How new track design tech could improve F1's racing

Amid all the soul searching over improving Formula 1's cars and sporting rules for 2021, track design's role in improving the spectacle has been somewhat overlooked.

Almost all of the blame for the lack of overtaking has revolved around the aero wake generated by the cars and the characteristics of the tyres - two aspects that are being changed for next year.

So it was interesting at the end of last year to hear FIA president Jean Todt suggest that F1 had ignored the importance of track layout for too long.

Reflecting on the 2019 campaign, Todt said: "Globally, on the sporting side, it has been a very interesting championship. Probably, we have understood a bit more [about] what we should have understood earlier.

"I mean, the importance of the track design. It's something we need to address later because it is nothing to do with regulations, teams and governance."

In the past, track design was something largely left to individual venues to sort themselves. Some tracks were created around their local environment. Monaco followed its streets; Silverstone evolved from the layout of its runways and Spa was based around public roads.

Others were built from the ground up, with famous Dutch designer John Hugenholtz coming up with Suzuka, Zandvoort and Jarama (pictured below).

More recently, Hermann Tilke became the go-to man for building new tracks, and his design company helped create the circuits in Bahrain and at Sepang, Istanbul, Austin and the Red Bull Ring. But, equally, he faced criticism for producing tracks that proved to be poor for racing: Sochi, Abu Dhabi and Valencia.

But there has never really been a central point for F1 to offer its expertise when it comes to helping circuits and race promoters come up with designs that work best - both from an overtaking perspective and being visually attractive to fans.

Now, all that has changed thanks to a small team of engineers quietly working away at F1's headquarters. They're helping to tweak future circuit designs, as well as offering advice for some current venues that are in need of improvement.

The project started back in the middle of 2017 when experienced engineer Craig Wilson (below), who had joined F1 as head of vehicle performance earlier that year after a career that included spells working at BAR, Honda, Mercedes and Williams, was asked for his thoughts on potential future grand prix track projects.

He pulled together a small team to run some simulations on the viability of suggested layouts, and he submitted a report. Such was the positive feedback from the amount of detail the report offered, it was felt this analysis work should become a regular fixture.

It made even more sense thanks to the sophisticated computer simulation models, which had been created to help frame the 2021 rules, that were able to be applied to evaluating track design.

"This takes up about between 50-60% of my time now - for something that started as just a one-off," Wilson says of F1's track design work.

"It was just something we quickly evolved, as we saw there was an opportunity here to apply the tools we're developing for other stuff to help with the circuits. We got involved with the circuit design companies as well and we work closely with the FIA."

The main aim of F1's circuit team is to offer a proper simulation model on whether or not a track design will work. It's not based on the hunch of drivers or engineers: it comes from sophisticated calculations.

An example of how Wilson's F1 team has helped shape track design will be seen this year with the new banked final corner at Zandvoort

"The purpose is really for us to get in at the concept level of any new circuits, or changes to circuits, so that we can understand if they're actually going be suitable for F1," he says.

"That means both in terms of racing and the ability to give good features. We look at the kind of corners they've got, and whether they will actually enable overtaking in the context of current cars as well as future cars.

"We make sure we give whoever's proposing to build the circuit, or the promoter, some feedback to say: this is what we think, from an F1 point of view, is needed to ensure this circuit is going to be good."

There are two computer models that the circuits are put through. As well as the actual layout of the track and the infrastructure around it, F1 also runs simulations with two cars racing against each other that check to see if overtaking opportunities do come up.

Wilson adds: "We use a combination of things, mainly simulation tools or lap simulation tools, where we build the models of the track. We'll work with the circuit designers or even directly with a circuit, and they will give us some models or build some.

"Then we'll look at how the car performance profile looks - whether it has got long enough full-throttle and straight distances, as well as a decent mix of corners, and try to see what they would look like.

"Then also we have a more advanced simulation, which we call our overtaking model. It is effectively two cars running around the circuit, with the one behind trying to overtake the one ahead. It's a lot more complex than the normal lap simulation.

"The task [for the following car] is not just minimising lap time, it's can it actually find a position to overtake and do an overtake, which is sustainable, and doesn't just try and overtake into one corner and then go off the track?

"That enables us to quantify whether changes are actually going to make any sort of significant difference to the ability to overtake.

"We are trying to make sure that there's some science and understanding to it all. And then we add, on top of that, our experience of working with Formula 1 cars and the whole racing show aspects, to then allow us to interpret those results and give holistic feedback to the circuit and the promoters."

An example of how Wilson's team has helped shape track design will be seen this year with the banked final corner at Zandvoort that is currently under construction.

When the Dutch Grand Prix project was waved in front of Wilson's team, there had been initial scepticism about how the track layout - and the limitations caused by the environment surrounding the circuit - could be made suitable for a modern F1 race.

"It would be very difficult for us to think it would be possible to make Zandvoort work if we hadn't done this work and helped direct some of the changes," explains Wilson. "When we first had a look, we said, 'OK, well the existing layout is going to be a challenge to get overtaking'.

"The straights are too short, but the actual circuit is very confined because it's surrounded by a national park. All the sand dunes around it are actually protected, so we can't just extend the straight.

"We went through a lot of iterations thinking how can we change the last few corners to effectively extend the straight, or get more full-throttle time and distance. And we probably went through about 14 or 15 different solutions. I couldn't get one to work satisfactorily.

"Then a comment came back that said: 'Could we do banking?' I thought about it, and it was: 'OK well leave it with me, let me work out what level of banking would be required on the concept of rather than have DRS open after the last turn, could we open DRS through the last turn?'

"We went through it, we used our simulation and then we came back and said 'OK well you'd need at least this level of banking to be able to do it. I had assessed it with two different methods, in terms of car stability and the aerodynamic loss, and it looks like it can work.

"Then it was a case of, 'OK, well can we physically do it?'

"The guys at Zandvoort went off, spoke to a few people and came back and said: 'Yeah, we can do it, we think we can do it, and we'd be very interested in doing it'.

"So we had conversations with the FIA to say 'look, this is what we're thinking, are you ok with that?' They said let's go through the numbers, let's look at what else is involved'. As a process, we were getting all the right people together and we were able to actually come up with a solution - and a fairly unique solution to that situation.

"It's just making sure that, as we introduce new tracks or modify tracks, we don't lock in characteristics we don't want." Craig Wilson

"Despite work on lots of other concepts, we couldn't get anything else to work, but that did and it was quite pleasing. The proof will be this year though.

"I still expect it to be a very difficult track to overtake on, but these changes I'm confident make it easier than what it would have been."

The idea of a banked corner is a world away from the old belief that one of the best ways of creating overtaking opportunities is to have a slow corner leading onto a long straight, followed by another slow corner. That view meant that characteristic become almost a blueprint for new F1 venues - and opened the door for criticisms that all the modern tracks are too similar.

Wilson says that the fresh understanding brought about by the latest simulation models shows that the slow-straight-slow-corner concept isn't the only way of achieving good racing.

"From the stuff we've been doing with the 2021 car regulation work, we've had to develop aerodynamic wake models, and this is why we developed this overtaking simulation - to assess that," he says.

"We found we could apply that into the circuit design and that shows actually it's about the sequence of corners. It isn't necessarily always the case that what you want is a slow corner onto a long straight followed by a slow corner.

"You can actually have other corners. And, if anything, it shows what you want to try and avoid is too many slow corners all together. You can actually have high and medium-speed corners together [going] onto a long enough straight as well. It is all about how you sequence them and how they fit together around the track.

"What I try to avoid is coming up with anything that's too formulaic. Just because something works on one circuit, doesn't mean we should copy it and apply it at another circuit."

Crucially, F1 is keeping on top of how the latest cars interact with circuit design and vice versa. It is also making sure that any new calendar additions - such as Zandvoort and Vietnam - are as good as they can be for racing.

While a free rein approach could find ways of improving all the current venues, the reality is that some circuits should not be touched as it is important for F1 to have variability over the season, as well as maintain iconic corners.

Imagine the uproar if Eau Rouge/Raidillon was removed, or Monaco was ripped up and revamped?

"If there is a circuit that is so bad for all this, you would pick Monaco and you would want to change it," Wilson adds. "But Monaco has its own characteristics and its own challenges.

"What I'm keen on is that we have variants across the tracks and across the season so we don't just have the same kind of races at each track.

"For me, you can still have a Monaco. It has its own challenges, it doesn't always produce the best race, but it's got its own hype despite its own characteristics and it has a very enduring appeal. And that's completely different to say Spa or Suzuka.

"It's just making sure that, as we introduce new tracks or modify tracks, we don't lock in characteristics we don't want."

The hope is that F1's circuit work will means fans look forward to new venues being added, rather than dread the possibility of them failing to produce excitement.