F1: Street Circuits Make for Exciting Layouts, Says Tilke

According to F1 track designer, Hermann Tilke, Liberty Media’s idea of introducing more races in cities will ensure that the layout of the tracks will be challenging which in turn will make them exciting.

Tilke is certainly impressed with the idea that the sport’s new owners have been floating around and he was in support of it. He said, “The trend is going to the city tracks and this is really good for professional sport. The idea behind it is very unique and every city is unique. If you can go in the centre of a city then you cannot compare it with others.”

“This makes it really very interesting and for the high professional series like F1, it is the right way”, Tilke added.

Tilke was speaking at the FIA Sport Conference in Philippines and revealed that they were aiming to build all-pervasive tracks. “We are not building tracks only for the high professional drivers, we are also building tracks for all kinds of drivers.”

“This means amateur drivers, it means a driver who is 60 years old and wishes to drive some kind of racing car or high-performance car. All these people have to be safe, it is not only F1”, said Tilke.

He also pointed that this idea made more sense financially too. “But as you see in Baku- that is a track built only for professional drivers. You could never have old drivers or young drivers on this track- and that makes a difference. The investor of a track wants to use a track for everybody- not only F1.”

There are currently three races on the F1 calendar which take place on street circuits, namely Monaco, Baku and Singapore. The plan is to take F1 to newer street circuits like Miami and Vietnam. These destinations can add more variety to the tracks while also simultaneously building up the fan base for F1 around the globe.