Brit GP from Silverstone to Donington

[donskar]

According to grandprix.com:

Donington is much more like Magny-Cours than Silverstone and one wonders how the F1 circus will respond to another track where access is troublesome, finding accommodation hard and even eating is a problem. There are added problems in that Donington is located next to a regional airport. This means that buildings cannot be high and that there are problems with aviation fuel coating the track.

But they promise to give Max/Bernie lots of money.

[ESPImperium]

I personally dont think that Donnington has any access problems, they have 200,000 festival goers there to the Rock/Metal fest, Download there every year. and 90,000 spectators go to see MothGP every year there.

Im thinking that the reason that Bernie has taken it there is because of the Access, its just off the M1, has the Airport close to it, so they can come in and out of there, quickly.

If Senna set a 1:18.029 lap then in the McLaren back in 1993 id say that a modren F1 car could probably do that in arround the 1:14.000 mark for a lap. Id also say that the track needs a good bit added to it, maybes about three-quaters of a mile or so, adding to the back stratight, i recon that there will be changes after turn 5, where the bridge is, a re moddeling of McLeans and Coppice, also there could be a re moddeling of the Foggy Esses, and a re moddeling or the Melbourne Hairpin. I also recon that Goddards will get pushed back

How It Is Now:


What id Remoddel it:


The yellow is where the MotoGP guys would skip the chicane between my McLeans and Coppice.

Im not shure how they are gonna get it done in that time, as there will be usage of the cuircit in the meantims, Moto GP, BTCC, Truck Racing, British F3 and the Download Festival. Altho that could be shifted for a couple of years.

And on the Donload note... If Valentino Rossi complains and bitches about the Burger stands that Download use Download being on the track for being slow, god only knows what the F1 drivers will bitch about.

[damonhill]

BE has finally got his way , this is a personal vendetta against silverstone and BRDC
Its like the airports authorities saying - sorry we will close heathrow and move it to biggin hill !!
donnington is way behind also the infrastructure will never cope - east midlands will have to close for the 4 days ??.
this has nothing todo with the race its his fortune he is worried about- hope he gets his come uppance [-o<

[modbaraban]

What id Remoddel it:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v66/I ... onpark.png

Realistically though... BE gonna pay millions to the known german who'll turn it into this:

[WhiteBlue]

Mod, I do not understand why you criticise Tilke. Herman does a super job in terms of getting projects sorted in time and all his tracks and updates were ready at the dead line.

It is also a question of the brief given to him by the promoter. If they have a flat piece of land and tell him to squeeze a GP track into the place of a cart track what can you expect. When he is given the right tools he does beautifull jobs. just watch Istanbul. I certainly expect him to enhance on the already good layout of Donington.

Regarding the access to the track I advise people to study the map. The track is smack in the middle of an open box of dual carriage ways. only from the west it isn't accessible. To the North, East and South you have just a few miles. So the whole project of getting superb access can be done at 20% of what the dual carriage single access to Silverstone has cost. The local government did pay that. Why should a different one not do the same for Donington? They will see a great deal business improvement in the area if they pull in 300,000 + visitors over a GP weekend. Certainly people will not rent helicopters as they do now in Silverstone if they have a regional airport in walking distance. The rich city people can drop in by air which would probably greatly enhance corporate demand for tickets. I can imagine a lively ferry traffic from City Airport and Heathrow on race and Quali day.

This is really an issue of making a sound business decision and commit the money. As long as Hamilton stays on top of the championship you will get your money back for probably 10 years. A bunch of corporations have already gambled on Hamilton. I would not be surprised if CVC did not do the same. You have to look at the negative price pressure that Silverstone has put on the market. They refused the GP at 11 mil pounds where the market currently is asked 2.5 times that figure for new races. It suddenly takes away all that negative bench mark if they do the Brit GP internally. So it would make great sense for CVC to be the private investor in Donington. Even if they only get 1 or 2 millions or less in terms of race fee in the early years they are building up great company value and half ways through the deal they could certainly make a profitable exit by selling it on the back of another 5 years of GP contract. These guys have access to credit at very nice conditions and they probably commit just 20 mil of their own money. sounds like sound reasoning to me.

[modbaraban]

Mod, I do not understand why you criticise Tilke. Herman does a super job in terms of getting projects sorted in time and all his tracks and updates were ready at the dead line.

Istanbul is a masterpice, I agree. But what about the others? The Donnington 'overhaul' that you saw in my previous post, was inspired by this one:


The art of turning a dull track into a slower dull track
...oh wait. I forgot about the really tricky and dangerous bit - the pitlane entrance lol

[Chaparral]

I personally dont believe the Donington race will happen for a few well guarded reasons - however time will tell

[WhiteBlue]

Mod, I do not understand why you criticise Tilke. Herman does a super job in terms of getting projects sorted in time and all his tracks and updates were ready at the dead line.

Istanbul is a masterpice, I agree. But what about the others? The Donnington 'overhaul' that you saw in my previous post, was inspired by this one:


The art of turning a dull track into a slower dull track
...oh wait. I forgot about the really tricky and dangerous bit - the pitlane entrance lol

I do not think that Fuji is comparable. Fuji was a speedway which isn't something that is desirable for F1. I can imagine that there was a clear brief to avoid the fast cornering and put an infield in there.

[WhiteBlue]

After the last comments from Simon Gillette I am more than ever convinced that CVC is behind the Donington investment. They may be looking for a very quick exit by means of going public as soon as the whole thing is viable. So they could be going for public invest as early as late 2010.

[Chaparral]

And I will repeat myself Donington will never happen

[WhiteBlue]

That is one option that has been meditated. But it highly depends of the policy of the FIA president whoever is in office 2010. For the time being the FIA seems to have strengthened their hand over CVC and they seem to view the Brit GP as essential.

[Chaparral]

That is one option that has been meditated. But it highly depends of the policy of the FIA president whoever is in office 2010. For the time being the FIA seems to have strengthened their hand over CVC and they seem to view the Brit GP as essential.

Your not an idot WB - nothing is essential in this egalitarian world - the British GP hangs on BCE's whim - pity that

[WhiteBlue]

We seem to have aquired an expert of mental illnesses here. We were in urgent need of that expertise for some time.

[Chaparral]

We seem to have aquired an expert of mental illnesses here. We were in urgent need of that expertise for some time.

Come back to me with that line at the end of 2009 - it isn't going to happen at Donington =D>

[donskar]

RE: Donington getting anywhere; sorry if I missed it . . . ): Gillett is quoted from an interview with ITV.

"Unfortunately there's not a mystery fairy godfather with a 100 million pound cheque out there," he said."I wish there was, and if there are any out there, please call! We've got to make some changes to the track, but it's fair to say that if I touch anything from Redgate to Macleans - ie the Craner Curves - I think I'll be lynched. So everyone can rest assured that that's not going to happen. There's going to be a new infield loop, adding about half a mile to the circuit to increase the lap time, and to give another Craner-style corner. And there will be a new Formula 1 pit and paddock, and upgrades to the infrastructure."

Gillett also confirmed that there is no planning permission as yet.

"We're going into the planning process now; we couldn't before we had the contract because obviously we would have showed our hand," he said. "But we've been working with the local authority, they're fully aware of what we're coming up with, and we're expecting a decision in the next couple of weeks."

One cannot fault optimism, but the news gives the event a great deal less credibility than the story was given when the announcement was made.

That does make it sound somewhat less than totally concrete