Tilke sets Nurburgring as the Standard for Overtaking

Formula One circuit designer Hermann Tilke has denied claims that his layouts do little to promote good racing. He cited his changes to the Nurburgring circuit as proof of his comments.

He said it was “not true” that overtaking is more difficult on tracks that are his creation.

“Look to the Shanghai race this year, look to the Bahrain race this year. What happened? Overtaking. Also with these cars, which is really very difficult to overtake. And look to Austin. Always overtaking, and always wheel-to-wheel fighting. So this is just not true.

“Of course you have some races which are boring. But you have also football games which are boring. And if the fastest is in front of the less fast car, nothing happens. So what then? Then the fastest is going and the second fastest is behind. Nothing happens.”

Tilke had made a few changes to the Nurburgring circuit in 2002. His objective was to show that overtaking can be promoted by adding slow corners to tracks.

“The first version of the Nurburgring was at the end of start and finish, it was a chicane,” he explained. “The quick Castrol S curve tended to make the cars run “one behind the other and a long gap between”.

“So this is the first thing where you can spoil a race during the start. And then we made this sharp corner and very wide.”

“You have this, and then again you have a slow corner. This brings the field together again, like an accordion. This works in 70, 80% of the cases. [Then] after the start, after one lap the cars are close together. And then you can overtake.”

Overtaking has long been a fiercely debated subject in Formula One. The aerodynamics of the cars usually made it horribly difficult to follow in the slipstream. Therefore, overtaking is difficult.