Valencia Street circuit

[ShiftingGears]

I was skeptical, but after seeing an onboard from F3, I think the Valencian Street circuit is damn good. It's got sweeping straights, tight double apex corners, fast kinks and sequences of corners requiring total commitment. And concrete barriers to punish mistakes.

Map:
http://www.valenciastreetcircuit.com/img/mapas/map_with_ticket_prices_grand_prix_of_europe_formul a_1_valencia_ENG.jpg

F3 Onboard:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAzqDuWNa2M

Seeing the formula one cars blast around that circuit will be excellent, especially the section between the hairpin to the far left of the map, and the final corner.


Thoughts?

[cy bais]

looking forward to it !!

[Bruce D]

There's already a "pre-release" version of this track for the GTR2 game and I must say it is really fast in places. You have got to be committed to some spots, but mostly its very heavy braking points that were interesting to deal with. Expect lots of overtaking

[52Paddy]

It looks quite technically demanding and its long too. Looks good to me. I'm really delighted to see the little room for error, me not being a fan of endless tarmac run offs.

[Nikki Katz]

Looks like it could be interesting. Personally I'm not expecting all that much overtaking apart from where the driver in front has made a mistake, but it at least does look possible, unlike Monaco.

It's a bit ugly though.

[gloomyDAY]

Can someone find a map of this on Google?

Thank you!

Edit: Found it.

http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/valencia_f1_streetcircuit_map.jpg

[ShiftingGears]

It looks quite technically demanding and its long too. Looks good to me. I'm really delighted to see the little room for error, me not being a fan of endless tarmac run offs.

I totally agree :up:


Looks like it could be interesting. Personally I'm not expecting all that much overtaking apart from where the driver in front has made a mistake, but it at least does look possible, unlike Monaco.

It's a bit ugly though.

I think theres potential for a few passes, namely at the second corner, the turn 12 and 17 hairpins, and the final corner has the potential for passing moves if the drivers are up for total commitment out of that kink. It mightn't be the prettiest from the drivers eye, but generally thats what you get with street circuits. Unfortunately even the prettiest circuits like Spa are gradually becoming more ugly and forgiving with tarmac runoff.


My only complaint is that the corners don't have names :p :

[speeddurango]

It's a great circuit for racing since it's not really streets anymore, I believe the circuit designer basically kept overtaking in mind thus 80% of the circuit is based on making more overtaking opportunities. So there are not a lot of real fast corners and also the scene is a little bland, neverthless, if it provides great racing opportunities then I'm all for it.

[Storm]

Looking forward to it !

I like street tracks in general as they require a higher level of commitment and are less forgiving and this one looks pretty good with some fast straights and kinks and combinations of slow corners where passing might be possible.
Of course we will know when the GP rolls around and I hope the track is wider at a couple of places so passing is possible and not just a blast through the streets.

[Donney]

It looks good for action and overtaking, and being the first time it is run I reckon there'll be plenty of mistakes leading to more overtaking than usual. It does not look ugly to me, it is just urban...

[jens]

IMO this looks fantastic for a street circuit. I can see at least 3-4 very good overtaking places plus the complexes of corners may enable different racing lines. Can't wait to see an F1 race there.

The possibility of safety car is higher than on most circuits, but there at least it won't totally destroy the race of the top teams, who with the help of passing have to possibility to rise to the top again. :p :

[harsha]

Looks to be a fantastic circuit...regardless of whether it's a street circuit or a track

[MAX_THRUST]

A track with 25 corners has to better than most F1 tracks today, whats the average now a days 18 maybe?

Looking forward to this weekends race and can't wait for Singapore as well. All we need now is the Paris street race and London, but I doubt London will ever happen.

[Azumanga Davo]

I think the best thing about it all is that it's effectively a clean slate for setup for all cars. Some interesting grids to come I feel. :)

[keysersoze]

Good gosh those F3 cars seem slow. Things happen so quickly in my Sodi-Rotax kart but in the F3 car it looks like the driver has a lot of time.

[Allyc85]

lol yea, because watching a grainy onboard video gives you the same sense of speed dosnt it. Some of the rubbish people come out with to show off that daddys brought them a flash kart....

[MAX_THRUST]

OK 1st Lap turn 2 is where it will all go wrong this weekend for someone.

Any other suggestions?

My only concern in 'marbles'.

Once they appear off the racing line, overtaking opportunities have pretty much vanished and it becomes a procession.

Now, if the track surface starts to fall to bits a la Dallas 84, that will make for a great race!!!

[BDunnell]

My only complaint is that the corners don't have names :p :

Instead, they only seem to have prices!

My only complaint is that the corners don't have names :p :

Oh, they did have names.

But then the FIA told the organisers that "FuzzyWuzzy Corner" was bang out of order.

[Allyc85]

OK 1st Lap turn 2 is where it will all go wrong this weekend for someone.

Any other suggestions?

Where the barrier sticks out a bit before the bridge could be interesting if they get on the gas to early :D

[keysersoze]

lol yea, because watching a grainy onboard video gives you the same sense of speed dosnt it. Some of the rubbish people come out with to show off that daddys brought them a flash kart....

For that matter, what makes you think you know jack about me? Because for your lousy mis-information, I pay for my own kart racing.

And while you are busy being a boorish know-it-all, tell us what the video being "grainy" has to do with the speed of the cars.

And WTF is a "flash kart?"

[ShiftingGears]

Oh, they did have names.

But then the FIA told the organisers that "FuzzyWuzzy Corner" was bang out of order.

:laugh: :laugh:

[Big Ben]

I've just arrived from Valencia. I visited the track last Sunday and I have to say I find it very interesting but that must be because this is the closest I have ever got to F1. :laugh:

[philipbain]

Apparently there are concerns about the join of the swing bridge, the track surface is uneven, apparently the difference is as much as 15mm!

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/69926

To be honest I think its much a do about nothing, a much more severe example is what happened at the 2005 San Jose Champ Car race when they ran over tram tracks:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQOUKHVydqc

Sadly when they went back a year later the section had been smoothed out, much safer for sure but not nearly as spectacular!

[ioan]

Apparently there are concerns about the join of the swing bridge, the track surface is uneven, apparently the difference is as much as 15mm!

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/69926

To be honest I think its much a do about nothing, a much more severe example is what happened at the 2005 San Jose Champ Car race when they ran over tram tracks:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQOUKHVydqc

Sadly when they went back a year later the section had been smoothed out, much safer for sure but not nearly as spectacular!

If you take into account that F1 cars have no suspensions than you can imagine that going over it 70 times at high speed could destroy one's back?!
Just a thought!

[Dave B]

I'm watching the coverage with the help of the excellent aerial photo on pp8-9 of Autosport, which is making identifying the corners easier :up:

[Whyzars]

I was skeptical, but after seeing an onboard from F3, I think the Valencian Street circuit is damn good. It's got sweeping straights, tight double apex corners, fast kinks and sequences of corners requiring total commitment. And concrete barriers to punish mistakes.
Thoughts?


In my opinion it had all the ingredients for great racing but the camera shot was unable to stay with a car for longer than ONE second and that made the race very difficult to watch at times. The only time the cars were in shot for longer than 1 second was when the car was stopped or stopping as that gave the camera time to get in.

I was surprised at how difficult it was to watch a car progress around the course - even during qualifying. On the main straight the camera's were only able to fix on a driver for a very brief period and the only time an extended link was given it was for an in-car camera and not the street side. There was no way to get a 'feel' for the speed on the straight if that makes sense. The Producer must've been very tired by the end of the day with all that switching camera angles.

The Valencia circuit was by far the worst race of the year in my opinion due to its poor showing on television and the racing wasn't memorable either but that may be because of the camera's.

Just my opinion. :)

[cosmicpanda]

I rather appreciated the fact that the cars were always turning, and yet it was a fast track, rather than the usual sort of straight - corner - straight thing that we get :)