F1 needs tracks like Baku, not Yas Marina – Kvyat

F1 Fanatic Round-up

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In the round-up: Daniil Kvyat wants more challenging F1 tracks.

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Scott Dixon, IndyCar, Watkins Glen, 2016

IndyCar returns to Watkins Glen, the former home of the United States Grand Prix, later this month. Drivers have been testing on the resurfaced track.

Comment of the day

Michal rejects the idea that the planned rules change for next year will reverse the convergence in performance we’ve seen between teams so far this year.

The most important think to me is having multiple teams fighting for the win and titles. Currently Mercedes is still a good step ahead of everybody, even though the gap has narrowed. I still want next year’s rule changes. It’s not a given the field would spread out.

The massive rule changes made the field more competitive in 2009, roughly the same in 2005 and less competitive in 2014. However even if it fail to create a more even field, that would give other teams their best chance to stop Mercedes total-dominance. Yes, it is tired to me if a team wins seven races in a row on average for over two years.

Hopefully the 2017 rules work and we would end up with multi-team fight at top. So far I can only hope for some fun and they would no longer waste the opportunity when Mercedes has a worse day.
Michal (@Michal2009b)

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On this day in F1

Ayrton Senna won the United States Grand Prix 30 years ago today in Detroit. Jacques Laffite made his final podium appearance in second place for Ligier and Alain Prost took third for McLaren.

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31 comments on “F1 needs tracks like Baku, not Yas Marina – Kvyat”

  1. More circuits like Baku, I can’t think of anything worse…

    This season so far has been the best of the current V6 era. I can safely say, that this last race has been the most boring so far, even less interesting than Monaco…

    1. What was wrong wit the circuit, I personally thought the Baku circuit was fantastic.

      The race may not have been that good but you can’t put all that down to the circuit as it was more due to DRS & the tyre/fuel management. Without DRS the racing down to turn 1 would have been more competitive & with less tyre/fuel management drivers would have been attacking harder which would have led to more mistakes as we saw through the rest of the weekend.

      The circuit itself was great though.

    2. I agree with Peter G. don’t blame the track, the races was really good until the first pit stop, the problem with the race was the race itself not the track. I know that the outcome was not that great either but it certainly didn’t end up like qualifying had predicted.

      1. Yes l agree!!! loved the track, a visual feast and any track that catches Ricciardo out, must be a driving challenge!!..the race was dull but dont blame the track.

    3. I agree with the two men above, the circuit is a real challenge and certainly F1 worhty. That does not mean the race was great, it was the worst of this season but again that’s not that hard as (see the F1Fanatic votes) we’ve had quite a good season so far. Had Vettel managed to get Hamilton in Canada also that race would’ve been a 7+.

      1. ”it was the worst of this season” – I’d say Russia has been the most boring race of this season so far.

        1. The first lap in Sochi was ok…..thanks to Kvyat.

    4. I thought it wasn’t that bad of a circuit. Perhaps it needs a few improvements:
      – Make turn 16 a little bit faster => cars can stay closer without a heavy acceleration after the turn
      – Try to construct a busstop-chicane like in spa right at the point where most of the overtaking took place (I know it was mostly near the end of the straight, but cars should be able to stay closer because of the faster turn 16 configuration) OR get rid of DRS on the home straight
      – independent detection point for the back straight

    5. The Baku circuit is now my second favourite behind Canada.

  2. Personally, I agree with Kvyat – Baku, despite the boring race, was a challenging track, and one that can catch off people if they lose their concentration. It is a much more punishing track compared to Yas Marina, and I’d like the model of harsher tracks come into play.

  3. I’m not a fan of any of the street circuits, sure a monaco qualifying lap is tense, Singapore and Baku looks great but the races are rarely that great.

    1. speaking of Singapore, that layout is bland as Newman painting. Sure the city is great, yes the race looks interesting from the tv but it’s doesn’t work. Baku had a little bit of insanity, that turn 13 and the last curved straight to the finishing line had me holding my breath.

      1. Agreed, Baku was almost a breath of fresh air. Turn 13 was awesome!

  4. You can see VET really likes all kind of racing. He just finished the GP and is already interested in another race result.

    1. Hamilton doesn’t care for lemans. I can’t imagine his ego allowing him to share a car, try to picture it, impossible

      1. @ibrahim
        I thought I was about to get through a whole thread without a random Hamilton insult but no!

      2. @ibrahim

        Lewis this….Lewis that…. get a grip man, it is not a competition to see who can hate the hardest!

  5. I’m kinda surprised to see Indycar go back to Watkins Glen as one of the reasons they stopped going there to begin with was that it’s a circuit which rarely produced decent racing & a circuit which fans always complained about.

    It’s a lot like Sonoma & Mid-Ohio, Cool track but where racing just doesn’t really happen (much like barcelona, magny-cours & imola in F1).
    Fans will go on about how cool it is to see them go back to such a historic circuit right up until the race is as bad as races there before were, after a year or 2 of that they will go back to the ‘they should go race on better tracks’ just like they did last time.

  6. Mark (@overshadowed)
    22nd June 2016, 4:38

    Having only watched Indycar after the previous races at Watkins Glenn I’ll reserve my judgment until the race is over.

    Is it me or does Pagenuad have some of the worst liveries in motor racing this year? Not being an american maybe the branding/colour recognition just isn’t there for me.

    1. No, Simon’s liveries have been awful all year long. The Menards branding is not recognizable to me – and I can say that as an American (adopted American? Whatever the term is for Brits living in the US since 1987 is).

      The early-2016 PPG livery (as seen in Long Beach) was cleaner looking, but still nothing to write home about.

      1. That by the way is not a derogatory comment. We tend to rename things to suit ourselves we have words like expat etc. Ladies and gentlemen i give you Mario Andretti an immigrant from poor Italy/Yogoslavia. Not Mario Andretti an expat from wealthy “insert nation here”.
        American liveries are sometimes like the Mexican goalkeepers jerseys of old, that is, beyond explaination.

    2. Still better than the Formula Fifty Shades of Gray :(
      I actually like it. At least colorful and really pops

  7. Tony Mansell
    22nd June 2016, 9:51

    Drivers are all way to sensible these days. Any young gun who dares to be a bit wild or who ‘does a crash’ is deemed not good enough. Drivers used to go through a phase of crashing and some, er hem Mr Mansell step forward, never stopped. Even the sainted Senna would put a car where fools wouldn’t tread. Braver, more foolhardy. Less accountanty. Even LH has been tamed by todays car management requirements. Baku is a fine track potentially, drivers are just a bit dull at the moment.

    1. The drivers were tame around this track because there was nothing to gain not being. No sense risking all to pass on the corners when there’s a huge straight to breeze past on.

      Hamiltons qualifying was an odd one. He could probably have backed off and still had pole but it’s part of his makeup to go for every thing. Sometimes you’ll see a disappointing incident, other times you’ll get a breathtaking lap.

  8. I didn’t like the Baku layout but it may have been Rosbergs dominance that clouded my judgment. Kyvyat probably wants more tracks like Sochi on the circuit, that seemed challenging for him.

  9. Kvyat makes a good point. Not sure I agree.

    How entertaining would the Baku race be, best case?

    Slightly faster car does easy DRS overtake on the straight, after a few laps everyone is in pace appropriate positions.

    Whole point is fastrr car stuck behind slower car unable ro pass for a few laps of thrilling action, that ends in an overtake… Or not. Like Nico vs Max in Canada.

    Maybe if enough teams are closer in pace things will improve

  10. “I think Formula One is always attractive for manufacturers” …Says senior VW man.

    This is surely a shot across Honda’s bows. The message being: McLaren-Honda must win in 2017 or else Ron will be cosying-up with the boys in Wolfsburg.

  11. In the old Dallara, yes.

    In the Dan Wheldon 12, no idea. I shall waiting until the race..

  12. F1 kind of don’t needs both. I don’t mind having a Grand Prix in Azerbaijan or UAE, but both tracks are just plain awful. F1 needs tracks like Istanbul Park, Nurburgring and Imola. Not because they are within Europe, but because the more natural layout those tracks have. And there is the fan factor, 18k visitors to a F1 race is a disgrace. This is not bringing F1 closer to the fans, it’s simply grabbing money, just because they can.

  13. while the legendary tracks like Spa, Monza, Silverstone, Suzuka and a handful of few more can’t produce entertaining races because of the current “formula”, how can we expect from other tracks to do so? how do we know that this street circuit couldn’t do better under a reasonable “formula”? i’m exactly aware of the reasons why Baku can host a GP, and it’s not the question. my concern is, that the very core of an event, the circuit itself is the less important factor of all. is the location in the middle of the desert? is it set in night? is it in a historic city with ancient buildings? is it next to a funfair? these are the main attractions of some races, and unfortunately not the race or the tracks itself. although i’m not really happy to see this “circuit” in the calendar, i’m still not convinced, that it cannot be good under different regulations.

  14. Matthew Coyne
    22nd June 2016, 23:15

    There is absolutely nothing wrong with the Baku circuit, go watch the GP2 races they were some of the best single seater races I have seen in the past 5 years which just proves the circuit has the potential to produce good racing.

    I am not sure why Baku didn’t produce the same for F1, was it a case of the F1 drivers had seen the carnage of Gp2 and all thought if i’m careful then I’ll gain positions but as they all thought this it cancelled it all out? I don’t know.

    The age-old issue of being unable to follow didn’t help, cars could be right behind someone through the slow section but by the time they got to the last corner onto the straight they would often have dropped 0.9-1s behind and even the long straight with DRS you could only make up 0.7 or so, we saw many times cars getting oh so close but not quite getting there – in the GP2 they didn’t even need DRS they could follow and line up moves all over the track and on more than one occasion we saw 3 cars all going into T1 together.

    I also think the current engine differences which were exagerated so much on the circuit didn’t help, if you look at the results you ended up with a gaggle of Merc powered cars in the mid-field which just couldn’t pass each other as their engines were so similar.

    I also felt that we missed out on some midfield/back of the field battles because the director was obsessed with just showing Hamilton all the time even when he was just spending all his time trying to solve his power issue.

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