What goes into making a great racetrack?

In Japan, the best-known racetracks are Suzuka Circuit and Fuji Speedway – two top-class courses that have hosted F1 and MotoGP races over the past decade or so. But now, the famed F1 track designers Tilke Engineers & Architects, have designed a new, nail-biting, corner-intensive racetrack near Tokyo that’s bound to generate as much international interest as the other two F1-hosting tracks.

Due to open in late 2022, The Magarigawa Club private member circuit is 2.17 miles long and has 22 corners with some 87 yards of elevation. Being built by the Cornes Group, the racetrack boasts an 870-yard long straight, a top speed exceeding 155 mph, a complex hairpin curve and at least three uphill blind turns that will test a driver’s skills to the max. As a luxury club, it will also feature a first-class restaurant, a bar, hot spring baths and an air-conditioned garage for its members' supercars.

The inside story

Tilke Engineers & Architects, the elite German firm charged with creating Magarigawa, along with many of today’s FIA-certified F1 and MotoGP racetracks, was established in 1984. The Tilke team has designed or overhauled some 19 F1 tracks including Valencia, Sochi, Circuit of the Americas, Sepang, Bahrain, Istanbul, Shanghai, Yas Marina, Korea, Azerbaijan, Hockenheim, Nurburgring and Fuji.

Dr Carsten Tilke, Managing Director of the firm, says of its jobs: “The bulk of the requests to build F1 tracks come from governments who always want their circuit designed and built in a certain time frame to coincide with their first high profile international race.” He adds: “By a set date, we need to meet their requirements, which may include a request to fit inside a certain area or piece of land or cater to a 70,000-spectator capacity.”

What’s more, the design must be quickly altered if the client suddenly wants to stage both F1 and MotoGP races. Tilke explains: “As soon as motorcycle racing is added to the mix, we must add more substantial run-off areas with gravel traps to help slow down the bikes and riders when they come off at speed. Pure F1 tracks or private track design clients are happier to just have asphalt run-off areas that don’t penalise mistakes as much as gravel.”

Tilke’s clients generally want great track design and thrilling corners combined with state-of-the-art facilities, but what goes into making a thrilling corner? “Such a turn requires good flow and elements that challenge a driver. For example, Eau Rouge at Spa is a full throttle corner for F1 cars, but still requires perfect timing.

“In contrast, GT3 and production cars and bikes must lift and balance their machines through Eau Rouge, which is actually three corners. But what is important is the exit speed from the third corner, because if you don’t maintain your highest speed here, then you will be overtaken at the end of the following straight.”

All the thrills

Tilke really rates the thrilling corners of the high-speed Turn 8 in Istanbul, which comprises four left-hand turns that require drivers to perfectly balance their car through all four turns. But what do the drivers make of it? The 2016 F1 champion Nico Rosberg agrees, saying: “You need to make one single steering input and hold it. So, you actually make one radius out of these four apexes. This allows the car to flow to its highest possible speed.”

Ex-F1 racer and Le Mans pilot Tiff Needell, meanwhile, says: “I like Spa’s Eau Rouge and Madgwick at Goodwood, but there’s perhaps no more challenging a circuit than Monte Carlo. If we’re talking about a series of corners, I would add the approach to Massenet, as this long left hander funnels you over to the left of the track, right in front of the door to the Hotel de Paris, from where you flick right to a late apex and fire yourself over the crest and begin that epic plunge down to Mirabeau.”

Such thrilling corner sequences can define a track and their essence is what track designers strive to input into new designs.

Needell was given a long-lead sneak peek at the new Magarigawa track layout via a virtual hot lap on an Assetto Corsa driving simulator (which has been set up to allow members to memorise those 22 corners). His verdict? “The final sector is extremely twisty and requires immense concentration to maintain speed, although I think it will really test tyres, brakes and drivers.”

Private tracks

Tilke smiled when he heard that comment, because his goal with private tracks is to build technical layouts that test drivers: “Creating memorable F1 tracks is our main aim, but we also enjoy doing private courses.” 

He adds: “In the same way as my team gets excited designing a new F1 track, we also get just as much enjoyment when offered a great piece of land and interesting topography like Magarigawa, with ups and downs and beautiful surroundings.”

Magarigawa was not designed to stage races, so that allowed Tilke’s team a great amount of flexibility to lean towards more extreme aspects like you find on Germany’s famed Nordschleife Nürburgring. “If you don’t have to comply with FIA regulations and you don’t have super-high speeds like in F1, then you can add more flowing corner combinations and asphalt run-offs that won’t damage the owner’s cars if they go off,” he explains.

While F1 track design requests may be few and far between right now, Tilke is receiving more invites to design private tracks like Magarigawa, such as Bilster Berg in Germany and Monticello Motor Club near New York.

He was fascinated to see the new Escapade Pads design at Silverstone, and explains that we will see more and more private tracks and bespoke facilities being built for the super-rich, as it becomes more difficult to drive supercars on public roads and as legislation changes to accommodate more autonomous vehicles. “An important aspect is that such facilities have a good business model and are financially viable so they will definitely thrive,” Tilke comments.

Tilke believes that in the near future, when there are more autonomous cars, there will be an ever-growing number of people who want to go to race tracks, such as Magarigawa and Bilster Berg, to simply drive their cars, as these facilities will be the only places where sports driving will be possible. Thrilling times ahead!

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