"Technical" Seoul Formula E circuit has "nice complexity"

Seoul will host its first Formula E race around the sports village designed for the 1988 Summer Olympics in Jamsil, with the top of the circuit enclosed within the Olympic Stadium.

The first half of the lap, including the stadium section, features a range of tight and technical corners before the second half has higher-speed turns and straights.

Nissan e.dams' Maximilian Gunther revelled at the possibility to race around a venue with Olympic history, and that the opening part of the lap will be "busy" for the drivers.

"It's always great in Formula E that we get to discover so many different places, and especially with the Olympic history of the country, of the city, it's very special to be to be racing in such a historic venue, and especially to drive through the Olympic Stadium," Gunther explained to Motorsport.com.

"I think the track has got a very nice complexity. On the one hand, there's some very technical corners, like especially the stadium with many combined corners, one corner following after the other. So it's a really busy time behind the steering wheel.

"And then in the outer part, especially, we've got three long to very long straights. And with overtaking, obviously it's very much possible. We've got four lanes in some areas, so for sure I think [there will be] overtaking into Turn 19, into 20, especially 22. I think it's the best overtaking spot of the circuit. Turn 1 is possible as well.

"I think it's really a great track for both the challenge inside the car, but as for the racing that we will provide, and yeah, I think it's pretty cool."

Stoffel Vandoorne, Mercedes-Benz EQ, EQ Silver Arrow 02, Robin Frijns, Envision Racing, Audi e-tron FE07, Oliver Rowland, Mahindra Racing, Mahindra M7Electro

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

Aside from the overtaking points that Gunther noted, Nick Cassidy suggested that passing may prove to be a challenge, and hoped that his Envision squad would not struggle as much as it did at Jakarta, the other new circuit on this year's calendar.

"The circuit looks cool. It's tight, there's some pretty narrow areas, but some real Formula E character. Passing on that part will be tough," Cassidy observed.

"Whether it's a circuit for us, I have no idea, honestly. We did struggle at Jakarta, which was a new circuit but I think here the conditions or the type of circuit looks to be a bit different. So I'm hopeful."

Nyck de Vries felt that the diverse nature of the circuit's sectors are almost like a combination of two different venues, but explained that the weather could be unpredictable, although some weather forecasts suggest varying degrees of rain across both races.

Seoul endured flooding earlier this week amid colossal downpours on Monday, but the rest of the week has been largely dry.

"The weather is a bit weird. We've had a lot of water earlier this week. And still, the forecasts are wet for tomorrow, which I find hard to believe. But we'll find out on the day," said de Vries.

"The track is very challenging because it has a bit of everything. The first two sectors are very twisty and tight, very narrow. And then obviously from sector three onwards, the track is opening up a bit.

"There are quite quick corners and more straights that are a bit bigger. So it seems like they're almost two different tracks connected, becoming a complete circuit together."

Andretti's Oliver Askew added that it would be difficult to generate tyre temperature on the preparation laps in qualifying and anticipates a lot of locking on the right-front tyre.

"It seems technical. Sector one and sector three are completely different, asking different things," Askew said.

"So I think it's going to be a bit of a challenge to get tyre temp to prepare the lap because the right front, there's not much energy going into that tyre on the prep lap.

"That's going to be difficult. You can expect some right-front locking and some understeer on Turn 2 because most of the corners are right-handers."