Magic Tracks

Shanghai’s gaudy new, $300-million supercircuit, home of the first-ever Grand Prix in China, has a truly distinctive first turn complex. It coils up tightly one way like a watch spring, then unwinds. It seems obvious to me it’s meant to look like the oriental yin and yang symbol.

SpeedTV commentators remarked that the layout of the entire lap—which was drawn up by a European—deliberately resembles the Chinese character Shang, which they said means “to strive.”