The inaugural Korean GP was one the worst F1 races in recent memory. The track easily replaces Malaysia as one of my personal least favorites, followed closely by Singapore. (The Malaysian track wasn’t bad, but the camera coverage was always crappy, and Singapore, while quite stunning, tends to create a race of parade laps.)

What puts Korea on my “list”?

First: While you can’t rationally fault the weather, you can fault the track designers and constructors for building a track that doesn’t drain.

Second: The “concrete canyon” of turns 15/16/17 seems gratuitously dangerous. Part of the back straight after turn 2 seems that way too. Almost zero run-off so if something goes wrong it could easily go wrong in a very bad way for a lot of drivers all at once.

Third: The blind pit entrance directly off turn 17 and the exit directly into the racing line are deadly design failures that should cost someone their job. Let’s hope they re-engineer those before next year.

Oh… and did you hear that photo journalists were afraid to cover the race from many areas around the track because of poisonous snakes coming up out of the SWAMP the track is built on?

FAIL!

Thank goodness the last two races are at decent tracks!

B