Opinion: The most overrated race tracks in the world

Every motorsport fan has a personal list of favourite race tracks – big, small, local, and international. But what about overrated? The lauded layouts that really shouldn’t be as popular as they are. It was a topic of discussion at MOTOR HQ recently, and it got me thinking.

The first that came to mind was the Monaco street circuit. In all honesty, Formula 1 outgrew the Monegasque streets two decades ago. Since then, cars have become longer, wider and faster. F1 insiders praise it, but I can’t think a less interesting grand prix on the current calendar – and that includes Sochi! This year’s return to the Principality was a depressingly processional stinker.

One of the most exciting Monaco races in recent history was in 2018, when Daniel Ricciardo had to nurse a broken car, which was on three-quarter power and had just six of its eight gears available, while defending a full-attack Sebastian Vettel for 50 laps. That’s not a race, it’s a traffic jam.

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If Monaco is worthy of its slot on the grid for its age alone then I’m officially starting a petition for Formula 1 to return to Indianapolis. And not the meandering infield ‘road course’, I mean the proper full-fat oval for 500 miles.

Formula 1’s crown jewel isn’t the only circuit that draws my ire, with one of North America’s premier endurance races run on a track that uses its dilapidation as a selling point. I’m talking about Sebring, which proclaims to be one of the oldest continuously operating race tracks in the United States. Originally an army airfield, the circuit still occupies a portion of the local airport.

If you listened to the track owners – and one-eyed US racing fans – Sebring’s defining feature is its bumps. But one man’s bumps is another’s disrepair. The track owners have done a hell of a job dressing up the awful surface as some sort of unique offering. Well, it is unique in its brutality, but that doesn’t make it something worthy of adulation. Want to be great? You need to bring more to the table I’m sorry.

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To its credit the first and last corners have plenty of character (and challenge), but in between are 15 turns of middling mediocrity. I should be clear; unless a new layout is built, Sebring shouldn’t be repaved – that’d take it from overrated to just plain bad. But a one-trick pony doesn’t deserve your respect as a race fan. The owners can either let it sink into a sinkhole with the rest of Florida, or shut the doors for a while, do some homework, and not return until they’ve come up with something decent.

The Americans aren’t the only ones guilty of taking a disused airport and trying to reshape it as a crown jewel, with the Brits having a confounding love with Silverstone I’m yet to understand.

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It wasn’t always overrated though, with previous iterations being fast and fearsome. But since then it’s been sanitised and rejigged into something that barely resembles what it started out as. Despite its slew of iconic bends, the circuit as a whole is altogether a bit soulless. If Hermann Tilke was handed a briefcase of unmarked Euros to build a new grand prix track and delivered the modern Silverstone, there would be righteous indignation abound. Sorry cobbers, but Silverstone is merely decent at best.

To round this out, it’s time to look at our own backyard and the host of the biggest motorsport event in Australia – the Albert Park Grand Prix circuit. I understand the location of our only F1 grand prix and its benefits are largely commercially driven – the lake is very pleasant and, hot damn, don’t the helicopter shots with the CBD in the background make Melbourne look like a half-pretty city on television.

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Yet as a circuit, it fails to do anything exciting, new, or interesting. When was the last properly entertaining F1 race at Albert Park? There have been engaging moments in isolation, but the full-length races are traditionally a snore-fest. If the circuit was dropped from the F1 calendar altogether, would it be any great disappointment? Not really. If we are paying huge sums to host a Formula 1 grand prix, it should at least be at a half-decent circuit. Australian racing fans deserve better.

To end this diatribe I put it to you, what are some of the most popular circuits around the world that can only manage to elicit a ‘meh’ from you? Ping our inbox and let us know!