Less than a week after the conclusion of the Japanese GP, here I am again writing words all over this little corner of the internet. As the season has reached it's next destination making the short journey across the sea from Japan to South Korea, the newest of the returning locations of the season and barring India the most recent addition to the calendar.
Last year it was a weekend of vast contrasts, the track still being finished off on the Friday prior to the practice sessions, followed by some dry running for qualifying. Then the race itself was drowned in a major downpour resulting in a race almost three hours long, opening in red flag conditions with safety car interventions in the rain. It was a pivotal race then, seeing the end of Webber's championship challenge as he crashed out, and also containing the last mechanical failure Red Bull have suffered. Korea was the only blot on an impeccible score-sheet since. But with the title all wrapped up, there is no need to worry about history repeating itself.
This year there is a lower chance of rain for the race, so it will be interesting how the track performs in a dry race conditions, and on top of that there is the development of the external buildings that were shown on the original track plans and how will their presence effect the running of the race in accumulating debris and dust from the construction work, falling onto the track surface.
The Track
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| Credit to the FIA for the track map |
But what about the layout, the actual series of corners the drivers will be faced with - well it is presented in two distinct phases. One half of the lap is situated within the prospective resort complex while the other half just serves to bring the cars back round to the start of the resort section. The corner layout also matches this dual-personality while the opening phase is defined mainly by the monolithically long back straight, which bisects the resort zone. Starting and ending with hairpins, so rather lacking imagination in that respect.
Sadly the second section also starts off with a hairpin, in fact a whole complex of tight annoying corners, it looks as if it has been designed on the basis of having spare sections of scalextric track in the bottom of the box. There is a special place in hell for complexes like this, the virtual representation I've worked with may have given it an injustice but it's really is awful.
After it however, it does get a lot better with a series of actually entertaining corners brought abruptly to a halt in turn as the track starts to edge back towards the resort. The final couple of corners are actually rather good, again it is something different in the form of a walled arc around the soon to be marina whenever that will come into form who knows, especially given how close they came to missing the race last time construction speed tends to be rather unpredictable in this project.
Instead of rambling on any more about the layout and it's corners here is the obligatory video where I drive around the lap a lot slower than the real thing trying not to crash into things and complete the lap without making a complete fool of myself. Well there is the joy of editing to cancel out most of the foolishness, the little spins and mistakes, but they can't make my lap time any faster. So here is the lap, which is faster than the best race lap of 2010, although that was in a monsoon.
What to expect
This is a track of two halves, two very different halves which will benefit different teams and car configurations, the latter section will play to Red Bull, but as recent results have shown McLaren and Ferrari are much closer. Most likely as a result of Red Bull easing off on the developmental accelerator with the title in the bag already, which could see the other division one teams be able to compete on the same level as Red Bull and even be in with a chance of breaking their stranglehold on qualifying.
Further back in division 1.5 Mercedes will have an advantage in straight line speed terms on the main straight and combined with their tendency to make rather impressive starts could interrupt the races in the top division. Behind them in division two, which does seem to have been joined by the Renault Squadron there will be immense competition. Where any of the teams involved could be in for the final two points positions, or more if others further up mess up. The main contenders will be Sauber, Force India and of course favourites in the group Renault Squadron.
Statistically this race has seen a high average in terms of the amount of Safety Car interventions per race, but of course that was a rather anomalous race with the rain and collisions. However due to the enclosed nature of the resort based section of the lap there is a limited amount of space to extract crashed vehicles. At the time the internal track infrastructure was compromised due to the development of the other structures so service roads and possibly trackside cranes were not in place. This year those facilities could be in place so the areas of the track which would require the introduction of a safety car to clear will be condensed.
DRS and KERs
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| Credit to F1Fanatic.co.uk for the DRS map |
Oddly there will only be a single DRS zone this weekend, on a track where multiple zones could be implemented - with three acceptable straights to mark for DRS activation. But only one of these has been selected and naturally that choice has been donated to the 1km back straight. However the oddities continue, as already noted the track does offer several places to implement the DRS including one of the longest straights of the season and then the FIA introduce one of the smallest DRS zones of the year. On paper it sounds like madness, failing to use all of the space available. But given that the start position is in the middle of the main straight a smaller zone would avoid overtaking being too easy, as it was in Turkey and Canada.
In terms of qualfying pace the DRS will be very useful but will impact the gear ratios needed for the event as the speed difference of using DRS in qualifying on such a long straight and then running without it in the race. Of course the system will also be available on the other straights in qualifying so there is a large amount of lap time to be gained from maximising the system.
And then there is the KERs system, which does seem to be having a smaller impact as the season goes on, playing a smaller part as an overtaking tool - prominently being used as a defensive mechanism or as an opportunistic passing solution. It's main purpose now seems to be in qualifying where not using the additional power does result in a lap time deficit, so it is still very important in that respect. Especially in the realm of the midfield where the difference between making Q3 and being relegated in Q1 could be a matter of tenths, the tenths earned from using KERs. And here in Korea there are a fair few slower corners to power out of and straights to use the KERs boost on to utilise that power.
With another early start for this weekend's action it is time once more to operate the video player because I rather like sleep and being in my bed... even if I'm the only one in there, ah ranting on the internet is a solitary life. Although there are many other factors influencing that social status... my internal loathing aside this will be a rather interesting event. With last year being a wash out, this will almost be a clean sheet in terms of race conditions and the DRS and KERs will add another dimension that wasn't on the schedule last time around
So for those with the strength of mind to pry yourselves from bed at 5 a.m. tomorrow morning congratulations and you can award yourselves a bonus point for the success. Because you'll be the first to see the new developments that have taken place since the last visit to the Korean International Circuit, to see which buildings have sprung up if any. Either way it's a good time to warm up the toastie maker for those needing a much earlier breakfast for the first sessions.
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