F1's street race push allows more exciting tracks, says Tilke

Formula 1 track designer Hermann Tilke says the sport's push to add more city races to the schedule opens the door for more exciting track layouts in the future.

With F1 chairman Chase Carey having revealed earlier this week how essential it was that new venues could deliver good racing, Tilke has suggested that the desire of Liberty Media for more city events would help in its quest.

Tilke, who has worked on a number of high-profile F1 circuits, says that real-world limitations that are present when it comes to creating permanent tracks for all categories of cars are not there when a venue is designed only for a grand prix.

"We are not building tracks only for the high professional drivers, we are also building tracks for all kind of drivers," Tilke said at the FIA Sport Conference in the Philippines on Tuesday.

"This means amateur drivers, it means a driver who is 60 years old and wishes to drive some kind of racing car or high-performance car. All these people have to be safe, it is not only F1.

"But as you see in Baku – that is a track built only for professional drivers. You could never have old drivers or young drivers on this track – and that makes a difference.

"The investor of a [permanent] track wants to use a track for everybody – not only F1."

F1's newest races are expected to be Miami and Vietnam, with Liberty clear that it wants such destination cities to become central to its push to build up a bigger fan base.

Tilke welcomes the idea of more street tracks in F1.

"The trend is going to the city tracks and this is really good for professional sport," he said. "The idea behind it is that it is really very unique, and every city is unique. If you go in the centre of a city then you cannot compare with others.

"We have real street races, we have three in the calendar at the moment – Monaco, Singapore and Baku - and all these three are so different and so unique.

"This makes it really very interesting and for the high professional series like F1, it is the right way."