It reminds me more of Hockenheim's stadium section than that abomination that was added to Bahrain. That said, I wish that complex didn't exist and it was a 7th gear sweeper. That would make the following "Turkey" corner absolutely diabolical. Oh well, I like the first sector. Turn 1 is very Osterreichring, if a lot tighter than the Austrian original.

I quite like it, it looks like an interesting layout at least. Seeing it in the flesh may be different of course, but I'm optimistic at this stage.

Verry happy to see a "continuous declining radius" corner just after the esses.
All world class venues should have such a challenge...

Given the modern restrictions put on track design, it actually looks pretty good. I worry that F1 cars has such short brake distance that the braking for T1 will be done on the flat, but we will have to wait and see. I give it a tentative thumbs up.

Exactly, Turkey corner (they might aswell name the corners like that, ha) would be even better than the real one if it was like you described

Elevation changes don't seem to be that much. The only real one is turn one. The rest seems pretty flat. I guess it's not too bad. I think we all get spoilt abit by Spa. Silverstone is flat, so is Monza.

I like it.

I don't know why these occur, but:

Shake and Bake International GP Concourse

Circuit de Jean Girard and His Partner

The Mega Super Anarchy Drome-o-Speed

The Number One Super Best Winners Race Track



Just suggestions.

David Letterman should get Hellmund on LateNight.

Interlagos and Monaco aren't flat either.


How long is that back straight? 1200 m?

I guess you never saw Rossi vs. Capirossi there in 2006... ?

Back on topic: Austin looks cool.

Ben

Yeah, about 1100-1200 meters.

Jeebus. That looks insane. The downhill turn 2 and turn 19 look fantastic. Also the hump out of the Silverstone section.

I like sequence corner 7 to 11, this is gona be a tricky race zone.

Besides turn 1-2 is also interesting, climbing up the hill, attacking on slightly outside, No.2 car can out race the No. 1 with its better traction...?

Only, sequence 18-19-20 ... boring?

Turn ten - over the hill and down - gonna be great.

It will shoot the car up on the air.

Webber will flip his car again, like Le Mans.

This is a technical challenge as well. Yes.

Looking at the image again, I think the "Mockenheim" arena section is kind of necessary. Yes, without it, the circuit would no doubt be faster - but the Mockenheim interrupts the rhythm, and I think it will be interesting to see how much the car setup is going to be compromised there. I think races are going to be won and lost in that switchback.

I agree. I like the idea of trying to bunch them up after the long straight, but the run to the first turn after the dogleg left seems a little too long - they'll stretch back out there, and then it's just Mickey Mouse. It needs to be less of a radius, or a chicane ala the exit of the tunnel at Monaco. They'll put more wing on to not lose time there, which will then make the challenging bits less challenging.

I think that section will make it mediium-high downforce, when I think medium-low downforce probably makes for better racing? If it were faster going into the Mickey Mouse section I think it would be better, the braking zone will be too long/drastic otherwise IMO.

I like a lot of it, though. I hope T1 falls away drastically. Esses look great (hope the cars look as cool through there as they do at Silverstone), and getting gradually tighter should make things interesting coming off being flat.

/ Hope tickets are cheap
// stupid that Indy had empty seats: there should be prices that allow *casually interested* people to "take a chance" at going to a race

Haha, Mockenheim. I like it.

That elevation map is also exaggerated, they did the same thing with the rendering of the Indian GP track.



As you can see, it's 5x super elevated, which I'm sure is the same case for this rendering of Austin's racecourse.

Gotta say, caught me by surprise that it seems to be a decent track by modern standards. WAY WAY better then the Indy F1 track of days gone by.

Will be interesting to see when it's near completion what it actually comes to look like.

Personally, I'm looking forward to seeing what happens at 2 main sections:

1. Turns 8 through 11
2. Turns 15 through 19

Seems like great sections to setup passes.

19-20 seems very very short and would have been nice it was extended quite a bit longer.

Also seems like a great MotoGP track too. Wonder if the Nascar Cup guys will give it a go, but not really sure if it's a track that would suit them though.

The Indy F1 track was awesome, the huge classic oval banked section and the straight. Really felt like an American grand prix track. Such a shame F1 and Indy never got along. (Well mainly Bernie, but also 2005)

And all of ruined by the switchback at turns 9 and 10. Tilke might have done the same thing here, but at least he's trying to imitate a sequence that works for Hockenheim.

I hope nobody will get hurt when a car falls off the track in turn 1!
Anybody remembers this?

Just kidding

So after they said that the circuit would feature lots of corners inspired by classic tracks, what do we have so far?
Turn 1 seems a mirrored version of Zeltweg's 1st turn. 6-9 could be Silverstone-inspired. The run out of the hairpin could be like that of Mosport. Then we have the Istanbul corner (a modern classic?) and the last 2 corners remind me of Sachsenring's last two corners.

I was really hoping for something Watkins Glennish or more sweeping long corners with lots of elevation changes as in Mosport, but then again I cannot imagine the elevation changes on paper. Maybe it's more than I think, otherwise it would be a shame to have it all wasted on turn 1!

I hope we'll have a computer simulation soon, as was the case for some of the circuits that joined the F1 calendar during the past years.

I really like this plan and I hope it doesn't change too much (small changes are inevitable). It looks like it could be a modern classic, inspired by some real terrain than just some scribble on a page. I think Tilke has come of age now as a designer. I'm looking forward to seeing it in action.

This circuit, combined with the way he's getting team input for the Jaypee circuit in India, really does show that he's moved on. I think Austin's biggest drawcard is that it's being organised by racers, people who know what makes for good racing rather than some faceless, slavering bureaucratic machine that is only using Formula 1 as a platform for international exposure. Unfortunately, I've read that Abu Dhabi is funding a proposal for a Bulgarian Grand Prix, so it may be back to business as usual. But hopefully these bureaucrats will realise that while Formula 1 offers great exposure, a good circuit will pay twice the dividends.

Going the opposite direction at Indy's banking never really did it for me nor did it end up being anything special. If it wasn't for the allure of Indy and if that had been added anywhere else, it would probably have just been another corner. Indy's infield was a mess.

Still would have been awesome to see them running the full oval or 1-3 turns and coming into a hairpin then by an outgoing s-bends.

Thought the general shape looked familiar:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circuit_Mont-Tremblant

But it's not listed on the Austin image. According to the organisers in India, the elevation through the first turns is 14m. According to Tavo Hellmund, the elevation at Austin is 133ft., which translates as 40m. So with the first turn at Austin being three times greater than in Greater Nodia, it's entirely possible that the three-dimensional image of Austin is actually accurate.

Great point - I agree that we should be cautious, but the fact the elevation diagram doesn't point to super-elevation having been used, I think we can tentatively regard the rendering to be accurate, as Captain has said....

40m overall elevation is nothing special. Spa is about 110 or 140 iirc.

If I've got my numbers right, Spa has the gretest elevation at ~120m. Suzuka is second with about 55m, and now Austin will be third with 40m. For comparison's sake, Fuji has 37-38m, whilst Yas Marina has 18m and Shangahi 6m. Monaco may well be somewhere in there with a greater elevation than Austin, but I don't know where exactly. The point is that Austin will have double the elevation we've had in the recent run of new circuits.

Joe Saward has a massive pdf of the track layout (2D version) here http://joesaward.files.wordpress.com/2010/...tin-circuit.pdf

He also said this "The organisers says that they think that the uphill Turn 1 will become a celebrated corner in its own right." I think this gives even more credence to the elevation shown into T1 being totally realistic. So we have a 40m climb from the S/F line to T1? Sounds frigging awesome to me!

I'd say it's closer to 30m, at least on the opening lap. Turn 19 appears to be the lowest point of the circuit, and the road appears to climb up past the Start/Finish Line a little. Every other lap will be a 40m climb, though. And don't forget ... it's 40m up, but the cars come straight back down for the second corner. Hopefully the actual corner will be perfectly level, creating a weird camber on the inside of the corner.

http://joesaward.files.wordpress.com/2010/...tin-circuit.pdf

Two things:

1) Pit lane is interesting - very Monza-like. The cars enter straight off the main straight and there's nothing to slow them down. No fiddly Fuji-like chicane; they don't even negotiate the last corner of the circuit.

2) The Mockenheim section seems to be a genuine repreoduction of Hockenheim - the circuit is considerably narrower in between the corners compared to the main straight ad the back straight.

Great. Elevation changes = Jon Legard field day...

the never ending up the hills are going to drive me CRAZY!

looks a brilliant track though!!

Yeah, looks set to be the best new track for quite a while. Hopefully the barriers aren't a mile away from the track and that the run off isn't too much tarmac.

How do you calculate the elevation change? From lowest point to highest? Sorry, I don't understand. Suzuka at 55m doesn't sound enough.

I guess they've listened to the fans more on this track, and added some elevation! about time.

It looks as if there could be lots of decent general admission viewing areas. Unlike Abu Dhabi which appears to have none (link). Is it even possible (or worth) walking around Yas Marina?

Agreed. This bit isn't necessary. They should join turns 12 and15 to create a nice flowing left hander instead.

The numbers posted earlier in this thread (which were taken from the Nostalgia forum), show Spa with a total elevation change of 170m. The total maximum elevation change at Spa is 104m. The highest point on the track is at Les Combes, and the lowest at Stavelot. Eau Rouge climbs 'only' 26 meters. Assuming all of the data from that post showed the same, Suzuka has 40 meters total, which means the peak to peak is probably only 20 meters or so. I don't remember the data for Interlagos or Istanbul, but Austin will be among the greatest elevation changes of current tracks.

Spa-Francorchamps (old) / 14.1 / 170
...
Suzuka / 5.807 / 40
Fuji / 4.469 / 38
Bahrain / 5.441 / 18
Shanghai Circuit / 5.451 / 6.74'

a nice flowing left hander with the overtaking opportunity gone? sounds about right

An Uphill start followed by a short and steepe downhill. Add a bit of rain and it will be a classic.

I'd like to see the track laid out on a topographical map of the area it will be set it before jumping to any conclusions. However, I can't believe that the track simply follows the natural topography.

As a potential visitor to the 2012 US grand prix, my question is where will the grandstands be (aside form the main one shown)? The placement of those is crucial.

I think you're on to something there. The first half of the track has a lovely, organic flow to it that looks equally fast and challenging. But, as you point out, once you hit the "Mockenheim" section the track's flow jarringly transforms into a jumble of 90 degree corners. It almost looks like that section's sole inspiration was the maximization of the course's lap distance. At any rate, it looks grafted on and it stands out as sorely as the cut and pasted wikipedia paragraphs in an undergraduate's research paper.

Aside from that, it's a very promising design and it looks like a track that we can look forward to enjoying rather than enduring.

Track looks great.

Totally agree.

Posters in other fora have suggested Carroll Shelby International Raceway. That works for me.

Looks like a bit of Suzuka Ss action, turn 10 and down, imagine Suzuka sector 1 which Schumacher owned but starting from downhill, a bit of Eau Rouge and Suzuka turn 1 mixed, that is bloody brilliant., one corner leading to another plus another, good sector. Good long straight to play with and another slightly shorter one.

The Suzuka Ss is one of the great sectors for f1 and I think alot of tracks need those sort of challenges, as if you get it wrong early on, the time will scoop up in the following corners, it's one for the great drivers.

Should be a good track .


Final Conclusion:
A bit of Spa/Suzuka mix with some maybe natural surroundings of Austria A1 Ring. I would like to visit Texas in 2012

Thing is you don't need slow corner-straight-slow corner for overtaking opportunities - look at Suzuka: best chances are in to the chicane (directly after 130r) or turn 1 (into a fast corner)