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There are sections of the track that drivers and organisers will be perplexed about.
And if you look at these sections in detail, to get the run off required means moving barriers up to 50 meters out to create gravel traps.
What is behind these barriers?
Trees.
Lots of trees!
To cut these down, and then fill the pits with sand will cost a bomb. And due to the size of the track, and the modern safety standards of F1 it will need to be done on some sections that would otherwise not be necessary for lesser formulae.
CHT also noted correctly that some sections of the track will be too narrow, these will need to be widened to guarantee a) safety b) the fans at least have some chance of seeing drivers overtaking.
All these things add up to a ton of cash. My view is sell this sacred ground to the Saudis(or similar) have them sink there hard earned into bringing the track up to modern F1 standard, then call it the Saudi noordschleife ring GP.
It will be far cheaper to do this than recreate another dust bowl in the desert, and the Saudis(or similar) will be looked upon most favourably.
WilliamsF1 wrote:I don't know why a bucket load of money has to be spent on circuit upgrade in terms of runoff and tarmac. For spectator safety high fences have to be installed in some areas, but why the rest? The place already has a decent quality tarmac, kerbs, some run-off, armco barriers all around, that should be enough.
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IRL does all their races at tracks that are either oval or with limited run-off as seen in Road America, and they race in the USA where safety is more paramount than standards set by the FIA and law suits line up quicker than BE's stance.
It is not only completely unsuited to modern F1 cars, it is so incredible long and dangerous that drivers will die as there is no place for runoffs where needed, and most importantly there aren't enough marshalls in the world to possibly man the whole track.
Before I do anything I ask myself “Would an idiot do that?” And if the answer is yes, I do not do that thing. - Dwight Schrute
The race would be 15 laps lond and have a distance of 312.15km and taking a 6 minuite average lap time for a car, would be arround 90 minuites long. It would be the longest distance of the callender, but also one of the quickest.
Why not go back to the 15km Spa track??
However one track that is being looked at for a return to its origional layout is Hockenheim, as there is a need for a 6.823km engine breaker track now. Yes the trees that were planted in 2002 would need to be ripped up, but the local authority there is looking into allowing the trees to be ripped up for a "modren" Hockenheim to be built; the proposal was to redesign the Ostcurve and the first chichane and the third chichane would not be a chichane, it would go into the Mercedes Benz Arena part before the stadium section.
However the choice for the track is the Modren old layout or a new pit facility, and the new pit facility is needed more than a modren classic layout at Hockenheim.
There are many tracks that have came back recently, the Red Bull Ring nee A1 Ring that has also been mooted for a F1 return, however it is just short for F1 standards due to the length of their main straight, and is looking at an 35 to 50m miniumum extention at that area to bring it into F1 again, it would probably mean a fiddly little part being added at on end of the straight, probably the last corners being re profiled to give the needed distance. The power of Red Bull winning at their own track???
Imola has just got its 1A licence back again, and could step in if Bahrain isnt resolved, as the teams dont want to go to Turkey seemingly due to the attendances, the drivers i think would take Turkey over Imola if it were their choice.
Soon there will be a glut of tracks that can host a F1 event, and to be honest, the more the merrier.
Personally id like another long track (Track over 5.8km) as we have 2 at present in Silverstone (5.891km), Suzuka (5.807km) and Spa (7.004km) as well as a couple of short (under 4.5km) tracks as we only have 3 at present in Hungaroring (4.381km), Canada (4.361km) and Intertlagos (4.309km) with Monaco being the exclusion to the F1 minimum distance rule for "historic reasons". The A1 ring would be quite noice i think as the short track at 4.326km, as for a long track, there just isnt one avalable at standard i think.
there are areas on the Nordschleife simply unsuitable for a F1 car .Karusell and Schwalbenschwanz the obvious two and not to forget the large and little jump area not suited ,not at all.
So :sorry it´s just not going to work ,apart from the impossibilty to have enough Marshalls and guarantee the safety of the drivers.