As bad as the San Jose GP was, at least the ad banners stayed on the walls and the cars could navigate the track. Also, in 2006 they grinded down the the tram line bump and it wasn't nearly as bad, but I think one driver did still get a back injury from it in practice and had to sit out.
The sad part about Sochi is that it was to be replaced with Igora this year, near St Petersburg. Igora is a fantastic track, smooth and flowing in the first half and a rollercoaster that drops off a cliff and then climbs back up in the second. They just spent a lot of cash to expand and get FIA certification, but then you know what happened.
And maybe Russia will have a halfway decent F1 driver at long last. Petrov was decent, although hampered by his uncompetitive cars. Kvyat was okay, he did get a podium. Sirotkin never stood much of a chance in his uncompetitive car. Mazepin, or should I say, Maze-Spin? What a joke!! Need I say more?
As someone who grew up just outside of San Jose, seeing the streets transform into a track and hearing the sounds bounce off of the walls was one of the highlights of my early years. The hype was incredible and it was amazing to watch drivers navigate the tight streets. Here they were doing triple digit speeds where I was used to being in stop and go traffic. I had no idea the track had such a reputation!
11:09 pretty sure you mentioned his fiery crash in 2011 at Wanneroo Raceway by saying the fireball but for those who don’t know Reindler was racing in the Australian Supercars championship when at the race at Wanneroo his car stalled, he got hit from behind, and his car exploded into fire.
@@alexthurner43He proved the worth of his experience when Grosean crashed in his last F1 race, he did everything perfectly, and Romain said so himself 😊
@@footballvslife2413 thought about that but I think it would need to be a spec series like indycar. Only because there's a lot of national pride with brands and in turn GT cars. Countries that don't have a strong auto manufacturing industry would struggle or have to rely on another country's ride. Also a spec series has a potential lower cost to entry.
The thing for me with Sochi is that in the sim in a practice session I find it enjoyable to drive. The problem is when you put more than single car on that track, it's a procession, not a race.
Same as the Indian Budh circuit. On a sim, it is magnificent to drive, rise and fall, fast corners, nice flow, a real challenge. Then try and race on it.... yup, it's awful. Cars can't follow into anywhere that might be a possible passing place.
@@Mrcento It's interesting then that MotoGP went there last weekend and the racing was engaging. I wouldn't say spectacular, but engaging across the three classes.
rich morons at the helm ruin EVERYTHING. look at most of the big corps out there right now, especially certain social media platforms and big shipping companies...
The bad track as i try on simulators was that one with square corners or corners with no visible horizon...and of course longer course with tiny corridors.
I think it was ahead of it's time. Around 2008, they already created their own UA-cam channel and implemented pitstop without refueling. I agree that wasn't executed well.
That wasn't the sun. There was a sniper in the Cotton Bowl Press Box. It turns out that F1 cars are more difficult targets than slow moving open top limos so nobody was injured.
Yeah, but it was in the US, only tracks in places like Russia and China are called "the worst of all time", in the US the track can melt and people will find cool.
Well the Sochi races weren't the greatest thing ever. They now have a new racetrack in St. Petersburg, but unfortunately it'll take a while for us to see a race there
Would love to see you do a video on A1 Grand Prix. I remember having a soft spot for it because Ireland were actually good at it. It's also cool how Nico basically won it for Germany on his own. I'd also love to see it return in some capacity. Could maybe have the F1 teams develop the cars so you'd have an F1 team sponsoring a country. It would also be something reserves and those without seats could race in. Almost like a Formula 1.5
@@eggselent9814 Some of my favourites are Putrajaya, Buenos Aires, Punta del Este, Rome (both versions), Bern (apart from that chicane), and Cape Town (I hope we race there again this coming season).
Ok looking at this absolute atrocity of a "Race Course", I don't want to hear any badmouthing about NASCAR's Chicago Street Course layout because that's 100x better than whatever this is
@@johnjones5354 Never said that, I´m aware of what happened back then and even watched the broadcast live at the time. I was talking about the viewer experience of the race / race weekends. (But I have to admit that I didn´t make that clear in my comment)
I think you should make a video on the yearly aurum 1006km race in Palanga Lithuania. The track is on a highway ,they race gt3s and refuel in a real gas station on the highway. Its very unique. This year Jan Magnussen took part aswell.
This video has made me want to delve into the history books of A1 GP, a quite frankly amazing idea that never lived up to its potential. Would love to see you cover more of it mate!
I remember this so vividly! This was the only time San Jose got an actual race! The first iteration of the race track was originally gonna go through Woz Way.
I know how this feels. I played a character in Dr Who that was pretty unpopular with the fans. The episode dropped just before the covid lockdowns in the UK, and it crushed me. Worst thing is I was paid as a background artist so didn't get a credit either.
@@airwave6610 Good Question. I put this comment on a completely different video which the comment was relvent to. But it has somehow ended up on this one. I have no idea how that happened. 🤷🏾♂️ 😂😂😂
Long Beach in the Champ Cars. Round about 1997 the Long Beach Grand Prix came to a screeching halt thanks to a single car not making the turn. At least, that's how I remember it.
You bring it up often enough but Spa 2021 was the first race I ever tried to watch, I will always remember waking up early in Western Canada on a Sunday morning to watch that brilliant race
"If you took away the crashing, this race was a disaster." Heck, I'd argue that the crashing was yet another sign of how disastrous the race was. As you said, the drivers only had forty minutes of practice, on a narrow street circuit none of them had ever driven on before, and were struggling to find the limit due to all the bumps. It's absolutely no surprise to me that so many of them binned it during the race. (See also: the 1984 Dallas GP, albeit for slightly different reasons.)
Hot take; F1 cars should be able to cope with rail tracks, manhole covers and other road imperfections. They don't need to be Baja-capable or able to haul five people or a refrigerator, just resilient enough to not completely fail as a car.
I remember cheering on Jonny Reid at all hours of the night. One of the few guys in the field who could equal Hulkenberg. It's a shame that after A1GP he just faded away.
When you showed the Beijing track with the de-facto U-Turn lane where everyone was getting stuck I started laughing so hard I could barely stop. I had an experience in a parking garage just like that last year at the end of a concert. Seriously, I still can't stop laughing. Great video.
But then you look at all the non-F1 tracks he built, like Aragon and Chang International, which are very good tracks for bike racing. (Along with Sepang.) It seems like forcing him to design for the aero barges that are modern F1 cars is where we get the awful designs. F1 is the problem.
13:00 my man here using footage from our one and only track in Colombia (for now), el Autódromo de Tocancipá. I've driven on it at full speed in a MB A45 AMG, and while it has some scary bumps and stuff is surprisingly fun! And it has some decent overtaking spots and corners that require some finesse and bravery. Cheers to Josh from Colombia!
*Levin Motor Racing Circuit (NZ)* was a shocker! An earth bank separated the cars from the spectators (typical back in the day), but if you were short you couldn't see over it. All I remember seeing was the driver's helmets streak past. 1960's F1 / Tasman Cup cars were damn low!
A1GP was weird, but I think if managed properly it could work. I just remember the whole series nuking fan made mods into the ground with actual lawyers involved. Can't have helped the series accounts given how expensive some law firms are...the
Sochi isn’t that bad, it’s fun to drive and can produce some interesting racing. The worst F1 track ever is undoubtedly the one used for the first Austrian GP ever. It was literally an L shape with only 4 corners. A 90 degree right hander in turn 1, a right hairpin in turn 2, turn 3 was a 90 degree left hander and the 4th and final corner was a right hairpin.
I seen the thumbnail and thought this was a thing on the B2 Spirit. Then realized it was a track layout an exclaimed "oooHHH GooD!". Now to watch. cheers.
Wow. I never knew about that A1GP track in China. What a gongshow that was. How sad Hulkenberg lost out on a race win 😭, but how neat it was to learn the current F1 medical car driver got on the podium here.
To be fair, this was very much the exception rather than the rule in Hülkenberg's season, he dominated it. Won nine times (including a streak of six in a row) and scored 126 of Germany's 128 points.
Herman Thilke isn't as much a designer, but someone who has a box of pieces of track and he just arranges these pieces in different sequences and calls it a new track in my opinion. Take a close look at his later tracks and you see what I mean. And oh yes, he also seems to forget that one detail that makes racing so much fun for fans and drivers: overtaking.
The tramlines of San Jose reminds me of the Seattle circuit from Gran Turismo...I see this as a positive. Characterful, which is more than can be said for anything Tilke designed. That said, the tight corner in Beijing should have made the drivers drift round with rear tyres spinning up, that would've been a spectacle & ignoring tyre wear, a quicker way round that particular corner
Such a shame about A1 GP. It had such an interesting premise, especially with two countries doubling up and working together with countries with a history of motorsports assisting countries without (that was the theory anyway). There were some cracking races in the series' history. I became a fan of one of the most versatile drivers on the grid pretty quickly; Jeroen Bleekemolen. Sports car racer - Le Mans class winner IIRC (it happened before I was able to take over the TV for the weekend lol), double world Porsche Cup champion. Aussie Supercar "guest partner" I think... Basically if it goes brrm, he can drive it - quickly! I did a double take on seeing him in the video - with hair! 🤣
LOVE the channel bro: PLESE can you do a video on a hypothetical 'if there was a World Cup of racing' and who would be chosen in the 2 seats for each of the top nations - would be an interesting topic/debate
lol that San Jose track, i drove there in Formula BMW in 2006 when they had made some improvements - i think they removed the tramlines - and it was STILL terrible
You have to give an honorable mention to the Caesars Palace Grand Prix (1981-82). For my money the worst ever was when CART (Indycar) tried to race at Texas Motor Speedway in 2001 where the speed and high banks were causing drivers to blackout. The Texas Motor Speedway is a fine track but to race Indycars there turned out to be a bad idea. The practice race and drivers were coming back to the pits not remembering the last 5 laps and even cases of blacking out. The 230+ mph (370 kph for the uncivilized) speed and 24 degree banking combined with the length of oval corners was too much G force for too long. There were only 4 of the 25 drivers who didn't have issues from vission, memory loss, inner ear, or literally blacking out.
About manhole covers, first time DTM went to Shanghai for an exhibition race back in 2004 3 cars were destroyed because of covers lifting when the cars got by them, race one was cancelled and the organizers decided to weld the covers to ground, that took an hour to do.
San Jose is my hometown, and I was very excited for this race. I never attended it, nor did I know a thing about Champ Car (my only exposure to open-wheel racing in those days was the Indy 500, as I was, and still am, a NASCAR loyalist), but the thought of a big race in my hometown excited me. In hindsight, building a permanent track would’ve been a better idea (I’m pretty sure the only reason Champ Car went for a street course in San Jose is because the only permanent facility in the Bay Area, Infineon Raceway, already had an IndyCar date). My personal concept for such a track is a two-mile superspeedway called San Jose Motorplex, located in Gilroy (mainly because Gilroy is the only place in the Bay Area with a ton of flat, empty land).
What gets me about the hairpin is that for years F1 has been racing at Monaco and for that they need to fit a special steering rack so that the cars can go round the Lowes hairpin, so, why in the world did A1 not think that they would need a rack to be able to give the cars more of a turning radius around the hairpin that is much larger than Lowes. Unless that's the reason, because it's so wide they thought they could get around it easily without issue.
Ah yes, another point to add to my list of "why did people even like Charlie Whiting". Much like Bernie and Max Mosley, he was part of that old boys club that always bent over backwards for money and didn't care for spectacle of safety. Let's not forget he was in charge of the Japan race where Jules Bianchi had his accident and didn't stop that race, even when the medical chopper couldn't take off because of the typhoon (which he should have done according to the FIA's own rules). R.I.P Jules
I was at the San Jose GP as a kid, it was my birthday when we went and I was the only one in my family that was excited to go (we also just got back from a vacation at Lake Tahoe the day of the race). I think we stayed for an hour and half and then went home. I did have fun though, still have the diecast car from that day.
There was also another Beijing track that hosted Superleague Formula a few years later. That track was so bad it was a non championship round and the weather was atrocious.
this is the first time that i’m learning my hometown had a GP of any kind. it appears that all those years ago, san jose was still bad at everything just like it is today.
Great video, one point of contention, though: ChampCar didn't so much "die" as a series, it eventually "merged" with the then-Indy Racing League, the other half of the CART-IRL split. That said, San Jose was a dog of a circuit, reminding me of the later Baltimore circuit IndyCar raced as in the early 2010's.
Who also remembers Tocacello beeing a Minardi reservedriver in 2005 ?! Yoong is probaby bettern know for racing Minardi in 2001 and 2002 than racing in the ill fated A1GP series.
I don't hate Sochi as much as many people do. Yet people talk about continuing to have the worst track and race on the calendar and that's Monaco. An absolute waste of time.
That Edmonton Indy track on the airport. I love circuits that have amazing scenery - Spa, Aragon, (old Hockenheim 😢), Laguna Seca etc . But while the circuit wasn't terrible, that Edmonton airport track was so dull to look at. As an aside about Tilke - he did also design Aragon as well, which is an amazing circuit to look at.
I was not a motorsport fan at the time. But I remember being in downtown San Jose in 2005 to go the the discovery center and wondering what race was happening there. I had never known until today, so thank you? I guess.
As bad as the San Jose GP was, at least the ad banners stayed on the walls and the cars could navigate the track. Also, in 2006 they grinded down the the tram line bump and it wasn't nearly as bad, but I think one driver did still get a back injury from it in practice and had to sit out.
SLAPSHOES IS HERE????
Your history videos dragged me back into Nascar
@@gavinoko9710 Been here, got an apartment and everything.
@S1apShoes I am completely not interested in NASCAR at all... except for your NASCAR videos. You're a very good story teller.
Put the truck series here
The sad part about Sochi is that it was to be replaced with Igora this year, near St Petersburg. Igora is a fantastic track, smooth and flowing in the first half and a rollercoaster that drops off a cliff and then climbs back up in the second. They just spent a lot of cash to expand and get FIA certification, but then you know what happened.
The sad part about Sochi was that it was to be replaced.
Yeah maybe someday this awful war will end and they can move on
And maybe Russia will have a halfway decent F1 driver at long last. Petrov was decent, although hampered by his uncompetitive cars. Kvyat was okay, he did get a podium. Sirotkin never stood much of a chance in his uncompetitive car. Mazepin, or should I say, Maze-Spin? What a joke!! Need I say more?
@@FlashoftheBlades Mazepin had fastest lap at Spa 2021
@@zeppl1n Behind the Safety Car.
This track is still more organized than South Africa's government
bruh😢
nahhh, why did you have to do us dirty like that😭🤣
Ssshhh they’ll know how bad it is here!
You wonder how it got so much worst in the last years 🤔
ye wen TSEK
As someone who grew up just outside of San Jose, seeing the streets transform into a track and hearing the sounds bounce off of the walls was one of the highlights of my early years. The hype was incredible and it was amazing to watch drivers navigate the tight streets. Here they were doing triple digit speeds where I was used to being in stop and go traffic. I had no idea the track had such a reputation!
4:32 "The turning radius of Jupiter" 😭
Maybe giving these cars a steering box like what F1 uses at Monaco would’ve solved that problem. Keyword, “maybe”.
11:09 pretty sure you mentioned his fiery crash in 2011 at Wanneroo Raceway by saying the fireball but for those who don’t know Reindler was racing in the Australian Supercars championship when at the race at Wanneroo his car stalled, he got hit from behind, and his car exploded into fire.
How fitting that he now drives the F1 medical car 🥴
@@alexthurner43He proved the worth of his experience when Grosean crashed in his last F1 race, he did everything perfectly, and Romain said so himself 😊
Yeesh, glad I missed that. Sounds like Paul Morris being rear-ended by Mark Larkham.
This track was clearly a nightmare but I think a world style racing series would be a really cool idea to bring back
There were talks of a "World Cup" of racing but haven't heard anything since that news article from a while back.
I reckon a touring car world cup would work
There is the motorsport Olympics. It is National based I believe.
@@footballvslife2413 thought about that but I think it would need to be a spec series like indycar. Only because there's a lot of national pride with brands and in turn GT cars. Countries that don't have a strong auto manufacturing industry would struggle or have to rely on another country's ride. Also a spec series has a potential lower cost to entry.
@@kgames9403I like that
The thing for me with Sochi is that in the sim in a practice session I find it enjoyable to drive. The problem is when you put more than single car on that track, it's a procession, not a race.
Same as the Indian Budh circuit. On a sim, it is magnificent to drive, rise and fall, fast corners, nice flow, a real challenge. Then try and race on it.... yup, it's awful. Cars can't follow into anywhere that might be a possible passing place.
@@Mrcento It's interesting then that MotoGP went there last weekend and the racing was engaging. I wouldn't say spectacular, but engaging across the three classes.
What's a pression?
a sad parade@@mat2000100
@@StarkRaven59 while Motogp are bikes... and bikes create less dirty air and are only a foot wide
The A1 GP deserved a much better existence, was a great idea that wasn’t executed well enough
rich morons at the helm ruin EVERYTHING. look at most of the big corps out there right now, especially certain social media platforms and big shipping companies...
The bad track as i try on simulators was that one with square corners or corners with no visible horizon...and of course longer course with tiny corridors.
Pretty sure they’re coming back in 2024.
I think it was ahead of it's time. Around 2008, they already created their own UA-cam channel and implemented pitstop without refueling. I agree that wasn't executed well.
The Dallas race of 1984. The track literally melted during the race.
Well it's Dallas. The sun is just a few feet above your head
That wasn't the sun. There was a sniper in the Cotton Bowl Press Box. It turns out that F1 cars are more difficult targets than slow moving open top limos so nobody was injured.
@@larsonawitz Sounds like a skill issue.
Yeah, but it was in the US, only tracks in places like Russia and China are called "the worst of all time", in the US the track can melt and people will find cool.
Well the Sochi races weren't the greatest thing ever. They now have a new racetrack in St. Petersburg, but unfortunately it'll take a while for us to see a race there
Honest take about Sochi the races might be crap to watch but to drive around in the F1 games it's quite a fun track to race around
Always fared well there for whatever reason.
@@jeanuthenext I always had trouble at the start of the final sector but it was a nice track to drive at.
It's very flowing and fast, but that's not great for racing
Especially turn 3. The rest of the track was enjoyable as well.
Honestly one of my best tracks, if I hit the corners properly.
For anyone enjoying these racetrack-trashtalks, I also recommend SouthPawRacers "Super Serious Track Guide"-series. It's brilliant.
I'd also recommend TyeDye Racing's "Street Track Failures" series
They're not quite as heavy on the humour but still amusing and informative
@@Wizzkidwas Yeah, I'm still working on the humour. 🤣
I would also add my recommendation to both SouthPawRacer and TyeDayRacing. Both have quality motorsport content
TYEDYE JUMPSCARE@@tydyeracinggaming4742
"The guy who designed that first corner should be taken into a dark room and _beat-"_
Would love to see you do a video on A1 Grand Prix. I remember having a soft spot for it because Ireland were actually good at it. It's also cool how Nico basically won it for Germany on his own.
I'd also love to see it return in some capacity. Could maybe have the F1 teams develop the cars so you'd have an F1 team sponsoring a country. It would also be something reserves and those without seats could race in. Almost like a Formula 1.5
I'll never hear a Formula E track criticised again
One shit track don't make other shit tracks any better.
I'm with you on that. FE's come up with some great tracks over the years.
@@dominicbarden4436Fr Berlin, London or Jakarta are all good tracks
@@eggselent9814Rome is really cool too
@@eggselent9814 Some of my favourites are Putrajaya, Buenos Aires, Punta del Este, Rome (both versions), Bern (apart from that chicane), and Cape Town (I hope we race there again this coming season).
Ok looking at this absolute atrocity of a "Race Course", I don't want to hear any badmouthing about NASCAR's Chicago Street Course layout because that's 100x better than whatever this is
Compared to this, the F1 Race at Indianapolis with only 6 cars sounds like a brilliant Event in comparsion.
Certainly not the fault of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Completely on the tire manufacturer.
@@johnjones5354 Never said that, I´m aware of what happened back then and even watched the broadcast live at the time.
I was talking about the viewer experience of the race / race weekends. (But I have to admit that I didn´t make that clear in my comment)
I think you should make a video on the yearly aurum 1006km race in Palanga Lithuania. The track is on a highway ,they race gt3s and refuel in a real gas station on the highway. Its very unique. This year Jan Magnussen took part aswell.
Woah, that sound cool!
Wow
Haha wow
If I'm not wrong it used to be a 1000km race but was extended to 1006km because the main broadcaster of the event is TV6 :D
As of Lithuanian I think it would be a cool idea
10:47 The fact that the Aussy rear wing isn't it's flag or it's name, but instead a beer is so Australian.
I actually really liked driving Sochi on the games, but the races were snoozers!
same
Yeah I loved the big circle turn from turns 2-4
This video has made me want to delve into the history books of A1 GP, a quite frankly amazing idea that never lived up to its potential. Would love to see you cover more of it mate!
Worst F1 track was Caesar's Palace by far. It makes Sochi look like Silverstone.
I remember this so vividly!
This was the only time San Jose got an actual race! The first iteration of the race track was originally gonna go through Woz Way.
Thumbnail makes the circuit look like a gun 💀
I mean monza looks like a pistol too
What about Spa?
Monza looks like one as well, even sounds like one during an F2 race weekend
Absolutely mindblowing
@@3asabird128 look like uzi, or mp7, idk
I know how this feels. I played a character in Dr Who that was pretty unpopular with the fans. The episode dropped just before the covid lockdowns in the UK, and it crushed me. Worst thing is I was paid as a background artist so didn't get a credit either.
??? what does this have to do with the video?
@@airwave6610 Good Question. I put this comment on a completely different video which the comment was relvent to. But it has somehow ended up on this one. I have no idea how that happened. 🤷🏾♂️ 😂😂😂
@@jkel16 lol I thought something like that had happened
7:18 I love how this is a problem even now with Sainz during the Vegas GP
Seeing that corner as a civilian, I just know it's a horrific design
Long Beach in the Champ Cars. Round about 1997 the Long Beach Grand Prix came to a screeching halt thanks to a single car not making the turn. At least, that's how I remember it.
You bring it up often enough but Spa 2021 was the first race I ever tried to watch, I will always remember waking up early in Western Canada on a Sunday morning to watch that brilliant race
Haha oh no
Yikes….
"If you took away the crashing, this race was a disaster."
Heck, I'd argue that the crashing was yet another sign of how disastrous the race was. As you said, the drivers only had forty minutes of practice, on a narrow street circuit none of them had ever driven on before, and were struggling to find the limit due to all the bumps. It's absolutely no surprise to me that so many of them binned it during the race. (See also: the 1984 Dallas GP, albeit for slightly different reasons.)
0:01 couple of years means the last race was 2021 and them they wanted to start war (pretty much)
Hot take; F1 cars should be able to cope with rail tracks, manhole covers and other road imperfections. They don't need to be Baja-capable or able to haul five people or a refrigerator, just resilient enough to not completely fail as a car.
I remember cheering on Jonny Reid at all hours of the night. One of the few guys in the field who could equal Hulkenberg. It's a shame that after A1GP he just faded away.
Can confirm Goodwood in GT Sport is the worst racetrack ever. Ever.
Wat
Honestly I don’t mind the Goodwood Circuit. That chicane is legitimately hell on earth though
You are so wrong, it’s an awesome track except for the last chicane. That chicane was made by satan himself, but other then that the track is AMAZING
my guy has the same opinion as me 🤝
Skill
Issue
The butcher job they did on Hockenheim made me cry on the inside. I used to love watching the cars blast off through the forest.
Hard agree. You should keep an eye on the NLS series on the Nordschleife.
Yeah it's not much to look at in the new configuration
Got this video on my recommendations after FP1 in Las Vegas GP. Seems like the Las Vegas track will give this track a run for its money.
The track looks like a freaking drill I'm not the only one who sees it right?
powered by Ryobi
I thought it looked a lot more like a B2 stealth bomber 😂
i thought it was a silent ppk🤣
A drill or a revolver honestly.
No it looks like a gun
When you showed the Beijing track with the de-facto U-Turn lane where everyone was getting stuck I started laughing so hard I could barely stop. I had an experience in a parking garage just like that last year at the end of a concert. Seriously, I still can't stop laughing. Great video.
As a german, I would like to apologize for all the terrible tracks Hermann Tilke created.
And yet, he keeps getting all the contracts. The Philippines just built a new track for Moto GP in the future. Who built it ? Tilke of course.
As a Malaysian, I'll forgive him for giving us a proper racing circuit (Sepang).
As a German you need not apologise, but it speaks volumes about you that you did.
But then you look at all the non-F1 tracks he built, like Aragon and Chang International, which are very good tracks for bike racing. (Along with Sepang.) It seems like forcing him to design for the aero barges that are modern F1 cars is where we get the awful designs. F1 is the problem.
@@StarkRaven59his issue seems to be making FIA grade 1 circuits, that said, ELMS ran Aragon this year, so it must be grade 1.
Sochi is a great track, Pirelli just always brings way too soft tires.
“Can we have Monza?”
“We have Monza at home”
Monza at home:
Monza from temu
13:00 my man here using footage from our one and only track in Colombia (for now), el Autódromo de Tocancipá. I've driven on it at full speed in a MB A45 AMG, and while it has some scary bumps and stuff is surprisingly fun! And it has some decent overtaking spots and corners that require some finesse and bravery.
Cheers to Josh from Colombia!
*Levin Motor Racing Circuit (NZ)* was a shocker! An earth bank separated the cars from the spectators (typical back in the day), but if you were short you couldn't see over it. All I remember seeing was the driver's helmets streak past. 1960's F1 / Tasman Cup cars were damn low!
Fun fact, that race track is what the Toyota Corolla Levin is named after.
@@BuddyCorp Yip, correct!
you're going to have to re-release this video after the Vegas GP
that track actually has overtaking chances and some intresting corners though
You mean the rev limiter GP
@@HHPYE42 it was an um interesting experience to watch on TV
I'm French and that joke about strike is so real.
For the record, the "oe" in "Jeroen" is pronounced like the "oo" sound found in the many "boo"s this track surely received!
Tbh it is kinda funny seeing all these cars milling about trying to get through that hairpin.
A1GP was weird, but I think if managed properly it could work.
I just remember the whole series nuking fan made mods into the ground with actual lawyers involved. Can't have helped the series accounts given how expensive some law firms are...the
Sochi isn’t that bad, it’s fun to drive and can produce some interesting racing. The worst F1 track ever is undoubtedly the one used for the first Austrian GP ever. It was literally an L shape with only 4 corners. A 90 degree right hander in turn 1, a right hairpin in turn 2, turn 3 was a 90 degree left hander and the 4th and final corner was a right hairpin.
Next you need to do the Columbus Ohio Street track, that one was weird but actually lasted pretty damn long for an American street track.
A1GP was such a farce, you could do a whole series on it. I was there for the inaugural race so I should definitely feature in the video ;)
I've heard bits and pieces about it I'm intrigued
For a country that is notoriously bad at public transit, somehow the US managed to do a street circuit that had cars bouncing over tram lines 🤣
I seen the thumbnail and thought this was a thing on the B2 Spirit. Then realized it was a track layout an exclaimed "oooHHH GooD!". Now to watch. cheers.
Wow. I never knew about that A1GP track in China. What a gongshow that was. How sad Hulkenberg lost out on a race win 😭, but how neat it was to learn the current F1 medical car driver got on the podium here.
To be fair, this was very much the exception rather than the rule in Hülkenberg's season, he dominated it. Won nine times (including a streak of six in a row) and scored 126 of Germany's 128 points.
I’d love to see you make a vid on the Macau GP Circuit, the one with the really bad F2 or F3 crash
That one has a long history.
F3, when Sofia Floersch took flight and clobbered a marshall (who survived well btw)
Herman Thilke isn't as much a designer, but someone who has a box of pieces of track and he just arranges these pieces in different sequences and calls it a new track in my opinion. Take a close look at his later tracks and you see what I mean.
And oh yes, he also seems to forget that one detail that makes racing so much fun for fans and drivers: overtaking.
The tramlines of San Jose reminds me of the Seattle circuit from Gran Turismo...I see this as a positive. Characterful, which is more than can be said for anything Tilke designed.
That said, the tight corner in Beijing should have made the drivers drift round with rear tyres spinning up, that would've been a spectacle & ignoring tyre wear, a quicker way round that particular corner
...I had legit forgotten this fiasco of a track existed. Wow. Memories of marveling at a trainwreck just came flooding back to me.
2:08 "The World Cup of corruption," yeah we already have that, it's called the World Cup.
Such a shame about A1 GP. It had such an interesting premise, especially with two countries doubling up and working together with countries with a history of motorsports assisting countries without (that was the theory anyway).
There were some cracking races in the series' history. I became a fan of one of the most versatile drivers on the grid pretty quickly; Jeroen Bleekemolen. Sports car racer - Le Mans class winner IIRC (it happened before I was able to take over the TV for the weekend lol), double world Porsche Cup champion. Aussie Supercar "guest partner" I think... Basically if it goes brrm, he can drive it - quickly! I did a double take on seeing him in the video - with hair! 🤣
8:31 Jeroen Bleekemolen is now my boss as I work at his karting centre in Amsterdam haha, funny how life goes sometimes
LOVE the channel bro: PLESE can you do a video on a hypothetical 'if there was a World Cup of racing' and who would be chosen in the 2 seats for each of the top nations - would be an interesting topic/debate
6:20 That was a violation 😂
lol that San Jose track, i drove there in Formula BMW in 2006 when they had made some improvements - i think they removed the tramlines - and it was STILL terrible
You have to give an honorable mention to the Caesars Palace Grand Prix (1981-82).
For my money the worst ever was when CART (Indycar) tried to race at Texas Motor Speedway in 2001 where the speed and high banks were causing drivers to blackout. The Texas Motor Speedway is a fine track but to race Indycars there turned out to be a bad idea. The practice race and drivers were coming back to the pits not remembering the last 5 laps and even cases of blacking out. The 230+ mph (370 kph for the uncivilized) speed and 24 degree banking combined with the length of oval corners was too much G force for too long. There were only 4 of the 25 drivers who didn't have issues from vission, memory loss, inner ear, or literally blacking out.
Sochi May not have a Lot of Elevation
But at least is Noticeable unlike Mexico
About manhole covers, first time DTM went to Shanghai for an exhibition race back in 2004 3 cars were destroyed because of covers lifting when the cars got by them, race one was cancelled and the organizers decided to weld the covers to ground, that took an hour to do.
San Jose is my hometown, and I was very excited for this race. I never attended it, nor did I know a thing about Champ Car (my only exposure to open-wheel racing in those days was the Indy 500, as I was, and still am, a NASCAR loyalist), but the thought of a big race in my hometown excited me.
In hindsight, building a permanent track would’ve been a better idea (I’m pretty sure the only reason Champ Car went for a street course in San Jose is because the only permanent facility in the Bay Area, Infineon Raceway, already had an IndyCar date). My personal concept for such a track is a two-mile superspeedway called San Jose Motorplex, located in Gilroy (mainly because Gilroy is the only place in the Bay Area with a ton of flat, empty land).
I really like the concept of a racing world cup, would love if they brought it back... with a good track this time.
absolute gold! "you have the same level of protection as Lance Stroll's driving seat"
What gets me about the hairpin is that for years F1 has been racing at Monaco and for that they need to fit a special steering rack so that the cars can go round the Lowes hairpin, so, why in the world did A1 not think that they would need a rack to be able to give the cars more of a turning radius around the hairpin that is much larger than Lowes. Unless that's the reason, because it's so wide they thought they could get around it easily without issue.
Ah yes, another point to add to my list of "why did people even like Charlie Whiting".
Much like Bernie and Max Mosley, he was part of that old boys club that always bent over backwards for money and didn't care for spectacle of safety.
Let's not forget he was in charge of the Japan race where Jules Bianchi had his accident and didn't stop that race, even when the medical chopper couldn't take off because of the typhoon (which he should have done according to the FIA's own rules).
R.I.P Jules
Main, I remember catching a few A1GP races on TV back in the day. My country wasn't in there, but it sure could be a lot of fun.
I was at the San Jose GP as a kid, it was my birthday when we went and I was the only one in my family that was excited to go (we also just got back from a vacation at Lake Tahoe the day of the race). I think we stayed for an hour and half and then went home. I did have fun though, still have the diecast car from that day.
Suprised it isn't about the former Las vegas GP.
There was also another Beijing track that hosted Superleague Formula a few years later. That track was so bad it was a non championship round and the weather was atrocious.
Josh has the best segues into ads ever!
this is the first time that i’m learning my hometown had a GP of any kind. it appears that all those years ago, san jose was still bad at everything just like it is today.
ruzzia won't see a GP for a long time now. But they do have a new track in St Petersburg to replace Sochi.
Sochi might be bad to race on, but to drive around in a racing game is quite fun
Any races in Russia in the future would be a disgrace and PROOF of corruption in the FIA.
Great video, one point of contention, though: ChampCar didn't so much "die" as a series, it eventually "merged" with the then-Indy Racing League, the other half of the CART-IRL split. That said, San Jose was a dog of a circuit, reminding me of the later Baltimore circuit IndyCar raced as in the early 2010's.
That re-unification in 2008 was what changed it into a complete series, to be fair.
You were talking about San Jose & I thought oh Josh you’ve missed one here lad. But you knew. You knew. You knew. That hairpin was hopeless 😅
It’s literally a gun-shaped track. What’s not to love about it?
"What of we made the track a pistol like James Bond"
Controversial opinion: I think Sochi is a really cool flowing track to drive. If they removed the sausage kerbs, the track would be even better.
sochi GP is incredible mate, what are you on???
Despite some messy things like this, I still loved A1GP. There was some good talent in the series
As soon as A1GP was mentioned, I knew it had to be China; hopefully the next redesign will actually allow a lap to be completed 🤞
I love the sochi circuit
Who also remembers Tocacello beeing a Minardi reservedriver in 2005 ?! Yoong is probaby bettern know for racing Minardi in 2001 and 2002 than racing in the ill fated A1GP series.
needing to pop a race car in reverse to finish a lap should have killed it immediately
I don't hate Sochi as much as many people do. Yet people talk about continuing to have the worst track and race on the calendar and that's Monaco. An absolute waste of time.
I liked the San Jose track, there I said it. I thought the cars going over the light rail tracks was pretty thrilling.
The footage of race cars bouncing over a railroad might be the most negligent “nahhh it’ll be fine” in racing history.
I used to live watching A1GP! It's a shame it didn't catch on, a World Cup of racing sounds so cool!
That Edmonton Indy track on the airport. I love circuits that have amazing scenery - Spa, Aragon, (old Hockenheim 😢), Laguna Seca etc . But while the circuit wasn't terrible, that Edmonton airport track was so dull to look at.
As an aside about Tilke - he did also design Aragon as well, which is an amazing circuit to look at.
Hey Josh do you think you can make a video on Shane van Gisbergens career in depth? Thanks man
I really wish they could bring back A1 GP
Good mentioning bilsterberg! Fantastic tilke track indeed!
I was not a motorsport fan at the time. But I remember being in downtown San Jose in 2005 to go the the discovery center and wondering what race was happening there. I had never known until today, so thank you? I guess.
Now, a video of the top 5 tracks of all time.
Laguna Seca, Monza, Silverstone, Spa, and Suzuka?
...not to to mention Le Mans, Nurburgring, or Hockenheim(before it was neutered).
Five is just too few to make any kind of meaningful list.
I remember this clearly as I was living quite close to there (San Jose) back in the day. It's a shame that the track wasn't up to speed
As an Indianapolis native, I appreciate you not mentioning the 2005 USGP once in the entire video. 👍