Formula 1 is the top level of car racing in the world, where drivers race specially built cars around a track as fast as they possibly can. Today, F1 tracks are carefully designed with huge run-off areas, soft barriers, and strict safety rules, precisely because racing at such high speeds is inherently risky. But it wasn’t always this way.
In the early decades of the sport, many races were held on public roads through towns, forests, and even mountains, with little more than a few low walls separating speeding cars from spectators, trees, and buildings.
As the sport slowly learned harsh lessons, often after serious accidents, many of these early tracks were judged too dangerous to continue hosting races and were permanently dropped from the calendar.
Top 10 Dangerous F1 Tracks Abandoned In History
So, here is the list of ten abandoned F1 circuits.
| Abandoned Circuit | Location |
|---|---|
| AVUS | Germany |
| Pescara Circuit | Italy |
| Montjuïc Park | Spain |
| Circuit de Charade | France |
| Circuit Bremgarten | Switzerland |
| Rouen-Les-Essarts | France |
| Ain-Diab Circuit | Morocco |
| Nivelles-Baulers | Belgium |
| Circuito de Monsanto | Portugal |
| Valencia Street Circuit | Spain |
1. AVUS
AVUS, near Berlin, was originally built as a public road and testing track, and its layout was almost simple with two enormous straights, each about 10 kilometres long, connected at one end by a steeply banked turn made of brick, angled at 43 degrees and nicknamed the “Wall of Death” because it had no safety barrier at its top.
It hosted a Formula 1 World Championship race just once, in 1959. During a supporting race held that same weekend, French driver Jean Behra lost control on the banking, was thrown from his car, and was killed instantly. F1 never returned to AVUS for another championship race.
2. Pescara Circuit
At 25.579 kilometres per lap, the Pescara Circuit remains the longest circuit ever to host a Formula 1 World Championship race, more than three times the length of most modern F1 tracks. Made up entirely of public roads winding through villages, hills, and coastal straits near the Adriatic Sea, it was so vast that officials struggled to properly police it or provide adequate medical coverage.
Formula 1 raced there only once, in 1957, drawing an estimated 200,000 spectators; even Ferrari’s own boss, Enzo Ferrari, refused to send his cars, citing safety concerns.
The circuit hosted its last race in 1961 before being permanently retired as a racing venue.
3. Montjuic Park
This scenic street circuit wound through a hillside park overlooking Barcelona, featuring tight walls, blind corners, and sharp elevation changes. Before the 1975 Spanish Grand Prix, drivers went on strike over poorly secured crash barriers and only agreed to race after threats of legal action from organizers.
During the race itself, the rear wing on Rolf Stommelen’s car broke, sending his car flying over the barriers into a spectator area. Four people were killed, including a fire marshal, a spectator, and two photographers and then F1 never returned to Montjuic Park again.
4. Circuit de Charade
Built around the base of an extinct volcano near Clermont-Ferrand, this twisting 8-kilometre circuit was often compared to Germany’s famously difficult Nurburgring. Its biggest hazard turned out to be the volcanic gravel that constantly worked its way onto the track surface.
During the 1972 French Grand Prix held there, ten different drivers suffered tyre punctures from sharp stones kicked up off the track. Austrian driver Helmut Marko suffered a serious eye injury during that race when a stone pierced his visor.
5. Circuit Bremgarten
Bremgarten was a fast circuit that wound through dense, heavily shaded forest near Bern, where the tree canopy kept the road damp and slippery even in dry weather, and there was virtually no room for a car to safely run off the track.
Its fate wasn’t sealed by a crash at Bremgarten itself, but by a separate, devastating accident at the 1955 Le Mans 24 Hours race in France, where flying debris killed 83 spectators. In its aftermath, the Swiss government banned all motor racing on closed circuits within the country, instantly ending racing at Bremgarten.
6. Rouen-Les-Essarts
This public-road circuit in Normandy was admired for its flowing, scenic layout but feared for its fast, blind downhill corners, especially a demanding section known as the Six Freres. The track claimed the life of French driver Jo Schlesser, who died in a fiery crash during the 1968 French Grand Prix.
Although chicanes were later added to slow the cars down, the circuit remained risky, and while lower-level racing series continued using it for years afterwards, it was permanently closed to competitive motorsport in 1993.
7. Ain-Diab Circuit
Built quickly in 1957 using desert highways and coastal roads near Casablanca, Ain-Diab combined high speeds with shifting desert sand blown onto the track surface. It hosted a single F1 World Championship race, the 1958 Moroccan Grand Prix, which doubled as that year’s championship-deciding finale.
Stirling Moss won the race itself, but the event was overshadowed by a crash involving British driver Stuart Lewis-Evans, whose car caught fire; he later died from his injuries.
8. Nivelles-Baulers
Nivelles was built in 1971 specifically as a safer, modern alternative to the dangerously fast old Spa-Francorchamps circuit, and it featured large, flat, paved run-off areas well ahead of their time.
Ironically, drivers found the layout dull and uninspiring, and the circuit struggled financially almost from the start. By 1981, it had gone fully bankrupt and closed.
9. Circuito de Monsanto
Located inside a public park in Lisbon, this circuit mixed patchy, uneven road surfaces with active tram lines running directly across parts of the track and long, blind, tree-lined straights.
It hosted a Formula 1 World Championship race only once, in 1959. The combination of the rough surface and unpredictable hazards, including the very real risk of a car crossing paths with a tram, meant Formula 1 never returned.
10. Valencia Street Circuit
Unlike the older tracks on this list, Valencia is a modern example, a street circuit built around Valencia’s America’s Cup harbour that hosted the European Grand Prix from 2008 to 2012.
Drivers frequently criticized it as cramped and unforgiving, with narrow, concrete-lined sections that offered little room for error.
Beyond the safety concerns, the circuit struggled badly with funding, and it was dropped from the calendar after 2012.
