Istanbul Park

Motor sports race track in Istanbul, Turkey

Istanbul Park and Its Celebrated Turn 8

On Istanbul's Asian side, Hermann Tilke's counterclockwise circuit built its reputation on one long, four apex left hander that drivers rank with Eau Rouge.

Istanbul Park sits on the Asian side of the city, where the districts of Tuzla and Pendik meet, near Sabiha Gökçen airport and ringed by forest and fields. Hermann Tilke's design opened in August 2005, and Bernie Ecclestone, who later held the rights to run it, went so far as to call it the world's best racetrack. The 5.338 kilometer lap runs counterclockwise across four distinct levels of ground and through 14 corners, with a start and finish straight of more than 650 meters.

Its corners give it character. Turn 1 falls sharply downhill to the left just after the main straight, which earned it the name Turkish Corkscrew, and an uphill kink on the back straight was dubbed, with tongue in cheek, Faux Rouge. Above all there is Turn 8, a long, fast left hander with four apexes, compared by drivers and fans with Eau Rouge and 130R, which wears out tires as thoroughly as it tests the driver. Running counterclockwise, the circuit loads the side of the neck drivers are least used to, and the shape of Turn 8 later inspired corners at Austin, Sochi and the Buddh circuit in India. In circuit design, imitation is a sincere compliment.

Kimi Räikkönen won the first Turkish Grand Prix in 2005 for McLaren, and then Felipe Massa made the race his own, winning three in succession for Ferrari from 2006 to 2008, the most by any driver here. Financial disagreements ended the event after 2011, but it returned in 2020 after nine years away, when Lance Stroll took pole and Lewis Hamilton won. In 2021 it was added once more as a late replacement, and Valtteri Bottas won for Mercedes.

That was the ninth championship round held at Istanbul Park between 2005 and 2021. The Turkish Grand Prix is expected back from 2027 under the Turkish Automobile Sports Federation, which took over the circuit in 2025, and Turn 8 will be waiting.

Every Grand Prix here

Scroll to Top