Ben Willshire and Matt Birkett at Driven International – a Ridge company – reflect on the lessons from Formula 1 about designing a successful street circuit.

When MotoGP announced it was moving the Australian leg of the World Motorcycle Championship from Phillip Island to the streets of Adelaide, it’s fair to say that reactions were mixed.   

It’s not just that the Phillip Island track is probably the fans’ favourite in the whole competition. It’s that this will be the first real city race in MotoGP history, a shift into new territory that has raised questions among fans and riders alike.  

In Formula 1, street circuits are well established. Monaco is the oldest and most famous, but around a third of the F1 calendar now takes place on street circuits including Melbourne, Baku, Montreal, Singapore and Las Vegas.  

But there are a couple of key differences between cars and bikes, which makes designing a MotoGP street circuit much more challenging. First, F1 drivers are contained within the cars, which provides some protection if they lose control and hit a barrier. Second, the aerodynamics of the cars means they are glued to the track – a long curve is often a full-throttle straight for an F1 driver, so the barriers can be closer to the track compared to a motorcycle circuit. A MotoGP rider taking the same corner would be leaning steeply, right on the limit of grip, and a loss of control could result in a rider impact to the barrier. They need much larger runoff areas and gravel traps – as seen at the Mandalika International Circuit in Indonesia, designed by Mk1 and Driven, which is notionally a street circuit.  

In Adelaide, the city infrastructure may need to be reconfigured to accommodate those safety features – using parks next to roads, for example – but the challenge will certainly result in a spectacle.  

The overtaking problem  

In F1, there’s less overtaking on street circuits, where roads are narrower and lined with barriers – although the new rules for the 2026 season could change that. The iconic Monaco circuit is one of the best in terms of F1 glamour, but in terms of overtaking it’s right at the bottom. Last year, they even introduced a new requirement for drivers to make two pitstops instead of one, just for that track, to add some welcome variation.  

Monaco is an extreme example, where the historic layout has been preserved. Recent street tracks have been designed very deliberately to work for that F1 style of overtaking. Baku has a 1.4km straight, there’s a 2km straight in Las Vegas, while the Jeddah Corniche circuit is purpose-built for F1.  

But they can’t compare with the permanent circuit at Silverstone, where cars can go side-by-side around famous high-speed curves and you get wheel-to-wheel battles lasting multiple corners. Because there are wider runoff areas, drivers can be a bit braver and go for those crazy moves. At Monaco, if you qualify high up the grid, your position is generally locked in so the Saturday qualifying laps essentially determine the race.  

How to design a great street circuit 

As track designers, permanent circuits are the core of our work. Creating a classic sweeping, undulating rollercoaster of a track is what we love doing most. But we’re also asked to design an increasing number of street circuits: we’ve just delivered a Formula 4 circuit in Goa, and we’re working on others in Mumbai and in the US. 

“It’s possible to design a great street circuit, but it takes a different mindset.”

Sometimes they almost design themselves, as there are limitations on where the route can actually go. It becomes about making the safety areas work, and the logistics of building the track, managing city traffic and creating VVIP lanes so the drivers can get to the starting line on the day. Ultimately it’s about getting the balance right: creating a great racing spectacle within the constraints of a city, that doesn’t just become a procession of cars.  

When our street circuit in Goa hosted the Indian Racing League in February, it was satisfying to see there was a lot of overtaking. But what was even better was seeing the enthusiasm of fans. The biggest argument in favour of street circuits is that they bring motorsport to the people. You can build a temporary track in places where it wouldn’t be possible to create a permanent one, and then dismantle it again – hopefully leaving some inspiration behind.  

How can street circuits benefit host cities? 

For us, that’s the most important question about street circuits: how to provide a lasting legacy for the host city, not just a weekend of disruption. The benefits for tourism are undeniable. Cities boom when F1 is in town – it’s a bit like staging the Olympics for a weekend. But what we can learn from recent Games is how to design that temporary infrastructure to deliver permanent improvements for a city, so that the economic uplift lasts after an event has moved on.  

We’ve had discussions about street circuits with the FIA, the F1 regulator, which is very conscious of the potential benefits of bringing racing into a city. 

“Street circuits offer lots of opportunities for regeneration: rather than just getting the design right, it’s almost treating it as a masterplan for the whole city.”

We’ve just done a study for the new Formula 1 circuit in Bangkok, where some of the design proposals will act as a regeneration project, with new roads and multifunctional buildings that can be used all year round.  

Closer to home, we’ve been involved in the annual Motofest on the Coventry ring road since 2018. It’s a free family-friendly weekend race that’s become one of the highest attended motorsport events in the UK. That’s a great example because each time we make some improvements that remain in place – for example, the safety barriers have been upgraded to a much higher specification, benefitting local residents all year round.  

But any legacy is only as good as the track itself – if the racing isn’t world class, there won’t be any lasting benefit. So as MotoGP prepares for its Adelaide debut, there’s a lot of think about: safety, spectacle, legacy – but ultimately, creating something that will keep the fans coming back for more. Having worked with the events and track safety team at DORNA, we know they will do a great job to deliver a world class event. 

Ben Willshire is founder and managing director of Driven International, which became a Ridge company in October 2025. He can be contacted at: ben@driven-international.com.  

Matt Birkett is design and communications lead at Driven International. He can be contacted at: mattb@driven-international.com