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Does the Hockenheim revamp have anything to do with the FIA?

From what I know, it's just to have more laps and therefore more cars passing by for the attendance.

It's the same for the Nurburgring Castrol chicane. They wanted the fans to see the cars for a longer time every lap.

In any case, anyone even remotely behind those two ideas should be smashed in the nuts repeatedly with something heavy.

If you see what's left of the old circuit, you'll probably cry.

Heh, if you search Hockenheim on google maps as you zoom out from the track the new track disappears and the old track takes its place.

Fuck the new track

Ye well, rather fuck 2010-result...

Me and all the people in the grandstands didn't hear the contence of that teamradio and were just stunned silent. I spent 17 laps shaking my head in disbelief, feeling incredibly bad for Felipe baby and at the start of the final lap, I couldn't watch it anymore and was one of the first at the carpark to go home and start my 4,5 hour frustrationride...

I had just seen a murder and the victim was Massa's spirit and confidence.

At the end of the year I was relieved and very happy Vettel won the title

F1 is a TEAM sport.

F1 has had TEAM orders throughout it's history.

Massa wasn't in the title fight so it was only fair he aided Alonso's title charge.

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BTCC Pick Em's Champion 2010
Formula Fun Cup Champion 2013
http://www.the-fastlane.co.uk

I guess you had to be there to understand the true anger and discontent of being ripped off and saw a non-race result after spending hundreds of hard earned euros for a ticket, hotel and did 1000 km in 3 days

I had a small glimpse of how people felt during Indy 2005, I was well and truly pissed

Well, I've not seen any evidence of that so far.....

People got over the loss of the Nordschleife pretty quickly too....
(Mind you at least there they didn't tear up the historic old track in favour of the less exciting new one)

Tilke didn't do a bad job here, usually even in the dullest of seasons there has been some sporadic bursts of racing action
(Montoya/Kimi 02, Button 04) it's just the fact that the fans loved the old track yet the powers that be dug it up and gave us the new track in the name of making things "Better" for the fans.
Didn't listen one iota really, did they?

You see, I disagree with the whole non-result logic.

If Massa was in the title hunt I could kind of understand. But as Massa lead with Alonso running I guessed that there was an inevitability that Ferrari would swap the position of the cars to ensure Alonso maximised his championship charge. So when the swap took place (yes I would have liked to see Massa winning) I wasn't surprised or pissed off in the slightest.

In fact, for a long period of the race I couldn't understand why Massa wasn't giving way to Alonso and protecting him from the potential threat of Vettel.

_________________
BTCC Pick Em's Champion 2010
Formula Fun Cup Champion 2013
http://www.the-fastlane.co.uk

Re the track redesign, there were a few good reasons why the redesign went ahead - lack of security as shown by the 2000 walk-on, lack of visibility for fans, safety in the forest section. Same sort of thing that saw the Nurburgring shortened for F1. What's utterly inexplicable was the decision to rip up the road of the old course and plant trees so it can never be run again. I still haven't heard an explanation for why that happened.

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Something about compensation from the trees they removed to build the new track.

Montréal is not far from that definition

I agree with the greater good and what's best for the main championship contender, but I was just disappointed not to see a battle for the victory, instead being presented to you on a silver platter. That's not racing. Then there's the humane part, but as we all know that's got no place in motorsports

Those are not good reasons.

Run-ins happened in more crowded tracks, like Silverstone and even the Barcelona main straight just after the warm-up lap start.

Visibility for fans, sure but most exposition for teams and sponsors comes from TV and not from the attendance. Have there been any surveys where spectators actually asked to see the cars go by 70 times instead of only 45?

As for safety, when it rains it does become a deadly trap which nearly killed Pironi, Warwick, and an F3000 driver in the late 90s. But on the dry there's nothing to hit really, just chicanes that can be shortcutted. Many drivers had very high speed spins (Hakkinen, Herbert, Alesi...) and got away just fine for all the space there is.

I won't say I like the new track, but you are completely right about the old track. Whilst it was unique (by the time it was destroyed anyway) it wasn't actually that good for racing. As Martin Brundle once said, in theory it should be great - massive straights with long braking zones, but somehow it never translated over properly.

The old Hockenheim was a simple layout featuring some straights linked by overly tight chicanes with some twisty bits at the end. But it was that layout that made it totally unique especially when the traditional high speed circuits were either emasculated or removed from the calendar. And it struggled financially because it was so long and the spectators only saw about 10% of the lap and there weren't too many laps. And most of the races on the old track were total rubbish, the cars tended to run as a Noahs Ark of horsepower. And the drivers weren't really challenged there weren't any truly super fast corners, mostly first and second gear corners, just a long way between them.

The new circuit is fine as a layout, there are some nice corners and passing is possible.Its the fact they didn't keep the old track in some form that people don't like.

People get very nostalgic.

Anyway I think given this years form it will hopefully be a goodun.