Encore Korea
Wednesday, October 20, 2010 at 11:32AM
"Frankly, we have not been prepared well for our F1 debut," said Yoon Keun-Sang, the PR director for the race organiser. "If we host this year's event successfully, the situation will be far different next year," he is quoted by the Bangkok Post. How is that for an understatement? Conflicting first reports coming out of Korea, but it seems the site is more like a construction site than the site of a GP. Still some people seem happy. McLaren's Phil Prew made these comments on Autosport's web site.
"I actually walked the circuit this morning with the other engineers, and I have to say I was fairly impressed with what I saw. The track itself, the kerbs and run-off and all of that sort of thing looked pretty good. The track surface itself, yes it has been recently laid, and it is a bit of an unknown. I don't think it looked too bad in terms of it wasn't particularly greasy under-foot and it looked - from what you can tell - smooth, well-laid and consistent all the way around the circuit.
In terms of how it develops and how the tyres interact with it, it is going to be guesswork. It's going to evolve, I expect, very quickly through the first session and then I think we should expect it to continue to improve all the way through qualifying and then the race."
That seems to be the key to the weekend, and there is rain forecast to make it even more of a lottery. How much will the track improve, will it stay down, and how do you set the car up, especially when it goes into parc ferme conditions. It will be a gamble, and Herman Tilke likes it like that. Again talking to Autosport, Tilke said he actually thinks that it will be a benefit for F1 fans in helping improve the show because it will be so slippery. Well why don't we make all tracks slippery then? How about ice racing, oh sorry, we already do that, but it does not seem to get much TV coverage. We are not running a circus here.
Anyway, we do not have long to wait to find out the answers to all the questions. One quote I liked was that some teams are looking forward to getting out of Korea already and heading to Brazil. Now no offense Felipe and Rubens, but I've been to Brazil, and I have never looked forward to going back.
"I actually walked the circuit this morning with the other engineers, and I have to say I was fairly impressed with what I saw. The track itself, the kerbs and run-off and all of that sort of thing looked pretty good. The track surface itself, yes it has been recently laid, and it is a bit of an unknown. I don't think it looked too bad in terms of it wasn't particularly greasy under-foot and it looked - from what you can tell - smooth, well-laid and consistent all the way around the circuit.
In terms of how it develops and how the tyres interact with it, it is going to be guesswork. It's going to evolve, I expect, very quickly through the first session and then I think we should expect it to continue to improve all the way through qualifying and then the race."
That seems to be the key to the weekend, and there is rain forecast to make it even more of a lottery. How much will the track improve, will it stay down, and how do you set the car up, especially when it goes into parc ferme conditions. It will be a gamble, and Herman Tilke likes it like that. Again talking to Autosport, Tilke said he actually thinks that it will be a benefit for F1 fans in helping improve the show because it will be so slippery. Well why don't we make all tracks slippery then? How about ice racing, oh sorry, we already do that, but it does not seem to get much TV coverage. We are not running a circus here.
Anyway, we do not have long to wait to find out the answers to all the questions. One quote I liked was that some teams are looking forward to getting out of Korea already and heading to Brazil. Now no offense Felipe and Rubens, but I've been to Brazil, and I have never looked forward to going back.
Reader Comments (2)
You crack me up.
I am so glad I can amuse you.