The FIA’s ‘Final Inspection’ of the Korean GP venue has been postponed by a week until Tuesday September 28.
Charlie Whiting was due to visit the track on his way to Singapore next week. However a national holiday in Korea made the logistics complicated, so he decided to postpone and go there afterwards instead.
The inspection will thus take place just 23 days before the official start of the Grand Prix meeting on Thursday October 21, rather than the 90 specified in the FIA Sporting Regulations. Whiting has however been updated with photographs of the work on a regular basis.
Although to the outside world the inspection is inevitably seen as a critical deadline, it seems that the FIA does not share that view, and it is assumed that the race is going ahead as planned even if work is not completed by September 28. In other words, the visit is unlikely to be followed by any kind of annoucement. However, that clearly doesn’t guarantee that there won’t be a last minute cancellation if work falls behind.
Incidentally, when Karun Chandhok did his demo he was not running on the final track surface. The ‘binder course’ layer that he drove on has had to be ground down since the Red Bull run took place in order to smooth out bumps. Apparently it has to be perfect, as any problems with it cannot be disguised by the final layer.
Meanwhile Tilke GmbH has sent its top asphalt man to Korea to keep an eye on progress…
Adam Cooper's F1 Blog 
Leave the bumps in!
At least, let’s not get hung up about a ‘perfect’ surface. One that doesn’t rip a car’s floor off will suffice.
Here’s hoping that Tilke gets damned by association and someone else designs the tracks in future…
There is no-one else.
Sure, you’ve got the likes of Apex Circuit Design and Populous … but Tilke GmbH isn’t just an architecture firm. They’re architecture and civil engineering, and they have an impeccable record for delivering work on schedule. Tilke will keep designing circuits until someone can rival him like that.
And he’s said that Bernie Ecclestone has given him the go-ahead to develop more dramatic, more challenging circuits. I’m not sure how he’s going to do that (my bet is that he’ll be more involved in selecting the land to be built on and regulations will be relaxed a little), but it sounds promising.
You also have to bear in mind that you kind of need circuits like Valencia and Shanghai. You can’t have twenty of them on the calendar, but you can’t have twenty Spas, either. Otherwise it’s just going to be a case of whoever designs the best car for the conditions will win. Variety in the calendar makes it harder for the teams to simply build one car and be fast everywhere. Not even Red Bull or Brawn GP could manage it.
What a farce! Is this another rule the FIA is going to dump because it doesn’t want to uphold it? Why is there a 90 day rule if it’s ignored?
The rules don’t say that the circuit *has* to be inspected ninety days in advance, only that it *should* be.
If this is “standards” talk, “should” would mean an obligation to comply, only “may” is optional, but I agree, FIA/FOM is does not have to use a standard to interact with other parties, and they might decide to be practical rather than follow their rules (which are somewhat arbitrary anyways).
KIC’s building supervisor interview in korean. (Use web translator)
http://app.yonhapnews.co.kr/YNA/Basic/article/new_search/YIBW_showSearchArticle.aspx?searchpart=article&searchtext=f1&contents_id=AKR20100916028300054
Staggered by his thought ‘Just a bit delay’, though nearly three month behind schedule and breaking the deadlines twice (almost going to do that three times…)
They haven’t yet began to lay surface layer at all nor finished to do ‘binder course’ partly until today.
Where does the number ‘95%’ come from? It’s a mystery to me.