http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/68828

Who knows how permanent this change will be, or for how long the contract is. It might even be 'false news' to put pressure on the BRDC at Silverstone...

Donington had that track designer dude over the other day, so I imagine they want to go through with it. Not sure what to think

Both are great circuits (though I've not driven on Donington ), but I think the access and facilites will be a problem at Donington due to a lack of space - it's not got a huge infield, it's not got a huge paddock (because the Melbourne loop goes behind the pits)...

I don't think it'll last long on the calender unless it's massively changed. And that would almost certainly be a bad thing - like the ruining of Hockenheim for example.

Donington is terrible for access, absolutely terrible. If they do use it, it'll be butchered first.

That could be why the track designer was over.
They have just under 2 years to get it sorted, and I imagine facilities and space is the least of the potential issues.

Why would they replace a track becuase of lack of facilities for one with even worse facilities?

Its done to mess with the brits heads.

This one is in the "not going to happen" pile. Bernie and the British GP will be returning to Silverstone with their tails between their legs.

Quote from tristancliffe :

Both are great circuits (though I've not driven on Donington ), but I think the access and facilites will be a problem at Donington due to a lack of space - it's not got a huge infield, it's not got a huge paddock (because the Melbourne loop goes behind the pits)...

I don't think it'll last long on the calender unless it's massively changed. And that would almost certainly be a bad thing - like the ruining of Hockenheim for example.

but since they've already got the dude who ruined Hockenheim over... I sense we'll hv yet another Tilke modified/designed track on the calendar...

@ Mustafur

Bernie's billions

And to stick one on the BRDC

Donnington has had a lot of problems with grip (or lack there of) recently. Mainly due to the increasing number of flights into East Midlands airport (just a stones throw away) And it's an old, short and very narrow track. Basically it's gonna need a complete overhaul if it's gonna be used as a regular circuit. There is land nearby which could be used to extend it, but i doubt that would be a viable option tbh. Shame London couldn't get it's act together and put on a street circuit, but who knows what will happen once the contract expires

Edit whilst writing this, some more info just announced. Seems like they've signed a 10yr agreement and promised 100 million in investment http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/ ... e-loses-gp-donington.html

Quote from Mustafur :

Why would they replace a track becuase of lack of facilities for one with even worse facilities?

God knows. Or rather, Bernie knows. He's always had it in for Silverstone. But changing it for Donington? Well it's a great track and it's nice to see other venues getting a higher profile, but why move from a track where the facilities are allegedly substandard to one where they are agricultural in comparison?

I just hope they don't butcher the track too much. Maybe do something with the Melbourne loop, especially if it creates some paddock space, but leave the rest of the track alone...

And as it looks Tilke will be allowed to redo it into another soulless track.

Donington alone has more history now than any of Tilke's circuits will have even in 1000 years time. If Tilke even so much as touches it we, the British public, should lynch him, and have him tickled to within an inch of his life.

The whole track will not be replaced, the track designer was there and the track is too short for F1 and needs to be lengthened. The circuit was taken over last year, and the new owners have already started on a 5 year overhaul of the facilities, so we'll just have to wait and see what they actually do with it!

Well, it will be changed for certain, and Tilke will be the one to redesign it. Lets just hope he's learnt from his past mistakes (excluding Turkey) and gets it right this time

But in the mean time, come on all you budding track designers.

How would you change it ?

http://maps.google.com/

[edit] bollocks, that didn't work. How the hell do i link to google map in a specific location ?

Lets try this http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF ... 0.037594&t=h&z=15

Haha, got there in the end.

Apparently the sale of the circuit included quite a lot of the land surrounding the track. So i'm guessing that includes most if not all of the farm land to the south, west and north.

At first glance i'd say extend the track into that field to the south from the Foggy S, and then link up to the existing track at the hairpin in the Melbourne loop. (Will supply crudely drawn pics in a while)

[edit] Ok, lets try putting this in the right thread this time...

As promised heres a quick attempt at extending the track without destroying the old and much loved parts of the circuits. Perhaps the old section will need widening, but that shouldn't be too much of a problem as long as it's done carefully and sympathetically. But with the new parts, i definitely think that southern field can and should be used to extend the track. And it should free up a lot of space to enlarge the paddock too.

to make it a proper tilke track it needs a uber long straight followed by a hairpin. and some extreme long corner...

Quote from three_jump :

to make it a proper tilke track it needs a uber long straight followed by a hairpin. and some extreme long corner...

Dat looks like a mans rude bits !

Genuinely lmao

Bernie is fond of messing with people's heads isn't he? Look at this quote from the AutoSimSport report:

"I am sorry that we could not have helped Silverstone to raise the money to carry out the circuit improvements and run Formula One. I believe that the government should have supported them which would have cost probably less than .002% of the government's commitment for the Olympic Games."


Pessimistic Olympic games estimates are running at about 10 billion pounds. So, let's see: 0.002% of that is only 200,000 pounds. For the price of a small house, if Bernie's been quoted correctly, Silverstone could be fixed up? Bernie has that much money lying under the cushions on his sofa. (Presumably a decimal point got moved and Bernie meant 2 million pounds, but that's still peanuts compared to the sums of money involved in F1.)

There's a couple hidden messages. Brownie points if you can guess all 3.

Quote from jtr99 :

Pessimistic Olympic games estimates are running at about 10 billion pounds

All of which is wasted... At least Silverstone would be used after the event, so the money would be more of an investment.

When the UK 'won' the Olympics, there were people cheering on the street. Oh to be that stupid. I was hoping France would get the burden.

Edit: Maggot - I see a reference the love shack. Clearly a joke, as Bernie is on his period at the moment, and Max can't sit down. I see a middle finger instead of Old Hairpin, which must be meant for Tilke? And I see James Allen just entering the paddock.

I did get them all?

Quote from three_jump :

And as it looks Tilke will be allowed to redo it into another soulless track.

they should rename it to formula tilke

Quote from tristancliffe :

All of which is wasted... At least Silverstone would be used after the event, so the money would be more of an investment.

When the UK 'won' the Olympics, there were people cheering on the street. Oh to be that stupid. I was hoping France would get the burden.

Edit: Maggot - I see a reference the love shack. Clearly a joke, as Bernie is on his period at the moment, and Max can't sit down. I see a middle finger instead of Old Hairpin, which must be meant for Tilke? And I see James Allen just entering the paddock.

I did get them all?

the whole track also looks like some kind of animal preparing to bite a c$#%

This kind of sucks, Silverstone has produced great racing over the years, now they switch to a narrow track with hardly any room for F1 cars to run side by side let alone actually overtake. Donnington is fantastic for grass roots motorsport and bike racing, they will probably drop MotoGP now, because Silverstone will want that to replace F1.

At least there will still be a British GP.

Perhaps we should look at this through 'Bernie Goggles', firstly the BDRC hates Bernie, so he's moving venues basically to upset them.

Also (seeing as Bernie only really cares about the money and not the racing), Donnington is located near to Derby, and so is pretty near the centre of the country, so its never to far from anywehere, so lots of paying fans, it is also rather conveniantly located right next to East Midlands airport.

I fear though that the track will be butchered by Tilke.

Someone really needs to get rid of Bernie and Tilke and replace them with people who actually love racing.