Have the teams been informed that this will be an off-road event??

Asphalt work is actually pretty quick, what takes a long time are permanent structures and these seem to be done. So ...

Much needed tea break. At least every 15 minutes or they will down tools and walk out. Like all british workmen?

That shuttering in the foreground looks like the basic foundations for something. Is it the pitwall? That doesn't look as if it will be finished very soon.

That pic isn't taken by 5LiveF1 to accurately know its date.

Later @5LiveF1 wrote:

made a few calls, checked a few things out and apparently the Korean Circuit is a lot further on than that pic shows.

on midweek motorsport they said "others where told not to talk about it"
the first race is due in setember, its a gt race (that was ment to happen this month)

Is there some kind of final inspection date for this or might the teams turn up to a circuit that is not quite ready?

15 years ago this race would have been called off already. Howver, at that point in time the sport's owners weren't quite so pleadingly dependent on new events going ahead in order to service stupid levels of ultra debt.

That's an interesting question. If you look at the calender on the f1 website the korean race has an asterix next to it meaning 'subject to circuit approval'. I'd like to now when is the lastest possible date that circuit approval can be granted.

From the teams perspective they won't ship anything to Korea till after Monza so ... round that time there should be a definite decision on whether there will be a race or not

Yeah, but RLM suggested that the Asian festival of speed -event will only be postponed by a week... however, other sources say it's rescheduled to 28-29th of september. Either way, sounds like bs. Some GT3 and GT4 series are supposed to race there in october (before the GP), too.

I just can't see it happening.

Not like they'd say "yeah, we've actually cocked it up." I'll believe it when I see FP1.

Korean track with Kubica onboard

link

interesting, looks decent i suppose

What game is that? Looks stunning.

new f1 2010 game coming out, with an xbox 360 wheel

Yep the asphalt can be done quite quick if everything is already completed so that won't cause a problem.

But still i also don't have a lot of faith in them getting it ready, unless they start to make some real progress now.

Love how they have all the cranes, etc. in the background - from all of our concerns, I reckon this is quite realistic!

*P.S. I know that the residential area around the circuit (which will eventually give the track the "half street circuit, half road course" feel it was intended to have) will need time to be developed/completed before anyone points this out in a humourless way!

Final couple of corners look good.

Last part of S2 and S3 are RedBulls all the way, dome fast corners. Anyways I think it will be okay...Anyways to much downforce on Kubica car... the car was losing on the long straights...

It's just a shame the ones in the middle don't...

Yeah :L, one or two of them looked OK. Similar to the new Silverstone section.

Living in Korea for 4 years, trust me this is not a August picture, looks more like spring, dry, dusty with clear skies. In August it rains at some point most days

Well, the pictures in F1Racing were from August then because there were a few really big puddles lying about. Those pics showed about the same development level as the one above ^^

You tell the month form puddles?

Climate of South Korea: South Korea has a temperate climate with four distinct seasons. [..] The country generally has sufficient rainfall to sustain its agriculture. Rarely does less than 750 millimeters (29.5 in) of rain fall in any given year; for the most part, rainfall is over 1,000 millimeters (39.4 in). Amounts of precipitation, however, can vary from year to year. Serious droughts occur about once every eight years, especially in the rice-producing southwestern part of the country. About two-thirds of the annual precipitation occurs between June and September.

And if it wouldn't be obvious, in a four season or whatever climate the drier seasons do not mean it never rains then and you cannot see puddles even in the (statistically) most dry season.

Whatever happens, it's gpoing to be a horribly barren site for quite some time. The whole notion of being a "part-urban" circuit is evidently some way off - there's no buildings other than those required for the circuit itself.

I wonder what the inaugural attendance is likely to be, given how remote the site is.

Assuming the clock on the camera (Panasonic DMC-FX55) was set correctly the photo was taken on the 04th August 2010, that's three weeks ago not one.

Further more a quick search on google turned up this site (racerevo.com) showing photo's of the major structures (or at least some of them) complete. It seems obvious that the camera angles were chosen to hide the state of the track surface (or lack of), although these photo's appear to have been taken on the 29th of June, one month before the photo you quoted. Anyhow, the track appears to be a lot more developed than that picture from @5livef1 implies. That @5liveF1 photo seems to be framed to cut out the completed grandstand and only show the uncompleted section of track.

edit: spelling

Thanks, HappySachs. It looks like unless we can get a forum member to pop along and have a look (and unfortunately I don't think we have any Korean or Korea-based members) we will all have to just wait and see!

But I reckon they are cutting it a bit fine.

How hard is it to get some proper up to date photos anyway instead of having to trawl through so much garbage? This track is in the middle of nowhere too, moreso than probably any other track on the calendar. There's another problem I guess.

Im not sure why the track HAS to be ready months before they race there?

Granted some time before hand is a must, so they can iron out any niggles. But it is obvious they are working on it.. and for now, I feel it will be ready. Its not USF1 for now!

What? A Japanese business man tweet Korea?

Well, there are some good practical reasons like allowing the track surface to bed in and cure - racing tyres will simply destroy newly laid tarmac - and to be sure that all the systems work properly and that there isn't a power failure when they plug in Bernie's life support system. We have seen last minute tracks that failed before (Nivelles, Houston). In a properly run sport, it wouldn't even be permissible for a venue to host a World Championship event until it had proved its capabilities by hosting a few smaller meetings - I have a feeling that this used to be a FIA rule, but perhaps it was dropped to allow Bernie to get hands on the money sooner.

But failing all that, it would just be nice to have some confidence that the track will be ready BY the date of the race.

I've just been taking a look at what I assume to be the official website (link) for the circuit and I'm a little confused as to the location of the circuit!

The 'Maps and Direction' page (link) has an embedded map showing the track in the centre of Yeongam. However in the promotional footage I've seen the track is shown next to a large river, there is no large river anywhere near the location shown on the map. On the 'Virtual Image' page (link) there is a video that begins by zooming in from space into the circuit location. I've stopped the footage and made the folowing screen cap:



I've taken a look on google maps and found the area shown, here's the link, I've centred the map on the track location. That location is 5 miles south of Mokpo, the location on the 'Maps and Directions' page shows a site about 20 miles to the east of Mokpo in the middle of nowhere. In terms of access the site south of Mokpo is infinity easier to get to, Mokpo itself is connected to Seoul via the KTX high speed train network.

I'd say that the location on the 'Maps and Directions' page is incorrect, if so that's pretty poor standards.

Interestingly the screen cap above shows a different shape to the river than google maps, almost as though some of the circuit and associated infrastructure was built on reclaimed land?

edit: should have been east...not west

Yeah, I've struggled with Google Earth and the official website and can't get a credible match at all.

But I am sure the place does exist and one day GE will catch up!

The track is by the river, see this screenshot of "street view" near the river. The location is on the bottom right. You can see the outline quite clearly.

I think the remote rumours startet because they released "320km South of Seoul". Clearly the 320km are largely populated and with the population density of South Korea there's a lack of "remote areas".

http://english.jeonnam.go.kr/home/english/...sure/page.wscms

^here's some spatial planning info, it appears there's a lot still to be constructed around the circuit.

If they make it on time, who knows. But generaly Korea should be finde.

thanks for the replies, that confirms the track is definately at the site south of Mokpo (and on reclaimed land), cheers

I am based in Korea, bought my tickets along time ago so have to say I am hoping for no problems. I live around 4 hours away from the track although have been in the area a few times, tried to have a look in April but couldnt get near the place. It is 30mins south of mokpo.

I know quite a few sports promoters in Korea (interesting the main promotes KAVO have been asking around to try and get help from other promoters) and it does not seem that there is a problem with making it on time, for reference it very rarely rains in spring and during the time of the race but always rains in July and August, from what I have heard they have had some bad rain down there this year and thats what put it back a few weeks.

I think the only problem they are having is selling coporate tickets, very few of the big Korea compamies are showing a interest, one because F1 is not so big here yet and two it is too far from Seoul. Also to watch sports in Korea is normally inexpensive so the $150 - $200 for basic tickets will make it difficult.

I think it will go ahead but there might be a few empty seats! interested to see myself

Thank you Speedy. Hope for your sake it goes on as planned.

Don't forget to to us when see you see yourself on the big screen k mate? I hope you aren't alone when you do so though..

Ah, the power of the forum! Good to know that there is a member in Korea. Hope that you can keep us posted on any news.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sr_LHQFjyDI...;feature=search

Another video of the circuit from F1 2010. Maybe it's just the inexperience of the driver, but the second half of the lap is looking pretty wild. Even after three laps, I had no idea where he was for the back sequence of bends.

Also, is it just me, or is the first corner slightly banked? Maybe it's not so much banking as it is camber ...

This looks like one of the worst tracks in F1 history. Flat, boring, soulless.

Give it a chance first at least, you can't make that opinion just on a diagram. It will take quite a bit to be worse than Valencia after all.

And too many micky mouse sections with short straights and slow corners. Rubbish layout.

I think they'll have to go some to beat Shanghai for boring, flat and soulless.

Red Bull will completely spank everyone around that track.....

Isn't Soul in Korea?



As long as it is Mark doing the spanking, not Mosley Vettel.

Yes, I was thinking that.

It looks like a very tedious circuit to drive, constant turns with no sense of flow. Nowhere to really let the car do its thing.

I'm beinning to think that if the Nurburgring-Nordschleife was unveiled tomorrow, you'd all still hate it.

Thats what I think too, with people who criticise the tracks for being boring. The second sector actually looks pretty decent, with the elevation changes which really helps the flow of the track.

There is a good flow of corners imo, a lot of them able to be taken flat out and it looks like it somewhat resembles the first part of the nordescleife. It will definately be a good track for other racing leagues, flowing and all.

EDIT: Mickey mouse would be 2nd/1st gear corner sequence in bahrain