A chance conversation with a friend last week had me sinking into fond memories of an old PlayStation One game called V-Rally 2, which was a decent enough little rally racer with a hidden nugget of pure gold on the disc - it let you design your own circuit. Corners, incline, terrain, everything that was essential for a rally game.
I first played this at a friends' house and immediately went out and bought it afterwards, such was the impact of this feature. I'm not talking the type of corner design you get in Gran Turismo 5, where you pick the severity and frequency of corners in a sector, this let you bend, shape and mould each individual corner and slope. I don't ever remember making a course that didn't have at least a jump with a 70-degree rise.
The graphics of the course suffered as a result a tad with such customisation, but that was to be expected. Especially so when you remember that the PS1 really wasn't as sharp graphically as the PS3 is nowadays. Anyway, this gave me the idea of making my own Formula One course with a twist - I could only include corners that actually exist(ed) on F1 courses.
With this in mind, my creation ended up looking like this.
There's a decent mix of fast straights, tight corners and even a couple of fast, sweeping corners to allow as much overtaking as possible.
1 - La Source - Spa. This is the first corner on the Belgian circuit and always has plenty of action on it. A large run-off area is also there to be used or taken advantage of by the sneakier or more daring drivers.
2 - Senna Corner - Gilles Villeneuve. The Canadian GP is similar to the Belgian in terms of a tight start in the corners. This for me is the best tight second corner to a course in the world just now.
3 - Tamburello - Imola. This one needs no explanation. The man himself would have held no grudges against the corner and it's as fitting a tribute as I can think of to include it here.
4 - Grand Hotel Hairpin - Monaco. Inkeeping with the tight, twisty start, one of the most glamourous corners from the most glamourous track at THE most glamourous sporting event in the world.
5 - Bridge Corner - Silverstone. The first of a sequence of wide, high-speed corners. If Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May can take this full-throttle in a BMW 3 Series diesel, then our drivers can floor it.
6 - Hill Corner - Melbourne. The perfect corner to follow behind Hill - another pacy, long, sweeping corner to test the mettle of the overtakers among the drivers.
7 - Becketts Complex - Silverstone. A quick complex that will weed out the brave drivers prepared to take on the dusty outside of the tracks for the chance of an overtake at speed.
Straight - This is the area for both the speedtrap and the DRS activation zone. Also, I'd imagine this is where most teams and drivers would save their Kers system for.
8 - Dunlop - Suzuka. The only Asian corner in our course but a great way to wind up the long sweeping corners and get down to business in the last sector.
9 - Lycee - Magny-Cours. Tight, tricky and terrible to get wrong, many a driver has met his downfall by misjudging this corner.
10/11- Rascasse and Sainte Devote - Monaco. I've joined these two corners together to end the circuit with a fearsome tight double hairpin to round off the lap - fittingly, completing the inclusion of the three most memorable corners of Monaco.
This is more of a question for you to ponder, but has banning refuelling really done anything to improve the races? I'd argue not.
First and foremost, I think the idea to ban it was a ludicrous one and a preventative step that really shouldn't need to have been taken. It was such an overreaction to two incidents in the 2009 season - Massa pulling away from the Singapore pits with the hose still attached and a fire breaking out at one of the garages and a pit mechanic catching fire.
Don't get me wrong, the incidents weren't great, especially the latter, but the reason for fireproof suits and helmets being worn was kind of apparent after that, given that the suit stopped the mechanic being seriously hurt.
I think that the heavier loads and the lack of need to refuel has made the sport more boring, which is never a good thing. This is due to the decreasing of strategies now needed by teams - tyre strategies, deployment of Kers and DRS activation are really the only issues that the teams have to deal with come race day.
The weather can throw a spanner right into the works, just look at this year's Montreal GP, but even that's an issue the teams would rather do without and just run every race on a bright, sunny day with no crosswind or excess humidity.
What's more is that we're unlikely ever to see a proper pit-lane battle now that the refuelling has gone. In the past, it was down to the men on the tyres, the lifters and the refuellers to get things right. It's not had a massive effect, but I do feel that a part of the drama has gone from the pit lane at times.
Who knows if we'll ever see a return for the pumps in the pits, but in the meantime, I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
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