Formula One: Encyclopedia II - Formula One - Circuits

Formula One - Circuits

See also: List of Formula One circuits

A typical circuit usually features a stretch of straight road on which the starting grid is situated. The pit lane, where the drivers stop for fuel during the race, and where the teams work on the cars before the race, is normally located next to the starting grid. The layout of the rest of the circuit varies widely, although in most cases the circuit runs in a clockwise direction. Those few circuits that run anticlockwise (and therefore have predominantly left handed corners) can cause drivers neck problems due to the enormous lateral forces generated by F1 cars pulling their heads in the opposite direction to normal. Many corners have become well known in their own right, such as the high-speed Eau Rouge at Spa-Francorchamps, and before the addition of chicanes to tame it, the Tamburello corner at Imola and the Curva Grande at Monza, as well as in recent years the thirteenth turn at Indianapolis (road course configuration), known as the fastest corner in the sport. Also particularly lamented are the circuits at Zandvoort in the Netherlands and Kyalami in South Africa, neither of which are now used by F1.

Most of the circuits currently in use are specially constructed for competition. The only real street circuit is the Circuit de Monaco, used for the Monaco Grand Prix, although races in other urban locations come and go (Las Vegas and Detroit, for example) and proposals for such races are often discussed – most recently for London. Several other circuits are also completely or partially laid out on public roads, such as Spa-Francorchamps. The glamour and history of the Monaco race are the primary reasons why the circuit is still in use, since it is thought not to meet the strict safety requirements imposed on other tracks. Three-time World champion Nelson Piquet famously described racing in Monaco as "riding a bicycle around your living room."

Circuit design to protect the safety of drivers is becoming increasingly sophisticated, as exemplified by the new track in Bahrain, designed – like most of F1's new circuits – by Hermann Tilke. Whereas in the 1950s a driver was lucky to find a strategically placed bale of straw to absorb an impact, modern Formula One circuits feature large run-off areas, gravel traps and tire barriers to reduce the risk of injury in crashes. This is an ongoing task – after the deaths of Ayrton Senna and Roland Ratzenberger at Imola during the 1994 season, the FIA mandated further changes to circuits. These were mostly aimed at better matching the speed of a car with both the available space to slow down in before reaching a barrier and the ability of those barriers to safely absorb the energy of a crash. An ongoing complaint of long time F1 fans is the emasculation of the world's greatest circuits in order to satisfy sometimes arbitrary demands from the FIA. Whilst circuit safety is of prime importance, this can often be achieved without the reduction of the modern circuit to parade route status.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Circuits", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki