The truth about that 'extra' M1S4 GP

To be honest we weren't sure whether this info was interesting, but given the feedback from you all we decided to for it!

As mentioned on previous posts the initial calendar or M1 2023 (aka M1S4) did not include the Misty Mountain. Instead we were planning a 3rd new track hosted by the Chocolatiers!

The design was meant to be chocolate-themed but we struggled with that. One of our JMA members though came with the idea to make a candy-shaped layout. He drew it on paper and here is the concept art!


There was one fundamental problem with that layout though. Jelle doesn't have the sharp 90-degree turn pieces needed to make this happen. But beyond that even if we replaced some of the sharp turns with wide turns, the racing wouldn't be that good.

Another issue we encountered was the fact that M1 has very high standards in terms of creating a great show. We thought we should make a mini-chocolate factory (Willy Wonka style). The assets needed were difficult to obtain and the time needed to wait for them would mean delays. So instead of making a meh track with below standards scenery we instead reused the old good ideas from the Misty Mountain set!

In general making a brand new track becomes harder and harder as time progresses because we have to tic more boxes. The track needs to make sense, it needs to provide good racing, be inside the host team's theme, be long enough to avoid traffic issues in qualifying (like in the Palette Park), be short enough to be fast (brings back memories from Stardust Accelerator II) and have the necessary quercetti marbledrome pieces.
However this is the greatest challenge we face and personally as a lifelong F1 fan, being the "Herman Tilke" of JMR is a pleasure (Minos speaking).

Jelle's vision is always vivid and has great ideas which when combined with our folks in the JMA become the sets you get to see on YouTube (or even bilibili)!

The Chocolatiers track is still on our plans and do hope we can make it happen at some point with the scenery it deserves! I don't know, maybe I am biased but I feel this team should host a GP sometime around. Anyway... Less than 2 weeks left for the first M1 2023 GP, so strap yourselves in and enjoy the ride!

Cheerio!
JMR