An oval race in Formula One
Formula One circuits have become increasingly complex over the last 60 years. In the first ever World Championship there was just one Grand Prix venue purposely built for motorsport. All of the other racetracks just happened to fall on fast flowing roadways that already existed. No chicanes, no stadium sections, no long straights into hairpins designed to increase overtaking, just simple shapes made out of existing tarmac.
In 2011 all of the circuits have been specifically designed, or have sections within them specifically designed, for racing. Even Monaco, the most pure street circuit of them all, has sections of track along the waterfront that were built only to serve the Grand Prix.
The sport has changed a lot over the past six decades, and since it’s no longer feasible to race through rural public roads, the nature of circuit design has become far more complex. Despite this, there is a case for arguing that Formula One would benefit from a fast circuit with a basic layout similar to those from the sport’s early history.
Perhaps Formula One could look at introducing the simplest type of racetrack available – an oval.
Modern Grand Prix races are held only on road courses, unlike events in the US Indycar series that also take place on ovals. However, it hasn’t always been that way, and it doesn’t have to remain so.
Ovals in the Formula One World Championship
Although strictly speaking there has never been a ‘Formula One’ oval race, there have been some similar variants in different locations.
In the post 1950 World Championship era, the Grand Prix circuit that most resembled a conventional US-style oval was the Avus racetrack in Berlin. Avus was a particularly unusual venue as it ran along a freeway, consisting of just two six kilometre long straights joined together by wide banked hairpins. In 1959 it played host to the German Grand Prix and was comfortably the fastest Formula One race ever held at the time.
Avus was not the only Grand Prix circuit in use that shared characteristics with an American oval.
Up until 1961 the Italian Grand Prix at Monza intermittently included the banked corners from circuit’s oval layout. Drivers would complete a full lap of the oval (which was longer than the Indianapolis Motor Speedway) before heading back out into the forest along the fast sections of road course. The layout was deemed too dangerous after the 1961 event and the banking fell into disrepair.
Avus and Monza join other circuits, like Brooklands, that used basic oval configurations in the pre-war days of Grand Prix racing.
Simple circuit configurations
If Herman Tilke was asked to conceive a new F1 track, and all he did was draw a slightly unusual triangle, he would be widely criticised for creating a terribly boring design. However, that is exactly what Grand Prix circuits used to look like and they still produced close racing.
Although it wasn’t an oval, the famous Reims Gueux circuit in France wasn’t particularly complex. It was essentially just three tight corners joined together by gently curving straights, and one of those corners was bypassed in 1954 to create an even faster section of racetrack. It produced a number of classic F1 races and is fondly remembered as the home of 14 French Grands Prix.
There have been several other particularly simple circuits throughout the history of Formula One, and even some of the modern venues like Monza and Silverstone featured much faster basic layouts in the past.
As recently as 2001, Grand Prix races were being held at the old Hockenheim circuit. You could almost imagine Hockenheim as a giant flat oval with three chicanes and three corners at one end of the circuit for trackside spectators. It was the last of the basic F1 racetracks.
Formula One cars have competed on some incredibly simple tracks before, so it’s unlikely to detract from the sport’s pedigree if one such design was reintroduced onto the current calendar.
Would Formula One benefit from an oval race?
As many of the modern F1 circuits resemble one another, you could suggest the World Championship would benefit from some variety. There certainly wouldn’t be anything more unique on the calendar than an event at a banked oval.
A super speedway Grand Prix would definitely be a race unlike any other. Teams would be faced with a completely new set of technical challenges and would enter the race with no real expectations. Engineers would struggle to come up with the optimum package for a racetrack they have little experience with. Ovals might look easy to get right, but when the whole field is separated by just hundredths of a second, the tiniest change can make a massive difference.
As well as shuffling the field on a technical level, an oval race would be a great test for the drivers and would force them to adapt their skills in a different discipline. It would introduce a whole new style of racing into the season, and would be a must-see event just for the sheer unpredictability.
One oval race per year should not be enough to upset F1 purists, and it could potentially expose the sport to many new fans. A Formula One oval race in North America would develop the interest of thousands of race goers who would otherwise ignore the US Grand Prix. As previously suggested on EnterF1.com, the Indianapolis 500 would be a great addition to a fantasy F1 championship. Since that isn’t a realistic proposition, an oval Grand Prix held somewhere like the Michigan International Speedway would instantly give Formula One a much larger presence in the USA.
Interestingly, there are rumours that Bernie Ecclestone and the FIA looked at introducing an oval race into Formula One during the early nineties when the CART series was at the height of its popularity. CART eventually destroyed itself with the IRL and ceased being a threat to the popularity of Grand Prix racing, but it’s interesting that an oval circuit would’ve been viewed as a way to grow F1.
Even if you think an oval race would be no benefit to Formula One, it is hard to be certain that it would actually detract from the World Championship.
An idea for Bahrain
The Bahrain Grand Prix looks increasingly likely to be cancelled (again) which is a solution that seemingly works best for the sport and the people of Bahrain.
Ignoring the logistical, political, and moral implications of racing in the troubled country, the organisers have an opportunity to do something very different if the event unfortunately ends up taking place.
With little or no trackside fans in attendance, and another race at the circuit likely to open the 2012 season just a few months later, Bahrain officials could effectively treat the race as a ‘bonus’ Grand Prix. With that in mind, they could use a different circuit configuration to the layout currently in use.
Last year the Bahrain Grand Prix was held on the longer 6.2km ‘endurance’ circuit, but there is another version they could also utilise. One of the possible layouts in Bahrain is a flat out blast called the ‘outer’ circuit. It uses fast parts of the existing track, including the main straight, and all of the twists and turns out the back are replaced by faster shorter sections. It would only have four braking points and would be the simplest quickest track in Formula One today.
If the FIA is prepared to create a messy situation by racing in Bahrain, it could treat the event as an opportunity to experiment with something different from a sporting perspective. Using the super-fast layout, which cars could easily lap in under a minute, would be one way testing the effectiveness of a simple circuit design in modern F1. It would at least generate some interest in a race that would otherwise be hugely unpopular.
Once Bahrain does return to the F1 calendar on a more permanent basis it might be worthwhile trying the outer circuit for one year anyway. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. You would certainly expect a race with more slipstreaming and overtaking than you’d get otherwise.
The future
A simple Grand Prix circuit might look unimaginative and boring when drawn on paper, but that doesn’t mean it will result in boring racing. The simplest circuit of all is an oval, and in the name of variety and high speed excitement, Formula One might just benefit from including one in the World Championship.