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International Motor Racing Research Center
Posted on 10/15/2010 3:16:29 PM PDT by Chode
2010 SOUTH KOREAN GRAND PRIX
Venue: Yeongam
Date: Sunday 24 October
Lap length: 3.39 miles
Race laps: 55
2009 winner: N/A
First grand prix: 2010
Sunny all weekend...
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F1-Grand Prix Live Feed #1 F1-Grand Prix Live Feed #2 F1-Grand Prix Live Feed #3 International Motor Racing Research Center
UP...!!!
Virgin Racing F1 CEO Graeme Lowdon says work on the team's car for 2011 is going well. Technical director Nick Wirth no longer travels to races in order to concentrate on development of the new VR-02.
Full story: autosport.com
Work on Silverstone's new pit and paddock complex is "firmly on schedule", according to the track bosses. The facility, which will be used during the 2011 British Grand Prix, is scheduled for completion in May next year.
Full story: autosport.com
After providing the first glimpse of the new £27m pit and paddock complex at the venue, Silverstone managing director Richard Phillips believes he now has a circuit of which F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone and the sport can be proud.
Full story: planetf1.com
Formula Renault 3.5 runner up and Red Bull reserve driver Daniel Ricciardo has been earmarked as a future race winner in Formula 1 by his Tech 1 team boss Simon Abadi. Having recently lost out on winning the top level of the World Series by Renault by just three points, the Australian is now tipped for a GP2 drive next season and is also likely to take part in the young drivers' test for Red Bull.
Full story: espnf1.com
McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton believes the Suzuka circuit for the Korean Grand Prix on 24 October will suit his team's car. "The first sector is all about good end-of-straight speeds and strong performance under heavy braking, both key characteristics of our car. I think we can have a positive race," said Hamilton, who is currently fourth in the drivers' championship - 28 points behind leader Mark Webber of Red Bull - but retains hope of claiming the title.
Full story: mclaren.com
McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh has warned his rivals not to write off Hamilton and team-mate Jenson Button in this season's title race. With three races remaining, Hamilton and Button are 28 and 31 points behind drivers' championship leader Mark Webber of Red Bull, but Whitmarsh said: "We are committed to winning, and won't give up without a fight."
Full story: mclaren.com (2010 Korean Grand Prix preview)
No friday practice times?
Huh?
Aren’t we a week early?
cause i screwed up and posted it six days early thinking i was a day late... guess it'll keep though
my bad....
yup... pls see #4 8^(
i'll ping again after the practice times are posted just got home from happy hour, a li'l tooo happy i guess
Vettel is so quick that he time travels a week ahead.
Bring back Kimi who may be even faster.
Also let me thank you for hosting the F1 site, many may not appreciate that this is a very appropriate subject for Freepers, due to the political nature of F1. Some days I don’t know which is more interesting, the on or off the track action.
You fail to see the wisdom of our host. He is not a week early; he is providing enough time to cover this new track. What can be said about Monte Carlo that has not already been said? But Korea that’s a completely new subject. We can be first to cover the important and interesting topics regarding this new location.
I’ll start, we could discuss the problems of hosting the VIPs in the unfinished Hospitality area. What will all the Jet Setters do when confronted with this muddy area, how will they navigate in their high heels? Not only would this subject be worthy of a weeklong discussion covering the reasons the track is unfinished, we could cover the politics that caused this lateness and the pressures on F1 when they gave the green light for the race. And don’t forget this subject requires pictures, lots of pictures of Jet Setters in heels………………after all we are Freepers!
i thank you and am grateful for your support, but... i would GLADLY turn it over to anybody that wants the job. i do it simply because nobody else does...
and the F1 press make the rest of the L$M look tame, i bet they will be the first to complain as to shoes, F1 has to have the highest percentage of highheels in all of racing, and with a corresponding number of high maintenance wearers...
for some, it could be a looong weekend...
But late-running construction work has raised doubts over what state the track will be in. Here’s a look at what to expect from Korea’s new Formula 1 track next weekend.
The FIA gave the Korean International Circuit final approval to hold its race on Tuesday, ten days before the start of practice for the Korean Grand Prix.
The race organisers blamed several severe tropical cyclones for delaying construction of the track. But they say everything that was planned to be built in time for this year’s race either has been built or is almost finished and will be completed in time.
However there are concerns arising from the delays, chief among which is the state of the track surface.
Crucially, the base layer of tarmac was finished weeks before the top layer was applied. It was visible during demonstration run at the “Circuit Run” event on September 4th and 5th (see videos below).
It’s not clear exactly when the final layer of tarmac was originally supposed to have been laid but the Asian Festival of Speed was scheduled to take place at the track in the last weekend of August but was postponed.
As the final section of tarmac was laid on October 9th, 13 days before the first F1 practice session is scheduled to take place, it’s clear the delay was in the region of several weeks.
For comparison, the tarmac for the new section at Silverstone was laid by March 9th ahead of the GT1 World Championship race weekend beginning on April 30th – a gap of almost two months.
This has led to heidfeld-warns-over-oily-tarmac-at-korea/">concern voiced by drivers such as Nick Heidfeld that residual oils left over from the construction process may not have had time to dissipate, leaving the track surface at Korea very slippery.
The track will not have ‘rubbered in’ and dust from the surrounding construction work is likely to exacerbate the shortage of grip.
On past occasions where tracks have been resurfaced shortly before a race we have seen the surface become damaged, notably at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in 2008. The track had to be patched up between qualifying and the race and re-surfaced after the Grand Prix.
F1 cars exert the greatest stress on the track under braking from high to slow speeds and accelerating out of slow-speed corners, meaning turns one, three and four are potential problem areas.
The track has been given approval by the FIA so whatever difficulties the drivers face they’re unlikely to be severe enough to jeopardise the holding of the race. As Lotus’s Mike Gascoyne observed:
It is always a bit of a step into the unknown when you go to a new venue, but we have completed a number of simulation programs at the factory that have given us a pretty good idea of how the car will behave on track.
The big unknowns are what downforce levels to run, and how the track surface will stand up to the rigours of a full race weekend. We will find the right set-up over the weekend, and any track issues are out of our control – it has been passed by the FIA so we will just go there and do our best.
If there are any problems, it will be the same for everyone, so we cannot waste time worrying about what might happen – we will just focus on bringing both cars home in the race and taking another step closer to the end of the season.
http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2010/10/15/will-the-korean-international-circuit-be-up-to-scratch-and-will-it-hold-together/
thx...
I don’t normally post Shell’s race weekend previews but since we know next to nothing about the Korean circuit I thought it might be interesting to link to this video showing how Ferrari are preparing for a venue they have never been to, putting their faith in their Maranello simulator etc etc
Click photo to view video
good report... i know Mobile brings a spectrometer with them to every race and looks at the oil in the McLaren engines all weekend long i guess you kinda need to know the metallurgy in the oil at all times as at those revs, things can go from bad to worst in a heartbeat...
| By Jonathan Noble | Wednesday, October 20th 2010, 08:44 GMT |
The recently-laid track surface in Korea is going to help turn the country's inaugural Formula 1 race into a spectacular event for fans, reckons circuit architect Hermann Tilke.
Although the new asphalt has prompted concerns from drivers and onlookers that it could produce problems over the weekend, Tilke actually thinks that it will be a benefit for F1 fans in helping improve the show because it will be so slippery.
Speaking to AUTOSPORT at the new Korean circuit as the finishing touches were being put to the track, Tilke said that the evolution of the surface would be even more 'extreme' than Monaco - and that could help deliver an exciting race.
"The only problem it [the new surface] will cause – and to me that is not actually a problem – is in terms of grip," explained Tilke. "A lack of grip should not be a problem because we have the best drivers in the world here. Plus, it will be the same conditions for everybody. There will not a problem that the track will break-up.
"I think on Friday the track surface will be very, very slippery because it is brand new. That means you will probably see some spinning. And, it will not be easy to find the set-up for Saturday and Sunday because the track will change a lot.
"That means some drivers will make the wrong set-up choice, because you are going to have to second guess what is the right way to go."
Tilke has admitted that the Korean project was one of the toughest of his life, and even he said there were times when he doubted that it would be finished on time.
"I was not always convinced [it would happen], but you have to analyse the problems and then have to do something about them," said Tilke. "It was not only our effort, we helped of course, but the construction company and everyone here were working hard.
"The delays started at the very beginning, because it is swampy land here and we had to drain it before. It needed a long time for the water to come out – something in excess of one year. Then the land had to be compacted, so it needed more and more time. And, of course, the monsoon season was longer than expected. There were lots of things like that."
Despite the late finishing of the venue, Tilke reckoned there would be no major problems with the infrastructure over the weekend.
"The main systems will work fine, but maybe here and there, there might be some small things that are not working. And because the track is not tested, as it got ready very late, there will probably be a few surprises as well. But all the main things will be okay."
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/87544
we'll soon find out...
The breaking zone for turn 3, that's the first place the track will come apart.
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