Silverstone agrees 17 year deal to host the British GP

[Brogan]

The Donington farce has finally been put to rest.

Silverstone has agreed a 17 year deal to host the British GP from 2010.

Work will begin on a new pit and paddock complex in the new year with it expected to be completed in time for the 2011 race.

I think this is the outcome most people expected after it became clear very early on that Donington weren't getting very far with their redevelopment.

Hopefully Silverstone managed to secure a deal which does not put them in too much financial difficulty.

Silverstone secures British GP from 2010

Silverstone signs 17-year deal for British Grand Prix

 

[Speshal]

Phew

Although you can call me a cynic, I'll believe it when the cars are lined up on the grid

 

[cider_and_toast]

All I can say is....... To Bernie.

Donnington may well have proven to be a good venue but the whole thing seemed to have been done in a fit of pique by Bernie because of his long standing dislike of Silverstone as a venue. Had it been done with some sort of forthought and planning, Donnington given a couple of years to get the track into shape and it's finances in order it may have been seen as an exceptable move so long as a British GP remained on the calendar. Donnington is a pretty good track after all but it did need an awful lot of work to bring it up to speed and not least the stupid system of transport arangements that would have caused total chaos.

Thankfully, the British GP is on, Bernie has taken another slice of humble pie to go with a custard pie in the chops and it's all back to the status quo again.

With the British GP now back at Silverstone will this effect their Moto GP contract?

Anyway, It's good news.

 

[Brogan]

With the British GP now back at Silverstone will this effect their Moto GP contract?

Nope.

They're hosting both series

 

[cider_and_toast]

Cheers Bro, Good news all round then.

 

[snowy]

Two things worry me, the cost 12million for 2010 increasing by 5% year on year after that, seems like extortion to me. And the 2010 race clashing with the World Cup Final! I don't expect it will impact on ticket sales but the TV coverage in the UK is going to be abridged at best and very possibly .

 

[FB]

Snowy beat me to it, planning to have the race on the same day as the World Cup Final is just plain stoopid. Many F1 fans are also football fans and even those who are "nominal" football fans would probably still plan to watch the World Cup Final.

As to a 17 year deal, the BRDC plan use the long term contract as follows:

The modernisation of the facilities at Silverstone, which first staged the British Grand Prix in 1948, will focus on rebuilding the pit lanes and paddock - with work set to start as soon as possible after Christmas.

How about putting some decent grandstands up for the poor sobs who will pay best part of £400 for a weekend's entertainment or, even better, redesigning the track to make the racing more interesting. Great to have a Grand Prix in Britain for the forseeable future but I don't like Silverstone; best thing they could do is move the race to Easter to guarantee rain...

 

[teabagyokel]

The World Cup final kicks off at 19:30, the Grand Prix at 13:00. (And there's a solar eclipse in the South Pacific.)

There won't be a problem, especially if McLaren figure well in either Championship.

 

[Galahad]

Great news that the GP is saved, even though I'm ambivalent about Silverstone at best.

The 5% escalator is a concern though, perhaps not for as long as we've got two top British drivers, but who knows how long that situation will last? Price rises put me completely out of contention to attend some years ago and, unless they find another 50,000 seats, I'm sure that situation is only going to get worse.

Still, as I say, good news. Now, Bernie: to sort out the French, please?!

 

[Brogan]

Yes, it's a bit of a double-edged sword.

Great that the British GP has been saved.
Not so great that it's at Silverstone for the next 17 years.

The Donington redevelopment plans did at least look like a more exciting circuit.
Shame we'll never know now...

 

[Galahad]

The Donington redevelopment plans did at least look like a more exciting circuit.
Shame we'll never know now...

Ah, never say never. They might finish the planned track changes off at least, if not the new pits/paddock. And who knows what the future holds? I'm an incurable optimist!

 

[snowy]

Changes in elevation as a rule tend to make a race more interesting to watch and challenging to drive.
Silverstone is a bit flat... They ought to dig a big trough in the infield where they have the planned Arena extension, and have the cars plummet into and vault out of it. Alternatively they could build a big mound but I'm not nearly as keen on that idea... I'm still trying to get over what the new (now quite old) pit complex did to Brands Hatch! Freakin' Idjits!

 

[cider_and_toast]

Oh how much would I give to see F1 at Brands!!!

The thing is as I posted earlier, If Bernie wanted to see a better facility to host the British GP he should have been in talks with circuits 3 or 4 years ago. A project of the scale required to bring Donnington up to speed was always going to take a long time. Fans and experts alike pointed this out as soon as the deal was announced.

Now that Silverstone have the deal done they won't have their new facilities in place for at least 12 months either so it's situation normal for next year.

The problem with attendances is not how many seats at the venue but how many people and how quickly you can get into and out of the venue. I was at the British GP in 92 and it took us some 4 hours to get from the M4 into the circuit by coach. Ok so things have improved a bit with the new road system but it's still not capable of coping with 10's of thousand more fans. Donnington would have been an even bigger nightmare. I've been there to watch BTCC races and that was bad enough. 3 times that volume would have caused gridlock for days.

At least we still have a grand prix that's the most important thing.

 

[FB]

Last time I went to Silverstone was in 2003 and it took 2 to 3 hours to escape the circuit (better than the 5 it took in 1981) so if the race finishes at 2:30/3pm, 2 to 3 hours to escape the circuit and then 3 to 4 hours for me to get home to the frozen North I'm well into the 2nd half of the WC Final.

I don't want to come across as a "Grumpy Old Git" but unless you live within an hour of the circuit the timing in relation to the football is awful.

Great that we still have a race but surely someone must have looked at the calender before setting the date

 

[Brogan]

Great that we still have a race but surely someone must have looked at the calender before setting the date

Bernie did and worked out that he'd have more than enough time to fly home by private helicopter after the race...

 

[Muddytalker]

Not sure I like either of these drawings -

From the BBC

From Autosport

Firstly, why keep Abbey as a chicane or a bend, and not turn it into a smoother, gentle curve, thereby effectively making a longer straight?

And why have a kink or corner before the slow left corner? Seriously, you have to wonder if the designers actually understand anything about overtaking, or (perhaps more likely) is this totally outside of their remit?
Whilst I appreciate part of the new proposed track is already there, but relative to other costs it surely wouldn't cost much to re-lay what must be only 300m or 400m of track?

Lastly, I agree with snowy on elevation; here is a good opportunity to build some altitude change into a flat and featureless landscape. Let's do it right, please?

 

[Brogan]

Silverstone plans World Cup party to follow British grand prix

Obviously they've realised that the timing is going to affect ticket sales so they're trying to mitigate it.

You have to wonder at Bernie's motivation for setting the date though.
It's almost as if he wants the British GP to fail...

 

[teabagyokel]

But it is great for the BBC - if there'll be a load of people watching a World Cup final at Silverstone, they can save on one camera in some pub in London*.

Anyway, maybe Bernie theorised that England would never make the damn World Cup final anyway; but looking at it, F1's main audience is in England, Italy, France, Brazil and Germany; with Spain as a particular target market. One of those teams will likely be in the World Cup final; they've only missed two ever! So maybe it isn't wise...

*You know, for the bit where they show celebrations in the capital of one team, commiserations in the capital of another, a scene from a pub from an area of London populated by expats of one or other nations (good luck with that one if its North Korea) and a studio one of (if England play) Shearer and Lineker going mad, whilst Hansen tries to hide his disappointment.

 

[Brogan]

As a result of the increased hosting fees, unsurprisingly the ticket prices are set to rise.

According to research by F1's industry monitor Formula Money, the cheapest tickets to the British GP, which cost £125 this year, will rise 22.5 per cent to just over £150 by 2014.

Ten years into the contract, the cheapest seats are set to cost 50 per cent more than they do now and by 2026 the research shows that their price will have doubled to £249. By then, the price of the most expensive seats is expected to have increased to £530 and the average ticket will cost £425.

Formula 1 fans face Silverstone ticket hike

As ever it's the fans who lose out.

 

[cider_and_toast]

Just picked this up from the news feed and can't say I'm shocked. You beat me to the punch Bro.

Imagine how bad it would be if the British GP actually had to pay the going rate that some other races have to stump up. It's no wonder that circuits have to hope for goverment support in order to meet the needs of CVC.

Coupled with this.....

http://en.espnf1.com/f1/motorsport/story/5473.html

And it appears that the rocky times in F1 are set to continue.

I wonder if any one has considered maybe dropping the prices a bit to try and sell more? This is just for a bit of comparison however, I've had a look around the websites of the top names in various sports to see the cost of a humble polo shirt. There are no suprises really: (all prices quoted from main website and are the cheepest available in the range without discounts or offers)

Manchester Utd - £12.99 Basic Red Polo Shirt
Leicester Tigers RFC - £14.99 Mens two colour polo
Real Madrid - £19.99 - Mens white and dark polo
Miami Dolphins - £23 (approx converted from Dollers) Reebok Basic Polo
Ferrari - £63 (approx converted from Euros) Mens Scuderia Ferrari Polo

Anyone see the problem ????