British Grand Prix 2012, Silverstone - Race 9/20
- Thread starter Duke
- Start date
Last edited:
Soldato
- Joined
- 2 Apr 2006
- Posts
- 3,743
My brother is there with his girlfriend in a snooze box, has anyone else been in one? 
What he say?
I'm hearing that the campsites are being closed. Must be absolute chaos.
Man of Honour
- Joined
- 21 Nov 2004
- Posts
- 46,288
Fingers crossed for you, I can only see it getting worse tbh.
Yeah just read that on the Silverstone site, must have gotten really bad. Does this mean they are not allowing new people entering the campsites or actually moving people off them?
Last edited:
I just got home from Silverstone and it was an absolute disgrace, I'm really annoyed.
We left the M1 to join the A43 at 9:30am where we were straight away greeted by a queue; given that I go every year, this really didn't look right for a Friday as you can usually just sail in.
We then crawled along the A43, until we eventually reach the point of about 6 miles from the circuit where we were stopped for about 30 minutes, so most people got out the cars for a bit.
We were then mostly stopped and only moving a few meters until we eventually reached the circuit entrance where I took the below photo, 4 hours after having joined the A43:
In the next hour we moved about 200 meters from this point. Got to one of the roundabouts where it just became totally gridlocked. Then the Police had to try and clear a path for a Fire Engine, which really didn't work and they eventually gave up. The Police were now under instruction to not allow any more people into the carparks and as it was now the end of P2, people were starting to leave, which made the situation even worse.
The only option we had left was to head down the road towards Stowe which was currently the only way out of the circuit. We were then in a queue to get out the circuit, so all in, we queued for roughly 8 hours and didn't even get to park! Not long after, Silverstone Radio said that the Police were now turning everyone around and making everyone leave the circuit anyway.
Complete waste of a day and I don't even know what to think for the rest of the weekend now, it could be even more of a disaster than today was.
We left the M1 to join the A43 at 9:30am where we were straight away greeted by a queue; given that I go every year, this really didn't look right for a Friday as you can usually just sail in.
We then crawled along the A43, until we eventually reach the point of about 6 miles from the circuit where we were stopped for about 30 minutes, so most people got out the cars for a bit.
We were then mostly stopped and only moving a few meters until we eventually reached the circuit entrance where I took the below photo, 4 hours after having joined the A43:
In the next hour we moved about 200 meters from this point. Got to one of the roundabouts where it just became totally gridlocked. Then the Police had to try and clear a path for a Fire Engine, which really didn't work and they eventually gave up. The Police were now under instruction to not allow any more people into the carparks and as it was now the end of P2, people were starting to leave, which made the situation even worse.
The only option we had left was to head down the road towards Stowe which was currently the only way out of the circuit. We were then in a queue to get out the circuit, so all in, we queued for roughly 8 hours and didn't even get to park! Not long after, Silverstone Radio said that the Police were now turning everyone around and making everyone leave the circuit anyway.
Complete waste of a day and I don't even know what to think for the rest of the weekend now, it could be even more of a disaster than today was.
Last edited:
May have already been covered, but they're asking 20 thousand people not to come this weekend. Just on the latest news banner on the BBC website, glad they got it out there nice and early 
Edit : The Silverstone website appears to be getting hammered as well atm.
From their twitter account http://twitter.com/#!/SilverstoneUK
Edit : The Silverstone website appears to be getting hammered as well atm.
From their twitter account http://twitter.com/#!/SilverstoneUK
Last edited:
Just spotted that myself Vader, 20,000 fans, basically anyone with a Public Car Park pass.
I'm confused as to why they are saying Campers are ok though?
They announced that the campsites are now closed and pitches they have are used. There can't be any more campers coming tomorrow then, unless they mean all those who were turned away are going to want to get onto the public car parks as they obviously won't have parking passes.
The refund situation is also annoying.
We had to take it in turns to run into the circuit to use the toilet and get some food, so we used up our Friday ticket stubs, even though we saw nothing, they claim you need these for a refund.
I'm confused as to why they are saying Campers are ok though?
They announced that the campsites are now closed and pitches they have are used. There can't be any more campers coming tomorrow then, unless they mean all those who were turned away are going to want to get onto the public car parks as they obviously won't have parking passes.
The refund situation is also annoying.
We had to take it in turns to run into the circuit to use the toilet and get some food, so we used up our Friday ticket stubs, even though we saw nothing, they claim you need these for a refund.
Soldato
- Joined
- 3 Oct 2009
- Posts
- 19,893
- Location
- Wales
So he's saying it's more complex than 'not enough tyres' yet that the reason people aren't running is there isn't enough tyres?
I'm going to sail in here and in fear of being flamed, defend the car parking situation.
For Saturday and Sunday the park and rides are excellent. The problem is just the Friday and the open parking at the site.
The trouble this year was caused by the wether, which lets be fair, they didn't know was going to be this bad. They reached a limit to how many cars they could park on the grass before running out of fields with gravel roads in. This caused delays, but then those delays were compounded by people abandoning their car and leaving them on the dual carrageway.
Then, at the end of the day people trying to get out of the carparks gridlocked them by going every which way they could to try and get to the exits, and everything came to a standstill. Especially as the route out was blocked by abandoned cars and people still trying to get in.
But then you also have to look at peoples lack of planning. I rocked up at Bicester services 7:30am, picked up Duke and drove straight into the track, not even stopping in a queue, parked up, and we were sat in the Pit Straight grandstand by 8:30.
Then after the GP2 qualifying we walked back to the car and spoke to a few people (including 1 car parked directly in front of where we were parked) who had been sat there for 3 hours trying to get out of the carpark. This is about 5pm. We got in the car, changed our shoes, turned around, went out the back way of the carp park through the woods, out onto the dual carageway and were in Bicester services by 6pm. Nommed on a BK and I'm now posting this from home in Southampton.
So no, I don't think the blame needs to be thrown at the Silverstone authorities. It is a combination of:
a) unpredictably bad weather
b) poor planning from people not leaving enough time to get to the circuit
c) impatient people abandoning their cars on the way in
d) impatient people causing gridlock on the way out, including people abandoning their cars to go hurl abuse at the police.
I had no issue getting in, no issue getting out, and saw every track session bar the Porsches, and that was only because we decided to head off.
Of course Silverstone circuit need to buy those fields and pave them, but I have been to Silverstone numerous times on a Friday in the rain and never had these issues with the exact same setup in place. They could also implement the Park and Rides on a Friday too.
For Saturday and Sunday the park and rides are excellent. The problem is just the Friday and the open parking at the site.
The trouble this year was caused by the wether, which lets be fair, they didn't know was going to be this bad. They reached a limit to how many cars they could park on the grass before running out of fields with gravel roads in. This caused delays, but then those delays were compounded by people abandoning their car and leaving them on the dual carrageway.
Then, at the end of the day people trying to get out of the carparks gridlocked them by going every which way they could to try and get to the exits, and everything came to a standstill. Especially as the route out was blocked by abandoned cars and people still trying to get in.
But then you also have to look at peoples lack of planning. I rocked up at Bicester services 7:30am, picked up Duke and drove straight into the track, not even stopping in a queue, parked up, and we were sat in the Pit Straight grandstand by 8:30.
Then after the GP2 qualifying we walked back to the car and spoke to a few people (including 1 car parked directly in front of where we were parked) who had been sat there for 3 hours trying to get out of the carpark. This is about 5pm. We got in the car, changed our shoes, turned around, went out the back way of the carp park through the woods, out onto the dual carageway and were in Bicester services by 6pm. Nommed on a BK and I'm now posting this from home in Southampton.
So no, I don't think the blame needs to be thrown at the Silverstone authorities. It is a combination of:
a) unpredictably bad weather
b) poor planning from people not leaving enough time to get to the circuit
c) impatient people abandoning their cars on the way in
d) impatient people causing gridlock on the way out, including people abandoning their cars to go hurl abuse at the police.
I had no issue getting in, no issue getting out, and saw every track session bar the Porsches, and that was only because we decided to head off.
Of course Silverstone circuit need to buy those fields and pave them, but I have been to Silverstone numerous times on a Friday in the rain and never had these issues with the exact same setup in place. They could also implement the Park and Rides on a Friday too.
Well obviously. How do they know if you went into the track for a minute or all day?
So he's saying it's more complex than 'not enough tyres' yet that the reason people aren't running is there isn't enough tyres?
The comentators at the track were pointing out the risk vs. reward thing. After doing a bunch of laps in the morning there was very little that the drivers could learn from more wet laps in the afternoon, but there was a massive potential for them to stuff it in the wall. They don't test new parts in the rain as the track is to unpredictable to get accurate enough results, so if they are happy with their wet setup, it makes more sense to sit it out and not risk a crash, regardless of how many tyres they have.