The six best tracks for modern F1 cars

Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium

An obvious place to start, Spa-Francorchamps is a legendary circuit. Whether we are talking about the monstrous, 14km, original, or the modern, not-as-fearsome, but still amazing layout. Spa welcomes pretty much any kind of racing car, but the really fast ones are the ones that look most spectacular.

The sight of an F1 car taking the modern Blanchimont might not be quite as amazing as the days of old, when cars had to balance on the very edge of disaster as they tackled the mighty left hander. But the visual of the field traversing the unbelievably steep left, right, left of Eau Rouge and Radillion is as spectacular as ever – if not even more so. The cars are still absolutely on the ragged edge and, as we know all too well from the events of last year’s Grand Prix weekend, it remains as dangerous as always.

Interlagos, Brazil

The modern Interlagos, even more so than Spa, is a shadow of what it once was. The original circuit twisted and turned inside itself until it was nearly 8km long. In 1990 it was significantly shortened, removing some of the old challenge, but today, in a day when many of the other old legends have disappeared from the calendar, it stands out as an old-school challenge of steep gradient changes.

It also, almost always, guarantees a great race. Many of the best F1 races of the last 20 years have come at the Autodromo José Carlos Pace. Take the bonkers 2003 race, when basically everyone fell off until Giancarlo Fisichella’s Jordan won. Or the finale to the 2008 season. Or last season’s fight to the finish which saw Pierre Gasly and Carlos Sainz Jr. end up on the podium. A couple of those also highlight the other ace up Interlagos’s sleeve – the Brazillian climate, changeable at the best of times, downright angry at the worst. I can’t actually explain why Interlagos suits the modern cars so well, it just does. Perhaps it is those brilliant elevation changes, a challenge lost from so many modern tracks.

Sepang, Malaysia

A curveball for you here, a track which is no longer on the calendar. And more is the shame. People may criticise Herman Tilke for his circuit design, and they have justification in many cases, but Sepang is a brilliant circuit. It would suit the modern high downforce cars with its series of high-speed sweeping turns, but also adds in some very heavy braking zones to add a few overtaking options. It even features an earlier, and in my view far better, version of the endless right, right, right, right, right, right, left first corner complex at Shanghai. It’s just that this version isn’t so long you get bored half way through, and actually involves a braking zone on the way in. Sadly we never got to see this current generation of cars race at Sepang, as the circuit dropped off the calendar at the end of 2016, but we’re pretty sure it would have been spectacular.

Silverstone, UK

Now, we’ve spoken about how Silverstone isn’t what it used to be. And the old version of Silverstone would have been truly spectacular with the modern cars (incredibly fast flat-out corners everywhere? Yes please) but the modern layout does suit them. We’ll ignore the loop section, which is a regrettable addition, but the rest is exactly what you want to see these cars doing. Abbey sweeps right and uphill, the new Brooklands is a very tricky left hander with a shorter braking zone than you think it should have, and Copse and Stowe are still mighty challenges. But the Maggots/Beckets/Chapel combination is what truly makes this worthy. Watch a low down angle of the cars sweeping left, right, left, right, left through the complex and you cannot help but be amazed.

Monza, Italy

Monza is great for anything. Even today’s aerodynamic superiority cannot help stop each race becoming a bit of a slipstreamer. If you could get rid of the second chicane it would be even better, but we can’t have everything. The long straight means the cars must be trimmed as much as you can today, but Monza’s corners are also mighty, and therefore even more daunting with no real downforce. Through the Lesmos even these cars are unhappy, the drivers having to muscle them through the pair of right handers. The Ascari chicane is one of the best chicanes around, sweeping right between a pair of tighter lefts. If you see cars through here in the flesh you will see they are on the very limit as they really attack the mid corner. Then there is the Parabolica, a legend in its own right. Sandwiched between two monster straights the entire lap can be made or lost in the Parabolica and it is a spectacular corner to witness fast cars attack. Monza is one of those circuits, a bit like Goodwood, for which the absolute simplicity of the layout is the key to its wonder.

Suzuka, Japan

The final track on our list is a bit of a perennial fan favourite these days. The Japanese crowd is passionate and knowledgable and the Suzuka layout has grown in popularity as the years have passed. The key for modern cars is, to some extent, again the real high-speed stuff, but even more the mid-speed. So the sweepers that start the lap are the undoubted stars along with the not-as-mighty-as-it-once-was 130R. But for us it is the pair of right handers that make up the two Degner corners that are the real beauties, as well as the tricky turn one/two. The Degners are a couple of ever-tightening right-handers. The first of which is awkward in its sort-of fast, sort-of not nature, and is made even more tricky by the tighter second corner approaching so fast. You leave the first corner off balance, and are braking for corner two almost before the car has settled from the first. It makes it so easy to make a mistake, even with the modern cars. Then there’s the opening complex, a fast sweeper to unbalance the car into an immediate braking zone for the second corner. Do you brake during the first corner, or try to ride it all out? It’s these tricky decisions that make the challenge of Suzuka so brilliant.

Images courtesy of Motorsport Images.