Istanbul Park Circuit

Istanbul Park Circuit
formerly Istanbul Otodrom Circuit

Address: Göçbeyli Köyü Yolu Istanbul Park Circuit 34959 Tuzla Istanbul
Istanbul , Turkey
Route type:	permanent race track
Architect:	Hermann Tilke
Opening:	August 21, 2005
Formula 1 venue :	2005-2011
Time zone:	UTC + 2 ( EET )
Track layout
Route data
Route length:	5.338  km (3.32  mi )
Curves:	14th
Records
Track record: (Formula 1)	1: 24.770 min. ( Juan Pablo Montoya , McLaren-Mercedes , 2005)
http://www.istanbulparkcircuit.com/en-gb

Coordinates: 40 ° 57 ′ 24 ″  N , 29 ° 24 ′ 39 ″  E

Aerial view of the racetrack

The Istanbul Park Circuit ( Turkish : İstanbul Park ) is a Turkish racing circuit for automobile racing . The racetrack was initially to be called "Istanbul Otodrom Circuit" , but was then renamed shortly before the opening.

It is located in the Tuzla district in the Asian part of Istanbul . The design was worked out by the Aachen engineering office Tilke GmbH. The Turkish construction company Evren started the construction work at the beginning of 2004, which was completed in 18 months despite adverse weather conditions in winter. The cost of building the racetrack amounted to around 100 million US dollars and was borne by the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce (İTO) and the Turkish Association of Chambers and Exchange (TOBB). The first Formula 1 race started on August 21, 2005. Up to the 2011 season, seven Formula 1 races had taken place on this racetrack. For the 2012 season, the track was removed from the racing calendar. In addition to the Formula 1 races, the motorcycle world championship races from 2005 to 2007 , the Le Mans Series and World Touring Car Championship races from 2005 to 2006 , a DTM race in 2005 and a World Series by Renault race in 2006 instead of.

Alignment

The route is 5338 m long and is driven counter-clockwise. It consists of eight left and six right turns, the radius of the narrowest curve being 15 m. The longest of the four straight lines is 720 m long. The track width is 14 m at the smallest cross section and 21.5 m at the largest.

At the end of the 655.5 m long start and finish straight, the racing car reaches a speed of 306 km / h in sixth gear. The driver brakes and shifts into fourth gear in order to drive through the first left-hand bend at just under 200 km / h. The following right-hand bend, which is already fully accelerated, leads into a section of the route that is slightly curved to the right and has a very large radius, which is continued through at full acceleration up to a speed of 310 km / h. Since the route has a clearly positive gradient in this area, the further route section cannot be seen by the driver.

The racing car is now steered into a first combination of curves in an M shape, which can be found twice on this track. This is a characteristic left-right-left curve combination for this route, which, due to the relatively small radii and rapid changes in direction, is passed through at speeds of 100 km / h to 125 km / h in the apexes of the curves.

The subsequent straight and back straight is connected by a right-hand bend, which is driven through in second gear at 110 km / h. This is followed by a 180-degree left curve, which consists of three straight lines with no transition arcs. Such a routing element has so far only been implemented in Istanbul. If the driver stays on the ideal line, he can accelerate the racing car from an entry speed of 230 km / h to 305 km / h.

The driver reaches 320 km / h on the subsequent straight, before reducing the speed to 121 km / h at the beginning of the subsequent left-right combination. The longest full-throttle section of the route begins in the second bend, which leads over two straights that are connected by a right bend with a relatively large radius into the second and last M-shaped combination of bends. In this section of the track, the racing car reaches the top speed of 326 km / h in seventh gear. This is followed by the first left turn, the slowest part of the route, in which the speed is reduced to 93 km / h. The racing car returns to the start and finish straight via the following right and left bend.

The fastest lap so far was driven in 2005 by Juan Pablo Montoya in a McLaren-Mercedes and is 1: 24: 770 min. The average speed on one lap is 228.4 km / h and on a total race of 57 laps in 2005 including pit stops 217.5 km / h. The route is one of the medium-fast routes. The number of laps was increased from 57 to 58 laps for the race in 2006.

Superstructure

The asphalt superstructure is 64 cm thick and consists of four layers. Three pavers were used simultaneously to pave the up to 21.5 m wide stretch .

The first layer, 20 to 30 cm thick, consists of a mineral mixture without bitumen . Thereafter, a hydraulic bound were successively support layer of 15 to 25 cm, an asphalt base course of 10 cm and a binder layer applied on 6 cm. In order to avoid damage, the 4 cm thick top layer was not installed until all construction work had been completed. All layers consist of 19% dolomite lime dust and 16% a mixture of sandstone dust and the chemical additive NAF 501. A total of 430,000 tons of material were used.

In order to ensure the stable position of the racing cars even at high speeds, tolerances of a maximum of +/- 0.5 cm for the binder course and of +/- 0.2 cm for the surface course were permitted. The choice for the bitumen of the top layer fell on a “ polymer modified 60/70 penetration bitumen”, which is comparable to the German PmB 65 A with an EP RuK 48–55 ° C and a Fraaß breaking point of −15 ° C. The properties are therefore suitable for the temperature conditions in both summer and winter.

Grandstands

In addition to the main grandstand on the start and finish straight, there are nine further grandstands and five open areas on hills for a total of 125,000 spectators.

The main grandstand offers 26,250 covered seats. The remaining seats and standing room are divided equally between the uncovered grandstands and the open areas. The spectators can follow the rest of the race on a screen from each grandstand.

As a further service, shuttle buses are available to spectators during a race weekend, which circumnavigate the course at regular intervals and stop near the entrances and exits, all grandstands and the "F1 Village". The "F1 Village" is an area behind the main grandstand that is used commercially and on which various attractions, such as exhibitions by the automobile manufacturers, can be visited.

Transport links

Since the route is relatively far from the European city center of Istanbul and the transport connections are not optimal, the number of spectators has been relatively low in recent years. The route is 45 km from Istanbul's Kadîköy district on the Asian side and 15 km from the nearest larger district of Pendik . It can be reached both via the E5 (D-100) and the European TEM (E-80) exit Sekerpînar-Bayramoglu. The TEM connects Istanbul and Ankara. On race weekends, there are buses available to spectators that connect the track with Ataturk Airport, Kadıköy and Pendik. Pendik is on the coast and can be reached by boat from the city center. Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen Airport is located near the route .

There are 20,000 parking spaces available for spectators arriving with their own vehicle. The parking areas are located outside the route near the grandstands.

statistics

All winners of Formula 1 races in İstanbul

No.	year	driver	constructor	engine	tires	time	Route length	Round	Ø pace	date	GP the
1	2005	Kimi Raikkonen	McLaren	Mercedes	M.	1: 24: 34.454 h	5.338 km	57	219.497 km / h	21 Aug	Turkey
2	2006	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	Ferrari	B.	1: 28: 51.082 h	5.338 km	58	208.903 km / h	27 Aug
3	2007	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	Ferrari	B.	1: 26: 42.161 h	5.338 km	58	214.081 km / h	26 Aug
4th	2008	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	Ferrari	B.	1: 26: 49.451 h	5.338 km	58	213.809 km / h	May 11th
5	2009	Jenson Button	Brawn	Mercedes	B.	1: 26: 24.848 h	5.338 km	58	214.823 km / h	0June 7th
6th	2010	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren	Mercedes	B.	1: 28: 47.620 h	5.338 km	58	209.066 km / h	30th May
7th	2011	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull	Renault	P	1: 30: 17.558 h	5.338 km	58	205.734 km / h	08th of May

Record winner
Driver: Felipe Massa (3) • Driver nations: Brazil (3) • Constructors: Ferrari (3) • Engine manufacturer: Ferrari / Mercedes (3 each) • Tire manufacturer: Bridgestone (5)

References

literature

• “Symes, 2005”: Symes, C .; On the final lap, ic project report; in: internationalconstruction (ic), 44 (2005) 12, pp. 12-14

Web links

Commons : Istanbul Park Circuit  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Flash animation on gazzetta.it (gazzetta.it, 2007)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Description of the route at Welt-Online  ( page no longer available , search in web archives ), accessed on October 6, 2010.
2. ^ Symes, 2005
3. ↑ formula1-istanbul.com, 2007a
4. ↑ ^{a b c d} gazzetta.it, 2007
5. ↑ Nimmervoll, 2005a
6. ↑ ^{a b c} Symes, 2005
7. ↑ ^{a b} voegele-ag.de, 2007
8. ↑ ^{a b c} f1grandprixtours.com, 2006
9. ↑ formula1-istanbul.com, 2007b