Start, Circuit of the Americas, 2018

Rate the Race: Circuit ratings

The data below breaks down every single one of over a hundred thousand votes cast in Rate the Race to give an average rating out of ten for the races at each track Formula 1 has raced at since 2008:

RankCircuitAverageMinimumMaximumRaces
1Circuit of the Americas7.595.409.1010
2Interlagos7.554.579.4514
3Nurburgring7.506.838.434
4Silverstone7.425.768.9715
5Bahrain International Circuit7.324.599.1014
6Mugello7.287.287.281
7Red Bull Ring7.195.378.889
8Istanbul Park7.175.288.996
9Hungaroring7.165.059.1415
10Shanghai International Circuit7.064.459.2412
11Circuit Gilles Villeneuve7.054.249.1912
12Sepang International Circuit7.055.288.4510
13Hockenheimring7.033.749.447
14Monza7.034.948.4215
15Jeddah Corniche Circuit7.006.087.932
16Albert Park7.004.758.6413
17Imola6.906.058.173
18Korea International Circuit6.745.167.544
19Baku City Circuit6.714.738.796
20Zandvoort6.706.486.932
21Autodromo do Algarve6.696.207.172
22Fuji6.666.666.661
23Spa-Francorchamps6.521.868.3715
24Suzuka6.445.217.5711
25Losail International Circuit6.386.386.381
26Singapore6.254.987.1913
27Circuit de Catalunya6.174.468.7115
28Monaco6.144.028.1814
29Paul Ricard6.093.478.234
30Yas Marina5.923.278.8514
31Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez5.893.906.857
32Sochi Autodrom5.764.069.048
33Buddh International Circuit5.755.196.503
34Miami International Autodrome5.635.635.631
35Magny-Cours5.555.555.551
36Valencia Street Circuit5.493.878.785

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18 comments on “Rate the Race: Circuit ratings”

  1. It would be interesting to know if these circuit differences are statistically significant. Calculate the 95% standard deviation for each circuit to give +/- range. If the range’s don’t overlap then they are significant

    1. ColdFly F1 (@)
      7th April 2016, 16:08

      hardly possible with so little data points per circuit.
      I recollect it is something like (assuming race rating at a circuit is normally distributed based on the ‘racing value’ of a circuit):
      – to calculate a sample SD you need at least 2 data points (races at that circuit)
      – And to get 95% likelihood 2 datasets (race quality of a circuit) are not ‘overlapping’ you need 1.6xSD.

      Thus Sochi with sample Mean of 5.5 and sSD of 2.1 is (95% certain) a circuit ‘worth’ less than 8.9.
      Thus Sochi could actually be the best circuit for racing!!

      Buddh is less likely to be the best circuit with a 95% certainty that the racing value of the circuit is less than 6.9, and

      (warning: don’t read this the wrong way. I am not comparing the 2 circuits, but mainly saying that due to the few data points on Sochi it is extremely difficult to pinpoint it)

  2. Montreal is probably my favorite track, or very close to it. So this is nice to see.

  3. Suzuka, for being such a popular track is way down the list.

    1. Suzuka is awesome to watch – period. Even if the races may suffer a bit because it’s so narrow. I guess in that regard, along with Monaco, a Rate The Weekend poll would work better for those tracks!

    2. @yoshif8tures
      2014 was a great race and would certainly have boasted the average, before the unfortunate Bianchi accident happened.

  4. Don’t know if we can draw conclusions on those circuits which have only hosted one or two races. For example, a but unfair for Mexico to be bottom of the list when it’s only had one “bite of the cherry” so far.

    1. Exactly. It has always been one of my secret favourite tracks, and I found sad that it was quite unpopular for a while. But it seems that these years we saw nice races there, and the trend is up !
      I still think that this track has some flaws. I don’t quite like the last 3 turns, and the chicane is not that nice too…

  5. Pleased to see Canada is tops! It nearly always produces a good race as does the Hungaroing.

    I’m not surprised Catalunya is near the bottom. It’s always dull as far as I can remember. Singapore is next up for the chop and Russia according to the list. I would not miss any of these.

  6. Austria will definitely go up after today! Baku deserves more.

  7. Damn… Canada from 2nd to 5th, just from this season.

  8. New comment today. COTA really is brilliant. Yeah the straights are a bit too long for the DRS/engine disparity era. But other than that, it has good overtaking spots, good following spots, and it has ‘mini-mouse’ parts where attacking cars can follow and overtake, but where the defending car can come back. I think it’s a treasure akin to the Hugenhotlz circuits of Suzuka and Zandvoort.

  9. Dropping Sepang instead of Sochi will always be a travesti to me. Not 1 fan, not 1 driver thinks the latter is better to have in the calendar than the former

  10. Monaco looks a bit off – you’ve put five races, even though it’s had 12 races in RtR. If anyone’s interested, I have the average as 6.322

  11. Yeah, this table is in need of a review!

  12. Andres Satizabal
    23rd April 2022, 20:27

    Kind of unfair for Spa to have such a low average when it was all dragged down because of politics and rain.

    Reply moderated
  13. Portimao is missing :O

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