Korean International Circuit given the green light

It looked to have been touch and go for the Korean International Circuit and the Korean Grand Prix, with final track inspection to grant permission for the race to be held having been delayed multiple times, but now everything is set to go for Korea’s first F1 race.

The 5.62 km track in Yeongam, South Jeolla, about 400 km south of Seoul, has passed the necessary inspection and obtained the license from the International Automobile Federation (FIA), event operator Korea Auto Valley Operation said today.

The Formula One Korean Grand Prix takes place on Oct 22-24, and the track in Yeongam, designed by Herman Tilke, was completed just last week.

Cutting it fine would be an understatement, but all’s well that ends well, in this case. Now all that remains to be seen is if the racing’s any good.

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Anthony Lim

Anthony Lim believes that nothing is better than a good smoke and a car with character, with good handling aspects being top of the prize heap. Having spent more than a decade and a half with an English tabloid daily never being able to grasp the meaning of brevity or being succinct, he wags his tail furiously at the idea of waffling - in greater detail - about cars and all their intrinsic peculiarities here.

 

Comments

  • Prismo on Oct 12, 2010 at 3:53 pm

    Now F1 getting interesting…

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  • JonLing on Oct 12, 2010 at 4:39 pm

    i wonder how the turnout rate would be, since this circuit is given green light only weeks before the real race.

    btw, anthony lim is another new writer to this blog right?

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    • drMpower on Oct 12, 2010 at 8:17 pm

      be afraid. be very afraid. FIA regulation has it that for a circuit to hold a racing event, certification must be done 90 days BEFORE the event to be run. now forgive me if u may, between now 12th october until 24th october – the actual race date – even a man with half the brain can tell, it is not 90 days as stipulated in the rules.

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  • squawk on Oct 12, 2010 at 4:51 pm

    Some of those corners look like potential overtaking sites, especially for Kamui. :D

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  • drMpower on Oct 12, 2010 at 6:10 pm

    just pray nothing bad happen. this is brand new, never been tested before. word has it that they just relay the final surface days ago. all the infrastructures are really really new.

    some say if it is near impossible for the green light to be given but now we have the permission, we should pray finger cross nothing serious happen. bernie should limit the calendar to just 16 races per year. it is unthinkable for the sports to be globe trotting like this season.

    of course F1 is a sports that belongs to everyone, however they cant just cover the whole world just like that. i strongly suggest that quota system for each continent. however the traditional, exclusive tracks like monaco and italy should be exclude off the system. scrap off singapore it hasnt got any element in it. the only speciality it claims to own, is now abu dhabi’s. their version of night racing is much much much better.

    f1 should return the excitement to its millions watchers. city road racing isnt fun at all except for monaco for which it has traditions and everyone like it so much.

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    • Tiadaid on Oct 13, 2010 at 4:37 pm

      Then the Singaporeans would fight to get their race on the map. Who’s going to be the victim? Poor old Sepang. It’ll be a bidding war, which would either mean Singapore wins because they paid the most, or we win but due to the fact of having to pay more for the race, the prices for attending the race had to be raised to such an extent that people just lose interest which leads to the race being dropped, and lo & behold Singapore picks up the pieces.

      But to be honest, Singapore is a bit of a bore. At least in Malaysia there’s room for some action. The only barrier to that is the car’s design. Of all the Tilke-dromes built since Sepang, only Sepang & Turkey have the opportunity for some exciting racing.

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  • its by the sea somemore… wind will play a big factor…

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  • sharkFIN on Oct 12, 2010 at 8:06 pm

    if you guys watch teh red bull CGI on korean circuit; part of circuit in the future will become street circuit when all the city building is build on area around final sector.

    right now the circuit looks like any ordinary tilke circuit but we have to wait maybe 10 years to really finally see the actual circuit looks like.

    Part of it, is normal race circuit and on final sector it will be street circuit..

    here’s the Red Bull CGI video on mark webber youtube channel

    http://www.youtube.com/user/aussiegrit

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  • trollbait on Oct 13, 2010 at 9:39 am

    If all else fails, the Koreans can hire the Indian workers who managed to (sort of) get the Games Village ready for Delhi 2010.

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  • takeo1070 on Oct 13, 2010 at 1:32 pm

    some part of the circuit looks exactly like the south part of Sepang..

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