In a recent interview for talkSport, architect Carsten Tilke, who designed the Jeddah Corniche Circuit, explained that the track will be ready for action next weekend when the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix is scheduled to take place: “It’s of course very close, a very tight project timeline but the track will be ready.
Tilke: What will be interesting is that there are three possible DRS zones
“It was really one of our most ambitious projects with the most time pressure to really make this happen in eight months, but in the end it’s really amazing what’s there now and everyone is excited for the next race.”
Carsten Tilke’s team have created a very fast, 6.2 kilometre, seaside layout which Saudi officials aim to overshadow Monaco in terms of glamour, which came with challenges for the architects
“The land for the track is very narrow,” Tilke explained. “A very narrow piece of land next to the Red Sea and there is a lot of interaction between the buildings and the track, everything is tense together,” Tilke added – “We had this piece of land directly next to the Red Sea and it has this lagoon inside and they’ll be driving around the lagoon, and the good thing is we were quite flexible in this narrow strip, of course, we were restricted by it but we built most of the streets completely new.
“What will be interesting is that there are three possible DRS zones directly behind each other,” he explained. “So it’s three DRS zones and every time different corners after that, which can be really interesting. It’s not just straights, it’s a DRS zone but you have to be really concentrating because there are walls directly next to it, you have to steer.”
When asked about the zones where he expected the action to happen, based on simulations and a gut feeling, Tilke predicted: “What I think is very interesting is the passage from T4 to T10, it’s a very fast flowing S combination, this will also be challenging for the drivers to find the right lines, and T13 is also a cool 12 per cent banked corner so there are a lot of different elements.”
As for comparisons with other Grand Prix venues, Tilke said: “It’s difficult to compare it, I really thought about this. You can maybe say this passage here, this passage there, but for me, I can’t compare it. It’s really fast, it doesn’t have all the buildings inside like a street circuit when you think of Baku or Monaco or Singapore. This makes it better to make nice corner combinations, and not 90-degree corners, which is normal in a city.” – he concluded.
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