Which classic F1 circuits would fit the modern formula?

It's no secret that Formula 1 had been clamouring for a return to South Africa. Ever since the nation and its flagship Kyalami circuit dropped off the calendar at the end of 1993, there have been periodic efforts throughout those 30 years to secure a return. Bernie Ecclestone was particularly keen to get Kyalami onto the 1999 calendar, even opening talks with then-president Nelson Mandela to earn the government's financial support.

Those efforts never quite paid off, and the more contemporary efforts to ensure each global continent was represented on the world championship calendar got far closer. F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali's talks with South African Grand Prix organisers for a 2023 return ultimately subsided and instead the at-risk Belgian Grand Prix earned a year's reprieve; discussions over 2024 yielded the same result. It's understood that F1 wanted to afford the event organisers more time to put stable foundations in place, largely to ensure Kyalami could remain on the calendar as a longer-term prospect.

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There have been suggestions that South Africa's declaration of maintaining a "warm" relationship with Russia despite its invasion of Ukraine, and apparently supplying it with arms, has become something of a turn-off for F1. As much as the braying masses will declare sport and politics need not mix, the delicate geopolitical state is not something that can be so easily disregarded.

Stumbling blocks will naturally emerge in negotiations over races as both sides wish to reap rewards of their heavy investment into a grand prix, but they can be overcome. F1 is still very keen to get Kyalami back onto the calendar and, as a layout, looks to be a prospect that could offer ample challenges to the drivers.

The "classic" configuration that was a staple of the F1 early season in the 1960s and 1970s no longer exists in its entirety, having been largely torn up for the 1988 redesign, although the Barbeque to Leeukop section follows the old back section. The 2015 upgrades to the circuit have also created more passing opportunities into the first corner, particularly if DRS was to factor here. As lap times should fit below the 70-second boundary, Kyalami would not be a dissimilar circuit to the Red Bull Ring - which has become one of the more entertaining venues in modern F1.

As F1 mulls over Kyalami as a possible returning venue, the current calendar includes something of a dichotomy between the "classic" tracks and the newer venues built at great expense by the more monied nations on earth.

Some of the newer tracks are undoubtedly more popular than others; of those added in the last 10 to 15 years, the likes of Baku and the Circuit of the Americas have received better reviews than perhaps Miami or Qatar. "Classic" venues have also made unlikely returns; Imola was thrust onto the calendar during the COVID pandemic and earned its keep for the following seasons, while Zandvoort was refurbished to tap into the Dutch Max-mania.

Zandvoort was refurbished to tap into the Dutch Max-mania

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Imola, having lost the awkward chicane after the exit of Rivazza, has been tailored slightly to fit the physique of contemporary F1 cars and it largely works. Zandvoort hit a masterstroke with its banking that has allowed for drivers to play with differing lines, but the rest of the track is too cramped to afford the drivers enough room to peck and scratch.

Mexico City's Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez is another example of an F1 "classic" that has been polished up for the modern day; although the circuit itself is nothing particularly spectacular, the 2200m altitude often throws up its own challenges in the engineering departments.

Of course, the best modern-day venues will become classics in their own right; Lewis Hamilton even described the Hungaroring, a circuit not usually afforded such praise, as an "old classic" when explaining that "in 20 years, 30 years' time, some kid will see this as a historic circuit" during the Miami weekend.

And, as economies shift and F1 reaches new nations, some of the classics will be lost to the sands of time and unearthed at a later date. Some of the venues that we perhaps consider as nothing more than a conduit for dreary races may come into their own in future rule-sets, or receive modifications that breathe new life into them.

That's something equally true of today. There are venues unseen for years that have the chance to develop great races in F1 presently and fit the modern-day battle-cruisers, which we commonly refer to as "the cars".

In the interests of a thought experiment, it might be fun to pick a few of them and quickly explore whether they'd offer fruitful grands prix today on their own, or with a few changes to pander to the modern cars' sensibilities. We'll stick to a few rules: the circuits must still exist in some form and must not have been used in the past 20 years - mainly just to ward off the obvious choices of Sepang, Fuji, and Istanbul.

Adelaide remains a fan-favourite and its return would be most welcome

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Adelaide

Probably the obvious choice of picking a classic circuit that would suit contemporary F1's trajectory, Adelaide yielded drama by the bundle during its 11-season tenure on the calendar. The action was usually enhanced by its role as a season-ender, and the punishing nature of the track and often hot conditions combined to produce attritional and unpredictable races.

These days, the Adelaide circuit remains a cornerstone of the Supercars championship, albeit in a shortened layout as the circuit cuts the lengthy Brabham Straight in half. Currently, this remains the only layout to be FIA homologated, reaching Grade 3 - short of the Grade 1 stamp of approval to host an F1 race. But if F1 and Adelaide wanted to make the return happen enough, it probably wouldn't be so difficult to achieve.

But would it fit the modern-day cars? The opening sector's reaches through Wakefield Street and Hutt Street would certainly be wide enough to enable side-by-side action, and the run from the Brabham Straight along Dequetteville Terrace into the tight right-hander would be a prime overtaking spot.

The main issue is the final sector, which retreats from the public roads into a purpose-built zone through the Parklands. In its current form, it would likely yield a processional stretch of tarmac for modern day cars to deal with. There is, thankfully, plenty of opportunity to retool it and create something more befitting of the current machinery owing to the open space around it.

While there has been no shortage of speculation in recent years linking Adelaide to an F1 return, the Australian Grand Prix signed a deal last year to keep F1 at Albert Park until 2035 - and it's understood that Melbourne has exclusivity over F1 in Australia. So, while Adelaide may be able to cope with modern day F1 in theory, it's never likely to happen.

Estoril hasn't hosted an F1 race since 1996 and would face competition from the Algarve International Circuit should Portugal get a grand prix again

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Estoril

Even after its tenure on the F1 calendar ended in 1996, Estoril was a favoured venue for winter testing owing to its clement weather and variety of corners. Its time in F1 was cut short after concerns over safety precluded it from being retained on the 1997 calendar, and it never returned to hosting top-level competition thereafter. Portugal's reprieve to the calendar in 2020 fell to Portimao rather than Estoril, the Algarve circuit hosting a pair of races after first filling up a slot on a COVID-affected calendar.

But Estoril hosted its fair share of exciting rounds, particularly in 1989 and 1990 for largely Nigel Mansell-related reasons, and the high-speed nature of the corners either side of the start-finish line could yield stunning overtakes: Jacques Villeneuve's audacious move around the outside of Michael Schumacher in 1996 being one such example.

The opening corners are different today, and Turn 1 has been tightened up to allow for a more consistent overtaking spot after the main straight. The rest remains relatively unchanged, which sadly includes the clumsy chicane after Turn 8.

It's probably one of the past venues most equipped to deal with the modern F1 cars, and its proximity to Lisbon would rather ease the logistics. But if a Portuguese race was ever likely to return, Estoril would have to muscle out the Algarve International Circuit to host it. While the layout of the older circuit would likely play well with today's chariots, AIC has the recent pedigree.

Brands would be a tight squeeze for F1 now, but modern cars at full pelt through Paddock Hill Bend would be quite the sight

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Brands Hatch

Whenever there's the slightest doubt over Silverstone extending its tenure on the F1 calendar, Brands Hatch is offered as an alternative without fail. Granted, those doubts over Silverstone's position have faded in recent years given the strength of its management, but in the mid-late 2000s, it was very nearly off the table.

Donington was supposed to take over as a British Grand Prix venue for 2010, having famously hosted the European Grand Prix in 1993, with major modifications to fit the then-contemporary cars. As the footprint of the cars has swelled even further since then, it's probably a good job that the Derbyshire circuit couldn't afford to stump up the race hosting fee.

But could Brands Hatch do it? It would be a very tight squeeze to stuff in F1 and its baggage, but if the circuit can cope with hosting about 10 different categories during a club meeting, then it's probably achievable to slot in F1 and a couple of support rounds. F1's Biggin Hill base is also just down the road, so any broadcasting and logistical requirements could be handled quite easily. It's closer to the capital than Silverstone, albeit near to the public transport blackhole London faces south of the Thames.

The main issue is the circuit itself. Romanticised as a throwback venue that hosted some of F1's greatest icons in the 1970s and '80s, its time in F1 came to an end as the championship realised that Silverstone's facilities had much greater room to expand. If F1 had outgrown Brands Hatch over 35 years ago, it would not even be on its radar today.

Overtaking would be nigh-on impossible, with no real space for two F1 cars to try to overlap each other at Druids - the tightest corner on the track - or to battle in some of the quicker areas of the course. And, with F1 cars achieving greater speeds than they did in the '80s, cars coming into contact on the run to Paddock Hill Bend or Hawthorns would be a disaster.

F1 is enjoying a boom in America, but it could really benefit from a classic venue - such as Long Beach

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Long Beach, Sebring, or Watkins Glen

With F1's growing presence in the US, it's somewhat surprising that the return of one of its classic F1 venues has never been touted as a possible outcome. True, there were some duds back in the day: Detroit was a fiddly arrangement that was something of a car-breaker, Dallas had a track that kept breaking up, and Caesars Palace is generally considered to be one of the worst F1 circuits ever conceived. Of the three, it's ironic that F1 is effectively returning to the latter; Caesars Palace runs alongside The Strip in Las Vegas, which forms the main straight of the new circuit.

F1's US exploits weren't all in vain, and the championship featured a clutch of classics too. Sebring, perhaps better known as one of sportscar racing's jewels in the crown, featured on the F1 calendar in 1959.

Sebring was much larger in the 1950s, and Stirling Moss' pole time for the '59 race was three minutes long, but today's shorter version would present an interesting challenge in modern F1. After all, it's a venue that the World Endurance Championship still visits, and both LMP1 and Hypercars alike have coped with its demands. But an unlikely F1 appearance at Sebring would ultimately be more damaging for the track's character, as there's no way that anyone would sanction the cars running on the first sector's concrete surface.

Watkins Glen was home to the US Grand Prix in the 1960s and 1970s, but was a poor fit for the increasing numbers of ground effect cars in the latter part of that period. The back straight would surely offer a few opportunities to pass into The Loop, but the circuit is surely far too small and too remote to ever make an F1 comeback. Now that IndyCar no longer races there, Watkins Glen's hosting duties largely extend to NASCAR and IMSA on the top stages.

That leaves Long Beach. F1 has Miami on the eastern seaboard, so a West Coast round would surely balance the stakes; Long Beach's proximity to Los Angeles adds that degree of prestige that the largest cities in the US command.

It's one of the key circuits on the IndyCar calendar, and Formula E had also raced on a shortened version during its early years of existence. The IndyCar layout might be too fiddly for the current breed of F1 cars, particularly around the first-sector fountain, but there might be a few areas where the circuit could be tweaked - perhaps continuing along Shoreline Drive and installing a right-hand turn further down might be an option if the local authority was happy to pave over the most cursory patches of paradise.

It wouldn't be easy to pass on, and the final hairpin would require the steering to bounce off the rack-stops, but Long Beach could just about accommodate F1 if it felt so inclined. We'd have nominated Riverside for this segment rather than a lucky dip of the better US venues, but no longer exists as a shopping mall was sacrilegiously plonked on top of it in the early 1990s.

Hockenheim in its old configuration could herald Germany's return to the F1 calendar in a hypothetical world

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Hockenheimring

Is this cheating, or just a skirting of one's own rules? The full-bore Hockenheim circuit, featuring long acceleration zones pockmarked by three chicanes, hasn't been used in that configuration since 2001. The 'old' Hockenheim still exists to a certain degree too, albeit in a slightly more natural condition these days as the old tarmac has been suffused by foliage and wildlife.

But we're dealing in hypotheticals here: what would modern F1 be like on the longer circuit? It used to be that engine power was the key differentiator between cars; in the turbo days, the Honda engines ran riot within the German circuit's environs. Renault had the run of the place in the mid-1990s, while BMW used its hugely powerful qualifying-spec engines to great effect in the early 2000s. There's not so much difference between the power units of today, so energy deployment and low-drag specifications would be the ultimate vein to tap into.

With the drag reduction system, the race could go two ways; depending on the placement of the DRS zones, the race could either offer blow-for-blow overtakes or mere DRS trains where the cars are forced into lock-step with each other. Monza, which was often paired with Hockenheim on the calendar and would share common low-drag aerodynamic packages, can often vacillate between the two styles of racing depending how the wind blows.

In 2023, old Hockenheim would offer a clear Red Bull steamroller in dry conditions, thanks to its straightline speed and DRS advantage. But rain can never be discounted, and wet races at the full-length circuit were often brilliant fun - the 2000 edition being one particular example as Rubens Barrichello soared to his first F1 win from 18th on the grid.

Concerns over safety and visibility for fans, given much of the circuit was difficult to access from the forest, eventually did for the old layout. Modern day F1 at the track would certainly offer a curious spectacle - but all of the mod-cons needed would make it very difficult for the old circuit to host.

The Hockenheimring enjoyed a surge of popularity when Michael Schumacher captured German hearts

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