Silverstone (again) set to terminate British GP contract.

[GuitarTech]

Can someone please explain to me why Donington is always discounted as a possible replacement for Silverstone? Everybody says "oh, no, it isn't suited", but why? I'm not up to date, as I live in Germany now, but what has changed so much since the 90's?

[robinessex]

VGTICE said:

robinessex said:

VGTICE said:

robinessex said:

While idly wandering around Google maps, I spotted this motor racing circuit 'down south'. I wonder if they would like to hold the British GP there sometime in the future?

fking hell, are you seriously still running XP or is it just a random pic off the internet?

Yep. And for gawds sake, don't ask how many companies and industries in the UK are still using it. Including those involved in law and order, and the security of the country.

That's true, but they pay for extended support. In your case it's like sitting on an atomic time bomb.

Er, any idea what might happen then?

[FourWheelDrift]

It is possible to get XP updates until 2019 - http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/software/8089/how-t...



Disclaimer. I do not use XP.

[anonymous-user]

VGTICE said:

jsf said:

VGTICE said:

jsf said:

I think quite the opposite, the circuit layout is dull and the car looks relatively slow compared to the modern cars.

I think some people don't realise just how damn quick these current cars are.

Tilke is that you? Guten Tag!

What a strange suggestion. Silverstone is one of the few circuits he hasn't been involved with, it's one of the best they currently run on and is far more challenging and interesting than the old layouts.

Sorry, I thought you were Tilke because only he could say that the video contained footage that was boring. He has 90 deg corners fetish so I understand that. Just FYR the average lap speed in quali in the year the vid was from was higher (159.4 mph) than the record braking lap this year (152.2mph).

I didn't say the footage was boring, I said the circuit was dull, which it is. The current Silverstone circuit doesn't have a 90 degree corner fetish, it has some of the most challenging high speed corner complexes on the calendar. Even with some of the slow speed sections the average speed this year should tell you how quick these cars are.

[VGTICE]

FourWheelDrift said:

It is possible to get XP updates until 2019 - http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/software/8089/how-t...



Disclaimer. I do not use XP.

Those are for embedded XP things used in cash machines, POS, etc. Things that weren't designed to casually surf internet in the open and have ports that aren't used closed to the public, unlike your typical laptop.

[VGTICE]

jsf said:

I didn't say the footage was boring, I said the circuit was dull, which it is.

This doesn't make sense. Since the main attraction of the footage is the F1 car doing a lap around the circuit that means that the footage can only be exciting (or not boring) if either the car or the circuit or both are exciting (or not boring). In this case 90% of excitement comes from the fast flowing circuit with corners that would upset majority of millennials because they are lethal (by today's standards set out by Tilke and FIA).

jsf said:

The current Silverstone circuit doesn't have a 90 degree corner fetish, it has some of the most challenging high speed corner complexes on the calendar. Even with some of the slow speed sections the average speed this year should tell you how quick these cars are.

There's almost 30 year gap between the two. It shouldn't come as a surprise that current era cars are faster than the cars of 1990.

[anonymous-user]

VGTICE said:

jsf said:

I didn't say the footage was boring, I said the circuit was dull, which it is.

This doesn't make sense. Since the main attraction of the footage is the F1 car doing a lap around the circuit that means that the footage can only be exciting (or not boring) if either the car or the circuit or both are exciting (or not boring). In this case 90% of excitement comes from the fast flowing circuit with corners that would upset majority of millennials because they are lethal (by today's standards set out by Tilke and FIA).

jsf said:

The current Silverstone circuit doesn't have a 90 degree corner fetish, it has some of the most challenging high speed corner complexes on the calendar. Even with some of the slow speed sections the average speed this year should tell you how quick these cars are.

There's almost 30 year gap between the two. It shouldn't come as a surprise that current era cars are faster than the cars of 1990.

The cars are built to a formula, hence formula 1. If the rules dictate they can be slowed down, which is why some circuit records stand for many years. This year is the first for a very long time that the rules have been written to make the cars faster.

[GuitarTech]

I did ask the question a few posts ago, without getting an answer. Maybe it was too late last night, and all the powerfully-built company directors and anoraks had already gone to bed.
But to my question: Why is Donington not suitable for F1?
After reading here that Silverstone is not as good as it used to be (allegedly), and that Brands has too many problems, why not Donington?
There are no insurmountable problems, except maybe access for road traffic. but they buit the A46 extention for Silverstone, why not one connecting the M1 with the circuit?
Otherwise it would fit the bill, as far as the course itself is concerned. And how is the infrastructure? What would need to be done to make it suitable for the spoilt F1 children?
This is a genuine question, I just wonder why Donington is always ignored in these discussions?

[cuprabob]

GuitarTech said:

I did ask the question a few posts ago, without getting an answer. Maybe it was too late last night, and all the powerfully-built company directors and anoraks had already gone to bed.
But to my question: Why is Donington not suitable for F1?
After reading here that Silverstone is not as good as it used to be (allegedly), and that Brands has too many problems, why not Donington?
There are no insurmountable problems, except maybe access for road traffic. but they buit the A46 extention for Silverstone, why not one connecting the M1 with the circuit?
Otherwise it would fit the bill, as far as the course itself is concerned. And how is the infrastructure? What would need to be done to make it suitable for the spoilt F1 children?
This is a genuine question, I just wonder why Donington is always ignored in these discussions?

http://m.crash.net/f1/feature/231895/1/when-the-british-gp-almost-killed-off-donington-park.html

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/127707

[coppice]

Well , they did sort of try it didn't they and after turning a once lovely parkland circuit into a bomb site they ran out of money. The pits are third world compared to the standard the F1 prima donnas demand and as for the beautiful people in the Paddock Club they'd be traumatised (no bad thing actually). It's a bit short, there's no grandstands worth mentioning and unless you turned it into something that wasn't Donington at all - and thus ruining it for everything else for the other 362 days of the year - it wouldn't work .

Silverstone will find a way - it's huge, the drivers love it and it gets a bigger crowd than five years' worth of bloody Baku for the oxymoron that is the Azerbaijan Grand Prix

[GuitarTech]

cuprabob said:

GuitarTech said:

I did ask the question a few posts ago, without getting an answer. Maybe it was too late last night, and all the powerfully-built company directors and anoraks had already gone to bed.
But to my question: Why is Donington not suitable for F1?
After reading here that Silverstone is not as good as it used to be (allegedly), and that Brands has too many problems, why not Donington?
There are no insurmountable problems, except maybe access for road traffic. but they buit the A46 extention for Silverstone, why not one connecting the M1 with the circuit?
Otherwise it would fit the bill, as far as the course itself is concerned. And how is the infrastructure? What would need to be done to make it suitable for the spoilt F1 children?
This is a genuine question, I just wonder why Donington is always ignored in these discussions?

http://m.crash.net/f1/feature/231895/1/when-the-british-gp-almost-killed-off-donington-park.html

Thanks for the link. An interesting article.I might have guessed that a certain Mr. Ecclestone had his sticky little fingers in the pie: If I'd done all the bad things that Bernie has done, I wouldn't be able to sleep at night, it would've been interesting to see how it would've panned out if Bernie hadn't pulled the rug out from under their feet...

[egor110]

coppice said:

Well , they did sort of try it didn't they and after turning a once lovely parkland circuit into a bomb site they ran out of money. The pits are third world compared to the standard the F1 prima donnas demand and as for the beautiful people in the Paddock Club they'd be traumatised (no bad thing actually). It's a bit short, there's no grandstands worth mentioning and unless you turned it into something that wasn't Donington at all - and thus ruining it for everything else for the other 362 days of the year - it wouldn't work .

Silverstone will find a way - it's huge, the drivers love it and it gets a bigger crowd than five years' worth of bloody Baku for the oxymoron that is the Azerbaijan Grand Prix

Crowds sizes aren't important.

If silverstone won't pay it'll move to a country with deep pockets that will pay regardless of the fact the locals can't afford a ticket.

[Eric Mc]

GuitarTech said:

Thanks for the link. An interesting article.I might have guessed that a certain Mr. Ecclestone had his sticky little fingers in the pie: If I'd done all the bad things that Bernie has done, I wouldn't be able to sleep at night, it would've been interesting to see how it would've panned out if Bernie hadn't pulled the rug out from under their feet...

The moral of the story is that, if you have a viable race circuit that is loved by fans and used on a regular basis by various race series and amateur/club racers, the very LAST thing you do is try to win a Formula 1 Grand Prix for your venue. The end result is destruction and bankruptcy.

F1, once the kingpin of motor sport and the springboard for enthusiasm and interest in the sport as a whole, is rapidly becoming a destructive element and is best avoided.

[corozin]

egor110 said:

coppice said:

Well , they did sort of try it didn't they and after turning a once lovely parkland circuit into a bomb site they ran out of money. The pits are third world compared to the standard the F1 prima donnas demand and as for the beautiful people in the Paddock Club they'd be traumatised (no bad thing actually). It's a bit short, there's no grandstands worth mentioning and unless you turned it into something that wasn't Donington at all - and thus ruining it for everything else for the other 362 days of the year - it wouldn't work .

Silverstone will find a way - it's huge, the drivers love it and it gets a bigger crowd than five years' worth of bloody Baku for the oxymoron that is the Azerbaijan Grand Prix

Crowds sizes aren't important.

If silverstone won't pay it'll move to a country with deep pockets that will pay regardless of the fact the locals can't afford a ticket.

Crowd sizes are important to the circuit as it's one of the few sources of income they own at the GP events. The Formula One Group gets all the circuit advertising and stall revenues.

But this has to be sabre rattling by Silverstone. The whole place is geared to hosting the numbers for the GP weekend - it's never as full at any other event bar the Silverstone Classic, and without the GP thier hallowed place as the UK's premier circuit is lost. They are saddled with debt and need all the income they can get but I can't see them seriously abandoning the F1 GP, they just want better terms.

But with Liberty openly looking for more "destination" venues a race in London should not be discounted at all. Silverstone may well find thier bluff is called. Either that or it will be dropped as I don't realistically see any other UK circuits spending the money to rise to the FIA's demands for GP circuits; Donington for example has just undergone a further round of changes to suit it's own economic model (and done a good job at that)

[coppice]

Crowd sizes are important to me , and anybody who enjoys the sport I'd suggest . Brazil and Silverstone are electric , and Baku , China and the Middle East races are deathly dull to watch. I think the sport's new owners are aware of the buzz a big crowd makes and might undo the last twenty years spent pimping Grands Prix to places with no motor sport heritage but run by politicians who don't mind blowing a slice of their GDP on a race at yet another Tilke horror story

[egor110]

coppice said:

Crowd sizes are important to me , and anybody who enjoys the sport I'd suggest . Brazil and Silverstone are electric , and Baku , China and the Middle East races are deathly dull to watch. I think the sport's new owners are aware of the buzz a big crowd makes and might undo the last twenty years spent pimping Grands Prix to places with no motor sport heritage but run by politicians who don't mind blowing a slice of their GDP on a race at yet another Tilke horror story

But you and I aren't important .

If they can get more from another track and silverstone won't match it they will move it .

[thegreenhell]

egor110 said:

But you and I aren't important .

If they can get more from another track and silverstone won't match it they will move it .

Ecclestone would have moved it, definitely, but this will be the first big test of Liberty to see if they are true to their word that the historic races and circuits are of key importance to the long-term of F1. Personally I think it's a good move by Silverstone, and not only for the likelyhood that they'd have bankrupted themselves if they'd tried to see the contract through.

[Vaud]

thegreenhell said:

Ecclestone would have moved it, definitely, but this will be the first big test of Liberty to see if they are true to their word that the historic races and circuits are of key importance to the long-term of F1. Personally I think it's a good move by Silverstone, and not only for the likelyhood that they'd have bankrupted themselves if they'd tried to see the contract through.

Second test, surely - France and Germany are confirmed to return for next year?

[thegreenhell]

Vaud said:

Second test, surely - France and Germany are confirmed to return for next year?

We already had a German GP deal, which is simply continuing as before. Hockenheim alternates with Nurburgring, but Nurburgring pulled out of their side of the deal a few years ago, with Hockenheim still on alternating years. Hockenheim haven't ever missed their contracted race or been out of contract. They held a race in 2016, with their next due in 2018. This is nothing new.

I believe the French GP deal was concluded and announced last year, when Bernie was still in charge.

[carl_w]

thegreenhell said:

I believe the French GP deal was concluded and announced last year, when Bernie was still in charge.

When Bernie, owner of Circuit Paul Ricard, was still in charge.