F1 Moving to Donington

[Fezboy]

BBC SPORT | Motorsport | Formula One | British GP will move to Donington

[woodenspatulas]

blimey ive just a had source close to motorsport tell me that less than 30 mins ago and they said it was a secret!!

[VRStu]

I'm not surprised, they've been threatening Silverstone for a couple of years now.

[Dr Zoidberg]

Donington certainly has done a lot to improve it's facilities though there will need to be more work done before 2010 to get it up to GP standard.

Still , I'm looking forward to it - I shall be going

[bassy-alex]

I've been thinking it should for a bit - although silverstone is a nice fast track, there is something amazing about the series of corners heading down hill towards the old hairpin. There aren't enough flowing sections of track like that in F1 at the moment (with a few exceptions). Seeing an F1 car at donnington again should be brilliant....

[Dr Zoidberg]

I wonder what they are going to do about the access roads to Donington as they can get pretty unpleasant at times

[postmanpat]

Originally Posted by Dr Zoidberg

I wonder what they are going to do about the access roads to Donington as they can get pretty unpleasant at times

but got to be way easier then Silverstone surely?

[Dr Zoidberg]

Originally Posted by postmanpat

but got to be way easier then Silverstone surely?

I've never been to Silverstone , but it's not good at busy events.

It's off the A42 or M1 depending on if you are heading north or south , then on to the A453. This is a reasonably wide single carriageway road that they would run as a one-way road for the event , but you then turn off onto a narrow country road to get onto the car parks. Again , this is run one-way so you do get two lanes of traffic but it can tail back onto the A42.

Anyone who got caught in the traffic for the last Renaultsport day at Donington can vouch for this , though getting off the car parks at the end of the day was the bigger killer as they weren't well marshalled at all.

[postmanpat]

Originally Posted by Dr Zoidberg

Anyone who got caught in the traffic for the last Renaultsport day at Donington can vouch for this , though getting off the car parks at the end of the day was the bigger killer as they weren't well marshalled at all.

lol yeh i was in that one but iirc silverstone is in the middle of nowhere with narrow country lanes for miles in every direction

[amh]

Best thing about it is I have heard plans that the Moto GP could be moving to Silverstone for 2010.

Never really was one for F1 (sorry), but the trip to Silverstone for the Moto GP is a lot shorter than that to Donnington for me

[cheezemonkhai]

Silverstone was pretty **** poor for facilities and parking.

Hopefully this will spur them into improving things there, but I'm looking forward to donington

[Dr Zoidberg]

And it's inevitable that Silverstone will try and reclaim the Grand Prix at some point in the future , so hopefully this will see both tracks making a big effort to improve their facilities.

[Makefish]

When I saw the headline that British F1 was moving I was really dissapointed to learn it was Donnington and not Brands Hatch For me Brands is perfect for F1 and a great circuit and a better choice than Donnington imo.

[Dr Zoidberg]

I don't know about the track , but from a location point of view , Brands is a complete git to get to for much of the country.
Donington and Silverstone are relatively central making them much more accessible

[gadgetman]

Took me 4 hours to get into the world series last year thanks to the idiot marshalls sending me to the next car park, then the next and before you know it you're on a 30 mile jaunt through the countryside to get back!

Silverstone turns the A43 (all dual carriageway) into 4 lanes each way, and 8 lanes into the car parks.

Many events donnington hold currently have nowhere near an F1 capacity. If it did, everyone would be still trying to get in long after the chequered flag. Such a P*** poor choice, and makes a mockery of all the comments made my Bernie about silverstone and others he likes to slate.

Given Silverstone has just agreed to commence £25m improvements that wont be ready until 2010, Donnington has a lot of work to do, and 2 years to do it.

[bassy-alex]

Tilke (the guy that designs most of the new f1 tracks) visited Donny this week, so i'm guessing some hefty upgrades are on the cards. Hopefully they won't take away from the essence of the track, but can improve the facilities and access...

[Dr Zoidberg]

Originally Posted by gadgetman

Many events donnington hold currently have nowhere near an F1 capacity. If it did, everyone would be still trying to get in long after the chequered flag. Such a P*** poor choice, and makes a mockery of all the comments made my Bernie about silverstone and others he likes to slate.

The MotoGP had about 90,000 this year though having many of them turn up on bikes rather than in cars helped the traffic flow

[Alex]

Donnington for F1 OMG that is going to be fun for traffic, nice and local for me though.

[gadgetman]

Originally Posted by Dr Zoidberg

The MotoGP had about 90,000 this year though having many of them turn up on bikes rather than in cars helped the traffic flow

The F1 GP has at least double that. This year sell out @ 300,000 EACH DAY (fri, sat, sun).

Now tell me that track is still suitable.

[moley]

In the seventies & up to 1986 Brands & Silverstone held the GP on alternate years, then it was moved to Silverstone only. At the time we said 'it's flat it's cr*p it's Silverstone' Give me druids at Brands Hatch any day.
Donnington is a good circuit, but a mate races there and complains about the grip,he reckons it's the aviation fuel from the planes landing at East Midlands airport making the track greasy.

[Ender]

I read these post's and read some again, are you all mental? have any of you been to the circuts?

Jeez I goto Silverstone F1/Touring cars and such every year i attend Silverstone atleast 7 times a year.

Im also a regular at brands for the touring cars and DTM.

And I goto donnie for the MOTOGP and touring cars.

Now lets get one thing sorted from the get go, their is one circut and one circut alone that has the facilitys and is best suited to F1 and thats Silverstone, Have you ever stood by maggots and beckets?, have you stood 2 3rds of the way down hanger str8 and been blown away by cars doing 200 MPH?
How about the complex starting at bridge?, how about a flat copse, how they flick thro their full throttle? i dont think any of you have seen these things!

Brands i saw brought up, I LOVE BRANDS its amazing paddock hill bend leading into druids is a sensational couple of corners with the gradients and all but lads its a bike track or a slow car track anything light, why do you think palmers base out of their, its bumpy and the facililtys are 3rd world, its also **** for access and even worse car parking.

Donnie jeeze again its a bike track man F1 cars would lap that place in 50 seconds or less sure the craner curves are awesome FOR BIKES a modern f1 car going around their would just be a ****ing parade.

I dont think any of you understand F1 cars, only one circut in this country can accomodate them and its not donnie or brands, moving the grand prix to donnie will be like setting F1 in the UK back 20 years.

Silverstone IS NOT SURROUNDED BY COUNTRY LANES it actuely has duel carrigeways nowadays, when i left today it took 3 hours to get home and that included sitting at luton in the road works.

F1 needs so much we aint just talking about the track here.

its only bernie being a ****head anyways as he is always, he says about burgers and beer and muddy fields, has he forgot his ****ing routes WE ARE BRITISH burgers/beer and mud is what we ****ing do he is a ****.

Silverstone is the best track in the UK FOR F1.

Brands is awesome for anything smaller and lighter and donnie is a **** hole of a place with 1 good part to it that are the curves and its a bike track.

[Dr Zoidberg]

Originally Posted by gadgetman

The F1 GP has at least double that. This year sell out @ 300,000 EACH DAY (fri, sat, sun).

Now tell me that track is still suitable.

They were saying it was a 90000 capacity crowd - same as Donny

[Captain Sisko]

I haven't been to a circuit yet

Playing them on TOCA
Brands seems like a small bumpy track which would prove too bumpy for an F1 car.
Bernie sounds like an **** saying the Government should have intervened.

I gotta doff my cap to the Silverstone committee. They had a budget, said they couldnt afford it and so they had to let it go otherwise the public would be paying more in ticket prices, track days etc...
It will be interesting to see if Donnington pulls it off. Also now Donington have to prep will this affect other race series that have D Park on their schedules?

[Dr Zoidberg]

Originally Posted by Captain Sisko

I haven't been to a circuit yet

Playing them on TOCA
Brands seems like a small bumpy track which would prove too bumpy for an F1 car.
Bernie sounds like an **** saying the Government should have intervened.

I gotta doff my cap to the Silverstone committee. They had a budget, said they couldnt afford it and so they had to let it go otherwise the public would be paying more in ticket prices, track days etc...
It will be interesting to see if Donnington pulls it off. Also now Donington have to prep will this affect other race series that have D Park on their schedules?

They had the boss from Donington on the TV at the weekend saying how they plan to extend the circuit with a new infield loop , so there is some pretty major work going to be done to the track.

Hopefully they will be able to do this in 2009 and schedule everything else around it as it would be a shame to miss out on other races there.

A lot of the other work that needs doing is to the facilities which could be done while leaving everything open

[gadgetman]

Originally Posted by Dr Zoidberg

They were saying it was a 90000 capacity crowd - same as Donny

Sorry, the 300k figure was for the entire weekend. Still stand by the fact donnington couldnt cope with those numbers.

The track would also need to close for most, if not all of 2009 to allow the track to get sorted. Then there's the issue that they dont have any planning permission to carry out the proposed changes

If they've pulled a poker move, then they better pull it off. Bernie is adamant that the deal says if they're no ready, then the British GP is not transferable!