Marina Park

[werner]

I've designed a new circuit, in the spirit of Gilles Villeneuve, Albert Park etc. It's called Marina Park, due to the small harbour is surrounds. It's located in a coastal park. The paddock is also used as an event-terrain, so it can host circuses, fun-fairs, danceparty's ect.
The main straight and the pits use both lanes of a dual carriageway. At turn 1, the drivers turn sharp to the right, into the park. Immediately the left turn 2 follows, and a long straight.
Turn 3 is already the second overtakingspot. The hairpin brings the cars on the boulevard, but only with 2 tricky bends that make the exit onto the 3th straight just a bit harder.
At the boulevard, the cars can reach very high speeds, until they have to brake for turn 6, a quite fast lefthander, and difficult because of the immediately following turn 7. Tis corner goes uphill and has a bit of negative camber. When you loose it on the exit of turn 7, big tyrewalls will have to prevent you from hitting the bridge over the marinaentreny. The members of the yachtclub have a great view on this action from the terraces of their clubhouse.
After the bridge the track changes quite a lot. Was the former part dominated by 3 big straights, from here until the last corner there won't be any. First the downhill turn 8, then turn 9, wich has a difficult bowing entry. Turns 10 and 11 are on the parkinglot of the marina, and turn number 12 brings you back on the main straight.

[Tathrim]

Nice flow to it. I like it, actually. It's nice and simple

[TilkeWannabe]

It would make for good racing. Sometimes simple-looking circuits can create the best racing. How long is it? It's not on an island like Circuit Gilles Villeneuve is it? Just really close to water.

[werner]

It's a typical GP-circuit, so it is about 4,5km long. And it's indeed not nescesarily on an island.

[bio]

I've proven it already - a dozen times - that I've got a different point of view for simpleness - this one is a bit too simplke for me. Apart from this I've got nothing against this track - looks great, flows superb.

[TilkeWannabe]

Good to know. Thx

[Yannick]

This is beautiful and efficient. The blot shape is fine with me, too. The flow is wonderful. I like the way that you always come up with "simple" layouts, because designing the simple ones is often most difficult. It may well be your best circuit on this board to date. Thanks for posting.

[werner]

The main aim of this track was to have exiting races with lot's of overtaking. And that should be possible in turn 1, 3 and 6.
Is it to simple? Well, it is not the hardest circuit to drive on, I agree. But the turn 6-9 sequence is a challenge. And I think it's not purely the number of turns that makes a track difficult (although it gives the driving more variety) but mainly the characteristics of the corners (ie speed, banking, multiapexes, heightdifferences, sequences, griplevels etc.)

[bio]

You're dead right, it's not the number, but the nature of the corners that matters a lot.

[werner]

I've thought about a real-world place where this venue could be built. I've found a place that more or less has the same feeling as the original place, although the track that came out is way different.

It's located in Bergen op Zoom, a very old Dutch town with just over 50.000 inhabitants. The track starts at the Boulevard along the shore of a lake, and goes through a park between the lake and the city-center.

Let's do a lap around the 3,5km long track. The drivers start the lap on the Boulevard. This straight is about 450 meters long. At the end they have to brake for 'De Schelp', a very wide, double-apex, tightening hairpin. After the exit the track goes uphill, through the fast 'Olof Palme', over the bridge, and then fast downhill through the Gertrudiskink. At the end of the straight the drivers enter the park through a very sharp lefthander, overtakingspot nr. 2. Through the park lots and lots of grandstands offer a view of the drivers negotiating a string of corners. Athough overtaking is difficult here, quite a bit of time can be gained or lost in this technical part.

At turn 9, a quick chicane, the landscape changes dramatically. From here until just after turn 11 the drivers speed past hardwarestores, cardealers etc. At turn 10 they can try to overtake for the third time in the lap.

Turn 12 will probably be full throttle for singleseatercars, but gt's or touringcardrivers might have to lift of a bit. Being fast in this corner gives a great opportunity to overtake your opponents at the last 2 turns, wich lead you back on the start/finish straight.

[werner]

On the map you can see the 4 entrances, the spectator-routes (yellow), the grandstands (blue) and the paddock-area's (pink)
Spectators can have a great day at this track. They have a great view in the park at a few turns, and there is a lot of space for a videowall, food-outlets, merchandisestands, maybe some live music. The atmosphere can be that of a festival. There are also grandstands at the beach, along the start/finish-straight with a view on the pits and the first corner can be enjoyed.

The track is pretty easy to reach for a lot of people. The trainstations with intercityservices to Rotterdam, The Hague and Amsterdam is about 10 minutes walking from the easternmost entrance. The historic city center, with a lot of hotels, bars and restaurants is 5 minutes from the cityentrance, and at the norther edge of the track, there is a large industrial estate. At sundays the parkinglots of the factory's can be used for racefans coming by car.

At the southern entrance there is only limited parkingspace available. Maybe a valet-parkingsystem or shuttleservice for VIPS, can be aranged. Especially since you are immediately behind the pits from there.

[ScotsBrutesFan]

I like the fact that you've tried to find a real world location for this track, but there would be a lot to do in terms of street furniture and trees, the section of cobbles/brick paviers from retranchement to the Turn 9 chicane.

But nice to see someone remember that this section still exists

it's been very quiet so far this year.

[werner]

Some work has to be done. But I guess that most current streetcourses have required some permanent alterations of the roads. For instance in Valencia turn 1, a roundabout has been adjusted for the racetrack: http://maps.google.com/maps?q=valenc...12,194.08,,0,0

[bio]

Werner,
that's far too fast a pace: you only gave us about 4 and a half years for your last track to discuss it. I feel there's more to discuss about that one before we jump to the next one - so please, be a bit more patient the next time

bio

[werner]

I'm looking forward to your, no doubt Nobelprizeworthy, analysis of the therotical and practical implications of the original design. I can imagine you'll need to add a few months of work to include the implications ofthis proposal to implement some elements of the original design. But I'm sure that only ads to the exitement the public, me included, experiences waiting on this piece-de-resistance in circuitology. Good luck! ;-)

[werner]

Some inspiration kicked in. I've found another real-world location for a track with the original philosophy, and this time the result is much closer to the original.
The location is along the shore of lake IJ, wich lies between Almere and Amsterdam.
The location is already used for big events. Every year the 'Libelle zomerweek', an event organized by the largest Dutch womansmagazine, and 'Defcon', a large danceparty are organized on this location.
And, there is a marina!

So, al the ingredients are there for a great event. Offcourse I've tried to come up with a track that will facilitate an exiting race. I've come up with an 3,7km, 12 turn track.

It has 2 big straights with sharp bends at the end for overtaking. The straight leading to turn 3 is 660m long, the stretch from 6 to 8, with 7 being just a full throttle kink, is almost 800m.

An interesting feature on this mostly flat track is the dike. The straight from turn 10 to 11 runs over is, so the entry to the hairpin goes pretty steep uphill, and turn 11 is downhill and flattens out somewhere between the apex and the exit, making those corners pretty difficult.
From turn 2 to 3, the dike acts as a giant natural grandstand, reducing the need to built a lot of those.

The track is easy to reach by train, car ánd boat. The railway passes near the southern entrance, as does the motorway from Amsterdam to Almere and further north. There is a large Marina near turn 3. The northern and eastern entrances are the most usefull entrances for the people of Almere, being located at the edge of the city.

[bio]

Originally Posted by werner

I'm looking forward to your, no doubt Nobelprizeworthy, analysis of the therotical and practical implications of the original design. I can imagine you'll need to add a few months of work to include the implications ofthis proposal to implement some elements of the original design. But I'm sure that only ads to the exitement the public, me included, experiences waiting on this piece-de-resistance in circuitology. Good luck! ;-)

I would certainly not exclude the possibility that you took my comment seriously - although it was never intended to be.

bio

[werner]

Never mind the Nobelprizeworthy article. How about a nice track to share with us, maybe even related to this thread. I've always enjoyed yours.

[Yannick]

Thank you werner for bringing this thread of yours back to the first page. I have no idea how I have missed this great fast circuit the first time around.
The original design reminds me a lot of Le Castellet actually.

[werner]

Eh, you must have seen it, since on 29 Jun 2008, 18:30, you gave a reaction. You are excused, since it has been long time ago :-)