F1 circuit designer Tilke favours street races

Formula One has learned from past mistakes and the next generation of racetracks will be smaller and more intimate, according to leading grand prix circuit designer Hermann Tilke.

The German told British weekly magazine Autosport this week that the future trend would be to "get the tracks to the fans and not the other way round".

"That naturally suggests racing in cities," he added.

"Places like Monte Carlo have shown everyone that they possess a very special atmosphere."

Formula One has 17 races this season, after 18 last year, with Abu Dhabi scheduled to join the calendar in 2009 and South Korea pencilled in for 2010.

Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone has said five more countries are waiting in line.

The planned Abu Dhabi circuit includes a section through the streets and along the seafront.

Singapore has also been talked about as a possible venue for a night race, a novelty Ecclestone is keen on, while Valencia in Spain has also been lobbying for a grand prix on a harbourside street circuit.

Tilke, who designed the state-of-the-art circuits in Malaysia, China and Bahrain among others, recognised that mistakes had been made with ever more grandiose facilities being built in remote locations.

"We did create quite vast spaces between the pits and the team buildings," he said, referring particularly to Shanghai's $350 million circuit.

"In Shanghai, it gets annoying because you have to walk all the time.

"But it's even more annoying because it takes away atmosphere. We have learned from that, we'll organise it better," he added.

In a longer interview on the Autosport website, the German suggested that India and Russia were some way off hosting races, Mexico and South Africa's plans were 'dormant' and Greece's had "sort of fizzled out".

"India always comes up when we speak about new venues, but while it is always a subject of discussion, for now it is not more than a subject of discussion," he said.

Mexico, Tilke added, was on ice.

"It's completely open what will happen there for reasons that I find very hard to see through, the project was neutralised. I guess there were some political problems," he added.

The German said two small tracks were being built near Moscow but neither was intended to host grands prix although they could be brought up to F1 standards.