Today's preview post comes from the other side of the wall, where the wildings live, and all kinds of frightening things. In this place I half expect to open a door and get assaulted by Lenny Henry - but fortunately none of those things have actually happened, I have spied a chip shop where you can buy pizza, along with an identical half of said pizza...fried in batter.. my internal organs cried at the mere thought. However questionable cuisine aside - replaced by a small Chinese restaurant above a newsagents, much more palatable - it is time to actually get on with the purpose of this contribution to annuls of nonsense that ends up on the internet. After yesterdays publication it seems convenient that we come to one of the tracks shortlisted as being under threat for eviction from the calendar, a case they didn't help when the weekend schedule only contained a single support category, and they probably had to be bribed to turn up. Normally these would be populated local motorsport categories, and continental championships when we are in Europe. In Australia the entirety of the national racing series turn up and it is brilliant - including the lead national championship, the V8 supercars. So what is this single support event scheduled to take part in Yeongnam - it is the Jeonnam Motor Racing Championship, which for some reason refuses to be googled. The only thing I've found is a picture of several Hyundai hatchbacks on the track, either way it doesn't seem to inspiring.
There is a bigger threat to this years race, because there is a rather nasty typhoon in the area, which might make landfall in the vicinity of the racetrack at some point during the weekend. Some predictions suggest that it might visit Yeongnam around the time of third practice, which would also ruin Qualifying. Others are saying that it might miss the track altogether and cause no problem at all. Which given the fact this is now the fourth race in a row where rain has been placed on the table, I would assume that we'll see no sign of any moisture on Sunday at all. However if this storm does happen then there is an expected 90-160mm of rain... which for once would actually be grounds for a red flag, unlike any other spot of drizzle on race day that causes an immediate halt to any proceedings. But we had a lot of rain in the inaugural Korean GP in 2010 and that went ahead... albeit delayed and it did end Webber's title ambitions... so I know one driver who might prefer a typhoon free race.
The Track
Every time we reach this point in the season and we see the track looking as empty and unfulfilled as it was when the place was a mere construction site in the debut season. It is clear that any investment and development has come to an abrupt standstill, some things are tidied up year on year - minor improvements here and there. The major change coming into this season is the relocation of the pit-lane, because for too long it was truly horrific - simply stapled onto the exit of the first corner - feeding cars into traffic. The alternative sees cars using the turn-one run-off area and rejoin somewhere around turn two - it does keep cars off the racing line, but it just moves those slow cars off the edge of the track (depending on how far wide this new lane is) so if someone aquaplanes off in a potential monsoon, there is still a severe impact zone. Not that this rain is actually going to happen again.
The opening sector was designed with a long ruler and a protractor - because there was supposed to be some buildings here - to disguise the straight with buildings. Without them the straights are exposed for the joyless DRS based artificial overtaking zones that they are. The pinnacle of of this scenario is the sequence of corners from turn four to turn six - on a street track you'd forget how they are defined, the corner radius would go unnoticed, because you'd look at the buildings instead or because it would look like it fits. Take the Loews Hairpin at Monaco - because it's Monaco and it's been there since the dawn of time, we're all fine with it - if someone build a corner in a field with the same radius there would be outrage. Turns 4-6 are horrid, clunky and completely pointless, the energy it took to remove Singapore's infamous chicane should have been redirected here.
One interesting observation from the layout, is that the best section of the lap - the middle sector from the exit of turn 6 all the way to turn 14 is very drivable and fairly decent for a Tilke track - but the important thing is that this was the section wasn't supposed to be within the 'city' complex. Demonstrating that if it wasn't for trying to accommodate for a fictional tourist utopia - the remainder of the track might be an improvement. However the track in India doesn't have a city to cover for, and that has a series of excessive straights - tracks specifically designed to allow DRS overtaking - deliberately splitting the part of the track designed for passing, and the bits worth driving. At the end of the lap, there is a strange hybrid of the two which in 2010 looked a little like a mangled mess. There was supposed to be a marina - a la Monaco or Abu Dhabi - but like everything, else didn't happen. As a result there is a strange semi-circle turn lined with concrete - which since they know that the building has ceased - has been widened. What they have inadvertently created is a very interesting sequence of corners which actually works in the odd half-finished state it is in.
The Form Guide
In the inevitable dry conditions of race day Vettel will, one can assume, will be once more be so far out in the lead it'll be Singapore all over again - complaints will happen, booing will ensue, but the season will roll on with a certain German bloke increasing that championship margin. It was at this race in 2010 when Webber crashed out of contention while being the only person who could challenge Vettel when there was rather a lot of rain. Because of the new tyre situation the top four will likely be composed of Mercedes of Red Bull cars - more so in qualifying. Come Sunday Alonso will naturally be in that equation because he likes driving that Ferrari faster than it should be going, and somewhere in that melee will be Lotus depending on whether Raikkonen's back is completely recovered, and whether Grosjean's car works.
The dynamic of the mid-field has changed completely since the tyres were changed - Force India have gone from a dominant force (haha) to battling with Williams at the bottom of the division. This promotes Torro Rosso further forward, and Korea has always been a good race for them - except 2010 when Buemi had a bit of an accident in the wet. But the biggest gainer of all is Sauber, in the past races they've had a car in the top ten - most remarkably Hulkenberg 3rd in Monza in qualifying. There were within thousandths of both cars making Q3 in Singapore, so Korea must be promising and opens the potential for some significant points. Despite all of this change Williams have stayed the same, only scoring a single, solitary point all season - and even that was a fluke, handed to Maldonado in Hungary after Rosberg retired with less than five laps to go.
Sometimes it is easy to forget that the tyre changes can have a severe impact at the bottom of the field because the pace is so comparatively slow, but some calculations published on F1Fanatic.co.uk noted that Marussia have suffered the worst with the change in compound. Beforehand they were leading the bottom division and Bianchi was threatening Williams at times, but now they struggle to leave the back row - and only a team order mix up meant that Chilton didn't finish last in Singapore. This means that Caterham have made relative progress, and more importantly Van Der Garde has made major progress, starting the season battling with Chilton - the least appreciated driver on the grid - to leading the division. A series of strong performances notably in Spa qualifying have improved his approval rating - mixed conditions in Korea might further that development.
Overall Korea is not an inspiring race, somewhat because the track is a partially completed construction site where the staff have all buggered off, some of the track is really good - but the whole setting is miserable and desolate. Hundreds of miles from anywhere Yeongnam is marsh in which someone has parachuted a decent racetrack, it is massively under-supported and under-attended. So in retrospect, this might be the last visit to Korea, so some storm induced madness would a nice send off for the Korean GP.
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