British Grand Prix 2010

I'm slightly confused. Surely the cost of bringing Donington up to F1 standard will be substantial. How come Donington can raise the money, but Silverstone can't. I thought Silverstone had major redevelopment plans in place...? :s
 
In a word - bo*****S, was at practise today - brilliant, hadn't been in the circuit for some years - Donnington - not the best!
 
Hmm, the Midlands, that'll be easy for me to get to

Never been to Donington so cant really comment one way or another.. a couple of years ago I did set off to go the the Reanult World Series there, got stuck in traffic on the M1 because of an accident so high tailed it and turned back home. I think there would need to be some major restructuring to the surrounding roads but hey Bernie et al must have been given assurances that convinced them to award it to Donington and not Silverstone.

Seems a bit weird though that Donny can find 100M to upgrade and Silverstone were struggling to find 25M ... there's more to this story than initially meets the eye imho.

Footnote to Jenov ... come on spill the beans :) .. what was it like today ... start a thread about it! ... you know we want you to lol
 
well this is what I wrote on a differnt site, pretty much sums up how i feel,

Well Its a massive suprise that Donington has the British Gp from 2010, there was rumors that it would replace Sliverstione for a year if re-devlopment took to long. I was under the impression that It would be extemely difficult for any other track other than Sliverstone to host the Race, because of the huge changes needed to bring upto F1 spec, money, and strict Noise restrictions.
Donington has a lot of work to do between now and 2010 to get the track upto the standereds needed for F1, the run off areas for pretty much of the whole of the second part of the lap needs to be increased and proberly re laid too, i.e Gravel Traps and the grass areas, Also a lot of the barriers need to be replaced, brought upto date and need to have a lot more tyre barriers put in place, there are a couple of places where theres a hard conctrete wall, where and F1 car could crash hard and possibly cause injury, Also facitiltes need to improved dramatically too, Sliverstone isnt exactly best and has been critiszed by Bernie for it too and donington, isnt even on the standers of Sliverstone. Donington isnt exactly Flush with Cash so where the money is goint to come from I dont know, Our goverment has wanted to put funds into British Motorsport, and with the Credit Crunch here, they are not going to start now either, Politics between the BDRC and Bernie means Bernis himself dosen't excatly wants to put money into the British GP either so the descison to move Donington bemuses me a little.

On the plus points, The circut Layout os great, a techincal circut for the first part of the lap, with the Craner curves, which are a challenge for any car, and overtaking possibalityes into the final part of the lap with the to haipins at the end of the circuit. Also spectator viewing is better at Donginton is a lot better to, Sliverstone because it is based at an air field base, means its is one of the worst places in Britian to actually to goto and watch racrs, because you are so far away from the action. Donington is a lot better in that respect. If Donington get the funding and make the proper changes correctly, I think it would be a great circuit to go to, but has i said above they have a lot of work to do to get there.
 
I would say that there must be a backer tbh. Someone is willing to bung their money into the track. So we need to work out who's rich and has emotional ties to Leicestershire? Does Gary Lineker like F1? ROFL These, and many other questions, will be ignored by the wider F1 community as long as Donny comes up with a decent Grand Prix.

Last time they hosted a Grand Prix was 1993, winner of that GP tells you about how much the safety standards have changed: the late, great Ayrton Senna...

All that matters is that its safe, although tbf Montreal has concrete walls and Bobby Kubica had a massive accident and injured nowt last year. But you only have to look at how many times Ralf Schumacher injured himself at Indy to understand the threat of concrete walls. (or the threat of Ralf Schumacher...)

Anyways, lets not worry about where the cash is coming from... if there is a British GP, then thats good news!
 
Sorry, but this is totally unfair - for years Silverstone has been told this must happen, that must be built - all has been implemented, now, suddenly, everything is out the window - because some little dwarf has moved the goal posts. It is not fair, not just and, plainly, not right.
 
From a purely racing point of view, moving to donington probably is a good thing. Silverstone is basically a flat airfield. But Donington is undulating and has the craner curves.

However, when it comes to Bernie and F1, you just know it's not about the racing! Politics and money is what it's about. I'm sure it's been written about elsewhere (might have read it on the autosport website) that Bernie will be an investor, as part of the £100M improvements needed at Donington... The BRDC not being so keen to bend over backwards for Bernie was the death knell for Silverstone..
 
Quick question

Why will the arguments with Bernie and The BDRC will not affect Donington Park, I thought that the BDRC organised/promoted the British GP
 
Andrea_Moda_Rules said:
Quick question

Why will the arguments with Bernie and The BDRC will not affect Donington Park, I thought that the BDRC organised/promoted the British GP

The BRDC own the Silverstone race circuit. They only organise the British GP whilst it is held at Silverstone. The BRDC will still represent the interests of professional racing drivers in the UK, but they will no longer organise the GP from 2010.

I think I'm right on this anyway. I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong. :)
 
I'm delighted with this news. Donington is a far better circuit for spectators and is at least as much of a challenge for drivers as Silverstone.

Donny's access isn't fantastic but that can be rectified pretty quickly - it's very close to the M1, East Midlands Airport is across the back field and it has excellent rail links too.

Donington was bought by new owners a couple of years ago and already they've stumped up for a new pits and paddock complex (which admittedly will probably have to be replaced again).

It will be interesting to see who the mystery backer is. Donington needs an awful lot in terms of facilities but nothing that couldn't be achieved in the required timeframe, I don't think. Could it be Bernie himself?

As for the unfairness angle, well, I have limited sympathy for the BRDC. They've signed a succession of five-year contracts with Bernie and each time have managed to get away with paying less than the going rate. A few years back St. Modwen offered a deal to take over promotion of the race by doing a comprehensive redevelopment of the circuit with the sale of some land for housing, a conference centre, industrial complex etc. The BRDC rejected the plans because they wanted to stay in control - a short-sighted decision, I'd say.

This time I don't think they took BE seriously, probably because they didn't think he would really move the race and because they didn't think there was anywhere else to hold it.

Nonetheless I'd be surprised in 2009 is the last British GP at Silverstone. If Donington isn't ready for 2010, they could pay Silverstone to hold the race instead. And with planning laws being what they are, you wouldn't rule it out.
 
Good for drivers and teams, its good to go to other circuits rather than having race at same place year after year. We should be happy, atleast there will be a BRITISH GP.
 
Saw this, this morning, about Donington .. apparently it hasn't even got planning permission! http://www.pitpass.com/fes_php/pitpass_ ... t_id=35367

Knowing how long these applications can take, it's surely possibile that the circuit will not be ready in time... so why on earth did Bernie have to say it was a done deal when it has clearly not been properly researched.
 
To my mind they could run the British grand prix at the Top Gear Test Track in 2010 providing it takes place. To be fair the prospect of the cars going around Donington is quite exciting providing any track work dosn't kill the circuit stone dead.

Chances are that as long as the track is upgraded and the Hospitality is in place then the GP will go ahead. I don't think clogged roads will stop the race after all we were putting up with that at Silverstone for years. I remember leaving Bristol by coach at 5am in 1992 and actually getting on to the grass banking between Abbey and Bridge at about 12.30. Nothing like cutting it fine.
 
I think it depends on just how much of a devious little scumbag Bernie Ecclestone is (or isn't). I really really want Donington to be able to be ready, but it wouldn't surprise me if he's set them an unachievable target so he can pull the british GP from the calendar and sell the slot to another oil-rich arab state. Saudi GP?

If it does happen I'll be really chuffed - Donington (apart from the Melbourne loop which will surely be canned anyway) is a great circuit.
 
I would be really interested to see a proposed new lay out for the track. The owners have said that the Craner curves will remain untouched but it's hard to imagine what other changes will take place.

I have been studying the track on google earth and I can't see where abouts the extensions required are going to fit. There dosn't appear to be any room to put more of the track across the infield. I suppose the most likely places are the old hairpin plus a revised Melborne loop.

Given that they are on a limited time frame you would have thought that the circuit owners would have started to push out the plans immediatly. Surely they must have already thought about what they are going to do before putting pen to paper ???
 
I think they'll have major issues, especially as they are in line with the runway for east midlands airport. How are they going to deal with this?
 
Bear in mind the old Melbourne hairpin used to be far out to the west of the current circuit, with Regate curving the other way (I think). There's quite some scope to extend the circuit that way, and Simon Gillett has said they will add a long sweeping curve allowing the cars to reach 200mph. Hopefully they'll publish plans soon.
 
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