December 31 is Hermann Tilke's birthday.

      Race track architect Hermann Tilke is receiving birthday congratulations on the last day of the year. The head of the Tilke Ingenieure & Architekten firm has turned 71.

      Since 1998 Tilke has been the creator of almost all the new Formula 1 tracks, working on Moscow Raceway, the Sochi Autodrom and many other Russian circuits. Tilke’s designs are often criticized; drivers prefer “old-school” tracks, but Hermann explains that he is forced to work under strict constraints that did not exist before.

      “Every track has to be unique in its own way,” Tilke said in an interview with F1News.Ru. “Take Monza and Spa: they are truly incomparable, you cannot copy them. And nobody wants copies to appear. Everyone wants new circuits to have their own character, and we listen to that.

      There is no perfect track. And if there were, its length would have to be at least 300 km so that I could implement all my ideas there. But that, as you understand, is unrealistic.”