The layout of the penultimate GP of the season is considered urban and temporary, built almost “from scratch” from an old parking lot.
Saudi Arabia hosts its first Formula 1 Grand Prix this weekend in the new Jeddah street circuit, created by the specialists of Tilke Engineers & Architects and the person in charge of the project, Carsten Tilke, who reveals for AFP the process.
Contrary to a “normal” circuit, that is to say “100% conceived for the race”, a street circuit is open to the public beyond the competition. Thus it must be able to adapt to daily use by residents and motorists.
In Jeddah, project could be described as “hybrid”, explains Tilke: urban and temporary, but built almost “from scratch” from an old parking lot.
His company, which has designed almost all the most recent circuits, receives commissions for future Grand Prix, which “can ask to go to an area that they want to highlight.”
It is after “studying the city plan on Google Maps and on the ground, to identify a space large enough to install the paddock, and then find around it an interesting track five or six kilometers long and at least 12 meters wide. “
The works consist of “redoing the last layer of asphalt and, eventually, eliminate the islands that separate the two directions of circulation ”.
‘Always limited by terrain’
In Saudi Arabia, different preliminary studies were carried out by the promoter of the Formula 1 World Championship, before the company became involved in the project at the end of 2020.
The site, in an enclave by the sea in the northern part of the city, had already been chosen, and the route imagined.
“We work with F1 to find the ideal track, first in a global way and then in detail ”, says the son of the famous circuit creator Hermann Tilke.
Over a virgin “90%” space, “We have more flexibility but we are always limited by the terrain: here, a narrow neck of land next to the Red Sea.”
No streets to take or buildings to avoid, “That allows us to have fast corner combinations, which is not normally possible in the city”, where 90 degree angles are normal.
But on the other hand, it was necessary “raise the area to install a drainage system, build new streets and modify the slopes”, Details Carsten Tilke.
Whatever the location, the specifications do not usually vary; “Produce action for viewers, good images for television, the possibility of overtaking, and if possible, different strategies.”
“Safety” and “sports interest”
To achieve this, the teams of Tilke, Formula 1 and the International Automobile Federation (FIA) have numerous simulation tools.
“The aim of local promoters is to give a beautiful image of their city, so we try to make the monuments visible from the track and by television cameras, to the extent that security allows it, as well as the sporting interest ”, continues the man who conceived the Yedá circuit.
You also have to take into account the location of the spectators and the management of human flows (road traffic, movements of residents and the public).
“In the end, we have pretty little time to get it all done (a year in Saudi Arabia, a ‘record’ according to Tilke) and we can’t finish a week later when a date is set by the GP,” he recalls.
The result It is a circuit of 6,174 kilometers (the longest second on the calendar) and with 27 curves that make it the fastest urban layout, with an average speed of 252 kilometers / hour, a peak of 322 km / h between turns 25 and 27. “It will be very spectacular”Tilke advanced. (D)
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