Which race track do you prefer, New Hockenheim or Old Hockenheim?

Question

I prefer the old track. It's sad to me that such excellent course has been lost because of the taste of F1 for compuer designed tracks. What do you think?

Answer 1

Old one was prettier, with the long blast through forest on either side of the track, though like San Marino with Senna, when Clark died there the appeal wained.

Answer 2

Old Hockenheim.

I liked Spa better before it was changed too.

Answer 3

the old track, when the bikes used it a lot, your right tracks are usually the worse for having F1 there..<^><...

Answer 4

People say that the Old Hockenheim was more exciting than the New Hockenheim. However this is the case with all the "Old" tracks.

I have the impression that nowadays the tracks are designed to be more practical and safe. The show and the thrilling that a F1 race give with overtaking doesn't play such a big role any more.

Answer 5

Actually I thought the old Hockenheim track was pretty dull, long straights interrupted by a few esses.

The stadium section also looked a bit clumsy on low downforce settings.

The new layout is actually more exciting from a spectator point of view since there's still lots of overtaking and more exciting than just people passing people down ultra-long straights.

Answer 6

At first I preferred the old one but I'm definitely warming up to the new one as it seems to have plenty of wheel to wheel racing.

Overall I'd probably say the old one is better just because it is much longer, which makes it harder in changeable conditions. It's not as if there was a lack of overtaking at the old one either.

Answer 7

The old pre-82 track - before the addition of the Ostkurve chicane - was better. The ground effects cars around there were quite amazing to watch. They just don't have those kind of corners in F1 these days, although with modern safety features they could probably get away with having them again. Once the old Ostkurve was gone, Hockenheim was never as exciting...and you have to remember that back then it was regarded as a bit of a silly circuit anyway, not a "real" challenge, unless you went off into the trees that is. To many, Jim Clark's death was doubly shocking for it happening on such a simple, safe and boring track. It tells you how far F1 has fallen if people are getting nostalgic about the old Hockenheim nowadays.

The new Hockenheim looks mickey-mouse, and is in fact mickey-mouse. I'm amazed so many young people like F1 today, I'm not sure I would have been half as into it if I was just getting interested now, rather than 30 years ago.

For fun, here's the 1986 race (lots of overtaking, Piquet and Rosberg at their best): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAP7AUcMJ...

And for interest, the 1938 circuit plan (already reduced from the original 12km to 7.69km) : http://www.silhouet.com/motorsport/track...

And what the old straight out of the stadium section towards the Ostkurve looks like today: http://www.schuerkamp.de/zope/hoover/rac...

And all that's left of the Ostkurve: http://i10.tinypic.com/2nail92.jpg

And why the Ostkurve had to go in the end, Depailler's fatal accident in 1980: http://img240.imageshack.us/img240/7628/...

Answer 8

good question, the ITV commentary team prefers the old circuit but i prefer the new curcuit. It depends what type of racing fan you are i guess, speedfreak or if you prefer technical corners.

Answer 9

old one