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>Seems they like city settings for new races now, I don't know >what to feel. Some city tracks seem nice, hard to put my >finger on what makes Baku or Singapore feel better, when they >still have similar drawbacks.
I like those tracks too, Baku more than Singapore, but both because they make for interesting driving. The old-city vibe of Baku, in particular, with the buildings so close to the track, where you see that they're really racing around a downtown——same feel as Monaco. Singapore a little less so, but similar, and going under and then on the overpass, with the hairpins and 90-degree corners...it feels like you're right in the city, and having it at night gives it this cool Asian street-racing atmosphere.
But the Strip is NOT downtown, and neither is Saudi or Miami.
>The Vegas layout does seem a >bit lazy in its focus on promoting the surroundings. Finding >interesting purpose built tracks that are new or not used in a >while can be cool, but that period where Tilke was building >everything also started feeling a bit same-y and boring in its >own way.
No doubt, but we know which ones worked, in hindsight: Sepang, definitely, and I'd throw in Istanbul.
But as I'm pretty sure I've posted before, the tracks I love are always the ones that work within the landscape, where the landscape (or cityscape) itself dictates the nature of the track, with sometimes weird results, that you wouldn't think of if you were just starting with a blank sheet of paper. And I also really like hills and elevation changes, which present a driving challenge that I think people forget about, or maybe doesn't show up that well on TV.
I also think some of the people in charge are primarily interested in top speed, like that really contributes to fan enjoyment. But it doesn't. Crofty kept going on yesterday about how the cars reached 215 MPH down the straight yesterday, but who cares? You can't tell the difference between 215, 200, or even 185 watching on TV. It doesn't matter. But somebody must keep on hammering Tilke about it, because we keep getting these long-ass drag strips with crazy speeds.
But even from an engineering standpoint, going really fast in a straight line is trivial. And I do watch NHRA, which is a very specific driving challenge, but what makes F1 cars different is the insane braking and cornering ability, the lateral Gs. That's what I want to see highlighted, not a bunch of cars following each other in a straight line for more than a mile.
Which reminds me, that now it's clear they're building tracks with DRS in mind, rather than a track that encourages overtaking naturally.
Apparently I have some things to rant about. But yeah, the racing was...fine.
>Do I make a different reply for Moto GP?! Such contrasting >fortunes in the Sprint and GP races. And for Digi to get a >win when he might not have a ride next year. Hopefully Martin >can finish strong but closing that gap would require Bagnaia >to throw in a way he seems too good for now. The Ducati's are >pretty good everywhere but they might not have a great a gap >at Valencia so maybe things will get mixed up.
Watching Martin go backwards for 22 laps was a drag, but Digi finally running down Pecco was good stuff, and when Pecco about lost it wide trying to get it back. But yeah, unless Pecco DNFs horribly, I reckon that's it. Like to see Martin at least snag a consolation win next week.
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