Poll Worst ever F1 circuits - the poll

[Enja]

I voted for Las Vegas. Valencia, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain would be the worst 3 for the current crop, but Las Vegas is less an F1-quality circuit and more like something you'd drive around in a kart at Legoland Windsor. I've constructed scalextric circuits that were more interesting than Caesars Palace.

There are some terrible street circuits visited by Indycar at the moment, too. Here are "highlights" from Baltimore:

I only recall about 3 overtakes taking place during the entire race, and they were all due to a car failure.

Note the chicane at 2.20 - makes the Singapore sling look positively elegant.

Hilarious pile-up at 3.25 - what a cleverly designed hairpin!

Oh my goodness me - that is hilariously bad!

"The dream of this city is a reality!" Presumably a dream of an awful circuit then?

That chicane is just frightening. What on Earth were they thinking? It's a bloomin' straight line for crying out loud! It's like something the FIA would've done in 1994 to slow the cars down.

 

[tooncheese]

Abu Dhabi is the only circuit ever to make a classic four-way title decider the dullest race of the entire season, in fact the entire decade (worse than Indy '05). Promised so much but gave so little. In two races the most exciting thing was Button almost overtook Webber.

 

[Clinton]

Jeebus that is terrible as an aside do the pit crew get paid by the hour? The first stop in that video seems to take an age compared to F1

The pitstops and teams are pretty amateurish compared to F1. In the last race, championship leader Will Power had a crash in the pits due to someone else's unsafe release, and came in for three separate pitstops in which his team attempted to plug a hole in the side of his car with duct tape. I kid you not.

Duct tape at 1.40

Pit crew justifying their hourly wages at 3.10 , 3.25 and 3.45

EDIT: I think one of the pit crew was injured in his leg, but conscious. Probably shouldn't be making light of it...

Anyhow I find the lack of professionalism quite endearing. And it was a great race in Kentucky, skip to the end of the video for a photo finish.

A benefit to racing on ovals is that it's obviously quite hard to design a bad one.

 

[jez101]

Suggest that anyone still to vote tries to find a youtube of Las Vegas. Valencia is dull as dishwater, but vegas was a million times worse. I guess you need to be an old fart like me to remember it.

 

[Il_leone]

Valencia was used to cash in Alonso's stardom in F1 and make use of the harbour views etc like another Monaco and the race promoter is none other than ...FLAVIO BRIATORE

US street tracks tend to be terrible apart from Watkins GLen and most of it was to cash in the big market it represents for car manufacturers and at the time Mario Andretti's success

LAs Vegas Caesar's Palace ... yes a race around the streets of all the casinos but it did not catch on or have romance like Monaco does

Detroit - the home of the motor city but again another failed venture

Dallas - absolute terrible track - I think based around a car park and the track broke up in places

Phoenix - It actually changed its layout for 1991 after it was nothing more than a series of 90 degree corners but again did not catch on

Barcelona - ever since Mansell and Senna wheel to wheel - the races have been absolutely rubbish and yet they have not done anything about the overtaking problem coming off the last corner down the long straight... only on the calendar because of Alonso. A guaranteed boring race

Yas Marina - circuit is nice but the overtaking chances are actually difficult than first glance because it requires the car behind to have speed advantage to draw alongside and then brake really hard to make it through. It was going to change the corners but feels KERS and DRS will make it easier for passing

New Hockenheim - the old one was high speed with 3 chicanes but there was not much overtaking now and the cars use to disappear for 100 seconds before you got to see them again. Thats why the circuit was shortened with a corner to make passing possible so should not diss it as such

Other terrible circuits - Magny Cours - very bland and even the one place to pass is not helped by the corners leading up to it

Budapest - a mickey mouse track where its a case of follow the leader as long as you make sure you're fast down the straight.

Only the rain has made the races more interesting

 

[The Artist.....]

For me, the worst venue I've ever seen was the Tanaka International in Japan. It was a glorified go-kart track - tighter than the Hungaroring and far less interesting!

 

[ATL11]

The pitstops and teams are pretty amateurish compared to F1. In the last race, championship leader Will Power had a crash in the pits due to someone else's unsafe release, and came in for three separate pitstops in which his team attempted to plug a hole in the side of his car with duct tape. I kid you not.

Duct tape at 1.40

Pit crew justifying their hourly wages at 3.10 , 3.25 and 3.45

EDIT: I think one of the pit crew was injured in his leg, but conscious. Probably shouldn't be making light of it...

Anyhow I find the lack of professionalism quite endearing. And it was a great race in Kentucky, skip to the end of the video for a photo finish.

A benefit to racing on ovals is that it's obviously quite hard to design a bad one.

Just love how BBC 'big up' F1, Martin Brundle going estatic @ the end of a dull than ditch water Japanese GP (DRS in a really bad place) how the top 4 are within 8 seconds of each other.

Okay it is a little manufactured racing for Indy, but the top 18 @ Kentucky were covered by 3.4 seconds and the winner won by 0.009 seconds....

http://www.indycar.com:8080/var/assets/indycar-race-lapfinal40.pdf

 

[Porceliamone]

I went for Catalunya. Was dull, continues to be dull regardless of the rule changes and as noted in the OP what on earth is that excuse for a chicane (or Chicken, as Alonso likes to call them) at the end for? Tyre wall and chassis rigidity tests? Yeeuuuch! Get rid.

 

[Boyle]

To be fair to the Catalunya circuit, I think it is a good track but it is only because so much testing is done there that the drivers and teams know every little nook and cranny of the place. Granted it doesn't exactly get the blood pumping when watching usually but I thoroughly enjoyed this year's race (in the dry!). Harsh to compare it with Valencia, Las Vegas and co if I'm honest.

 

[Vortex]

Yeah I don’t mind Catalunya, not the greatest but not the worst, that last chicane I hate tho, that final corner use to be awesome.

 

[jez101]

I do feel a bit sorry for Valencia looking at this poll

I feel I didn't argue the case strongly enough for my candidate, Detroit. Seriously, Valencia cannot be worse than this!

Detroit replaced Dallas after this race in 1984 when the track fell apart - see 1.10 into the video. I laughed when I saw all the stricken cars.

 

[Road of Bones]

Voted for Yas Marina above Valencia for 2 reasons:

1) It is the epitomy of sterility, a monument to money over taste, style(!) over substance, and as Tooncheese so eloquently pointed out, the only circuit that could make a 4-way title decider rubbish. Would Seb have won last year if the decider had been at Interlagos instead?
2) Valencia's so much worse that it's a wasted vote

 

[Vortex]

I do feel a bit sorry for Valencia looking at this poll

I feel I didn't argue the case strongly enough for my candidate, Detroit. Seriously, Valencia cannot be worse than this!

True, but you know why Valencia is considered much worse? Because its still on the calendar. lol.

 

[Andyoak]

I wanted to vote Yas Marina for the same reasons as tooncheese but Valencia just pips it for me because it doesn't even have something to look at around the circuit (whether bad taste bling or not). Valencia is a lost opportunity, and the same is true for every circuit named after a city outside of Monaco... they're not in the city! They're either car parks or industrial estates.

Valencia is a beautiful city with a great center containing some wonderful landmark buildings with history. I'm sure a viable circuit could be created around the city center but it won't happen because of the disruption. The same with Rome, London, anywhere in Europe where the grid system of town planning just forces point and squirt races.

 

[siffert_fan]

Of the choices offered, I will have to go with Valencia. Las Vegas managed to have decent racing, Valencia never has. I still think that the worst circuit I have ever seen was the Bugatti course, used only once, thank God. I had the misfortune to have been there and will never forget the experience, try though I do.

 

[KekeTheKing]

I voted for Catalaunya. Can't stand that circuit. Terrible corners leading onto and off of the straight.

Although I agree that Vegas was pretty bad, it did provide at least one good battle in 1982. Here's Lauda and de Cesaris going at it hammer and tongs.

 

[ATL11]

I do feel a bit sorry for Valencia looking at this poll

I feel I didn't argue the case strongly enough for my candidate, Detroit. Seriously, Valencia cannot be worse than this!

Detroit replaced Dallas after this race in 1984 when the track fell apart - see 1.10 into the video. I laughed when I saw all the stricken cars.

I do enjoy watching these old races, the 85 US North GP in Detroit we had 7 minutes of highlights for a race that lasted 2 hours, so it shows how much was missed as it was maybe tedious. Interesting to see Brundle in a Tyrrell @ around 4:40 have a go and mess up with Alliot in a RAM. The action also missed Senna crashing out, but what show the ignorance of the day Mansell after crashing on lap 26, injuring his right hand and being knocked out, still being led away by some bloke, where as today well today it's all red flag, hospital wings & Helicopters. Still loved 80's racing though.

Oh I know I yawn with the twins Schumacher and Vettel making the sport boring again, but if you think Vettel locking out Pole has been tedious this year, just look @ qualifying for Detroit in 1985:

12 Ayrton Senna Lotus 97T 1 1'42.051
5 Nigel Mansell Williams FW10 2 1'43.249
27 Michele Alboreto Ferrari 156/85 3 1'43.748
2 Alain Prost McLaren MP4-2B 4 1'44.088
6 Keke Rosberg Williams FW10 5 1'44.156
16 Derek Warwick Renault RE60 6 1'44.163