It depends on the cars. I heard something about V8 Supercar drivers having problems with their cars (which are about 2 and a half times the weight of a F1 car) with tarmac runoff as they are so heavy, they have lot of momentum so need something a little bit more than tarmac to stop them.
It depends on the cars. I heard something about V8 Supercar drivers having problems with their cars (which are about 2 and a half times the weight of a F1 car) with tarmac runoff as they are so heavy, they have lot of momentum so need something a little bit more than tarmac to stop them.
Oh no, I'll really miss Indy. 
A street circuit in Boston might be interesting. At least their streets aren't all right-angle corners.
A street circuit in Boston might be interesting. At least their streets aren't all right-angle corners.
It would be a good idea and a great venue as it's near enough to NY but in a city lacking the big sporting events.
The three things tarmac run off do:
1) Let people get away with making mistakes.
2) Allow some control during a fast off increasing the chance of avoiding such a hard impact.
3) Avoid cars digging in and rolling, not really an issue for F1 cars an extremely low CoG means it's unlikely to happen to them and rolling isn't serious, really effects historic cars and open sports cars without a full cage.
The disadvantage with tarmac run offs is they are pretty useless if a driver isn't in control of the car or even worse has no brakes, even short gravel traps are extremely effective and can stop a car much faster than most people give credit for, which is why a small deep gravel trap is the best thing to use when you haven't got much space and they're often put at the end of a tarmac run off anyway.
is the Long Beach road course too tight for F1?
This death sentence to Indy came from Bernie of course? He recently commented about Magny-Cours: "Never again". I agree but I'm really getting pissed off how he is like the consigliere of Don Mosley.
Tarmac runoffs are also pretty dodgy when it's wet. Cars don't slow down much when travelling sideways over wet, dirty tarmac.
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Can't say I'm sorry Indianapolis is gone. I also can't say I expect to be excited by the prospect of a race at wherever is going to replace it. At least Indi had some identity, unlike some of these new tracks.
I imagine wrapping an F1 car round a pole would be slightly more dangerous than the usual armco.
Lime Rock Park introduces swamp traps:
True, but you didn't see much of it in the F1 race anyway. The infield section is as dull and contrived as any modern F1 circuit, and the oval section had at best half-empty stands for the grand prix so there wasn't much of an atmosphere on race day.
I don't think it ever really did when run as the road course
Road America...my home track....that would be wonderful, but yes you are right, it is too out of date.
Laguna Seca is probably the best, IIRC it has long and wide runoffs for Moto GP which is under the FIA, right?
Can you imagine Formula 1 cars going through the corkscrew?!?
Do an East @ LimeRock and a West @ Laguna Seca!! That would be kick ass!
Limerock is going to be rennovated these next few years, repaved and new safety features added.
Plus its close to NYC and Boston. 2 hours from NYC, 3 hours from Boston, 5 hours from Montreal!
Watkins Glen is over 4 hours from NYC :-/
Limerock is going to be rennovated these next few years, repaved and new safety features added.
Plus its close to NYC and Boston. 2 hours from NYC, 3 hours from Boston, 5 hours from Montreal!
Watkins Glen is over 4 hours from NYC :-/
Watch a champ car race at laguna, gives a pretty good idea
Satan will figureskate to work before F1 goes to Limerock.
For the record, I love the track, though
Dare i say....DAYTONA????
Oh you won't hear any argument from me on that subject. The infield is poor, and the atmosphere lacking, but, even if they did just use a small (but fairly unique in F1) part of the real track, it was still Indianapolis.
laguna seca or WATKINS GLEN 
The closest me and my buddies could come was sonoma. Wine country, high class west coast citizens, a track that would only need "curb appeal" updating and a few curb changes to be F1 ready, and ISC has plenty of money to bring it up to that state, unfortunatly i doubt they will work with FIA to do that, since they already pack the place like it is for nascar :\
I don't see a good US F1 race in the near future (if not at Indy):
Indy has had good crowds, over 200,000 this year. Strange F1 complained about Indy's banking, as its like 10 degrees max IIRC.
New York, Boston, Long Beach - I don't think we'd see another true road course with the new Spanish venue coming up.
Laguna, Road Atlanta, Limerock, Watkins Glen, Sonoma - Could be good, but none have the infrastructure needed to make it a good event. (Indy dumped like 15+ million into renovations for F1)
Las Vegas Baby - Gag me if we host another "parking lot" GP...
Daytona - Would be awesome, but of course it won't happen.
Indy has had good crowds, over 200,000 this year. Strange F1 complained about Indy's banking, as its like 10 degrees max IIRC.
New York, Boston, Long Beach - I don't think we'd see another true road course with the new Spanish venue coming up.
Laguna, Road Atlanta, Limerock, Watkins Glen, Sonoma - Could be good, but none have the infrastructure needed to make it a good event. (Indy dumped like 15+ million into renovations for F1)
Las Vegas Baby - Gag me if we host another "parking lot" GP...
Daytona - Would be awesome, but of course it won't happen.
Daytona would be great and could easily be brought up to spec, but the banking is of course the issue.
Lime Rock is waaaaay too short and twisty for F1 cars.
Lime Rock is waaaaay too short and twisty for F1 cars.
It's 9.
Unfortunatly the circuit will resembe Melbourne (bleh) more than Monaco.
Bear in mind that in that £8M includes the costs of building a road course, albeit a shit one, from scratch. Laguna couldn't be done as it is too short, Road Atlanta I don't really know, Lime rock is too short, probably not the Glen, and Sears Point would be great.
That was an OK layout IMO
Of course, bearing in mind the 33 degree banking.
As for Daytona, there are other layouts like what the superbikes use, perhaps they could utilize less of the banking.
Speaking of banking, I really don't comprehend why the world most technologically evolved cars can't handle something 3600lb carburated stock cars can. The F1's would only be going 220~max and not really generating that much lateral g-loading during the oval part. Not close to the CART @ Texas incident, where 240mph on a 1.5 mile oval lead to 5 g's and CART got scared the drivers would black out.
As for Sonoma, I have no idea how many spectators showed up for NASCAR, but i think only like 50,000 can watch there. Very nice track though, my fav in GT4.
Speaking of banking, I really don't comprehend why the world most technologically evolved cars can't handle something 3600lb carburated stock cars can. The F1's would only be going 220~max and not really generating that much lateral g-loading during the oval part. Not close to the CART @ Texas incident, where 240mph on a 1.5 mile oval lead to 5 g's and CART got scared the drivers would black out.
As for Sonoma, I have no idea how many spectators showed up for NASCAR, but i think only like 50,000 can watch there. Very nice track though, my fav in GT4.
There's no reason why an F1 car can't run on banking, Michelin were having issues with their tires at Indy but I bet you they'd of ended with the same issue at any other track with a high speed high load corner and the banking was just a convenient excuse.
I don't know about a superbike layout but if bikes can do it, F1 cars could.
It's because the cars aren't built for them. Bear in mind that the cars are lighter than CCWS and IRL cars, and at 600kg are a hell of a lot heavier than the more than one and a half tonne stock cars. F1 cars can IIRC do 350kph+ at places like Monza, but due to the intestines section they run gear ratios like they did at Hockenheim - shorter than normal ones for the lower gears but very long ones at the top end for the speed on the long straights.
Could be a problem.
Great track. Probably mile per mile better than Spa for challenge.
No F1 @ Indy in '08
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