New A1 GP Location

ToxicBunny

ToxicBunny

Oi! Leave me out of this...
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http://www.motoring.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=4519647&fSectionId=1629&fSetId=381

Must say I think this will hurt A1 in this country, or at least the image that its built up so far.

Kyalami is a brilliant track and tickets will be sold out no doubt, but A1 has had an air of Monaco about it being based in Durban and the street track being so close to the sea made for some absolutely stunning visuals.
 
Well, I for one don't mind. The facilities at Kyalami are better as well.
Now for them to reduce those insanely priced tickets....
 
Oh don't get me wrong... kyalami has better facilities than Durban could provide....

But is the location even remotely close to what Durban was providing... the straigh along the beach, I mean really, could you ask for better visuals to sell a racing league to television?
 
ToxicBunny said:
http://www.motoring.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=4519647&fSectionId=1629&fSetId=381

Must say I think this will hurt A1 in this country, or at least the image that its built up so far.

Kyalami is a brilliant track and tickets will be sold out no doubt, but A1 has had an air of Monaco about it being based in Durban and the street track being so close to the sea made for some absolutely stunning visuals.
Click to expand...

It looked pretty good, but IIRC there have been problems, such as residents that live around the planned route complaining about noise, access to their places. And from the drivers there were complaints that the route was too bumby.

A good move to have it at a proper race track.
 
Shhh stop trying to burst my bubble that Durban was the right place to have it... :p
 
But in all reality, I do know and accept all those issues...

But given some forward thinking the residents could have turned what they saw as a negative into a massive positive financial gain for themselves.... and as for the road, I do know that it was on the cards to resurface the road properly at some point so it wasn't so bumpy....
 
I agree with Toxic, it is a PR disaster in my mind.
Durban was the most watched race in the series and won the award for best staged event twice IIRC. Switching venues probably has more to do with profit than it has to do with the sport. And so what if the surface was bumpy, the concept of A1 is to test the drivers and teams given identical cars and identical conditions, so seeing how different teams adapt to different circuit conditions is all part of the challenge.
 
caroper said:
I agree with Toxic, it is a PR disaster in my mind.
Durban was the most watched race in the series and won the award for best staged event twice IIRC. Switching venues probably has more to do with profit than it has to do with the sport. And so what if the surface was bumpy, the concept of A1 is to test the drivers and teams given identical cars and identical conditions, so seeing how different teams adapt to different circuit conditions is all part of the challenge.
Click to expand...

It presents a safety issue for the drivers, there can be no downforce if youre car is in the air. ;)
 
I agree with sox on this one.. the bumpy track was an issue, and Durban municipality did have plans to fix it... (if they weren't too busy planning red light districts and fscking with road names)...

But ultimately I do agree with the decision to move it away from Durban given the cars have LOTS more power now, the track would just be way too dangerous.
 
Ok I concede that one, safety is indeed more important than scenic setting.
I had forgotten about the new cars, as I have a mental block that filters out the word Ferrari and anything related to it, sort of a self-defence mechanism inbuilt into long-time McLaren fans :)
 
I agree with the fact that Durban has the sea and it all looks so pretty, but come on guys give Joburg a chance, Kyalami have a brilliant track that was redesigned just for the purpose of having A1 races.
 
Durban was great! :)

People are always going to moan about something so I do not feel the complaints of residents affected the decision. People knew the A1 was in Durban but for many people this also equated to South Africa. The non stop sunshine and the views of the beach and palm trees is bound to have made a few people think that this would be a nice place to visit. It was definitely a good advert for SA.

Being the only street circuit also meant that it added something to the A1 season. Kyalami is after all just another race track. I do not for a second doubt that Kyalami wil l be a success but like Toxic said it just won't look and feel the same. The commentators did not get tired of talking about the beach being less than 50m metres away from the track!

As far as I am aware the decision was partly based on the new cars being a lot more powerful. I also do not doubt for a second that it probably also boiled down to finances. Gauteng, or wherever it actually falls, probably threw more money at the organisers... :)
 
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