Steph Farnsworth and Jack Sargeant look at whether Hermann Tilke is as bad as he is made out to be.

Steph Farnsworth

Turkey has the epic turn eight, there just isn’t a corner that really offers as much as that masterpiece. Eau Rouge and Bridge were great once, but now they don’t offer a challenge for the drivers. The G-force at that corner at Istanbul really puts the car and driver through their paces though.

Singapore may be known for its scandal than design but it is a tough street circuit and combined with the usual humidity it doesn’t make life easy for the drivers. It’s hard and exhausts them which is how I want it to be.

It’s pretty easy to say Valencia is dire and has no overtaking but look at GP2 races where they have plenty of action at that venue. That says more about the cars than the quality of the tracks.

Admittedly, Tilke’s visions are generally very stop-and-start but when asked about overtaking the drivers do say straights and then a hairpin can produce the better racing. F1 goes to some epic and historic tracks like Monza, Silverstone and Monaco but last year they were the most boring races. Everyone hailed the return of Suzuka and it is an awe-inspiringly good track but Fuji produced the better entertainment even after Tilke got his hands on it.

Who can forget last year when Felipe Massa and Lewis Hamilton both went into self-destruct mode and were handed drive-throughs so they had to try to fight back while Alonso romped to victory and Kubica put in a stunning performance for second place? Or even the year before with the Brazilian and Robert Kubica scrapping it out in the wet?

Plenty of fans harp on about tradition but every venue has to start somewhere and has to build some history so the least we can do is give them a chance. As for traditional tracks, half of them have been forced to have chicanes put in so they are rarely as iconic as they once were (take Estoril and Imola for example).

I don’t see the problem with moving outside of Europe. OK, when you look around the area then sand can be boring and seem a slightly sterile environment but the fact that F1 can expand into new territory is a really good sign of health for the sport. If F1 wants to be the pinnacle of motorsport in the world then it can’t become Eurocentric. If there is a lack of fans at some venues then more can be done to drum up interest but it’s always going to difficult to get fans as passionate as the ones in Interlagos at a place with little history and tickets at high prices.

Tilke also has to contend with a fairly lengthy list of rules from the FIA regarding track design. A track that looks like the love child of Spa and Suzuka is never going to happen because of the restrictions when it comes to design, not because of the designer.

No track is perfect and the German hasn’t always offered us the best –China is woeful- but when you see the beauty of Turkey, watch the battles at Bahrain and the top class facilities then you know it isn’t a disaster story. If the tracks are bad it’s mainly because the rules aren’t flexible at all, there’s little room for an epic dream course. Perhaps a different designer should get chance just so things don’t feel repetitive but looking at what Hermann has to deal with, I’d say he’s doing a good job.

Jack Sargeant

While I admit, most of Tilke’s tracks are visually spectacular, with the hotel in Abu Dhabi, and the colourful run-off areas in Bahrain, but they just don’t produce the same exciting racing.

Tilke understands racing, having competed in touring cars and endurance car racing, and spent a lot of his career racing on the infamous Nordschleife circuit. It is ironic therefore that his circuits seem to lack the challenge and passion of the great German track.

There is no doubt Tilke is limited by the rules, but there is still no excuse for some of the circuits he has produced. Valencia for example, is an absolute shambles. In the 2 years there have been Grands Prix held on the street circuit in Spain, there have been just 5 overtakes! And the less said about his circuits in Malaysia, China, Fuji and Bahrain the better.

Circuits should be fast, sweeping, narrow, challenging, have some gradient, with fans close to the action and not so stop-start! One of my favourite circuits is Laguna Seca in America, now watch the video below, and tell me, why don’t we have a GP there, why don’t we have corners like the ‘corkscrew’ in F1!?

It is a nigh-on impossible task to recreate the atmosphere of Monza with it’s hundreds of thousands of screaming Tifosi, overnight, but an exciting track would no doubt drum up more passion for motorsport in the areas where the circuits are virtually dead – there should be no empty seats at the pinnicle of motorsport, and I believe that Bernie Ecclestone should forgo a fraction of his profit to cheapen tickets, therefore filling more seats in the grandstands.

Tilke, on occasion, has proved he can design a circuit well, with tracks like Suzuka and Istanbul, but his major problem is that his circuits are monopolising F1, and the majority of them are bland, soulless and boring. I think the FIA need to find the right balance and do not let the German’s tracks take over the sport.

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