Would a London Grand Prix kill off the Silverstone race?

Would a London Grand Prix kill off the Silverstone race?

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Discussion

swisstoni

16,814 posts

278 months

Tuesday 2nd July 2019
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In Bernie’s time, and it appears since, Silverstone is always under threat.

It’s got to the point where I think they should tell F1 to fk off if they don’t want to appreciate the history of the sport.

Pericoloso

44,044 posts

162 months

Tuesday 2nd July 2019
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Monza was under threat a few years ago ,from the Greens I believe.

That seems to have blown over ,thankfully.

for the time being.

MB140

4,019 posts

102 months

Tuesday 2nd July 2019
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Reference the price

A few years back (button and Lewis at McLaren), a group of us looked at going to silverstone for Saturday and Sunday.

Turned out to be cheaper to go to Spa (not the shop either :-)) for a week. Including ferry and camping.

That’s why I for one refuse to go to silverstone. I appreciate some circuits are backed by government. Seeing as 75% (at a rough estimate) of the cars on the grid are uk based or have uk manufactured stuff in them why doesn’t the government subsidies it.

Edited by MB140 on Tuesday 2nd July 20:18

Kraken

1,710 posts

199 months

Tuesday 2nd July 2019
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MB140 said:
That’s why I for one refuse to go to silverstone. I appreciate some circuits are backed by government. Seeing as 75% (at a rough estimate) of the cars on the grid are uk based or have uk manufactured stuff in them why doesn’t the government subsidies it.
Can you imagine the uproar from the Daily Mail and the like? The Government funding the sport of multi-millionaires like Hamilton?

Of course motorsport generates billions for this country but the UK public has a very poor track record of realising what's best for the country. Similar thing happened with the gaming industry. There were calls for tax breaks to encourage investment in that sector but the popular press rallied against it leading to Canada offering tax breaks instead and now being the centre of the multi-billion pound gaming industry.

TheDeuce

21,128 posts

65 months

Tuesday 2nd July 2019
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Kraken said:
Can you imagine the uproar from the Daily Mail and the like? The Government funding the sport of multi-millionaires like Hamilton?

Of course motorsport generates billions for this country but the UK public has a very poor track record of realising what's best for the country. Similar thing happened with the gaming industry. There were calls for tax breaks to encourage investment in that sector but the popular press rallied against it leading to Canada offering tax breaks instead and now being the centre of the multi-billion pound gaming industry.
This ^^^

It's been made perfectly clear that we are NOT allowed fun things in this country. Most voters are self interested dumb dumbs that can't understand the true cause and effect of whatever they think they're voting for - so each political party has to cater to such dumb dumbs in order to be elected. The dumb dumbs generally believe that the Royal family is a leech on resources (It's not, it's a global money spinner) and that the country is cash strapped because we don't make anything here anymore (nonsense, our exports are financial, IT, technology and Pharmaceutical - we moved on from manufacturing as our standard of human rights - that the dumb dumbs also expect - make us massively noncompetitive at making all the st we buy in from China).

Try and convince a government or the city to back anything expensive and flash and they will run and hide!

Add to the above we're talking motor sport here, that means cars... And that's a real issue from Britain. I work all over Europe, sometimes beyond, and generally I hire a nice car wherever I go. In other countries such cars get enthusiastic comments and compliments. At home? Nope. Pull in to refuel a remotely flashy car here and even if the bloke at the next pump has obviously clocked it, they will strain to pretend it's the dullest thing and make no comment at all. If they do say anything it will be a thinly disguised snipe at how poor the fuel economy must be, or how much it must depreciate in the time it takes to fill up... We live in a country in which money and glamour are snorted at, not celebrated.

It's all very sad. The more I travel and work overseas, the more grey-scale my own country feels each time I return.

Sorry for the political rant - bad form I know...

StevieBee

12,748 posts

254 months

Wednesday 3rd July 2019
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SydneyBridge said:
didn't they used to have a European GP that used to be in a different place every year?
Yep. The European GP afforded countries the opportunities to host additional races, generally to accommodate heighted interest for certain drivers from those countries. Germany hosted it during the Schummacher era. Spain too (Valencia) when Alonso was winning – although I’m not sure that was referred to as the European GP.

sgtBerbatov said:
People moaning about the price of it have to remember that Silverstone receives no Government backing, whereas other tracks do.
Not all of them do. In fact, far less get government support than those that don't.

belleair302 said:
Brands Hatch is the track but the council wont allow this sadly as an F1 circuit.
Sevenoaks DC has twice granted planning permission to bring the circuit up to grade A spec and given in-principle agreement to host F1. But the changes needed to it would remove the very virtues it offers as a track and Jonathan Palmer has said many times the economics just don’t stack up. But it’s interesting that he now owns Donnington.

MB140 said:
Turned out to be cheaper to go to Spa (not the shop either :-)) for a week. Including ferry and camping.
Me and my son go to Le Mans every year. The price for each of us including Ferry, Camping for four nights and a general admission ticket is only marginally more than general admission to the British GP on the Sunday.

MB140 said:
Seeing as 75% (at a rough estimate) of the cars on the grid are uk based or have uk manufactured stuff in them why doesn’t the government subsidies it.
Why should they? There’s more than enough money swilling around in F1 to sustain itself. There would be no economic gain to the UK if they did.

But it is wrong to think that the government doesn’t support the UK motorsports sector. There is an entire floor at the Department for International Trade dedicated to Motorsports and a great deal of support given to various enterprises operating in the sector.


Edited by StevieBee on Wednesday 3rd July 10:11

hu8742

225 posts

124 months

Wednesday 3rd July 2019
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The problem is not the location (Silverstone is a brilliant track - done loads of track days there), its F1 itself. Dull as sh!t.

Prediction for Silverstone: 1. Hamilton 2. Bottas 3. A Ferrari

chickensoup

469 posts

254 months

Wednesday 3rd July 2019
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Is London even wanting to host this? Roads are just too busy to close and prepare a race remotely close to the west end

My vote is Milton Keynes, would be like pac man with that grid system

Europa1

10,923 posts

187 months

Wednesday 3rd July 2019
quotequote all
TheDeuce said:
This ^^^

It's been made perfectly clear that we are NOT allowed fun things in this country. Most voters are self interested dumb dumbs that can't understand the true cause and effect of whatever they think they're voting for - so each political party has to cater to such dumb dumbs in order to be elected. The dumb dumbs generally believe that the Royal family is a leech on resources (It's not, it's a global money spinner) and that the country is cash strapped because we don't make anything here anymore (nonsense, our exports are financial, IT, technology and Pharmaceutical - we moved on from manufacturing as our standard of human rights - that the dumb dumbs also expect - make us massively noncompetitive at making all the st we buy in from China).

Try and convince a government or the city to back anything expensive and flash and they will run and hide!

Add to the above we're talking motor sport here, that means cars... And that's a real issue from Britain. I work all over Europe, sometimes beyond, and generally I hire a nice car wherever I go. In other countries such cars get enthusiastic comments and compliments. At home? Nope. Pull in to refuel a remotely flashy car here and even if the bloke at the next pump has obviously clocked it, they will strain to pretend it's the dullest thing and make no comment at all. If they do say anything it will be a thinly disguised snipe at how poor the fuel economy must be, or how much it must depreciate in the time it takes to fill up... We live in a country in which money and glamour are snorted at, not celebrated.

It's all very sad. The more I travel and work overseas, the more grey-scale my own country feels each time I return.

Sorry for the political rant - bad form I know...
At the risk of making this thread degenerate into yet another Brexit thread, I had understood that EU state aid rules make it very difficult for governments to subsidise race circuits.

Blib

43,722 posts

196 months

Wednesday 3rd July 2019
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No way is London hosting a GP.

The Climate protesters would descend in their hordes. An opportunity too hard to resist.

Kraken

1,710 posts

199 months

Wednesday 3rd July 2019
quotequote all
Europa1 said:
At the risk of making this thread degenerate into yet another Brexit thread, I had understood that EU state aid rules make it very difficult for governments to subsidise race circuits.
Funding the circuit directly is definitely a no-no but funding an event taking place at that circuit is a different matter entirely.


Vaud

50,192 posts

154 months

Wednesday 3rd July 2019
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chickensoup said:
Is London even wanting to host this? Roads are just too busy to close and prepare a race remotely close to the west end

My vote is Milton Keynes, would be like pac man with that grid system
I think the proposal is east London near the Olympic facilities.

graeme4130

3,822 posts

180 months

Wednesday 3rd July 2019
quotequote all
Can you imagine the cost to the City to host this. Not just Liberty's extortionate fees, but also the cost of building a safe circuit in a the city
Like said above, I can't see F1 wanting to go anywhere other than within the landmark areas, so the amount of work that would have to go into that to make it race safe is huge
The Major of London is getting a hard time over budgets as it is, without proposing to put what could be £1-200m into Hosting the F1 circus and closing off half the city for a few days too
I think it'd be a cool spectacle, but would be massively troublesome

andyj007

297 posts

177 months

Wednesday 3rd July 2019
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im bored of silverstone, stopped going a few years ago.. its just not good value..and what with the totally boring noise the cars emit .
you get a f3 race, an f2 race that sounds miles better than f1 a boring porsche supercup race, an the the main event...
would gladly pay to go watch at another venue... just because its different , variety never hurt anyone

back in the day, youd get touring cars, classics, warm up, f1 race, it was a brilliant racing festival the whole day...

RoverP6B

4,338 posts

127 months

Wednesday 3rd July 2019
quotequote all
Silverstone as a track is as dull as dishwater, and always has been. Rip up the circuit, tear down that eyesore "Wing" building and return it to being what it was designed to be - an airfield. Ditto Snetterton, Croft etc. If there's one type of circuit even more guaranteed to produce boring racing, it's WW2 bomber airfields...

Take the F1 back to Brands, maybe extend the track for a longer lap if possible, but keep it broadly as it is and stuff sweaty Nomex in the mouth of anyone who suggests big tarmac run-off zones.

The London GP would be a fantastic money-spinner if put on in the West End - Whitehall, the Mall, Regent Street sort of area. If they put it on down in Tower Hamlets, forget it - it'd look like Singapore without any of the glamour. Valencia was a rubbish circuit but the setting was fantastic, with those beautiful Art Nouveau buildings beside the track.

Perhaps a question for another thread, but if the UK was to build its own Spa/Nürburgring, where to put it? Maybe using existing road layouts as Spa originally did?

Leggy

1,018 posts

221 months

Wednesday 3rd July 2019
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Will they still have pay the congestion charge on every lap?
As said London is trying to reduce emissions, there is no way this would be compatible with that.

Vaud

50,192 posts

154 months

Wednesday 3rd July 2019
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RoverP6B said:
Perhaps a question for another thread, but if the UK was to build its own Spa/Nürburgring, where to put it? Maybe using existing road layouts as Spa originally did?
Wales or Yorkshire Dales.... but would never happen.

thegreenhell

15,021 posts

218 months

Wednesday 3rd July 2019
quotequote all
Vaud said:
chickensoup said:
Is London even wanting to host this? Roads are just too busy to close and prepare a race remotely close to the west end

My vote is Milton Keynes, would be like pac man with that grid system
I think the proposal is east London near the Olympic facilities.
If it happens it will be at Royal Victoria Dock, near the ExCel Centre and City Airport. There was even talk that part of the track would run inside ExCel, although that may just have been for the FE e-prix.

AMGSee55

624 posts

101 months

Wednesday 3rd July 2019
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Your best bet for London I suggest would be the Olympic park. Could make a decent track combining the perimeter road with the various walkways and bridges and there’s much less ‘furniture’ to move or protect compared to more populated areas. And transport links are good. Granted the area doesn’t have the posh factor but that didn’t stop the Olympics being a success.

2 sMoKiN bArReLs

30,222 posts

234 months

Wednesday 3rd July 2019
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AMGSee55 said:
Your best bet for London I suggest would be the Olympic park. Could make a decent track combining the perimeter road with the various walkways and bridges and there’s much less ‘furniture’ to move or protect compared to more populated areas. And transport links are good. Granted the area doesn’t have the posh factor but that didn’t stop the Olympics being a success.
scratchchin They could run at the same time as the Formula E