London GP.............ideas.

[V8 Archie]

FWIW I reckon they'd need to widen the Park paths (and the bridge would be a bit scarey even if it was widened).

The Pit straight should be Park Lane (on the park side of the street with the garages on the other side). The grandstand would be in the park facing out.

ETA: That circuit is between 2.5 and 3 miles I reckon.

For a bit more fun you could add a loop from Knightsbridge:
Grosvenor Place
Grosvenor Gardens
Buckingham Palace Road
Birdcage Walk (widened)
Parliament Square
Whitehall
The Mall
Constitution Hill

and off up Park Lane.

>> Edited by V8 Archie on Tuesday 13th July 12:34

[RedTeg]

pwig said:

Bernie did say there was a possibility of both being on the calendar!

Ah! it does piss me off that there is this doubt and moaning about the British GP while other countries get two (Sort of).......

Germany gets German GP at Hockenhiem (I hate the changed track) PLUS Euro GP at The Ring.

Italy in theory sort of get two: Imola + Monza

Scrap Hockenhiem and let one of the new countries get that slot.

Silverstone is a good fast wide overtaking circuit. So the organisation still needs sorting out and there are sponsor problems but Bernie the little troll could stick his hand in his pocket and cover it with his small change.

[V8 Archie]

An alternative could be Regents Park.

Pit straight: Park Road (from Baker Street to Prince Albert Road)
Prince Albert Road
into the Park at Gloucester Gate
south down the Outer Circle to
Chester Road
counter-clockwise round Inner Circle to
York Bridge
clockwise round Outer circle to
Park Square East
Park Crescent (possibly down and up Portland Place)
Marylebone Road
Baker Street

Pits on Outer Circle exit down Hanover Gate.


>> Edited by V8 Archie on Tuesday 13th July 13:21

[Raify]

just saw this in the times, really tickled me!

funny bugger @ the times said:

If Schumacher ever races in London, it will clamp his style alan coren DO YOU know what struck me when I watched the British Grand Prix last Sunday? Of course you do, because it struck you, too. It strikes you every time you watch a grand prix. It strikes you that this is not motor racing, this is Scalextric. That is why all Grand Prix are run on a Sunday. On God’s day off, Scalextric is what He likes to play. And because He is who He is and nobody can stop Him, He always plays with Michael Schumacher’s car. Which is why nobody can stop Michael Schumacher, either. Except Ken Livingstone. Ken, true to satanic form, has come up with a cunning plan to show God who’s boss. Ken will spoil His fun. Ken will ruin His Sunday. For Ken, as you know, is determined to host the London Grand Prix. Now, when, last week, you spotted in your papers that Ken had staged a promotional run, you sat up and cried: “Hang on, Ken hates the motor car! Ken wants to keep all cars out of London! What has caused so great a change of heart that Ken now wants to bring the world’s fastest, noisiest, dirtiest cars into it?” I am here to tell you that no change of heart has occurred: it is precisely because Ken so hates the car that he is doing it. For London is not a Scalextric track. You will say, yes, we know it is not a broad flat surface with long fast straights and nice smooth curves, but nor is Monaco. You miss the point: Ken is not the Mayor of Monaco. Let us start with the start, which, according to one of the many suggested circuits, might be at the top of Marylebone Road. Where Ken recently introduced a 24/7 bus lane. One third of the grid will therefore be illegally parked: a dozen drivers will, as they bring up maximum revs, suddenly find themselves unable to see past the plastic envelope which, lacking a windshield, a boot-faced warden, hurtling down the line, has slapped on to their visors. The wise will waste only the time required to rip them off as the two outside lanes become distant dots, but there will surely be one or two hot-tempered coves (Montoya? Glock?) who leap out to remonstrate and still have the warden by the throat as the leaders lap them for the second time. Not all the leaders, mind. The Marylebone start calls for a sharp turn into the outer circle of Regent’s Park, where the cars will have to so slow down that cyclists will be able to overtake on the inside. Do not tell me cyclists will have been kept out: this is Ken’s London, it enshrines the inalienable rights of bikes and buses. The cyclist coming up on the inside will, of course, bang his fist on the bonnet of the car he is overtaking. You know how fragile these cars are, you saw what happened to Trulli’s Renault, the cyclist will leave Barrichello sitting in the middle of a scattered Ferrari kit, ducking the front wheel that flies off Fisichella’s Sauba after it hits a pothole I first rang Westminster council about in 1993. I assume that Ken’s route will then take the drivers past the London Zoo, so that those managing to avoid the deaf, myopic lollipop lady as she leads a school party to the middle of the Outer Circle, thinks for a bit, and then leads them back again, may be directed into Regent’s Park Road, which recently won a major award for Most Unaligned Sleeping Policemen. Several drivers will lose their sumps, spoilers, and teeth here, but even those who manage to do what I do, which is minimise repair bills by steering between the humps, may well be taken out by a 4x4 doing the same thing from the opposite direction, whose driver will not even notice the slight clunk of Mark Webber’s dismembering Jaguar, thanks to being on the mobile and doing her eye-liner while breast-feeding. The handful of fraught competitors left will by now be negotiating Primrose Hill, and feeling — so many bits having been knocked off by road-narrowing barriers, not to mention one or two with dead dogs sharing the cockpit — that it is time for a pit-stop. This is a great mistake: no matter how fast the crew is, they will arrive at the wheels on the double-yellow line to find all four of them already clamped by crack Camden teams who have been timed at 3.7 seconds. Worse: if Raikkonen, say, had stopped only to dash into the bushes for a widdle, he could well return to find his McLaren had been hauled to a car pound which it would take him two days to discover was either Lot’s Road or Waterloo. So what, then, of the greatest driver in the world? Does he deserve no better respect? Do you know, I rang the mayor to ask just that, forgetting that he was not only a wag but a multicultural one to boot. “Cobblers to Schumacher!” said Ken.

[steviebee]

What about Docklands?

Lacking in the allure of the West End granted but more in keeping with the modern image of F1 (who said "Bland"?).

[Scratch'n'Diff]

I have video footage of the London F1 parade that will quickly show why a London GP won't happen.

The private 'Crowd Control' contractors and the Police were a complete farce. And thats being nice.

How exactly to I transfer 8mm analogue camcorder footage onto pc?
If I can sort this out, I will post it as long as someone has web space.

SD

[steviebee]

Scratch'n'Diff said:

I have video footage of the London F1 parade that will quickly show why a London GP won't happen. The private 'Crowd Control' contractors and the Police were a complete farce. And thats being nice. How exactly to I transfer 8mm analogue camcorder footage onto pc? If I can sort this out, I will post it as long as someone has web space. SD

They were only expecting 25,000 though!

As for video transfer; you'll need an anologue to digital converter (PC World sell them, about £100) and a PC/Mac with video editing software. Import the movie onto your computer, edit it and save it as an MPeg......Robert's your Dad's brother!

Alternatively, some high street photo stores will do it for you (Jessops, I think!).