12 Street Circuits That Were Never Constructed (ft. Formula 1, Indycar, and More!)

[@nathanalexander2436]

Sorry to those of you who can’t watch the video due to Formula 1s copyright claim. Not sure exactly what I did wrong, but I’ll look to be more careful in the future. Wish that they’d take after NASCAR and Indycar and be more lenient with the use of their footage.

[@makb_the_striker]

Circuit Jilles Villeneuve isn't a street circuit. The temporary circuits, that are located at parks has it's own track category - park tracks. Coz they have runoff areas, and they aren't so bumpy as a street courses are.

[@paulmaxey6377]

Another planned F1 circuit that went quiet was the London street circuit. It is going back to 2012, but they planned to race in front of Buckingham Palace, The Houses of Parliament and Big Ben and The Olympic Stadium. They even went as far as to get permission to hold a motor race in London and draw up a proposed track. But it quickly went quiet and not heard anything about it for years. It might be hard to find any information on it though.

[@ca24denyt5]

@@paulmaxey6377 and hanoi

[@dylanzrim3635]

@@ca24denyt5 pretty sure Hanoi has an active circuit.

[@HeHasNoName]

'make the track longer so we can put up more advertising' is THE most bernie ecclestone thing ive heard in a while

[@normandobson418]

The Athens Street Circuit layout looks incredible 😍 If only F1 and Greece could have made it happen

[@ihog_xd6762]

I’m almost 100% sure that Hanoi is not going to be raced by F1 anytime soon. If this comment can age well then Hanoi could also be on this list in the near future

[@nathanalexander2436]

I'm definitely of the same mindset. Even with the surface laid down I just don't see it happening anymore.

[@benwalter4842]

I wish the Vietnamese GP could take place (love the circuit design)

[@nsc337]

As someone that is a born & raised resident of Las Vegas i remember vividly the details about the failed proposal for the return of F1 to Las Vegas(was in elementary school at the time), it boiled down to contractors not wanting to spend money on redeveloping the golf course that still sits on the site as well as potential noise complaints from the surrounding areas where residents are. It nearly went ahead until a city council meeting at the LV city hall where the organizers informed the city their intentions to withdraw from going forward with it due to investors backing out and the deal with bernie eccelstone also falling through. It got to 2nd base in terms of nearly happening.

[@nathanalexander2436]

Thank you for letting me know! Due to a lot of these circuits being planned during the early days of the Internet finding articles or newspaper clippings has been incredibly challenging. It’s people like you that help us remember these tracks, even if they never came to fruition.

[@benwalter4842]

Looks like they are trying again to make a Las Vegas race happen.

[@hoffrobert4]

There was an advertisement ran in an Indy 500 program for this race. I want to say the 1995 program.

[@wendigockel]

I know of three more instances of Street circuits we never got: 1. Indycar China GP: In 2012 or/and 2013 Indycar intended to run a race in Qingdao, China. I don't know why it did not go through, but an official track map is out there, as back then it was shown on the official Indycar website. They should have just run at Zhuhai. That track is seriously underrated. 2. DTM Avignon: As Jean Alesi was one of the most popular drivers in DTM throughout the early naughties, a race in the streets of his hometown was planned. It would have been an even shorter track than Norisring in Nuremberg and likely would have sucked to race at. It fell through and got replaced by a second race at the Eurospeedway. 3. DTM Moscow: Yes, another street circuit in Moscow that got nixed. DTM proposed a race in Russia's Capital the same year the Avignon proposal took place. I don't know how far things came over there before nothing came of it anymore. I'm not even sure if a track map exists. DTM came to Russia about a decade later though. Sadly there was not a single good track in Russia at the time, so they went to Wolokolamsk. Very far away from Moscow, yet still known as Moscow Raceway. That track sucks harder than Sochi. The races there were terrible.

[@DanArnets1492]

You also forgot how the DTM exhibition at Shanghai was supposed to be a preview to DTM having a real round over there - Also, Alesi was a DTM driver during the early 2000s!!!

[@wendigockel]

@@DanArnets1492 First: DTM eventually got a points paying round in Shanghai. On a different Layout though. Second: I said naughties. That's British for "First decade of a century". So I'm right.

[@nachoalvarez7171]

@@coletrickIe just like the Swiss E-prix both in Bern and in Zurich

[@pepperjackttv]

Athens, Rome, and Boston I think would've been the best. Disneyland Paris would be an interesting setting but I'm having a hard time imagining that layout working

[@nathanalexander2436]

There were actually two layouts drafted for the disneyland Paris circuit, as well as an alternate layout to the one I used in the video. If I remember I’ll try to link the articles down in the description.

[@rosepitarys6323]

This was very well presented! It was an interesting aspect of racing I had Known nothing about!

[@nathanalexander2436]

Why thank you!

[@unrulyrhyme7139]

I already knew of these tracks,but nonetheless this video provided very good details and info, please make more of these.

[@TD-bw6qy]

Palm Springs. The circuit was to go up Palm Canyon Dr and then back on Indian Canyon Drive in Downtown. There was a chicane on both straights, a double left hander at one end. Picture a long Martinsville with chicanes. Very unimaginative but fast! One issue was when to have it. March as the IRL season opener or Mid-November as the IRL finale. Some movers and shakers, some since dead dadly, we're involved but it never got off the 8.5 x 11 sheet.

[@DanArnets1492]

That thing looks like the non-oval layout at Rafaela (Argentina), which is both horrendous and great - The Autodromo de Rafaela (named after a nearby town, not a particular woman) was Argentina's attempt at making oval racing popular. They managed to bring in Indycar twice... and that's about it. How did everyone else used that BIG oval? Full of chicanes, of course!

[@jackhoffmann8646]

Port Imperial I wort on the pit garages there. We put huge welding plates in the columns over the garages for stands. Great elevation changes on the track also.

[@RJLightning68]

This was an awesome video, even informed me on circuits I didn't even know were planned.

[@nathanalexander2436]

Hey guys, sorry for the lack of content recently, with school and work I haven't had as much time as I would have liked. However, I'm back to making regular content and at the end of my next video, episode 2 of my lost racetracks series, I'll be teasing some of that new content, as I have both the scripts and thumbnails done for about 4 future videos already, with more near completion. Make sure to subscribe as things are about to get very interesting!

[@manuelgrothe608]

are you making more videos?

[@manuelgrothe608]

14:33 in 2023 is the Las Vegas GP November night race

[@nascar_vault]

NASCAR Chicago Street Course will probably be in here in a few years

[@DanArnets1492]

It's NASCAR, the fuckers will use it at least twice

[@maineiacial]

As a Baked Bean who loves racing imma have to say Bahstun had the most impact for me. The sound of the engines going down Boylston st would rock my world. I always thought Storrow Drive would make a great racetrack. Crossing. The Charles would be a pain so thats out.

[@manuelgrothe608]

6:07 in 2024 and 2034 is the 90th and 100th anniversaries of the SAGP

[@thomassmets8303]

I remember the talks about Boston, but Athens would have been cool. To be honest, the try for getting Formula E in Brussels would have been a good one here as well. Nicely done

[@nandolorris8128]

very cool video! i learned so much!

[@EricB256]

Port Imperial all the way. Its undulating terrain makes it very exciting. It could host IndyCar on Saturday after the F1 qualifying and the F1 race on Sunday afternoon. Maybe F1's current owners from the US can give it another try?

[@benwalter4842]

I want this to happen (would be my home circuit)

[@robdavies82]

I did walk around the proposed Dublin circuit back in 2017 and I honestly don’t think it would have happened. It would have involved shutting off O’Connell street and the O’Connel bridge which is the main shopping street in the city. There was also no obvious location for a pit lane or paddock area, unless they split the pits into a side street, similar to how Formula E sometimes race.

[@mrtom2450]

Good video! Just subscribed

[@zmotorsport2815]

great and interesting video, keep it going!

[@nathanalexander2436]

Thank you!

[@patrickracer43]

Port Imperial was supposed to be one of two F1 races held in the United States, with the permanent track at COTA and a street circuit that runs through both Port Imperial and Wehaken

[@JRRacing64]

Being a fellow New Englander the Boston circuit not coming together was extremely disappointing. I knew at the time it was originally going to be the Providence grand prix before they were trying to put on the one in Boston. I think they needed to overhaul the streets in Providence is what killed the plan...

[@IanTheMotorsportsMan_YT]

Your content is good, man. Just subbed!

[@nathanalexander2436]

Thank you! Been crazy with work and school, but have a few new vids in the works, hopefully coming out soon!

[@IanTheMotorsportsMan_YT]

@@nathanalexander2436 take your time

[@GrizzlyDust7222]

Quality video my guy

[@nathanalexander2436]

Thank you! I really appreciate it

[@davethedog007]

In the late 80's I went to watch my Dad race a salon at a track in Dublin. The track was in Phoenix Park which is just west of the centre of the city. Although a long time a go and i was very young I do remember it was very narrow so not sure if this could have been used for F1 or not.

[@nachoalvarez7171]

There was a track in Pheonix in F1

[@tylerkochman1007]

Had no idea they actually thought about a circuit around the Boston convention center. That’s where I’ve imagined would be the best location for one in Boston

[@Gordanovich02]

Then of course there was the London street circuit, which proposed to race through the Admirality Arch at the bottom of The Mall, despite the passageways only being wide enough for a single car. Likely it was only ever an attempt to put the squeeze on Silverstone.

[@eggselent9814]

Not really. In 2010 Silverstone was almost dropped from the calendar and Donington Park should have taken over, though financial troubles ended that. And obviously, there were also Aintree and Brands Hatch. These two co-existed with Silverstone for quite a while (Especially Brands Hatch)

[@farhanatashiga3721]

Your thoughts about that area of Cape town finally getting a Motorsport race (albeit it's FE)?

[@MillionaireWizard]

The backstretch of the Fuengirola Street Circuit reminds me a whole lot of the backstretch at the Circuit de la Sarthe, the home of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

[@MikeWooshy]

IIRC the Dublin street circuit was due to take place around Phoenix Park, which already(did, IE no longer does?) holds motorsport events.

[@grahamcrackergaming1540]

You’d think that people who create mods of fantasy tracks on say Assetto Corsa or rFactor 1 and 2, you’d think someone would have someone make mods of these proposal tracks and put in a way of how’d they’d look if the race would’ve actually happened. I would love if someone did this.

[@JakobM325]

check out manhattan street course for RF its pretty similar to the Boston map in this clip

[@guessundheit6494]

3:50 - You left out the death of Greg Moore late in the 1999 season, which REALLY ended the season on a low note. A track that was never proposed that I wanted to see was Kai Tak airport in Hong Kong. An airport on a man made island in the ocean allowed for repurposing Kai Tak's land. But with all that paved concrete and asphalt, using the runway for a long straight and couple of wide bridges across the harbour, it could have made for an exciting one-off race. The runway was over 3km long, and the land for storing planes was huge. A 6km circuit with lots of runoff areas could have been made.

[@chevy8018]

I would have loved to see the Boston circuit raced, being from Massachusetts myself I would have been there for that race even if it meant sitting in traffic for more than an hour on I95.

[@kylegoodman5196]

I'm interested to see how long the upcoming Jeddah Street Circuit lasts on the calendar, considering MBS is building a dedicated closed track in Qiddiyah.

[@nathanalexander2436]

Same, tbh I don’t like the look of it, same with the location (While I try not to be political, considering the state of the country the “We Race As One” campaign will be a little ironic) but only time will tell. I have a feeling it will end up being like Yas Marina, where it is widely unpopular with fans but due to financial reasons will likely remain on the calendar.

[@kylegoodman5196]

@@nathanalexander2436 I like Yas Marina lol.

[@dredgie9367]

I believe the street circuit is only for 2 years while the new circuit is built and that will become the gp instead.

[@kylegoodman5196]

@@dredgie9367 Who knows maybe it'll be so popular and such a money maker that both tracks get on the calendar?

[@eggselent9814]

@@kylegoodman5196 Hopefully not

[@faniabyan]

I think you should include Lippo Village

[@hmdwgf]

The Port Imperial street circuit would have been absolutely jaw-dropping.

[@Denes2005]

I’d be down to driving around cape town in assetto corsa

[@Kerogas_]

As Moscow citizen I can sure you that even 40 years ago the Leninskye gory GP was impossible due to blocking several important avenues. The downtown circuit near the Kremlin for 2015 E-Prix is still the best circuit for this constantly stuck in traffic jams area

[@SolidSonicTH]

That CART Hawaii race really did have a trash layout.

[@nathanalexander2436]

Yeah I feel like it would have just been a parade the whole way around

[@PASquared]

What circuits are in the clips at 0:27 and 14:38? Port Imperial would have been an amazing circuit for a road course, let alone a street circuit. What a shame

[@nathanalexander2436]

Macau and 2007 Las Vegas

[@PASquared]

@@nathanalexander2436 thank you kindly

[@nicolesgaming8917]

I thought part of the failure of the Grand Prix of Boston was how the laws banning street racing in Boston (or is that Massachusetts as a whole?) are written, even banning otherwise legally sanctioned racing on the streets....

[@maineiacial]

Bostons blue laws are ridiculous. Theres so many...

[@STREET24000]

Lost racetracks episode suggestions: Molson Indy Vancouver (both layouts) Westwood Plateau

[@nathanalexander2436]

Vancouver is definitely on my shortlist, although I’ve never heard about Westwood Plateau

[@STREET24000]

@@nathanalexander2436 Westwood Plateau was another track here in B.C that sadly got demolished some time ago (I’m not sure when that happened) but apparently it hosted regional open wheel races (I think) and now the area where the track used to be is all houses. I googled the track a few years ago after my dad told me about it. Sorry I can’t tell more about it but that’s all I remember from when I googled it.

[@BoSoxGamig]

@@STREET24000 Thank you I just looked into it! Definitely an interesting track, there’s also a mod for AC so I may have to try that out as well

[@hoffrobert4]

Gene Simmons marketing company tried to get an IndyCar race going in Turks & Caicos several years back. The plan never got off the ground.

[@timothy4290]

Thats a lot of sierras in the thumbnail. Was that DTM?

[@nathanalexander2436]

That is! At AVUS I believe. I originally had two DTM circuits on here but decided to save them for another video.

[@Ibol406]

I will watch your career with great interest

[@nathanalexander2436]

Thank you! Sorry for the lack of content recently, been struggling for time but working on a few things when I can

[@petersmith382]

What about the Sydney street circuit across the harbour bridge originally for sports cars but has also been looked at for F1

[@RCVictoryLane]

I remember the failed Boston circuit. I think it would have lasted quite a few years if it had been pulled off

[@aaronocon8332]

Ik that I’m the 80s F1 nearly went to Dublin with Bernie even visiting and the plans were in the later stages but lack of money stopped it

[@thatwhitegti]

I’m from New Hampshire would kill for an F1 race in Boston

[@rickden8362]

There are only 2 reasons why a F1 race bid reason fails. -1) Overwhelming locale opposition...Has 1% effect on F1 opinion. -2) The twin, double wide continental lorries, super packed by champion Japanese Sumo wrestlers with 1000 Euro notes doesn't get to Bernie Ecclestone's secret Swiss bank on time. (If the lorry is late, he keeps the cash regardless). 100% of the reason for getting a F1 race.(see V. Putin)

[@hayo919]

Who else noticed that the Cape Town circuit is almost the same as the South African GP in Motorsport Manager?

[@TheMNrailfan227]

I saw the NASCAR logo in the thumbnail, and no NASCAR street circuits in the video. Incredibly disappointed

[@eannamcnamara9338]

As someone who lives in Paris the first one makes me sad.

[@Mr2it3881]

Street circuits are my favorite in F1 and Indy car, I wish there where more of them.

[@lionelrosiere2062]

Moscow in 1983 in F1 and the Chimeric NY GP in F1.

[@ОлегСергеевич-м2б]

Очень крутой видос, респект автору

[@mckeeboys8929]

Chicago should be added to the list

[@tommcglone2867]

I know why the 1983 Moscow street circuit was canned. September 1982 was when the USSR (later found out to be accidental) shot down an Korean Air 747...

[@AlwaysChasingStorms]

Is the ausie f1 gp a street circuit?

[@danielclark4624]

nothing on the Manhattan street circuit?

[@yindyamarra]

Any of the USA tracks could still happen as f1 are thinking of 2 USA Grand Prix now

[@GoldenEDM_2018]

Make that 3

[@ALR-MikeSans]

kinda miss hanoi. would had been interesting to see F1 cars do basicly monaco 2.0

[@koketsok7391]

True but the promoters were caught committing corruption within the government and may face the death penalty plus government is facing some heat right now

[@nathanalexander2436]

Damn I really need a part two for this video now. That’s wild.

[@fernandoapikachu2427]

Am I the only one who wants to drive in these tracks in video games, by mods.Is there any mods of any of these tracks?

[@johnvaughan22]

Rip Boston gp

[@joshuathecat-human1247]

Update 2023 if you herd the news formula one is head to the las Vegas strip. That that only abandoned plan finally came for once. Yay. And sadly it a different lay out. So I better let you know about this here.

[@RufusBoi2008]

What about London?

[@joshuathecat-human1247]

Cape Town is host formula e for the 2022-23 season. So they are back.

[@glxywlf]

Since these tracks were never built, is it possible to include them in a video game without any legal troubles.

[@GoldenEDM_2018]

Always leave it to the modding community to add them to existing games. Even licensed real world circuits were added to rFactor.

[@Riced_s2k]

its not bark-u its back-u

[@nathanalexander2436]

Sorry that’s the accent coming out! We tend to drop r’s here when we shouldn’t and add them where they don’t belong

[@habeypu7253]

Phnom Penh

[@TheEvilCheesecake]

Please normalise your audio volume levels.

[@rickden8362]

Until airlines start having scheduled flights from the Main St/High St.; airport circuits are not streets!!!

[@nachoalvarez7171]

Say that to Canada

[@rickden8362]

@@nachoalvarez7171 I just did!

[@nachoalvarez7171]

@@rickden8362 ok

[@didgereemedia194]

Technically the Mount Panorama circuit can be classified as a street circuit as it is a public road used as a race track. It's up to debate, but it technically was opened as a tourist drive before it was a race track.

[@OliPrimOxx97]

Montreal isnt a street circuit

[@nathanalexander2436]

My car would say otherwise