The 'new' Silverstone - your likes and dislikes

[Bentley03]

Just back from a terrific weekend of racing at Silverstone. I'd be interested to know the opinions of those who attended with regard to the new layout/facilities from a specatator's point of view and from those who were working (media/team member/circuit staff/driver/marshall).

It was a very different experience from previous years!

Cheers,
James

[TheNewBob]

As a spectator I do like the new layout, the wing is impressive. But they need to find a much easier way to get from the outside of the track into the new paddock. It feels a bit 'cut off' from the rest of the circuit's facilities (this was particularly noticeable at the Silverstone Classic last month).

[Aysedasi]

Stunning view from the outside of Club looking down the straight. The ability to walk around the inside as well as the outside. But they need a bridge or tunnel to get to the Wing from the outside of the circuit. The old pits and start/finish area is now seriously spooky - it was like a ghost-town on Friday/Saturday.....

[Tim the Grey]

I'm none too sure about the 'split paddock' lark. It seems to cause a HUGE logistical nightmare for teams and personnel. Especially as some 'driver change' minor series start and finish at The Wing, but change in the Old Pits???

Otherwise, I am pleased to report a pedestrian walkway now runs through the pinch point between Becketts and The Loop, with several very useable holes in the fence for punters to take pictures. At last, chinks in the armour!

It DOES seem to promote some fascinating racing, and many of the 'new' grandstands are now Must Go spots. The one at the exit of The Loop, overlooks Maggotts In, and provides a fantastic view of around half the circuit. That Club one provides a similar view to what WAS there, before all the mucking about. A BIG thank you to ILMC/LMS/Silverstone, whoever, for providing some big screens dotted about. How about one on the end of The Wing facing that Club Stand?

I did about a lap and a half, in total, getting from Club Inside, to Club Outside, in 45 minutes. So there ARE bridges, Ayse. Over Hangar Straight, for one, where the famous 908 Airline briefly took flight 3 years back.

I do now have a VERY favourite spot, discovered by accident. But I'm not telling you lot.

[brands]

I don't like the spilt paddocks having witnessed them at the Classic and now the LMES. At least at the Classic you were welcomed at the Wing but I suppose if there are no permanent public toilets down at the new pits us mere punters were never intended to go down there.

Several of the new grandstands had very good views, inside of Vale, inside of Abbey, exit of the Loop.

The top half of the circuit seemed dead all weekend and the whole place lacked atmosphere.

I agree with Tim that the pedestrian walkway around the Loop does have some nice cutouts for photography

I'm really glad the Britcar 24 hour race is just using the old pits and paddocks.

[mikenunn-78]

Echoing the previous posts, not being able to get from the new paddock to the outside of the track was a nightmare.

We had grid walk passes and were in danger of missing the start! In fact if we hadn't snuck through one of the garages to get out of the pits we probably would have!

The stands are pretty good, and I spent a good couple of hours snapping away, the fencing on the new pit straight and the angle of the stands meant that you couldn't get a clear shot of the cars there though.

The old main straight was indeed like a ghost town on Saturday, didn't make it round there on Sunday, the sight of the old commentary booths sitting just above the ground was a bit strange!

The general facilities were a bit naff... lack of burger vans / bars / merchandise stands etc I read somewhere that there was 40,000 people there at the weekend and I'm sure at least half of them would have bought a 6 Hours of Silverstone T-Shirt but I didn't see any!

Oh and it was a long walk back to the car park (just behind the old paddock) after the race finish!

It's a good thing the racing was so good because none of the above really matters, I had a great time as I have done the last 2 years and look forward to next years trip, when I hope the niggles are sorted out.

[Adam43]

Originally Posted by Aysedasi

Stunning view from the outside of Club looking down the straight. The ability to walk

That is a grat place to watch. You can see the pits and a nice piece of track. I watched the Group C there at the Classic.

[Aysedasi]

As always at Silverstone, food for the punters was poor. The van down at the back of the pits was particularly naff. The hog roast up at Copse was good and the van at the back of Club had the best burgers/hotdogs of the weekend. But they need to up the food ante. When you're there for three days, surviing on sausages and burgers, they need to be good - particularly as you're paying a lot of money for them!

[Adam43]

It seems the Classic had a lot more food options then. I suppose that they probably had more people there especially over night for the classic because of all the car clubs.
I was there for three days for the Classic. 7am to 10pm on the Saturday. I had to explore most of the options available and never repeated an option.

[Tim the Grey]

QUOTE=mikenunn-78;2954299]Echoing the previous posts, not being able to get from the new paddock to the outside of the track was a nightmare.

We had grid walk passes and were in danger of missing the start! In fact if we hadn't snuck through one of the garages to get out of the pits we probably would have! OK, I'm lost? Where were you headed? Grid Walk to OUTSIDE of track, just walk away from the pits, surely?

The stands are pretty good, and I spent a good couple of hours snapping away, the fencing on the new pit straight and the angle of the stands meant that you couldn't get a clear shot of the cars there though.

The old main straight was indeed like a ghost town on Saturday, didn't make it round there on Sunday, the sight of the old commentary booths sitting just above the ground was a bit strange!

The general facilities were a bit naff... lack of burger vans / bars / merchandise stands etc I read somewhere that there was 40,000 people there at the weekend and I'm sure at least half of them would have bought a 6 Hours of Silverstone T-Shirt but I didn't see any!I found at least 3 stands selling said shirts. The merchandising and general 'shopping' stands were inside of Old Bridge. Most folks were bypassing it completely! Can't comment on the Catering, as I hardly used it apart from odd coffees.

Oh and it was a long walk back to the car park (just behind the old paddock) after the race finish!Were the buses not running at that point? I'm sure I almost got hit by one.

It's a good thing the racing was so good because none of the above really matters, I had a great time as I have done the last 2 years and look forward to next years trip, when I hope the niggles are sorted out.[/QUOTE]

[Aysedasi]

I agree Tim - any criticism I had was overshadowed by a great race and a fantastic weekend with weather I couldn't possibly have hoped for in September in the UK.

[mikenunn-78]

Originally Posted by Tim the Grey

QUOTE=mikenunn-78;2954299]
We had grid walk passes and were in danger of missing the start! In fact if we hadn't snuck through one of the garages to get out of the pits we probably would have! OK, I'm lost? Where were you headed? Grid Walk to OUTSIDE of track, just walk away from the pits, surely?
QUOTE]

To leave the grid we were pushed to the back end of the grid, then into the pits where we were hearded back towards the pitlane exit. There was a gate there which would lead you out of the paddock but as this was shut at the end of the grid walk decided not to risk it and legged it through one of the garages!

With the shops I didn't say that there weren't any, I looked in the one next to the Autosport cafe, and the one next to the BMW exhibit, there were some cheap looking LMS polo shirts, but nothing else with 6hrs of Silverstone. A lot of the team merchandise was the same as the last years, it just didn't look like any effort had been put in.

[courageous]

sitting on a bus with the field blasting past on your left & right is a strange but pretty good experience (for GT1, the main bus was a double decker which I think worked better, but still)

Becketts, Village & Club grandstands brilliant views

Ability to walk the entire track

They still haven't done anything with the wind though - is that planned for phase 2 along with the monorail & hotels?

Oh & I suppose I should mention the Group 4 guys were reasonably ok this weekend compared to previous (I think I even saw one smile!).

[isynge]

In retrospect I like it.

We spent most of the race between Luffield and Becketts, having watched the start from the grandstand on the inside of the loop. In the main the views were good, there were points where you could get a really interesting perspective on the cars and get pleasingly close to them (Maggots as ever is spectacular), and the layout of the track seemed to encourage good racing.

Facilities wise there probably could have been more, but quality wise it was okay, and at a price point which was expensive, but not extortionate. Toilets, never Silverstone's strongest point, were fine - probably helped by the fact that they weren't overwhelmed with numbers.

Merchandising is a missed opportunity - but I'm equally grateful not to have been tempted to buy another garish t-shirt I certainly don't need!

Niggles?

Signposting around the track. I've been before, but the maps should have a "you are here" bit on them - when we arrived we struggled to get our bearings initially and find where we wanted to sit.

Parking's always emotive, but while arriving things flowed very smoothly, at the end I got the impression they stewards had lost control - heaven alone knows what it must be like after F1 or WSR...

[AndyS]

Love the changes but the seperate paddocks as others have said doesn't work. It lacks atmosphere as a result and I will miss Bridge as well. Who knows what future development plans they have though.

[Gilles lives!]

We didn't make it into the Wing paddock area before the start, the reason being that we couldn't work out how to get in there ! Venturing around the inside of the circuit was something that we shouldn't have bothered with, although the Village stand, though very windy, was a great vantage point, it even had it's own Pizzaria !
We found several stands were closed to 'roving' tickets, which was very disappointing considering they were all virtually empty !
The new layout has made Silverstone a more interesting place to view, no doubts at all about that, there's some great corners, with plenty of variety, Abbey being one of our favourites. The huge area that Silverstone occupies always makes it feel empty, which leaves you feeling as though you are at a club meeting somewhere.

[Aysedasi]

I'd forgotten those pizzas when I talked about poor food - they were pretty good last year!

[icchedzey]

I have attended my last event at Silverstone.
I feel they have completely ripped the soul out of the circuit.
I have been going to Silverstone, from Kent, since the 1973 GP and have attended several events each year.
The circuit is now too long. The 'wing' is a kick in the teeth to the paying public. We'll never get in there, and i noticed this weekend that it was empty above the pits.
I wasn't allowed to travel on an empty bus as i didn't have the right pass. it continued on it's way to the 'wing' empty.
Most of the grandstands were closed on saturday.
Despite walking for miles over the course of the weekend i never did find the 'collection of cars from the history of the 6hrs'. Something i was particularly looking forward to.
And during the course of the race i could only guess what was going on as the 'big' screens were too far away to be able to read the timing.
Apart from that i loved the cars. I'll just go elsewhere to see them in future.
Bye bye Silverstone

[Aysedasi]

I walked from the car park at the entrance down to the Wing on each of the three mornings. Took me about 20-25 minutes. Where did you expect to get in above the pits? The bank down there was far from empty, particularly on Sunday morning. And there were a lot of people in the paddock. I'd have liked a screen or two, but didn;t need those to know what was going on. The p.a. was good and my radio even better....

[mark_l]

I attended the 6 hour race this weekend and was fairly unimpressed with the Silverstone experience.

The car parks are still a cinder type surface which damages the underside of the car, your car gets coated in dust from the passing traffic whilst parked. The car park attendents were kids, must be employed on a minimum wage, they parked the car behind mine so close I could not get the boot open without pulling forward 3 foot. They had left barely 3 inches between the front and rear of the cars.

At 9.30 am on the Sunday, I went to 3 outlets selling programmes to be told they had sold out. Not impressed.

The food is so bad and expensive I take my own food and refuse to pay the stupid prices.

The idea of having to catch a bus to get to the Wing is ridiculous, it must cost the circuit a fortune to run and does nothing for the carbon footprint of the circuit. A bridge will never be built as that means the great unwashed might meet the VIP's and that could never be allowed to happen.

I noticed that all the stands I sat in had NO stewards, this is a breach of fire and health & safety regulations. In the event of an emergency there was no one present to co-ordinate an evacuation of the stand. This is a disgrace which the circuit and the local councils need to look at.

I dont know who was responsible for putting the two main P1 teams at opposite ends of the pit lane, 1 team was so far away you could hardly see them from the main grandstand and the other was hidden by being at the pit exit and 20 feet below the level of the track. I know Silverstone say they will build a lovely new grandstand so you can see the whole pit lane but that we all know is not going to happen for years, if ever. After all we are still sitting in temporary grandstands that are older than most of the drivers on the circuit (unless you go to a VSCC meeting).

It took 30 mins for me to get out of the car park at the back of the Club straight car park. It was not helped by the children masquerading as stewards finding it more fun to throw traffic cones at each other, jump on each others backs and general muck about. The result was 3 lanes of cars having to squeeze into 1 lane of a 2 lane road to exit on to the Dadford Road because they didnt open the exit up fully. I then got down to the roundabout by Club corner on the Dadford Road which had both lanes in use, round the roundabout and back up towards the A43, both lanes still in use. On approaching the roundabout by the main circuit entrance the outside lane was coned off for no apparent reason forcing all the traffic into one lane round the roundabout but it then was back to 2 lanes on the exit. Silverstone need to sort out their traffic plan, they dont seem to realise that people come to events other than the GP and having to endure traffic chaos will put them off going back for other events.

BCE was right when he said Silverstone was a country fair masquerading as a world class venue.

I will think long and hard before shelling out good money to be treated so poorly.

[Victor_RO]

Originally Posted by mark_l

I dont know who was responsible for putting the two main P1 teams at opposite ends of the pit lane, 1 team was so far away you could hardly see them from the main grandstand and the other was hidden by being at the pit exit and 20 feet below the level of the track.

That one at least is not by any means the circuit's fault, it's Audi and Peugeot's choice to locate at opposite ends of the pitlane. See where they have their pit garages at Le Mans as well.

[Aysedasi]

I guess we have a couple of posts there which show that our experiences of Silverstone last weekend range hugely!

[JohnMiller]

Originally Posted by Victor_RO

That one at least is not by any means the circuit's fault, it's Audi and Peugeot's choice to locate at opposite ends of the pitlane. See where they have their pit garages at Le Mans as well.

It's not the circuit's fault that the one end of the pitlane is built effectively below ground? Whose fault is it then?

[GT6]

This was my first time at the track with all the changes and like everyone else some things i liked others not so sure about, the view from the outside at beckets was amazing everywhere you looked was track and directly ahead was 7 parts of the track tp watch cars go by. However after a few minutes i had to move, it was to much the yes and ears were bombarded with information and you could not concentrate on one thing or even one part of the track.

Spent most of the time at the old favorites like club and the old pit straight, overall much improved now all they need to do is unflatten it, surely they must have had some soil/rubble to make a few bits a little less like a mile pond.

[Gilles lives!]

Originally Posted by JohnMiller

It's not the circuit's fault that the one end of the pitlane is built effectively below ground? Whose fault is it then?

Nature's ! If they had levelled the 'International Pits Straight' then it would be prone to flooding due to the water table . This subject was brought up at the Grand Prix as the top teams were located in the hidden area due to co-operate needs of those above the pits !

We did hit the traffic on the way out too, but were parked in a tarmac car park in line with Abbey, although we came in alongside a queue of cars that ended up in the cinder car park at Club ! We thought the youngsters marshalling the cars were sending us back home at one point.

We did take our own food although I still had to buy my son and his mate a portion of chips each, at a mere £2.50 each !

Fortunately, I've been going to Silverstone long enough to know what to expect, so none of the drawbacks really upset me that much. I still believe the new layout has improved the spectacle and will be back next year .