Espoo

[duke_toaster]

I designed this one last week. I was thinking of designing a Helsinki street circuit but I couldn't make a decent one, then I made this. It's a 6km on the nose circuit just outside Espoo, Finland which is near Helsinki. It's designed for F1 (Why hasn't Finland ever had a GP when they've produced so many great drivers). It's also where Kimi's from. That wasn't deliberate, but you will see a Stevenage circuit some time soon

The track is exactly 6km long (+/- five metres) and features 24 corners. It's rather technical but has a stadium section with a rather interesting feature. I'm not going to describe all the corners as my descriptions are rubbish, but here are the corner names, which I ran out of after T15. The main straight is on the left of the screen, runs clockwise.

Turn one (Mikkola) is the tight right hander preceded by a left hand kink. A good exit from this one could set up a move in to T2, but it's an overtaking oppertunity here, too.

Turn two (Holopainen - I've ran out of retired Finnish racing drivers other than the last corner, so I'm having to go for musicians now) is the first corner the stadium section. A moderate right hand hairpin. Could be some overtaking here if you can't get your move in to Mikkola.

Turn three (Hietala) is one of two - ahem - interesting corners. It looks like a normal tight hairpin, but it's banked at around seven degrees or as much as they would be allowed to bank it for F1.

Turn four (Vuorinen) is a great corner. It's the first left hander on the track, and it looks rather run of the mill on a map. However, it's anti-banked slightly. Could be interesting.

Turn five (Nevalainen) is the first corner after the stadium section. It's a left hander with a short straight after it. This is where the track speeds up.

Turn six (Olzon) is another corner similar to Nevalainen, but with higher entry speed.

Turn seven (Toppinen) is the right hand hairpin.

Turns eight (Lötjönen) is the first part of a chicane, the second, turn nine, is called Kivilaakso.

Turn ten (Sirén) is a very open left hand hairpin.

Turn eleven (Putaansuu) is a tight right hand kink.

Turns twelve (Sydänmaa), thirteen (Astala) and fourteen (Nahhal) add another slow section to the track.

Turn fifteen is the tight right hander (Peisa) which opens up in to an open right hander, T16.

Turn seventeen is another overtaking oppertunity with an opening corner and a moderate length straight before it. It's followed by turn eighteen, a right hand kink shortly after the exit. Two right handers, nineteen and twenty follow.

Turn twenty one is like turn seventeen.

Turn twenty two is a right hander which could be interesting, the trees will be visible here like they were in T15 and T16.

T22 follows the tree line again, and leads up in to a possible for overtaking, turn 23 (Rosberg).

The pit entry is on the exit of this corner, and the pit straight has a slight curve to the left (T24). And, er, that's a lap.

[Mr Pink]

Nice one! I would probably leave out turns 12,13,14 though and just have a slight kink there instead, would make the right hander that follows pretty intresting

[jab]

Yeah, agreed. You've over-complicated it in a couple of places, which doesn't leave much room for run-off and makes it too twisty

[ScotsBrutesFan]

How about this for an edit?
I've defined the pitlane, and made a new T1 kink, with the pitlane exit immediately after it.
I've opened up the first section a bit though its probably still too tight.
I've removed the infield section in favour of a long, fast (new Hockenhiem like) sweeper that also bypasses 12,13 and 14.
I've taken away the hairpin aspect of 17 and removed 18 all together yet leaving the same overtaking chance but a bit less fiddly on the exit.
Finally smoothed the final few corners into an esses section that carries some speed onto the straight.

may not be to everyones taste, but it's now 18 turns and 5kms give or take artistic licence.

[jab]

That's nice

Btw a good full name for this track would be the Henri Toivonen Memorial Raceway, as Henri lived in and is buried in Espoo

[Yannick]

You've chosen a good location for your track!

But I think the design is a bit too twisty in some places. SBF's edit clears up most of these problems, but the section on top of the track diagram, that's somewhat reminiscent of Estoril, still bothers me.

[Iceman13]

Nice location, my aunt lives only abuot 1.5 km north from it. I agree that it is a bit too twisty, but it has some good sections.