Right on Track: interview with Hermann Tilke

Q: The first connection between Abu Dhabi and Formula One was a five percent share of the investment company Mubdala in Ferrari. Then there was the Ferrari theme park. Was a Formula One track part of the big picture right away?

Hermann Tilke: "No, the race track was not part of the plan initially. We have been taking care of this project since January 2006 and although there was a track planned it was not intended for Grand Prix racing. It was meant to be developable to F1 standard but the original plan did not foresee a World Championship race. That only started to take shape in the second part of 2006."

Q: And did the initial thought come from the Arabs or from Ecclestone?

Tilke: "I am not quite sure who was the chicken and who was the egg, but I would reckon that, sooner or later, the Arabs came to the conclusion that if we do such a nice layout, why not aim for Formula One racing?"

Q: What, for you, is the special thing about the future Abu-Dhabi track?

Tilke: "Well, the initial idea consisted of a relatively small track to be used for local or regional racing. For that you don't really use a 5.5km track, 3km is quite enough.

"We wanted to have a user-friendly, nice, little track ­ with the option however, to add a loop that goes right through the city for a bigger race and perhaps for once a year. That would not necessarily mean Formula One racing. That could also be a race for the World Touring Car Championship, for example.

"This basic idea, to have a loop that would go into a marine section, was spun two times ­ for the projects in Abu-Dhabi and in South Korea, and much to our delight, both were okayed. Now, the fact that Abu-Dhabi is a completely new area, allowed us to incorporate the marina area much better into the race track.

"We have a tide lift of only half a metre and practically no waves to speak of, so we could hold the sea level very high relative to the racetrack. You will see that the yachts sitting there will seem incredibly high in respect of the track.

"It is completely different to Monaco. People on the boats will really be able to look down on the cars. It will be magnificent."

Q: There is also a Formula One theme park planned in Dubai. Is that one of your projects, too?

Tilke: "No, we have nothing to do with that."

Q: Bernie Ecclestone has declared that he can hardly imagine a third race in the Middle East region. Is there in fact no plan for Dubai to go Grand Prix racing, too?

Tilke: "If I remember correctly, Bernie chose the words: "The region is well served with Formula One racing now." That leads me to the conclusion that we will not see a third race there, but I would not rule that out."

Q: There is ongoing speculation that other planned races, such as Valencia and Singapore, will also be located in the marina area. That suggests a real trend. Why is that so? Were the tracks of Sepang, Bahrain, Shanghai or Istanbul, impressive as they are but in no-mans land, the wrong path to go?

Tilke: "I think, there is a trend to get the tracks to the fans and not the other way around, and closer to the fans naturally suggests racing in the cities. And for obvious reasons you can hardly build permanent racetracks in the middle of a town, so you then come logically to street circuits. The second reason, and Monte Carlo is the best example, is that a street circuit creates a very special atmosphere.

"Then again, street circuits also create a great deal of trouble, even more so when a race has not grown over the years such as the Monaco Grand Prix has. Everyone in Monte Carlo is aware, than once a year they cannot move as they want, they might be handicapped in parking their cars, in getting to their apartment, opening their store and so on.

"Reasons like that make it very difficult to adapt a town to a new race. And that might be ultimately the reason why we had so few street races in the younger history of Grand Prix racing. If, however, you have an area that is new anyway ­ as it is the case both in Abu-Dhabi and in South Korea ­ then you can build everything with all that in your mind.

"Straight away you can tell future owners of the flats or the houses that once a year there might be trouble, but that racing brings has also some advantages."

Q: If we speak about new venues such as Malaysia, Bahrain, China and Turkey, what lessons did you learn with those circuits?

Tilke: "You always learn a new lesson with every track, and you take all this knowledge and incorporate it into your next project. There are many areas of which you later think 'hmmm, I could have done that better.' A good example is how to use spaces. We have created quite vast spaces between the pits and the team buildings.

"Take Shanghai, for instance. It is annoying since you have to walk all the time, but even more so it also takes away atmosphere. One of the reasons we did that was that we had in mind that the space in between would be used by two rows of huge racing transporters in national events. We have learned from that. You can organise that better."

Q: Bernie Ecclestone speaks of 20 World Championship events in the long run. Will the traditional racing circuits become extinct?

Tilke: "You will have to ask Bernie..."

Q: But I am asking you.

Tilke: "I cannot see that happening. All traditional venues have something very particular about them. When you are creating a World Championship calendar, you have to be aware where fresh new markets are, at the same time you have to bear in mind that we speak about a World Championship here, and the calendar should reflect that. I do believe that there is still space for European events, but at the same time I consider it a luxury to run two races in the same country.

I think Mario Theissen, of BMW, summed it up as neatly as I would when he said: 'Formula One has to be a mixture of new, exciting venues in attractive market areas but has to keep up his tradition by racing on classic circuits.' The mix of today, I think, is very healthy."

Q: I would like to speak about those new areas one by one. Where are we concerning the South Korean track that is scheduled to host a Grand Prix for the first time in 2010?

Tilke: "We are well within the planning stage. The area consists of heaped up soil, and that is already done. The effective start of building will commence in summertime this year."

Q: It seemed that likelihood of the possible Grand Prix of India was rising and falling with the power struggle of two car federations. Is that fight of prestige now over?

Tilke: "I have not the faintest idea, and I am not saying this to keep a secret. India always comes up when we speak about new venues, but while it is always a subject of discussion, for now, it is not more than a subject of discussion."

Q: Bernie Ecclestone has confirmed that night racing might be on the agenda for Formula One pretty soon, for example with an Asian race. What difficulties would that create for a race track builder?

Tilke: "The basic problem is lighting. The track in itself is only concerned by having to deal with the question of where you want to put the lighting system. You need a certain amount of brightness in order to allow the cameras to show the cars properly and not as a blurred streak. But, then again, both in lighting systems and in camera technology, we have seen tremendous developments, so I cannot imagine that those would be real problems."

Q: Is a Formula One night race automatically leading to talks with American race hosts who have more experience in that area?

Tilke: "Not necessarily. We have done a night practice session at the Nurburgring already and we have much experience in dealing with other sporting events in the evening."

Q: Car manufacturers would adore a second Grand Prix in the United States. Where could such a race be held?

Tilke: "You have the potential to do a race in pretty much every surrounding of a big city. While we do speak about several cities, there is nothing palpable yet."

Q: Whatever happened to the Mexican project near Cancun?

Tilke: "That is on ice. It is completely open what will happen there."

Q: Are we talking about a budget problem or a typographical problem?

Tilke: "Well, from typographical point of view, there was not problem. We have found a fitting area and the project itself had been announced already. But then, for reasons that I find very hard to see through, the project was neutralised. I guess there were some political problems."

Q: For years, there have been rumours about a Russian Grand Prix. Is there a new development?

Tilke: "No. We are building two smaller tracks in the vicinity of Moscow, but neither is intended to host Formula One events."

Q: But could they be brought up to Formula One standard?

Tilke: "Almost every track can be. We certainly would have enough room to do so."

Q: For a real World Championship, a race on the African continent would be a must. Would it be fair to assume that the football World Championship 2010 in South African has killed off the F1 project in Cape Town?

Tilke: "I don't know if the football World Championship was the reason and I would not even dare to say it has been killed off. I would rather see it as a dormant project, such as the one in Mexico."

Q: Are you involved in the plans of the city of Portimao in the Algarve?

Tilke: "No, we have nothing to do with that."

Q: Was there ever a suitable place found for a possible Greek Grand Prix?

Tilke: "Some of our staff have been there and looked at several possible locations. But then it sort of fizzled out."

Q: Many race aficionados remember glowing with joy over the old Nurburgring, where cars jumped several times a lap, or marvelling about the awesome banking sections at Monza. Why are we not seeing more spectacular track parts like these in modern Grand Prix track layouts?

Tilke: "Regarding the banking, we are right on the border of what is allowed and that border does not mean (like the old) Monza. We could easily build such a corner, but from a certain speed, depending on the radius of the corner, you would come to g-forces that would simply be too much for both tyres and chassis.

"I think it would be very expensive to build special cars for only one such track. Mind you, they have even tried to have a relatively slow section going into the banked part of Indianapolis, but the cars get to top speed there very quickly and even with the moderate banking of Indy, history has told us what can happen there with Formula One cars.

"What we could build easily is a slow banking, as you might remember the famous Carrousel of the Nurburgring. Only speed and banking is practically impossible."

Q: What about jumps?

Tilke: "Regarding jumps and also troughs the situation is like this: for a brief moment in a trough the car bottoms out because you have enormous g-forces on the car for a short time. Also there we are on the limit, as turn eight in Istanbul shows. Many teams have complained that the chassis bellies touch the ground there."

Q: Then I would suggest another set up...

Tilke: "Quite right. I had a lengthy chat with Michael Schumacher about turn eight of Istanbul and he simply shrugged: 'Only teams who have not the correct set up do complain.' Of course, it would have been relatively easy, to get more ground clearance but engineers hate that because it means the car loses downforce in the other parts of the track."

Q: And jumps?

Tilke: "Here we have a clear safety problem. You risk to getting too much air under the chassis with the car ultimately taking off like a leaf in the wind. And nobody wants to see that. Within reason, we try to have areas where cars are getting very light and wheels are even coming off the ground, but we have to keep that in a range of modest speed.

"The first corner of the new Nurburgring is a good example for that - you can actually see both front wheels off the ground. There is also some wheel lifting in the first slow section at Malaysia."

Q: Last but not least, are there any current Grand Prix tracks left that your office has never been involved with?

Tilke smiles. "Yeah, there are some. Monte Carlo, Melbourne, Magny-Cours, Montreal, Indianapolis and Sao Paulo."

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