A JOURNEY TO JEDDAH
A new street circuit – promised to be the fastest in the world – will host the inaugural Saudi Arabian Grand Prix this year, and GP Racing’s principal photographer Steven Tee has been to scope it out already…
A sneak preview of the streets that will host F1’s newest GP
Having photographed Formula 1 since the mid-1980s I’ve seen circuits come and go – and radically change. But it’s still exciting to check out a new venue and see what’s on offer, both in terms of image potential and what it’s going to offer for the drivers.
I was recently in Saudi Arabia to cover the inaugural Extreme E round and detoured via Jeddah to see the venue which is going to host this year’s new grand prix in the kingdom – and probably the next couple of Saudi Grands Prix too, until a permanent circuit is built near Riyadh, the state capital.
Obviously there are a lot of opinions in circulation regarding Saudi Arabia and the hosting of a grand prix here. From a speak-as-you-find point of view I found the whole experience of arriving at the airport (which is a modern edifice in the modish, sweeping Norman Foster-ish style) smooth, pleasant and welcoming. People knew about the forthcoming grand prix and were genuinely interested in where I was from. I can’t say I experienced a fish-out-of-water feeling at all as I got around, although quite a few of my expectations didn’t come about.
Firstly the Jeddah seafront has a kind of South of France ambience. It’s hot but also, because it’s on the Red Sea coastline, there’s a humidity in the air which you don’t get elsewhere in Saudi Arabia or at the other grand prix venues in this region, Bahrain and Abu Dhabi. My hotel was a couple of miles down the coast from where the race is going to be held; there’s a beach club opposite, and the Al Kurnaysh dual carriageway with a wide pedestrian and cycling vestibule running along the middle. An archway with a clock counts down the hours until the grand prix begins.
Since it’s hot and humid out there, people tend to emerge late. Come early evening, as the sun continues its progress towards the western horizon, you see locals come out to exercise along the corniche or simply hang out in social groups under the trees strung along the seafront. The vibe is relaxed and unhurried.
If you consult the maps you’ll see Jeddah is quite a long, thin city, and the grand prix is part of a broader urban renewal project that aims to transform what is currently a fringe area. The majority of the buildings are new or recent, dotted through with the more traditional architecture of several mosques. Overall the impression is of the city being extended, gradually and sympathetically, towards the sea. Around four million people live in Jeddah, and nearly 35 million in the country as a whole, making this a very different prospect to Bahrain and Abu Dhabi, which are both small and relatively young. For all the new buildings there’s a proper sense of history here, a feeling of being at the heart of the Islamic world (Mecca is a relatively short distance away to the east).
Jeddah isn’t a high-rise city at all, and towards the north end, where the circuit is going to be, it kind of runs out. There’s a modern Hilton hotel, where I stayed, and as you go up the coast the road sweeps around a landscape in which vacant lots are juxtaposed with other new hotels, coffee shops (including several Starbucks), an amusement park, a cinema complex and a retail park with a supermarket. The aim for the Saudi Arabian GP is to spur on further development and gentrification here. The Jeddah Waterfront project is just three years old but the roads are already in place and it’s these which form the spine of the circuit.
When the race moves on to a purposebuilt facility in the Qiddiya sports city near Riyadh the roads will remain, so it has more in common with established street circuits such as the one in Baku rather than the abortive Korean GP. That project came freighted with plenty of glossy renders featuring apartment complexes, marinas and shopping malls in the background of the track but, to the best of my knowledge (I’ve not visited Mokpo recently) it’s still a barely used piece of asphalt threading its way around a swamp. The Jeddah track is already well on the way towards the vision set down by the architects.
As well as the brand-new elements, the environment includes some older features. During the oil boom of the 1970s the mayor commissioned big-statement public artworks, and one of them features at the bottom end of the circuit around the final sequence of corners. Hopefully it’s not an augury of what’s to come later this year, since it’s known as ‘Accident! (Crazy Speed)’ and features a giant cube of concrete in which are embedded five old sedan cars. There are 20 of these giant sculptures all along the corniche, plus more on roundabouts throughout the city. Apparently the inspiration came from the ancient city of Alexandria.
The track will loop around the adjacent roundabout and lagoon and come back along what’s planned to be a straight – which is going to require some additional asphalt – past the Belajio Resort and the pit complex, which is now taking shape on what was vacant land. At the end of the pit straight is what will be the tightest corner on the circuit, a jink left near the recently built Radisson Blu hotel, which is where I imagine the drivers and big cheeses will stay on race weekend. It’s upscale and architecturally in keeping with the region, fringed with filigree.
This section is envisaged to be a key overtaking point: the left-hander is 90 degrees, then there will be a straight which amounts to a handful of car lengths, then it will bend right again through a corner which opens out. It’s a classic example of a Tilke ‘booby trap’ designed to lure drivers into making mistakes – braking too late at the sharp corner or misjudging throttle application on the way out. At the moment the plans call for a number of grandstands here which will enable spectators to see not only this key action area but also the pits, which will feed out onto the outside of the right-hander.
After this the track opens out into more sweeping corners, and you can see why
THE JEDDAH WATERFRONT PROJECT IS JUST THREE YEARS OLD BUT THE ROADS ARE ALREADY IN PLACE AND IT’S THESE WHICH FORM THE SPINE OF THE CIRCUIT
the promoters and the Tilke architects see this as potentially the fastest street circuit on the calendar. At the top end there’s going to be another sweeping corner as the circuit comes back on itself, and they were just beginning to take the kerbs out here and do some ground-clearing work for the new asphalt which will be required.
There’s also a really interesting landmark here, the Al Rahma ‘floating mosque’. Built in the 1980s by a wealthy local family, it features 52 domes and is set on concrete pillars driven into the sea bed, so the whole structure appears to be floating on the surface of the Red Sea. In the early evening – when the race will be running – the sun will set behind it if you’re standing in the right place.
No doubt F1 TV will snap up this angle! As night falls the minaret is spotlit, a feature which will also no doubt make its way onto the broadcast.
The plan is for there to be pop-up restaurants all along this sea front area so it will be useable all year round, and provide a destination long after motor racing has packed up and moved on. If these eateries are open on grand prix weekend then the diners will get a spectacular view of the cars going through all the sweeping bends in the final sector of the track.
At the moment the plan is for the media centre to be on an island in the lagoon, which will make for an unusual but convenient working environment since it’s pretty close to the pits – not always a given with street circuits. In Monaco you’ve got a veritable obstacle course of stairs, then into the paddock and back out again, then over a bridge (if they let you through, that is) before you can get to where you need to go. This track feels like it will require rather less forward planning to get about.
Being a street circuit, and a fast one at that, obviously it’s going to be bounded by barriers and safety fences but the promoters are determined to make it as aesthetically agreeable as possible. And from the point of view of bringing you the best images possible, I’m assured there will be plenty of vantage points as well as ‘windows’ through which we photographers can poke our lenses.
Over the years we’ve seen tracks appear on the calendar and then disappear equally quickly, victims of commercial arrangements falling through, lack of political will, or developers being unrealistic about what can be achieved in a given timeframe. I recall stairs leading to a non-existent floor at the track in India, and arriving at Abu Dhabi’s Yas Marina Circuit for the first time to find the paint still wet in places. The Saudi Arabian GP has the sports ministry and various members of the royal family backing it, and of course the state energy company Aramco is a sponsor of F1 itself. I’ve no doubt that we’ll actually be here come
December and that it will all be finished.
Then, of course, we’ll be able to see if all the promoters’ and architects’ dreams have come to fruition in terms of the on-track action. Simulations indicate an average speed of 250km/h over what will be, at 6.175km, the second longest track on the calendar behind SpaFrancorchamps. I’m not one to wish away the season, but I can’t wait for the first weekend in December…