I totally agree but it is not going to happen.

In the future 65% will be street circuits according to the long term Liberty strategy for their entertainment franchise. It attracts the casual city visitor that spends on tickets and merchandise. And the city is willing to take up bills track owners struggled with. They will add fan boost, sprinklers, reversed grids and the like to improve the spectacle and drive more casual visitors to the F1 show. The small group actually loving the sport is cast aside since they do not deliver the revenue Liberty is after. It's a matter of numbers, nothing personal.

It looks like F1 will become a gimmick at best in the future. We are at a point now with Liberty that it is an actual choice and strategy to go this route. This means polls and trying to reflect or influence them are something of the past as they have made up their mind. All (the sport and its integrity) down the drain for shareholder value. Soon we will have champions like Mario, Waluigi, Bowser or Princess Peach.

Engine manufacturer teams won't mind as they see F1 as Marketing tool at Board room level. Same goes for companies like RedBull. The only teams that could have stopped this are pure race teams like Williams and (to a somewhat lesser degree ever since they introduced road cars) McLaren.

Engines are simplified and everything is in a budget cap moving forward so that brought a bunch of big names to F1. So that's one aspect closed off.

Secondly even the current aero regulations are very simplified and have limited scope for development. Having said that teams with good aerodynamic excellence like RB don't shine as much in street tracks due to their primary dependence on low speed corners and dependency on mechanics of the cars which include things like suspension. Monaco saw 6 cars in 2 tenths (even tho it's a 70s track, that's very little difference).

Basically more street tracks means it reduces dependency on having a good aerodynamic platform. It becomes more mechanical and with standard and simplified suspensions the margin of gain becomes very small.

F1 is effectively moving towards a spec series without being explicit about it.

Ferrari might be competitive if we add a few more street tracks afterall..

Which reminds me of the recent comment from Carlos Sainz Sr. (proud madrileño) caught on camera when joking with Stephan Peterhansel and other Dakar drivers: “Our 4zzh0l3 President -cuz he’s an 4zzh0l3-…”

That's quite a different story. The Catalan government "supports" the Spanish government but if fact they are making things very complicated for them. The Madrid regional government, on the other hand, is fiercely in the opposition against the Spanish Government. That has nothing to do with which one you happen to like or dislike the most.

01 'As expected' / 'As I expected'

Funny, FE has said they are moving away from city circuits in favor of real circuits recently. F1 should keep Monaco definitely, maybe one or two more at most.

USA has so many great circuits, but F1 won't use any of them and opt for Vegas and Miami. Who are they catering to, not the real fans. F1/FIA need to get over themselves, the demand for "Pits of F1 caliber" is not doing F1 any favors.

F1 at Road Atlanta… oh hell yes,
Mid Ohio… a dream,
Road America… sweet,
Watkins long course, Just historic,
Laguna Seca, not much finer racing anywhere… the list goes on.

I'm sure the same can be said of great tracks in other places around the world. F1's need to build and scrap tracks has gotten out of hand the last 20 years.

Another article says city part of layout is only 1.5 of 5.4 km, sure doesn't look like that ratio in this depiction.

Catalunya has lots of technical challenges which is why it is tough to pass; as a driver, i love it. Definitely not the best track for racing. Awesome for preseason, with the many ways it challenges a car and driver. We must enjoy the final couple of Catalunya races with the proper ending turns back in play.

You may very well be right!

Could not agree more or add anything to this comment.

@34rthl1ng Madrid's worse.

Well said!

Why would they build a racetrack without a racing series to use it?
It's perfectly normal for new circuits to have a commercial contract long before regulatory approval is granted - firstly because the FIA can only approve circuits that actually exist, and secondly because the circuit owner/promoter is working with two separate entities, completely independent of each other. Liberty do the commercial stuff in F1, and the FIA do the regulatory stuff (in most major motorsports series).
All (temporary) street circuits operate this way, as do any permanent circuits being constructed primarily for F1 - because without a commercial contract in place, funding isn't forthcoming and the project dies a very fast death.
It's cheaper and easier to tear up a contract than a racing circuit…

Government involvement in the process of hosting Grand Prix pushes hosting fees above true market values. That means without governmental support it's very difficult to imagine racing going back to those circuits. There's only a few truly private ventures in F1. It also makes it very difficult for rival motorsport series to ever compete with Formula 1.