Formula One News » Chandhok christens Korea International Posted on 06/09/2010
Karun Chandhok completed 14 laps of the all-new Korean Grand Prix circuit as Red Bull Racing played a part in the facility’s official opening event, ‘Circuit Run 2010’.
Four thousand spectators travelled to the Yeongam-based circuit for the event, which saw Chandhok joined on track by Formula BMW and Korean touring car drivers. The Indian was chosen to christen the facility as RBR’s regular pilots, Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel, and reserve Daniel Ricciardo, were all unavailable due to other commitments, and completed ten laps in a road car in addition to those in the V10-engined Red Bull machine.
“It’s a really interesting layout,” Chandhok reported after the run, “The track’s got a good mix of corners and I think we’ll see a lot of overtaking in the first sector, [where] there are long straights into slow hairpins.
“The straight after turn one and two is really long, so we may see some good slip-streaming there, like in Shanghai. From turn seven onwards, there’s a fast section of flowing corners all the way back to the start-finish line – so I think the Red Bull Racing guys will be happy in sectors two and three. It’s an interesting layout.”
“There are four high-speed corners with some elevation changes, which will be interesting for the drivers,” he added in an interview with Reuters after his run, “Turns eight-nine and eleven-twelve are going to be really interesting for the drivers with high-speed changes of direction and camber changes.
“It’s got a bit of a street circuit feel to it, with the walls being quite close and you can’t really look through the apex of a lot of corners.”
There has been much speculation as to whether the circuit will be ready to stage the first ever Korean GP in late October, but Chandhok revealed that, in his opinion, the event will go ahead as planned.
“Looking at the facilities, the garages and team buildings look pretty much finished and they’re big – I think teams will need to bring around 30 per cent more furniture to fill them!” he joked.
“The grandstands also look reasonably finished. The track itself needs a bit more work on the asphalt and the kerbs, but the organisers think it’s all within their time-lines and are confident that it will be ready on time.”
“Undoubtedly, they still have a lot more work to do, but now it looks like we’re just in the touch-up stages,” he told Reuters, “The asphalt and kerbs need a bit more work, but it all looks under control.”
The Indian, who raced for F1 newcomer Hispania Racing until mid-season – when he was replaced by the better-financed Sakon Yamamoto – also confirmed that the Korean public appears ready to embrace F1 when it arrives in the middle of its late-season ‘flyaway’ phase.
“There’s certainly some enthusiasm for F1 here,” he noted, “There were a lot of people at the event today, which wasn’t heavily publicised, and there’s a lot of media, which shows an interest. The organisers say they have sold a significant amount of tickets, so it should be a good race.”
F1 race director Charlie Whiting is due to re-inspect the Yeongam facility en route to the Singapore Grand Prix at the end of this month, but the doubts over its viability are now expected to be few.
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