[viiiper]

Yes it's true, next year is the last Silverstone GP
Bye Bye Silverstone , Hello Donington Park




British Grand Prix at Donington Park from 2010

Following discussions with Formula One Management, the FIA has confirmed that the British Grand Prix will be retained on the Formula One World Championship calendar, moving from Silverstone to its new home of Donington Park from 2010.



http://www.formula1....008/7/8039.html



I say, about time , Silverstone was poor, Donington is sheer heaven for Driving.

[pagey]

Thats great news fer sure...
I see magny Cours on the list too..There was rumors that M.C. was not going to be on the list for 2009.
But its still there..
I hope for a new track for 2010..Maybe Paris but id like to see Dijon again.
Im no specialist so i dont know why Dijon is not there anymore but i always love that track.
Been almost 30 years and still clearly remember the duel Arnoux-Villeneuve in the last 4-5 laps of the race for the 2nd place.
Superb (and Fair!) driving.

Edited by pagey, 05 July 2008 - 01:47 AM.

[viiiper]

The nice thing about Donington is it's challenging in many ways and a great track, it's so
different like magny Cours (France). At last some new challenges with a difference. I never found Silverstone special and working down there was a nightmare.

Viva Donington park for F1 GP , Touring cars & Super bikes.... the list is complete.

[kleaneasy]

This was very much the topic of conversation in my house yesterday, I hadnt been aware there were issues surrounding it being at silverstone although I'm not a major racing fan so thats likely why.

It'll be strange not seeing it at Silerstone but glad to see whatever the real issues were its continuing at Donington

[Gav80]

Donington is just too small for F1 cars. I like the circuit and it's great for bikes and touring cars (which can handle a bit of contact when they try to overtake), but F1 cars simply won't have room to pass each other anywhere there, even with the Melbourne Loop section of the track. "Races" would be even more processional than Monaco or Hungary. The track is also too short (2.5 miles, inc Melbourne Loop - the only other F1 track shorter than 3 miles is Monaco) so a lap there is going to be very quick, meaning lots of issues with lapped traffic. The paddock at Donington (newly refurbished) is too small for F1 teams with the vast amount of equipment they bring to a race. Traffic getting into the circuit is a nightmare - last time I was at Donington was for a Renault World Series race in September last year and it took over two hours to do the last ten miles into the track. Compare that with Silverstone (often slated for its parking and traffic problems) - I've been at the GP this weekend, and the longest we queued on any of the three days was about ten mins.

Silverstone is a great place to race at - very fast and challenging, with several places to overtake - and the circuit is twice the size of Donington with more facilities and better traffic links... The Renault World Series moved to Silverstone this year, away from Donington, for precisely those reasons. Donington, much as I like it, just won't be able to host modern F1.

I suspect it's all a ploy by Bernie Ecclestone to make Silverstone cough up more money to keep the race once the current deal expires at the end of next year. I know "a contract has been signed" with Donington, but no-one knows what that contract actually says, and let's not forget that Russia, India, Mexico etc all have contracts to stage F1 races... but none of them actually do!

[viiiper]

The BRDC has for ten years been promising circuit improvements and all they’ve done is build a car park. They keep talking about making Silverstone a center of excellence but don’t have the money to do it. They then turn down opportunity after opportunity of investment by private companies because they aren’t prepared to give anything back in return.
Yes Donington is not peach, bad access roads, no grandstand, grass car park & narrow track, they signed a contract, all that means is if they deliver then F1 has an obligation to be there or pay the consequences.

Track length
http://in.sports.yah...l/circuits.html


Monte Carlo
No. of Laps : 78
Track Length : 3.340km (2.089m)

Gilles Villeneuve, Montreal
No. of Laps : 70
Track Length : 4.361km (2.423m)

Indianapolis
No. of Laps : 73
Track Length : 4.192km (2.62m)

Hungaroring
No. of Laps : 70
Track Length : 4.381km (2.69m)

Interlagos
No. of Laps : 71
Track Length : 4.309km (2.677m)


2.5 miles is the third shortest and not by much with others in the 2.6 - 2.7 mile bracket, they being on average only 300m longer. The point is, Silverstone promises the world and delivers little.

I do hope the privately owned & funded Donington make it come true. Too long old boys clubs hold the reins and call the shots. Silverstone keep promising and other countries keep delivering, it's not the money it's prestige, we need to keep F1 in it's home, Whoops that's Sliverstone eheheh

If we loose it all we only got the old boys club to blame.




p.s. On of the best venues is Canada ! and that's 2.4Miles long, it's the total experience.

[Gav80]

Okay, I stand corrected on the circuit lengths, but I still think that there's no way Donington can play host to F1. I hear they've promised a £100million revamp for the track, but is that really feasible? Why not redo Silverstone, which would cost a fraction of the amount - and bear in mind that Silverstone already has planning permission for a new pit and paddock complex between the Club and Abbey corners, has all the space the teams need, and has the traffic and parking issues solved.

I agree the BRDC have been a pain and have frequently promised upgrades that haven't appeared, but all it needs is a new promoter for the race. The BRDC say F1 was bankrupting them anyway, so I'm sure they'd agree to lease the circuit (which they own) to another company who could stage the event.

I'm not saying the race should be left in the hands of the BRDC, I'm saying Silverstone is far and away the best race circuit in the UK when it comes to staging an F1 race. Donington just can't compete - which is why they've had to promise such a major overhaul of the track and facilities. How are they going to make that work though? This is a private enterprise, so they're in it to make a profit. Silverstone couldn't do it even without a £100million refurb, so how are Donington going to do the revamp and still turn a profit? Just how much are F1 tickets going to be for the fans?? They're obscenely expensive even now!

And as for Canada... fun track, maybe, but any circuit where the road falls apart during the course of a GP weekend (as at the Casino hairpin this year) should never be allowed to stage a major motor-racing event, never mind Formula 1. For all Silverstone gets slated, it's actually by no means the worst track on the F1 calendar - Montreal and Interlagos spring instantly to mind as being far worse, as does the Hungaroring and Monaco, and the recently-axed Indianapolis and Imola. Monza and Spa aren't much better either.

I still think it's a game by Bernie to squeeze more money out of the British GP - they currently pay one of the lowest fees to stage the race. In 1999, Brands Hatch was announced as "the new home of the British GP" from 2002 onwards, with a contract signed and everything, and we know what happened there.

[viiiper]

Okay, I stand corrected on the circuit lengths, but I still think that there's no way Donington can play host to F1. I hear they've promised a £100million revamp for the track, but is that really feasible? Why not redo Silverstone,

I agree why not redo Silverstone? that's the problem, 10 years on and the promises keep coming but the reality does not. I do hope that there playing a game of bluff..... I would not like 4hrs in a queue, but last time at Donington I was on my bike and it was nice to queue for 10mins with a pack of several hundred bikes and then park up.

Are 4hrs in queue = £££ petrol

[Gav80]

Lol - and with the price of petrol, it'd double the price you paid for the ticket too!

I know what you're saying about Silverstone, but as I said, they are meant to be building a new pit & paddock complex and have planning already approved (something that Donington, worryingly, does not) - whether or not they bother if they're not going to be hosting the GP is anyone's guess though. But the point is that that would fix the worst of the problems with Silverstone. If they then just spent a bit more on building some new (permanent!!) grandstands and paving over the grass banks (which I can assure you from personal experience get very muddy and slippery when it's wet) then the place really would be top notch. And at less than half of the cost of Donington is planning.

The nice thing about Donington on a bike though is if you're parked on the infield and have to go through the tunnel under the back straight - don't know if you've ever done that, but when it's packed out wall to wall with bikes the noise is great! Although the heat and the fumes can get a bit overpowering... Lol