Hermann Tilke

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Hermann Tilke (born December 31 , 1955 in Olpe) is a German architect, designer of Formula One motor racing circuits and auto racer.

1 Racing
2 Architecture
3 External links
4 References

[edit] Racing

Since the 1980s, Tilke has been in touring cars, mainly on the old Nürburgring Nordschleife, in VLN endurance racing and 24 Hours Nürburgring. He and Dirk Adorf won in 2003 and 2004 some VLN races with a V8Star.

[edit] Architecture

Tilke established Tilke Engineering in 1984 combining skills in architecture, civil engineering and electronic engineering to provide complete solutions for motor racing and waste disposal projects.

One of his first, minor tasks was a short access road at the Nürburgring, earned due to contacts made by his racing efforts there. He later redesigned the first turn of the circuit in 2002.

His first major job was the change from the fast Österreichring to the shorter A1-Ring in Austria, in the 1990s.

Having made numerous changes and safety improvements to the established stable of F1 circuits, Tilke secured the contracts to design many high-profile new world circuits from scratch. These include:

Tilke will design the Korean International Circuit, and it will hold a Formula One race in 2010

Tilke was also involved in the radical overhauls of the Hockenheimring in Germany and most recently the Fuji International Speedway in Japan.

Tilke Engineering is also due to carry out work on Circuit de Catalunya, Autodromo Nazionale Monza, Nürburgring, Silverstone Circuit and La Ciudad del Motor de Aragon (Spain).

Tilke's trademark is a long straight followed by a very tight hairpin, which is supposed to encourage overtaking.

Many accuse him of designing boring circuits which are too similar to each other. However, others say that, in an age where safety must come before everything else, Tilke does a difficult job well, within the limits set by Formula One.