On to Hockenheim next, which is German for ‘hacked in half’.

OK it’s not, but it could be. Hermann Tilke’s redesign of the circuit in 2002 ripped up the famous flat-out blasts through the trees and replaced them with a sequence of chicanes and tight corners.

It’s not pretty but the switchback corners do have a habit of tempting drivers into mistakes. Timo Glock scored a superb home victory here in GP2 in 2006 when Jose Maria Lopez made a mistake on the final lap, allowing Glock to pounce with his usual ruthlessness.

If we’re lucky we might see a couple of overtaking moves during the F1 race this weekend – Jenson Button showed how it’s done with a fine drive to second in 2004.

But what we do see a lot of at the new Hockenheimring is corner-cutting. Tilke’s design positively encourages drivers to use the tarmac run-off areas as an extension of the racing circuit.

It’s a particular problem at turn one, which Tilke tightened into a sharp, short corner with a large tarmac run-off area. Often on the first lap of the race drivers use it to get an unfair advantage over their rivals who have stayed on the race track.

And the same happens at the exit of the hairpin as well, where the tarmac run-off on the straight out of the corner allows drivers who have run wide to stay ahead of drivers who would otherwise have passed them.

There are several problems with this. First drivers are not consistently punished for using these tarmac run-off areas to gain an advantage. McLaren reacted with such surprise to Hamilton’s penalty for doing so at Magny-Cours because of this. The stewards on that occasion interpreted the rule properly – too often it is ignored.

Also, if drivers are using these tarmac extensions as part of the racing surface then surely it defeats the purpose of having them there for safety reasons?

Finally, the tarmac run-offs cause all sorts of problems for non-F1 championships, where lower speeds and higher ride heights mean they can use the run-off areas with impunity.

At Silverstone last weekend several Formula BMW drivers lost their qualifying times because they were judged to have used too much of the run-off at Copse. When the DTM goes to Hockenheim the drivers don’t get anywhere near the intended racing line at turn one and again you have to wonder about the safety implications.

This is a frequent problem with Tilke’s tracks. The first corner at the A1-Ring was notoriously bad for it. The inside patch of ground at the exit of turn one would have been put to better use as an allotment as no-one ever got anywhere near it on a Grand Prix weekend. The last chicane at Magny-Cours is just as bad, and Spa had to have Astroturf installed last year to stop drivers cutting corners.

Now Tilke is apparently turning his touch to Donington Park. Once he’s transformed every patch of grass and gravel into tarmac we may have to re-name it Donington Car Park.