The Circuit of the Americas has 20 corners

© photo by Circuit of the Americas, licence: Attribution

Track designer Hermann Tilke believes that the Circuit of the Americas will be tough for drivers this weekend.

"I think there are some real difficult parts of this track, and hopefully it will be one of the most challenging," said Tilke.

The start is on the track's shorter straight and leads to Turn 1, which is a left-hand bend at the top of a hill with a blind apex. Turns 2-9 are a series of high-speed corners until Turn 10, which leads to a short straight and then to the slow Turn 11 left-hander. That leads to the longest straight on the track until another slow left-hander at Turn 12. From there, there is a complex of medium to low speed corners and a long, sweeping double apex turn 16, 17 and 18. Turns 19 and 20 are low speed affairs that lead back to the starting straight. 

"For the drivers it will be hard, it will be difficult to set up the car and it will be tough to keep the tires running correctly too. That could mean there are more problems with the tires, which will be good for the race," said Tilke. 

Tilke has been criticized in the past creating tracks with little elevation change and combine the same elements in different ways at each track. It appears that he took advantage of some of the natural terrain for the Circuit of the Americas for the uphill Turn 1 and off-camber sections of Turns 2-9. 

"I think this track is really good, but we have to see what the drivers will say about it. That first statement will be important, and hopefully it will be a positive one. But you never know how it works," said Tilke.

Tilke redesigned the Österrreichring into the A1-Ring in 1995 and then went onto a career of creating tracks. After the A1-Ring came Sepang in 1999 then Bahrain and Shanghai in 2004, and he has continued from there. Before the Circuit of the Americas, his last track was the Buddh International Circuit in India. 

Source: Autosport