The Korean Grand Prix organisers have begun laying the tarmac at the Korean International Circuit ahead of the much-delayed official inspection of the circuit by the FIA.
Laying the tarmac this late may mean it does not have enough time to cure properly ahead of the race weekend.
Charlie Whiting is due to visit the circuit on Monday to make a final decision about whether the race will go ahead. See below for the latest pictures from the track which were taken yesterday.
US_Peter (@us_peter)
9th October 2010, 7:42
Wow! Impressive what a lick of paint on the curbs will do to make it look like a circuit.
US_Peter (@us_peter)
9th October 2010, 7:44
…and you can see the lights over the grid on the pit straight. It’s starting to look like a race might happen.
Hare (@hare)
9th October 2010, 8:58
You just know the guys driving the rollers are making F1 engine noises and racing each other at 8 mph. Who wouldn’t?
MattW
9th October 2010, 10:08
Bloody oath they are. Like the lady in Singapore doing laps up and down pit straight in a golf cart back in July… she was loving it
US_Peter (@us_peter)
9th October 2010, 18:30
HA! Hadn’t thought of that, but now I will every time I see one of these pictures. “Vroom!! VROOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!”
MattW
9th October 2010, 7:48
So could be like Canada with bits of track coming up? Interesting.
LewisC
9th October 2010, 8:42
Let’s hope not…
F1 cars can generate a lot of ‘suck’. I hope the Koreans haven’t underestimated that.
Prisoner Monkeys (@prisoner-monkeys)
9th October 2010, 8:46
Given that Canada was one of the most exciting races of the year, it probably wouln’t be a bad thing.
Magnificent Geoffrey (@magnificent-geoffrey)
9th October 2010, 10:37
They’re lucky Piquet Jr isn’t racing anymore. He generated quite a lot of ‘suck’.
Woffin (@woffin)
9th October 2010, 15:55
Excellent haha!
US_Peter (@us_peter)
9th October 2010, 18:32
I was just gonna say the HRTs generate a lot of ‘suck,’ but you beat me to it. Well played.
Pinball - roadography.com (@)
10th October 2010, 4:01
No, it won’t come up. If anything it might just be a little bit slippery.
silencer
9th October 2010, 8:03
wow.. rainbow! and a shiny roller..
hope the tarmac will dry hard enough in 2 weeks before the race weekend
Prisoner Monkeys (@prisoner-monkeys)
9th October 2010, 8:53
It’s a finishing roller. You don’t see them that much because conventional roads don’t really need them, but they’re quite common for high-end projects like racing circuits and airports. They go over the top layer of tarmac once it has begun to set and compact it, the aim being to smooth out any bumps that have begun to form as the tarmac cools at different rates. In order for that to be happen, the drums they roll on have to be very new because any (major) imperfections in the surface can actually create creases rather than ironing them out.
US_Peter (@us_peter)
9th October 2010, 18:33
I was thinking it looked like they either had brand spanking new machines, or they’d stuck new rollers on ’em.
Konstantinos Kouretas
9th October 2010, 8:32
Speaking as a transportation engineer, I should say that laying the last layers is a pretty quick procedure, compared to the things that are done before that. The picture of a road without its final layer is always deceiving in terms of the job that has been done and the job that has to be done.
The only concern is that Formula1 will essentially be the first to test the track… and those monsters are not the ones you want to do this first with…
If the track starts deforming in braking areas or breaks apart in acceleration zones, there will be no time to repair it.
Icthyes (@icthyes)
9th October 2010, 8:44
Well they’ve finally done it all and Bernie’s faith has been repaid.
Who wants to bet that the event will be cancelled by rain? ;)
bosyber
9th October 2010, 9:10
LOL, that would be an interesting outcome!
Prisoner Monkeys (@prisoner-monkeys)
9th October 2010, 8:48
I don’t know if the laying of the tarmac has been interrupted by rain – the rainbow certainly testifies as much, but the Koreans have been anxious about wet weather, and I know enough about laying roads and sealing them to know that even a little bit of rain can ruin your nice new road – but the surface looks very slick, like black ice. Hopefully it will have about as much grip, being so fresh. I don’t think we’ve ever had a race on a surface as new as this.
Patrickl
9th October 2010, 9:07
What’s with the fence in that picture of the rollers?
Are they going to leave it tilted like that?
Prisoner Monkeys (@prisoner-monkeys)
9th October 2010, 9:13
It’s actually pretty deceptive – look at the fence on the far side of the circuit. The uppermost panels are all bent inwards at an angle. The same thing has been done on the near side, but the position and the angle of the camera makes them look quite large. If you use the person walking in the opposite direction as a reference, you can see that the fence is clearly taller than a man.
wakenabeb
9th October 2010, 9:16
I think that is just the upper part of a vertical fence that is tilted towards the circuit, just like the ones that are in all the other Grand Prix
Sangeen
9th October 2010, 9:28
I do hope they lay down some asphalt besides the track in the first picture.If a car gets two wheels of the track on THAT its not going to be a good sight..
Prisoner Monkeys (@prisoner-monkeys)
9th October 2010, 9:45
It will be astroturf, or they’ll just stick actual rolls of turf in. Sealing that would be a difficult job because there’s no way you could do it without diggin up what you’ve already built; otherwise, there’s no way to get in there.
DaveW
9th October 2010, 15:02
The track seems very narrow, by modern standards, in that shot with the rollers. By the way I think that’s Whitmarsh and Neale manning a couple of those rollers.
wasiF1 (@wasif1)
9th October 2010, 15:26
If it does misses the deadline will that mean that we may have two Japanese GP as by Monday many of the team & their stuff will be in Japan naming that race as the Asian GP??
David B
9th October 2010, 17:18
I wonder why they didn’t spend more money in building the track instead of wasting for those accurate and full of fantasy introductory movies…(joking).
I’m quite anxious to see how the tarmac will resist to F1 power. Wouldn’t be surprise to see some Belgian 1984 gran prix replay…hope not.
BasCB
9th October 2010, 17:22
I seriously doubt anyone will be wanting anything but get the race going now. No matter how crude the garages etc. are, this will go ahead.
US_Peter (@us_peter)
9th October 2010, 18:41
Chandhok warned the teams that they’d need to bring everything and the kitchen sink. Literally.
Electrolite
9th October 2010, 22:02
I love the marshland, sort of eastern feel of the track. There isn’t another track quite like it judging by all the pictures i’ve seen so far.
Chris Yu Rhee
19th October 2010, 11:39
They’re rice fields, not march land. They didn’t even kick the farmers off of them yet!