Silverstone redevelopment 2010

[medius]

I'm following Motor Sport Magazine on Twitter and the latest tweets are about the work going on at Silverstone:

Motor_Sport
Off to Silverstone yesterday and the work going on there is not just remapping a few corners and putting in a new loop... it's monumental.

Motor_Sport
Curbs are being replaced so that bikes will be able to use it and run-offs are also being sorted so that they are OK for bikes and cars

Motor_Sport
Oh, and at the moment, there are no grandstands down the pit straight. A very weird sight.

Are there any images yet? I'd love to see the place without grandstands, just once.

[Alan Green]

Sutton Images posted a load yesterday - You can find them on Twitter too

[brands]

Some photos here http://f1.gpupdate.net/en/gallery.php?catID=4743

The fence fairies have been busy on the inside of the national straight

[medius]

Thanks Why have the stands on the 'front' straight been removed? Repositioning further back or just plain old upgading? I've never been to Silverstone so I don't know what condition they were in before.

[Robin_D]

Well they have had to move them further back anyway, not sure what'll happen regarding replacing them or not!

[terence]

Originally Posted by medius

Thanks Why have the stands on the 'front' straight been removed? Repositioning further back or just plain old upgading? I've never been to Silverstone so I don't know what condition they were in before.

Dont forget that the new Arena complex is going in there to take the place of the old Pit Straight.

[GroupOfOne]

Terence, I thought the new Arena complex was on the inside of Becketts, e.g. at the 'top' end of the Club straight?

Can only presume they're widening the current pit straight and so had to remove the grand stands, which were only really semi-permanent (or certainly felt that way!).

[terence]

You could be right,only going by what I was led to believe,I do know that the current pit straight was the most suitable area,but that thinking could easily have changed.

[brands]

I believe the pitlane grandstands are being moved back to allow a run-off area for the bikes. If this is true then the Micky Mouse chicane that the bikes use, just before Woodcote, should be scrapped.

[Mike E]

Some more info here:

http://www.silverstone.co.uk/news/la...f-Silverstone/

[Jamesy-18]

Originally Posted by Robin_D

Well they have had to move them further back anyway, not sure what'll happen regarding replacing them or not!

I'd hope so seeing as we've booked tickets for the GP in those Grand Stands! :P

[redshoes]

Originally Posted by brands

I believe the pitlane grandstands are being moved back to allow a run-off area for the bikes. If this is true then the Micky Mouse chicane that the bikes use, just before Woodcote, should be scrapped.

Grandstands are being moved backwards. Can't find the details right now but seem to recall it was 10 metres.

Woodcote bike chicane will be going.

[Mike_Wooshy]

Damon doesnt seem happy with the layout .....

[Al Weyman]

Hope they improvethe National circuit while they are about it.

[Mr.Jingles]

Originally Posted by Al Weyman

Hope they improvethe National circuit while they are about it.

What was wrong with it?

[Al Weyman]

Bit boring and short, no?

[terence]

Apart from very boring?

[Mr.Jingles]

I dunno, enjoyed myself to be honest.

[Greem]

Not much is changing with the National circuit. The new Arena layout returns from the top (by Maggots/Becketts) via the National straight, under the vehicle bridge - they've removed the pedestrian bridge already - and rejoins the old complex at Brooklands.

Apart from the off-circuit changes to run off areas and so on, I think the National layout stays the same.

[Tim the Grey]

They've taken the second footbridge away, and apprently added more runoff at Brooklands. Oh, and ALL the kerbs are now level with the road surface... So you can run over them without penalty? All told, I suspect the 'new' National will be a fair bit quicker...

[Quintin03]

Originally Posted by Al Weyman

Hope they improvethe National circuit while they are about it.

As it looks like the National circuit can be extanded using the link of the international circuit.

[Woolley]

Originally Posted by Tim the Grey

ALL the kerbs are now level with the road surface... So you can run over them without penalty?

Kind of destroys the point in having kerbs. Here's a radical idea, why not just have grass up to the edge of the circuit and make them use the black bit? If they don't, water it...

[stroller]

I’m still a big believer in the use of “floppys” like they used to use on the chicane at Rockingham.


Except one of them needs to be solid steel – and we don’t tell the drivers which one it is !

[JohnMiller]

You don't need the steel one as I destroyed a corner of my car when I hit one in an FF1600 race at Rockingham a few years ago.

And the year before that a competitor was taken to hospital after one bounced up after he had hit it and it hit his arm.

Mind you, of course they don't even use the chicane anymore because many drivers were frightened of it, which is a shame as it was mega.

[Chris Roden]

The VSCC ran its Pomeroy Trophy meeting on the national circuit on Saturday.

The assembly area is, I assume, a temporary arrangement and is IMHO not fit for purpose. The old wall & fence trackside has been removed and replaced with a new fence running roughly down the middle of what was the assembly area. The rail fence that ran down the other side has been removed so that the old service road can be included as part of assembly. There is now a fairly wide tarmac run off area to the right of the national straight from the vehicle bridge all the way to Brooklands, this is what has decimated the old assembly area.

The exit to the track has been squeezed so it's now single file and, if cars want to leave the circuit through the front of assembly, as they did in the past, they now have to do a U turn off the national straight.

There is a narrow strip of what I assume will be grass, between the National straight & Brooklands and their respective new tarmac run offs. At the moment this is very soft mud, cars going into it sideways could IMHO flip.

The more serious problem we discovered is with the new tarmac on the national straight itself, before the bridge. The ground had not been well levelled and there are a number of undulations, dips and hollows. During the afternoon heavy rain these filled with standing water causing cars to aquaplane badly. We had one car into the wall under the bridge on the inside of the circuit and a second buried deep in the mud on the outside, just after the bridge, a couple of laps later. Thankfully, no one was badly hurt, except in their wallet.