options for what you could do with a track that would be appropriate for F1 cars.

I'm not a massive Tilke fan, but I think he got handed a booby prize with this one. I can't imagine that he was given any choice to select roads around the area and took that. For example, you could almost certainly do something more interesting with the roads around that big circular sport stadium complex to the north east.
 
Imari
I wonder how much actual freedom he had to do anything interesting here. The existing roads are dull, and the section of land given is so long and narrow that it feels like there's very limited options for what you could do with a track that would be appropriate for F1 cars.

I'm not a massive Tilke fan, but I think he got handed a booby prize with this one. I can't imagine that he was given any choice to select roads around the area and took that. For example, you could almost certainly do something more interesting with the roads around that big circular sport stadium complex to the north east.
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Bagging on Tilke is certainly getting old, I can agree, however it still boggles my mind that there are four blokes currently certified to design an F1 circuit, and of them only Tilke has ever been called up to the job.

My suspicion is because he is focused on the total grand Prix experience, he builds these big grandstands and facilities that the old school circuits simply didn't have. He integrates his grandstands and paddocks into the available space arguably better than he does his corners. It kind of makes sense that F1 continues to draw on him, on that basis...

...but it really does make you wonder what the hell the other three chaps are bringing to the table.
 
Jeddah doesn't seem like the same load of formulaic garbage that all the rest of the new 'street' circuits have been, but my god, have they made a mess of it.

First thing I don't understand is why they've gone so far out of their way to make it so narrow and unsighted as to create quite the claustrophobic nightmare. They had so much empty space to play with and they did that with it. The other thing I'm really not getting is how they've managed to create such a fussy, yet shallow layout in the space of more than 6 kilometres. What a dropped ball this is turning out to be.
 
Corniche is, by definition, a road along a mountain featuring steep elevation on each side - it literally comes from the same root as "cornice", meaning "ledge".

Here's what Jeddah calls "Corniche Road" - and this is part of the race track.
 
How the hell has Saudi Arabia managed to get one of the best Formula E circuits on the calendar, and then create one of the worst Formula 1 circuits?

The first chicane seems OK but could be better. Chicanes aren't a bad thing, but the camber change on the onboard lap is awful, and the barrier on the inside of Turn 2 will just discourage drivers from going side-by-side because they haven't got an escape if it goes wrong like at Monza.

This track has the awful problem of "good corners in all the wrong places". The first sector looks epic, but without the runoff area and the really clunky Turn 4, that's going to neutralise the excitement of lap 1 within 20 seconds. Turns 22-24 look like the best part of the lap, but that's between two of the "overtaking spots", therefore making passing both into and out of that bit really difficult when it's the only places.

Remove turn 5, so 4-6 is now a straight line, make 19-21 a straight line too and make Turn 10 join straight to Turn 16 as a sweeping hairpin like they're trying to do with T13 and the track would be a lot better. It's not exactly Istanbul Park good, but at least it's passable like this. Also passable is a good adjective because it describes a layout which has more chances of overtakes on it.
New Project(2).jpg
 
I will be honest, it looks like it would be fun to drive on. High speed corners with close proximity to walls are a favorite of mine in racing games. Monaco, Singapore, etc. have been personal favorites in the F1 games for a while.

But, like Monaco, the moment you put more than one car on the track, it becomes a snoozefest. No places to overtake, and no places to even go 2 wide. This will be a horrible GP to watch.
 
I know it'd likely be a bit of a long-shot, but I really would've liked the idea of attending that proposed Miami GP. It'd beat trying to fly all the way to the CotA in TX. Whenever I'm in Miami, I keep looking at those massive bridges that connect Miami to Miami Beach, and I imagine they'd be great DRS zones or something. Heck, I think I may've seen a McLaren P1 on one of those bridges! And then they could have part of the circuit on Ocean Drive - that'd make for quite a view at night, with the art-deco buildings with neon lights.
 
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