A1GP Lippo Village Circuit Design

As I mentioned in previous blog about F1 GP at Singapore roads, Lippo Village (a.k.a Lippo Karawaci) will host A1 Grand Prix on 6-8 February 2009 for Indonesia.

Years ago, all racings as well as A1GPs were hosted at Sentul Circuit on Southern Jakarta. Somehow Lippo Group was interested in hosting this event and surprisingly will be held on Lippo Karawaci city roads every year at least for 5 years ahead. This brings Lippo Village as equal as Monte Carlo, Macau, and Singapore as the hosts of city-street racing.

For Jakarta residents, Lippo Village (Karawaci) at Tangerang seems a bit far, 30 km from Central Jakarta. Driving car to Karawaci will take average 25 minutes of time. Is known as a small city developed by Lippo Group, this area is complete with residences, mall, hospital, schools, and university. The best place to live in my opinion - apart from its distance. Some places are well-known for Jakarta people to come: Siloam Hospital, Universitas Pelita Harapan, Supermal Karawaci, and Benton Junction.

Circuit Design

The most interesting part of this design is that it incorporates many existing parts of the city. Even more, they are building new roads to create a more dramatic racing.

The 3.2km track is designed by Hermal Tilke, see the map or circuit design below (click for higher resolution)

They destroy existing driving range area(#5,#6,#7) beside Taman Sari food centre, and also build roads inside university complex (see #1, #2, #3 turn in map). Parking lots behind Benton Junction (#10) is also changed into a 90 degrees turn.

Asphalt is imported from Singapore because Indonesia's asphalt is not good enough for racing (yeah we know this, even for normal car). Currently roads are being built and should be completed before February 2009.

This gives us a lesson: Nothing is impossible. Area that we think as fully developed can be re-design and rebuild again. A place that we never think will host a grand prix can be built with strong will, hard work and genius minds.

Who knows that we can also host F1 GP racing at this place in future.

Ticket Pricing and Online Purchase

Official website provides information about ticket prices and online purchase. For general inquiries or sales you can call this phone number +62 21 82 82 137.

Tickets on spectator zones are sold from IDR 800,000 - IDR 1,200,000 (USD 80 - 120). Special price for students and children are also available. For those who want a cheaper price, you'd like to purchase general admission ticket, that is IDR 250,000 (I believe you won't get any seats at this price)

How to Get to Lippo Village

The most convenient way to get to A1 grand prix location is by taxi from Jakarta. Taxi fare will cost about IDR 60,000-70,000 from West Jakarta. Ask driver to go to Lippo Karawaci by toll road, he will happily take you there. There will be traffic jam on qualification and competition day, so plan to come earlier.

Lippo Village privides shuttle service to and from Jakarta, normal schedule can be foundat this file. But there should be a more frequent schedule during racing days.

If you want to stay at Lippo Village for several days, you can book a room at the 5-starImperial Aryaduta Hotel. Rooms are very limited, must be full with officials and team members.

Tips: If you have friend working for Lippo Group in Menara Matahari or Menara Asia, ask him to give you an office seat because you can watch competition from high-rise buildings as well as apartments around it.