Three laps around Circuit of the Americas...

[ZakspeedYakspeed]

With tickets going on sale this weekend for the general public...here is Lewis sliding it around for three laps as seen through the eyes of the developers at Codemasters for F1 2012...

http://formula-one.speedtv.com/article/video-cota-in-car-animation-by-codemasters/

 

[ExtremeNinja]

Brilliant!!

 

[Jos the Boss]

That looked like a 1:44 lap so around 47 laps in the race?

 

[tooncheese]

Jos the Boss, all Tilke tracks are around 5.5km, this is no exception at 5.515. 56 laps will be completed totalling 308.84km.

 

[The Pits]

I am not sure I like the look of that track, it looks bitty, and rather mickey mouse in places, and there seems to be far too much going on, and little character that sets it apart from any other track. Indeed, I think it borrows heavily from elsewhere with little originality.

That said, if it provides a good race I am sure I will be able to forgive the lack of design flair!!

 

[ZakspeedYakspeed]

It is another Tilke Frankentrack...I like the pit straight and the run up to T1... reminds me a little of Osterreichring... and later the A-1 Ring... the run down hill for Turns 2 => 8 will most likely resemble a mickey mouse slot car follow the leader but for the odd car spearing off after missing a braking point... the short straight and sweeper thru 10 down to Turn 11 setting up for the China like straight run down to Turn 12... onto the sequence 13 thru 19 a little Hockenheim-esque... and the dash down to 20 for the run back across the start - finish line...

 

[Brogan]

I thought exactly the same when I watched the video a few days ago The Pits.

It doesn't flow smoothly at all and I fear the racing won't be great.

 

[tranquility2k9]

I think the circuit looks pretty interesting. A lot of high speed stuff in the first sector and then some more technical stuff towards the end of the lap. In-fact some of those slower corners feel a bit like those at Abu Dhabi sector 3, which I always think is a real challenging sector for the drivers as they have to deal a lot with over steer and there's usually quite a bit of differentiation due to that.

 

[The Pits]

I think maybe the track could lead itself to a good race, bear with me here...

The track seems to lack coherence, and flow, meaning over the course of a race it may be tricky to really get in the zone. I think Korea and India have both been similar, but this seems to take it to a new limit.

Maybe though, the complexity, and lack of flow may lead to more mistakes, and as a result, a better race?

 

[mjo]

There is far too much going on in the lap. Circuits need to go back to keeping it simple, like the A1 ring, new Hockenheim, Monteal, Monza or even Sepang.

 

[soccerman17]

Way too much going on and 1 good overtaking opportunity with two other spots where you could possibly make a pass. That squiggly (that's how im gonna describe it) section from 2-8 could be completely done away with as well as the 12-15 section after the long straight but before the Turn 8 knockoff. Needs to be simplified a bunch. Next time hire me over Tilke!

 

[Fenderman]

It does look like a stop/start mess doesn't it? Looks tough to get to grips with judging by the heaps of understeer/late steering by the guy "driving" the sim'. One can imagine that being the case in the real world. Setting the car up for those knadgery slow tight corners means that they'll be slow in what little fast bits there are. Conversely, setting up for the fast bits will lead to the stuff just seen in the demo. It looked like the guy was driving on tyres that were already over the cliff or the was set up for somewhere else.

Re. the game, I did notice the driver seemed to be late steering into some corners and running wide which may well be down to a little delay between his input to the wheel and its translation into what happens on screen. That's quite common in racing games that don't quite seem compatible with one's wheel/pedal set-up. Codemasters are pretty good at ironing that out in their finished article though.

All things considered, I think I'm much more interested in the game than that particular circuit! I wonder what that means ?

 

[sushifiesta]

It does look like the lap is a bit long and it's a bit over complicated, although I would say that it's difficult to comment on the flow of the circuit too much until we see "proper" drivers driving around it. I think the circuit will flow a lot better when it's Hamilton et. al. behind the wheel and not the guy in the video who misses a lot of apexes and makes quite a few mistakes.

 

[ZakspeedYakspeed]

I did notice the driver seemed to be late steering into some corners and running wide

What ever do you mean ? It was just like Lewis... what we didn't see was the ghost car of Massa blocking him for those three laps and Lewis balls to the floor trying to get around him...

 

[FB]

I thought it looked like quite an interesting combination of slow and fast corners, I like the carousel as well but, if this accurate, those are bloody long straights aren't they.

 

[jez101]

The guy driving doesn't appear to believe in apexes - he is clearly not a regular on here

I think it looks really technical and probably very aero dependent. I'm not sure whether it will be easy to follow another car through much of it, but the big braking zones are so wide that if you can get close you probably have the choice of going outside or inside the other car.

I think the drivers will like it. Of all the other Tilke tracks, it reminds me most of Istanbul Park which can't be a bad thing.

 

[Jos the Boss]

jez101
He's only the designer of the game!

 

[jez101]

I know! That's why I thought it odd .

 

[Mezzer]

Personally I detest DRS, but it looks like its the only way to overtake on this circuit. Thanks for nothing, yet again, Hermie.

 

[ExtremeNinja]

Mezzer

Bit early to pass that sort of judgement, surely?