Korean International Circuit

Motorsport track in South Korea

Yeongam, Korea's Four Year Grand Prix

Finished just in time for its first race, Hermann Tilke's circuit near the port of Mokpo held four Korean Grands Prix and then fell quiet.

The Korea International Circuit was ready for its first Grand Prix with very little time to spare. Built at Yeongam in South Jeolla Province, near the port of Mokpo and about 320 km south of Seoul, it grew out of a deal between Bernie Ecclestone and a promoter backed in part by the provincial government. Funding to start construction was confirmed on the 2nd of September 2009, heavy rain then held up the groundwork, and the circuit was inspected only on the 11th of October 2010, less than two weeks before first practice, with some facilities still unfinished.

Hermann Tilke gave the 5.615 km lap two personalities. After a double left at the start, a 1.160 km straight leads to the slowest corner of the lap, then come tight second gear switchbacks and a sequence of fast, flowing bends. Drivers brake for turn ten on a downhill slope, and the final section imitates a street circuit without the street, a maze of walled corners that includes the blind right hander at turn seventeen. The pit lane drew complaints: its entry lay on the racing line after a fast corner, and its exit joined at the outside of turn one, where Nico Rosberg struck Jaime Alguersuari in practice in 2011. Traffic lights were added, and later a longer exit.

Fernando Alonso won the first Korean Grand Prix for Ferrari on the 24th of October 2010. After that the race belonged to Sebastian Vettel, who won in 2011, 2012 and 2013 for Red Bull.

Those four championship rounds were all Yeongam ever held. By 2015 it was staging local events before small crowds, and critics called the venture a debacle. National racing in the Superrace Championship continues, watched from grandstands built for 135,000 that are still waiting for a crowd to fill them.

Every Grand Prix here

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