I don’t think it’s any accident that the circuit looks like Austin. The plan clearly shows the borders of the land the circuit would be built on, and – as with the Hockenheim rebuild – there’s not a hell of a lot of room for freedom give the shape Tilke has to work with.
I’m hoping there’s enough difference between this an Austin to give it its own character. Yes, it’s run clockwise, and yes, a lot of the corners are much more angular. But I think it would be better if the circuit was shorter than the usual 5.5km, for one. And it also looks like it could easily be turned into a Suzuka-style figure-of-eight circuit. A few sweepers wouldn’t go amiss, particularly at the square end.
Overall, though, I think I preferred that Ukrainian design Tilke did. I just see too many similarities betweem Croatia and Austin; if Tilke hadn’t designed Austin the way he did, I’d probably think this would look great.
Are there honestly no other FIA-approved circuit designers out there out of the 7+ billion people in this world?
The only other people who might be able to do it is Populous, the firm that created the new Silverstone. However, the new Silverstone isn't finished yet. Given the size, scale, cost and the permanence of the project, the FIA and FOM probably won't go awarding any circuit design contracts to Populous until they know whether the new Silverstone works the way they say it will. And that doesn't just mean running the British Grand Prix, but also having other events like the BTCC and the Britcar 24 Hours and MotoGP and so on.
