Silverstone, who's going?
Discussion
paulguitar said:
Shiv_P said:
What are the queues like on Fri/Sat normally for the car park 1 onsite parking? I know Sunday is likely to be horrendous, but wondering how early to set off...
It's a fine art but I like to arrive later than the early rush. This is no good if you have only general admission of course. However, if you have a seat you don't need to worry so I'm planning to arrive around 10 AM. Then, a 25-minute walk to the circuit from the car park and probably take a seat at Woodcote to watch the Historic F1 cars which are on at 1050-1105. 
Shiv_P said:
paulguitar said:
Shiv_P said:
What are the queues like on Fri/Sat normally for the car park 1 onsite parking? I know Sunday is likely to be horrendous, but wondering how early to set off...
It's a fine art but I like to arrive later than the early rush. This is no good if you have only general admission of course. However, if you have a seat you don't need to worry so I'm planning to arrive around 10 AM. Then, a 25-minute walk to the circuit from the car park and probably take a seat at Woodcote to watch the Historic F1 cars which are on at 1050-1105. Great start here. Fast track entry at 7am not worth the paper its written on....unless you went to a specific gate.
I was at the gate by the museum, as that is where I parked. Nothing signposted that I could see. Nothing mentioned on maps or on the ticket. No one shouting to tell people.
Asked staff and they said I needed to go to a different gate. I've hurt my back so elected to just stay in the queue for 730 as I was near the front anyway.
If it was explicitly stated I needed to go to a different gate then I certainly didn't see it. Great organisation by Silverstone as ever!
I was at the gate by the museum, as that is where I parked. Nothing signposted that I could see. Nothing mentioned on maps or on the ticket. No one shouting to tell people.
Asked staff and they said I needed to go to a different gate. I've hurt my back so elected to just stay in the queue for 730 as I was near the front anyway.
If it was explicitly stated I needed to go to a different gate then I certainly didn't see it. Great organisation by Silverstone as ever!
WelshPetrolhead said:
Great start here. Fast track entry at 7am not worth the paper its written on....unless you went to a specific gate.
I was at the gate by the museum, as that is where I parked. Nothing signposted that I could see. Nothing mentioned on maps or on the ticket. No one shouting to tell people.
Asked staff and they said I needed to go to a different gate. I've hurt my back so elected to just stay in the queue for 730 as I was near the front anyway.
If it was explicitly stated I needed to go to a different gate then I certainly didn't see it. Great organisation by Silverstone as ever!
Interesting -I was at a different gate , first there at 7am and nobody else in sight. My GA ticket said 'gates open 7am ' but I was told I had to wait until 7-30 as I wasn't fast tracked . With about ten others and no Fast Trackers ever seen , we hung around pointlessly until 7-30. The scanner then said 'no entry ' , then 'gate 6' (miles away ). I was told I'd have to walk there and I pointed out my ticket wasn't gate specific . Cue scepticism by security until they actually read it ...'oh we'll try again ..oh it says Gate 12 now ' . 'fI was at the gate by the museum, as that is where I parked. Nothing signposted that I could see. Nothing mentioned on maps or on the ticket. No one shouting to tell people.
Asked staff and they said I needed to go to a different gate. I've hurt my back so elected to just stay in the queue for 730 as I was near the front anyway.
If it was explicitly stated I needed to go to a different gate then I certainly didn't see it. Great organisation by Silverstone as ever!
k this ' said I and walked in -nobody minded . I usually go the Classic and until last year had never had even a tiny hiccup in entry. Something changed at Silverstone?
coppice said:
WelshPetrolhead said:
Great start here. Fast track entry at 7am not worth the paper its written on....unless you went to a specific gate.
I was at the gate by the museum, as that is where I parked. Nothing signposted that I could see. Nothing mentioned on maps or on the ticket. No one shouting to tell people.
Asked staff and they said I needed to go to a different gate. I've hurt my back so elected to just stay in the queue for 730 as I was near the front anyway.
If it was explicitly stated I needed to go to a different gate then I certainly didn't see it. Great organisation by Silverstone as ever!
Interesting -I was at a different gate , first there at 7am and nobody else in sight. My GA ticket said 'gates open 7am ' but I was told I had to wait until 7-30 as I wasn't fast tracked . With about ten others and no Fast Trackers ever seen , we hung around pointlessly until 7-30. The scanner then said 'no entry ' , then 'gate 6' (miles away ). I was told I'd have to walk there and I pointed out my ticket wasn't gate specific . Cue scepticism by security until they actually read it ...'oh we'll try again ..oh it says Gate 12 now ' . 'fI was at the gate by the museum, as that is where I parked. Nothing signposted that I could see. Nothing mentioned on maps or on the ticket. No one shouting to tell people.
Asked staff and they said I needed to go to a different gate. I've hurt my back so elected to just stay in the queue for 730 as I was near the front anyway.
If it was explicitly stated I needed to go to a different gate then I certainly didn't see it. Great organisation by Silverstone as ever!
k this ' said I and walked in -nobody minded . I usually go the Classic and until last year had never had even a tiny hiccup in entry. Something changed at Silverstone?
As said, I walked to the gate nearest to where I had parked. Which is where the old bridge section of the track is behind the museum, which is actually classed as the main entrance! Gate 9 IIRC. I did spot that both gazebos weren't noted as fast track (I remembered from last year), but walking from the car park...If you aren't going to tell me where the fast track gates are then I'm just going to go to the nearest gate! Given that I got where I wanted to be easily once I was in anyway, I won't bother with it next year.
Was only £8 for the Friday but its not the first time I've come across poor organisation at Silverstone. The cycling event last year was shocking.
Still, I got some good pictures so it was a good day out...
Edited by WelshPetrolhead on Sunday 3rd July 11:42
paulguitar said:
BigBen said:
I am heading over tomorrow have grandstands for Fri - Sun
Where would one park if one had not booked anything yet? I only live in Northampton so was thinking of just getting a taxi
Dadford road parking is good, a taxi if you can sort it out might be even better.Where would one park if one had not booked anything yet? I only live in Northampton so was thinking of just getting a taxi
BigBen said:
Dadford road parking was spot on thank you. A bit of a queue to get in Friday as they found their feet, Saturday perfect, Sunday perfect apart from 4 hours stationary waiting to leave but I understand the official car parts were almost as bad......
We left at 18:10 from official parking, were home in Leicester 1hr 10 mins later... smooth as silk. We did leave quite early though Shiv_P said:
BigBen said:
Dadford road parking was spot on thank you. A bit of a queue to get in Friday as they found their feet, Saturday perfect, Sunday perfect apart from 4 hours stationary waiting to leave but I understand the official car parts were almost as bad......
We left at 18:10 from official parking, were home in Leicester 1hr 10 mins later... smooth as silk. We did leave quite early though Having been sat at Copse for the day, we left Gate 5 straight straight after the last lap - we were back home in Reading by 7pm, including the ridiculous detour that we were sent on from the exit point.
A mate of mine who was also in the marshal field sent me pics of the endless noise to tail queue at 9:30pm.....No thanks!
A mate of mine who was also in the marshal field sent me pics of the endless noise to tail queue at 9:30pm.....No thanks!
MattyD803 said:
Having been sat at Copse for the day, we left Gate 5 straight straight after the last lap - we were back home in Reading by 7pm, including the ridiculous detour that we were sent on from the exit point.
A mate of mine who was also in the marshal field sent me pics of the endless noise to tail queue at 9:30pm.....No thanks!
It was kind of a nice evening to be sitting in a field. In future we will likely take a bbq and not plan on leaving until much later or watch the concert or do something else!A mate of mine who was also in the marshal field sent me pics of the endless noise to tail queue at 9:30pm.....No thanks!
BigBen said:
Shiv_P said:
BigBen said:
Dadford road parking was spot on thank you. A bit of a queue to get in Friday as they found their feet, Saturday perfect, Sunday perfect apart from 4 hours stationary waiting to leave but I understand the official car parts were almost as bad......
We left at 18:10 from official parking, were home in Leicester 1hr 10 mins later... smooth as silk. We did leave quite early though WelshPetrolhead said:
I did notice later when walking around the circuit, the gate near woodcote/luffield, and the one further down near the new hotel building had fast track entry as the gazebo things where they scan your ticket had fast track written on them. They did fast track for the F1 last year too but I didn't utilise it that time. It did specifically say on the time table I had that gates opened at 7 for fast track tickets (Friday). I think it was also included with Grandstand tickets.
As said, I walked to the gate nearest to where I had parked. Which is where the old bridge section of the track is behind the museum, which is actually classed as the main entrance! Gate 9 IIRC. I did spot that both gazebos weren't noted as fast track (I remembered from last year), but walking from the car park...If you aren't going to tell me where the fast track gates are then I'm just going to go to the nearest gate! Given that I got where I wanted to be easily once I was in anyway, I won't bother with it next year.
Was only £8 for the Friday but its not the first time I've come across poor organisation at Silverstone. The cycling event last year was shocking.
Still, I got some good pictures so it was a good day out...
Those pics (sorry I edited them out the quote for space) are incredible! I haven't gone through the near 3500 I took on Friday yet as I was busy all weekend!As said, I walked to the gate nearest to where I had parked. Which is where the old bridge section of the track is behind the museum, which is actually classed as the main entrance! Gate 9 IIRC. I did spot that both gazebos weren't noted as fast track (I remembered from last year), but walking from the car park...If you aren't going to tell me where the fast track gates are then I'm just going to go to the nearest gate! Given that I got where I wanted to be easily once I was in anyway, I won't bother with it next year.
Was only £8 for the Friday but its not the first time I've come across poor organisation at Silverstone. The cycling event last year was shocking.
Still, I got some good pictures so it was a good day out...
Edited by WelshPetrolhead on Sunday 3rd July 11:42
What rig did you use out of curiosity?
Parking organisation was pi$$ poor imho. Paid £25 for the Car park 1 parking which i naively assumed would get us on one of the car parks closer to the circuit. Was told on the ticket to follow the blue route. Ended up on a field near the AMRF1 factory building and had to walk over from there. Got there for around 7:45. Good bit though was I was right at the front of that particular field so it only took 45 minutes to get from getting in the car to my brother's in Northampton after FP2 had finished.
BigBen said:
It was kind of a nice evening to be sitting in a field. In future we will likely take a bbq and not plan on leaving until much later or watch the concert or do something else!
Absolutely - that is what my mate did and that was also our fall back plan had we been delayed. After a whole weekend of it (20k steps most days and not much sleep), we were just too knackered to hang about!We stayed Dadford road thurs/sun. never rushed about at all, stayed at the circuit till 6:30ish, wandered back to the motorhome and had food before packing up at a leisurely pace before finally leaving site around 9:30, worst part was the back exit of the campsite but was out within 30 mins and finally back in essex at midnight.
We arrived Thursday night and got home 2am this morning. First time the kids had been to a full weekend and we couldn't have timed a lot of stuff better:
Left after school, got to the main stage after putting the tent up in time for Example
Randomly got to Danny MacAskill just in time to see his show and hung around for chat and selfie
Left Danny, noticed a lot of people hanging around, so hung around too and saw George, Lando, Yuki, Zhou, Valteri, Checo and Seb coming in, along with a load of YouTubers.
Saw said YouTubers, got selfies later on
Eldest managed to race against some E-Sports F1 drivers (beat some, which he won't shut up about) and got a selfie with all of Quadrant straight after Quali at the E-Sports stand
Saw more Youtubers, selfies and chat with WTF1
Sat in Abbey for the race, awesome, and also we were bang on the first contact for the start line accident
Had to drag the kids away from the place.
Camping at Woodlands was rubbish, taking a van next year, toilets/showers were rank and we had one tent staying up (quietly but enough to keep me awake) til 1:30 and one other tent getting up at 5:30. Today am barely awake. Don't get me started on the camp site exit queue, thankfully we only caught the last three hours as we went to the main stage to see Lewis and bailed as Mabel came on, so could have been a lot worse.
Worst bit? Probably that Silverstone decided to play Jax Jones (sp?) over the Silverstone radio commentary for the 10 minutes before the start of the race, who's f*cking idea was that? Mad scramble to get the radios out which we previously hadn't used at all.
Left after school, got to the main stage after putting the tent up in time for Example
Randomly got to Danny MacAskill just in time to see his show and hung around for chat and selfie
Left Danny, noticed a lot of people hanging around, so hung around too and saw George, Lando, Yuki, Zhou, Valteri, Checo and Seb coming in, along with a load of YouTubers.
Saw said YouTubers, got selfies later on
Eldest managed to race against some E-Sports F1 drivers (beat some, which he won't shut up about) and got a selfie with all of Quadrant straight after Quali at the E-Sports stand
Saw more Youtubers, selfies and chat with WTF1
Sat in Abbey for the race, awesome, and also we were bang on the first contact for the start line accident
Had to drag the kids away from the place.
Camping at Woodlands was rubbish, taking a van next year, toilets/showers were rank and we had one tent staying up (quietly but enough to keep me awake) til 1:30 and one other tent getting up at 5:30. Today am barely awake. Don't get me started on the camp site exit queue, thankfully we only caught the last three hours as we went to the main stage to see Lewis and bailed as Mabel came on, so could have been a lot worse.
Worst bit? Probably that Silverstone decided to play Jax Jones (sp?) over the Silverstone radio commentary for the 10 minutes before the start of the race, who's f*cking idea was that? Mad scramble to get the radios out which we previously hadn't used at all.
Had a fabulous time, great atmosphere, such a good race too.
So good to see wet, dry conditions over the three days, support races wet good too. Will do Goodwood and f1 somewhere in Europe next year but definitely do Silverstone following year.
Only negative was getting out Friday which was horrendous, yesterday saw all the queues and drove through an empty field into a campsite and out, less than 5 minutes
So good to see wet, dry conditions over the three days, support races wet good too. Will do Goodwood and f1 somewhere in Europe next year but definitely do Silverstone following year.
Only negative was getting out Friday which was horrendous, yesterday saw all the queues and drove through an empty field into a campsite and out, less than 5 minutes
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