Tracks

[Miss Hardt]

Australian GP- Adelaide
Malaysian GP- Sepang
Brazilian GP- Interlagos
Spanish GP- Jerez or Barcelona..I love both
Monaco GP- Monte Carlo
European GP-Nürburgring...but it's NurBORING!
Canadian GP- I can do withou tit
French GP- any available
British GP- anywhere but the Boring Silverstone
Austrian GP- A1 Ring-it's cute
German GP- Hockenheim-f1manoz is right,leave it alone!!!!It's the best track F1 ever had and we're all sad to see it facing such a destiny!
Italian GP- Monza -without the chicanes
Portuguese GP- Estoril
Japanese GP- Suzuka

And,
Hungarian GP-Hungaroring-Have you people ever tought about us who can't visit other races?it might be a boring track,but we must go somewhere....

[Muzza]

Hi, F1manoz,

Firstly, I have to concede that I am biased for Interlagos - I basically grew up there!

Then, I am glad to see on you another admirer of the old, true, great Interlagos. That track was simply unbelievable. An eight kilometer-long track where ANY spectator could see 75-85 % of it from his viewpoint... Those amazingly fast, flat-in-sixth Curva 1 and 2... The Ferradura carrousel... The tricky Curva do Sargento... (I'm wetting the keyboard with tears).

I don't want to prove you wrong, but interestingly, many people believe that Jacarepaguá is a much faster track than Interlagos for F-1 cars, when actually it is not! The maximum and average speeds on these tracks are quite close. But Jacarepaguá LOOKS faster, and Interlagos LOOKS slower.

Leaving rules change and car development aside, take a look at the following comparison:

(key: year / average GP speed / average pole speed / average fastest lap speed / circuit)

1986 / 184.980 / 211.829 / 193.612 / Jacarepaguá
1987 / 184.592 / 210.287 / 192.962 / Jacarepaguá
1988 / 188.438 / 205.589 / 194.868 / Jacarepaguá
1989 / 186.034 / 212.323 / 195.786 / Jacarepaguá
1990 / 189.252 / 201.483 / 194.871 / Interlagos
1991 / 187.110 / 203.817 / 193.570 / Interlagos
1992 / 190.209 / 205.672 / 195.874 / Interlagos

Quite close, isn't it? (Jacarepaguá LOOKED faster to me too!)

Note please two things:

- You said that Jacarepaguá is quite wide. Jacarepaguá and Interlagos have very similar track width (I am not even able to tell which one is wider nowadays). Jacarepaguá looks wider because it is flat and because of the TV camera angles.

- the long Jacarepaguá straight (simply called "Retão" - or "The Long Straight"...) provided less overtaking opportunities that one could imagine, because its incoming turn was slow, and the end turn was quite fast! There was no pronounced deceleration at the end of the straight, so, overtaking was not that easy (but I admit that it was quite technical - and brave!)

Again, not trying to prove you wrong - as we agree where the Brazilian GP should be run, at least in our dreamworlds -. I just wanted to bring some other elements to the debate.

Cheers,

Muzza

[Muzza]

Hi, Oversteer,

Being Brazilian, I am (quite sad) to say that all crime statistics in Rio are worse than in Sao Paulo (that it is not any good at all either). For your own safety, please do not thing Rio is safer than Sao Paulo - it is not. Actually both of them are dangerous. Rio just happens to be a little worse.

(And I grew up just beside a favela in Western Sao Paulo City)

But you nailed me down with your other criterium... Nothing, absolutely nothing beats the babes from Rio!!!

Cheers,

Muzza

[Muzza]

Miss Hardt,

Instead of banning Hungaroring from the calendar, why is it not extended? There is an area at the Northwestern part of the track where a new loop could be built, with a longer straight incorporated... I cannot understand why the organizers do not do that.

Cheers,

Muzza

[Miss Hardt]

Me neither,Muzza.You know,Hungary actually got the GP because we gave up! :banghead

[Muzza]

Miss Hardt,

Hey, that's interesting... I did not know that Yugoslavia had been considered to host a Grand Prix in the mid-1980s. Please elaborate more about that.

What were the sites considered? I am sure Darren Galpin and other track freaks (like me) would like to know about it.

By the way, congratulations for your website.

Cheers,

Muzza

[Dr. Austin]

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Muzza

"Instead of banning Hungaroring from the calendar, why is it not extended? There is an area at the Northwestern part of the track where a new loop could be built, with a longer straight incorporated... I cannot understand why the organizers do not do that."

I believe all the land surrounding the tack is owned by private parties. The land inside the track is supposed to be owned by a little old lady. So the track was really built around the land they could get and I don't think any more is availabe.

I am not 100% sure of this, though, but I remember the broadcast team talking about it several years ago.

[Muzza]

Dear Omnipresent Doc,

You may very well be right about the land ownership issues around Hungaroring. I remember that there is a number of small lots (typical of Eastern Europe countries) around the track.

I regret though the lack of drive, the lack of will by the organizers on making the lay-out better. Especially in a (relatively, compared to other European countries) low income country as Hungary, a land buy-out by the track organizers might have been a tempting offer... (here we go again. The point is that while guys and gals like us love racing, to the people that manages it it's merely a business. Can you imagine the hell of a show we would put together - and still make piles of money - if we, or ANYONE ELSE WITH THE SAME PASSION, were running it?)

I know as a fact that the Hungaroring lay-out became tighter than the originally conceived because they found problems with the water table at the ground, and a water source was discovered, so they had to "drible" the track around it.

In fact, many modern tracks are squeezed within land plots which are just too small to house a challenging, LONG lay-out (with few exceptions I do not respect anything shorter than 5 kilometers). The Sepang developers did not do this mistake, the Zhuhai ones did.

Cost of land is another factor playing against the construction of good tracks (and against their maintenance and survival - look at Kyalami, Riverside and many other cases).

Cheers nevertheless,

Muzza

[Miss Hardt]

Originally posted by Muzza
Miss Hardt,

Hey, that's interesting... I did not know that Yugoslavia had been considered to host a Grand Prix in the mid-1980s. Please elaborate more about that.

What were the sites considered? I am sure Darren Galpin and other track freaks (like me) would like to know about it.

By the way, congratulations for your website.

Cheers,

Muzza

I am not sure...my father told something to me before,but he doesn't know more...

Which site?I have three!

[Muzza]

Hello, Miss Hardt,

I was talking about your website on the Hockenheimring.

I could not agree more with your words on that site pages. What has been done is tragic. What a shame.

Regards,

Muzza

[Rafael]

An ideal calendar:

Argentinean GP - Pre-81 Buenos Aires (with long straights)
Brazilian GP - Old Interlagos (what a dream...)
Spanish GP - Jerez (not a bad track, but not a good one)
European GP - Donington (Despite it's a dangerous track, the 93's GP was MARVELOUS!)
South African GP - Kyalamy
Monaco GP - Montecarlo
Canadian GP - Montreal
Mexican GP - Hermanos Rodriguez
1ºUS GP - Phoenix or Detroit
French GP - Paul Ricard
British GP - Brands Hatch
German GP - Old Hockenheim
Belgium GP - SPA
Italian GP - Monza
2ºUS GP - Indianapolis
Malaysian GP - Sepang
Japanese GP - Suzuka
Australian GP - Adelaide (mainly the wet ones...)

why not 18 races by year?

Ps.: My favorites are:
SPA
Old Interlagos
Suzuka

[Muzza]

Rafael,

I'm glad to see someone mentioning the up to-1981 Buenos Aires lay-out! The right-left S after the boxes, the "Curvon" beyond the lake and Ascari turn were completely out-of-this-world! But it was dangerous too. I remember when Emerson Fittipaldi had a mega-crash in the Ascari turn in 1972 1000 km de Buenos Aires... And then Ronnie Peterson had a similar shunt minutes later.

So, what do you think about your local track, Brasilia? I mentioned it above as one of GP dream tracks... Leaving facilities aside, the lay-out only lacks elevation changes to be a classic!

Abracos,


Muzza

[Bononi]

HEY !!! Nobody called me to the party ?

Well, I might say that was expecting the worst about crime and violence at the Brazilian GP weekend. It was a nice surprise to see that nothing happened.

To be robbed at cash points, Oversteer, it is not an exclusive feature of São Paulo city. To be honest, even at my town, you will be in trouble doing that.

At the moment, Rio is more dangerous than Sampa.

And about the women... Man, you should have see them at Interlagos !

[Muzza]

Bononi,

I guess this calls for another "Brazilian GP babes from the crowd" picture...

Have you been to Brasilia? (the track, I mean)

Cheers,

Muzza

[Bononi]

Yeah, I'm going to look for some new pics...

I've been there so many years ago. Altough I think we should add Curitiba's track to the list too.

What about Goiania track ?

[Muzza]

Hey, Bononi, (good to hear from you)

Goiania is a great track - if it were longer it would be perfect. Good combination of slow and fast turns. The "Zero" turn (last bend - actually they are two, like Rivazza in Imola) can be very frustrating - each driver takes its personal choice regarding where to apex it... (and that changes significantly during the race, depending on fuel load and tyre wear).

Goiania has endless run-off areas - it was the perfect venue for the bikes GP. Oh, the "S" in the infield is a pain in the neck for touring cars, very tricky.

Curitiba's lay-out is quite similar to Goiania, but the track is less interesting - maybe because of the lack of run-off space! The walls are really close to the track - I am surprised so few people got serioulsy hurt there, because there have been some big shunts since the track was re-inaugurated.

(what reminds me to clap a long applause to the guys and gals that rebuilt the track and brought it back to life... It had been closed in 1973, and it remained shut down and abandoned for almost 20 years)

Goiania track facilities are better than Curitiba, also.

Last note: Londrina is a freak track - I have to go there when I visit Brazil! The lay-out is pretty cool (perfect for its short extension), but is also scary...

Cheers,

Muzza

[Rafael]

Hello Muzza!

É muito legal ter encontrado outro brasileiro participando deste forum! Acreditava que eu fosse o único...
(It's funny to meet another brazilian taking part of this forum! I believed that I was the only one...)
Well... talking about Buenos Aires... the old track really was dangerous... but something could be done to make that safer, despite it wasn't an interess of the circuit's owners.
And about Brasilia... the track has a nice layout, some selective turns... but the structure of the circuit is so archaic. Rusty guard-rails, cracks on the walls (and on the pavement...), small parkings are just some examples.
Nelson Piquet bought the circuit (which has his name) some years ago, and made some modifications. But quite everything would have to be changed to Brasilia host a GP nowadays.
A GP in Brasilia would be an excellent way to show all of our architecture, which makes Brasilia famous in whole world!

Abraços
Rafael

[Muzza]

Dear Rafael,

I can tell you we are not the only brazucas in Ten Tenths - there are some other around...

I thought Piquet had leased the Brasilia Circuit from the City - but you said that he actually bought it! Maybe he can upgrade the facilities now, especially after he split his partnership with Emerson Fittipaldi (they had set a company to manage the Jacarepagua track in Rio, but the duo fell apart back in early 2001).

Oh, a friend of mine went to Brasilia on a pleasure trip about a year ago and just out of the blue decided to visit the track with his wife. The place was totally empty, with the exception of a single Formula 3 car, driven by a guy with a very familiar helmet... Well, this friend of mine walked past the gates and then there was Mr. Nelson Piquet, alone in the track with three or four mechanics, brushing the rust away...

Take care, keep in touch,

Muzza

[freud]

Best tracks:

1. Spa - overall the best track
2. Interlagos - great racing
3. Sepang & Nurburgring - 2 beautiful tracks
5. Suzuka - great but not many overtaking oppurtunities

[Mekola]

1. Spa
2. Suzuka
3. Monza

[Rafael]

Muzza, I'm sorry, I tried to say that Nelson Piquet leased the circuit, and not bought. As I have a limited english vocabulary, I did a mistake.
Sorry!

[Bononi]

What a small world !!!!

Rafael, you were born in my backyard, man !

I was born and live in Uberlândia.

Me and Muzza studied in the same high school in São Paulo back in the 80's. It was a difference of just one year, and we could met each other.

[Muzza]

Bononi, Rafael,

Pretty amazing coincidences indeed! This calls for a , maybe next time I go to Brazil.

By the way, has any of you been to Cascavel or to the new Campo Grande track?

(oh, and being an endurance/sportscar fan I am crazy about the Mil Milhas race... D'you Remember when the race was run in Brasilia - for a single time, in 1997 - and Piquet won, sharing a McLaren F1 GTR with Steve Soper and Johnny Cecotto? I worked in the Mil Milhas organizing body some years, back in the late 1980s-early 1990s. If you have a chance to go to Sao Paulo, give your support to the race!)

Cheers,

Muzza

[Rafael]

I DON'T BELIEVE!
REALLY what a small world!

Bononi, I was born in Araguari, sitted less than 30kilometers from Uberlândia...!!!
I'm going to Araguari tomorrow, and I gonna stay there at least until my birthday, in May 10. So we'll be so closed to.
Muzza, let's do something together with all brazilians racing fans. Maybe a party, or, just watch to a GP (drinking). Some years ago, Celso Itiberê (for me, the best racing commentator - he writes for O Globo) made a meeting to watch the end of the 97 season. But he lives on Rio, and did it there.
When will you come to Brazil?
Talking about the Mil Milhas. The 1997 edition I could not watch, because I was in Araguari. I watched just some laps, I was at my uncle's farm, and there the TV couldn't get a good signal.
The event was good, but the tradition of the Mil Milhas is on Interlagos... so they've moved back to São Paulo on 1998.
It's all

Abraços,
Rafael

[Bononi]

Great Rafael.

I'll be out of the town this weekend, but I'll be back sunday evening. I'll send you a PM when I'm back home, Ok ?

Cheers