British Grand Prix 2012, Silverstone - Race 9/20
- Thread starter Duke
- Start date
Blimey, lots of people here who obviously planned ahead to buy high horses. Nexus was stuck for over 8 hours, had a **** day and everyone just tells him it's his fault instead of lending some sympathy.
I just listened to a bit of a radio 5 live phone in and a BBC Northampton presenter phoned in saying it was his day off, he paid for and took his dad today, over £60 per ticket. Same exact tale as Nexus, he was stuck on A43 for 9 hours and got to see nothing. He also said he'd been many times before with no problem and it was never as bad as this.
I just listened to a bit of a radio 5 live phone in and a BBC Northampton presenter phoned in saying it was his day off, he paid for and took his dad today, over £60 per ticket. Same exact tale as Nexus, he was stuck on A43 for 9 hours and got to see nothing. He also said he'd been many times before with no problem and it was never as bad as this.
You weren't far from me then. I was in the same stand on the second row.
Glad we got to watch under cover. Had a pretty good day. Took us ages to get out of the carpark though and we weren't even parked in a field. We got to the car at 4:10 and didn't actually get onto the road until 7:45. Nobody seemed to have any idea where to go. Still, we only had friday tickets so we got our moneys worth.
Pics to follow over the weekend
Man of Honour
- Joined
- 21 Nov 2004
- Posts
- 46,288
Just seems like there has been so much rain this year, both today and in the weeks leading up to the event.
![[TW]Taggart](/styles/overclockers/avatars/4.png){kind=avatar}
Associate
- Joined
- 29 May 2005
- Posts
- 1,006
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000_British_Grand_Prix
EVERYONE knows Silverstone's a nightmare around a GP, in 2000 it was very similar to this. Except this time there was 40mm of rain in 12 hours(along with all the other rain we have all had) Since 2k they have beefed up the infrastructure and are planning more hence the push for investors
To say "its never been as bad as this" is pretty stupid tbh, the rain was forecast, yet people didn't plan their journey and paid the price.
fail to prepare, prepare to fail
Anyone catch this rather lovely looking girl on the bbc red button?
http://i.imgur.com/qDY9a.jpg
Is she famous?
no idea who she is but Best picture of the weekend!
Wish I had saved the pennies for this weekend. Plus as a (sort of) local to Silverstone (grew up not too far from there) summer always went one of two ways back home. Either scorching hot 25 degrees at night type weather or flooding, no in between. I feel sorry for everyone who missed out on F1 (so far) this year because of the rain but it just happens, best thing to do is turn up really early and plan for a bit more traveling that first needed because it can be so wet in the mk/northants area when it wants to be.
This. Campsites closed, camper vehicles with nowhere to go at the front of the queues. Tailbacks of people looking to park in fields that have been closed.
To say we've had a lot of rain over the past few months, and to think we had a hosepipe ban up until a few weeks ago..
Hi guys,
Shattered. Feel like I spent most of today driving but it was worth it.
Left my house at 8:15am and had to drop Jenson off South Leicestershire as my Sister was babysitting him for the day.
Took half an hour to get there then it was a case of getting onto the M1 and into Silverstone which I expected wouldn't be exactly be a breeze but it turned out to be very frustrating.
Everything on the M1 was fine. As soon as we got onto the A43 it was complete grid lock, bumper to bumper, all the way to Silverstone.
Talking about annoying. We got all the way along until we just stopped right next to the A413 (?) Slip road where you can get off the A43 and go through Silverstone village. Well we were stuck on the A43 and the cars were just stationary for about 20 minutes. People started getting out and wondering what was going on - we didn't know why the que was so big, presuming that there had been some sort of accident.
Then, cars started flowing past us on our left off the A43 to take the A413 through Silverstone village, and as we were right on the point of that junction where we'd stopped (very luckily too) we decided to go take that route and go through Silverstone village, which was flowing enough and took us to the circuit.
There was more delay as we got to the roundabout near the circuit and waited to park on a field.
We eventually got in, went to the toilet, collected our goody bag from behind the Abbey grandstand and sat down at 1.30pm.
So we missed all of FP1 and got to see all of FP2.
Boy, was it cold, and windy, but luckily we were sheltered from the rain.
Seeing and hearing the cars made me forget about all of the frustrations leading up to it. As soon as the session finished we left the circuit, after buying a babygrow for Jenson.
Got back to the car, and sat there in a field, unable to move for the traffic, for about an hour and 15 minutes. A traffic person then came up to us and said we could go out of the back of the field where they'd opened a temporary road through a wood and we merged onto the A46.
We had to be pushed over the field because it was so trodden.
I'm pretty sure all of the traffic was due to the weather but for this simply isn't good enough. We paid £120 for our tickets, which was a bargain given that was the price for GA Friday tickets, but I know one person on ebay who'd bought them for £230.
I'd have been livid if that was me having missed FP1 and with all the dire traffic stuff going on.
Just glad I am watching the Qually and Race from home tomorrow.
Took some pics which I'll upload tomorrow. But there only from a phone camera so nothing as brilliant as yours Duke.
I've got a video uploading as I type which I'll link up tomorrow.
All in all, really glad I got my F1 fix, really looking forward to watching the rest of the weekend.
Joel
Shattered. Feel like I spent most of today driving but it was worth it.
Left my house at 8:15am and had to drop Jenson off South Leicestershire as my Sister was babysitting him for the day.
Took half an hour to get there then it was a case of getting onto the M1 and into Silverstone which I expected wouldn't be exactly be a breeze but it turned out to be very frustrating.
Everything on the M1 was fine. As soon as we got onto the A43 it was complete grid lock, bumper to bumper, all the way to Silverstone.
Talking about annoying. We got all the way along until we just stopped right next to the A413 (?) Slip road where you can get off the A43 and go through Silverstone village. Well we were stuck on the A43 and the cars were just stationary for about 20 minutes. People started getting out and wondering what was going on - we didn't know why the que was so big, presuming that there had been some sort of accident.
Then, cars started flowing past us on our left off the A43 to take the A413 through Silverstone village, and as we were right on the point of that junction where we'd stopped (very luckily too) we decided to go take that route and go through Silverstone village, which was flowing enough and took us to the circuit.
There was more delay as we got to the roundabout near the circuit and waited to park on a field.
We eventually got in, went to the toilet, collected our goody bag from behind the Abbey grandstand and sat down at 1.30pm.
So we missed all of FP1 and got to see all of FP2.
Boy, was it cold, and windy, but luckily we were sheltered from the rain.
Seeing and hearing the cars made me forget about all of the frustrations leading up to it. As soon as the session finished we left the circuit, after buying a babygrow for Jenson.
Got back to the car, and sat there in a field, unable to move for the traffic, for about an hour and 15 minutes. A traffic person then came up to us and said we could go out of the back of the field where they'd opened a temporary road through a wood and we merged onto the A46.
We had to be pushed over the field because it was so trodden.
I'm pretty sure all of the traffic was due to the weather but for this simply isn't good enough. We paid £120 for our tickets, which was a bargain given that was the price for GA Friday tickets, but I know one person on ebay who'd bought them for £230.
I'd have been livid if that was me having missed FP1 and with all the dire traffic stuff going on.
Just glad I am watching the Qually and Race from home tomorrow.
Took some pics which I'll upload tomorrow. But there only from a phone camera so nothing as brilliant as yours Duke.
I've got a video uploading as I type which I'll link up tomorrow.
All in all, really glad I got my F1 fix, really looking forward to watching the rest of the weekend.
Joel
[TW]Taggart;22292648 said:
That's like 12 years ago, lol?
Nexus said he's a regular visitor to Silverstone and this is the first time he's experienced such a problem. So while he may not have grounds to complain to silverstone since it was out of their control, it's obviously weather that hasn't caused such chaos in over a decade, so why give him a hard time when he's already had a tough day and got to see nothing.The problem is, Silverstone just cannot facilitate that amount of cars in weather conditions like today.
I understand what you're saying Skeeter about everyone planning, but if everyone planned to get there at 8am and left very early there'd still be the same problem. Even if you cut the traffic into thirds by the volume, and had the first lot turn up at 7, the next at 8 and the next at 9, you'd still be having exactly the same problem as today imo.
I may be wrong but the sheer volume of traffic today was just unbelievable.
And you are right, Silverstone must buy those fields and tarmac 'em. Exactly what I said to the missus today on our way in.
I feel sorry for you Nexus that you didn't get to see anything. I knew getting off and going through Silverstone village was a good idea and it saved my day. But if everyone had have done the same it would have been gridlocked that way too.
I think most people just thought the A43 would be the quickest way to the circuit.
I understand what you're saying Skeeter about everyone planning, but if everyone planned to get there at 8am and left very early there'd still be the same problem. Even if you cut the traffic into thirds by the volume, and had the first lot turn up at 7, the next at 8 and the next at 9, you'd still be having exactly the same problem as today imo.
I may be wrong but the sheer volume of traffic today was just unbelievable.
And you are right, Silverstone must buy those fields and tarmac 'em. Exactly what I said to the missus today on our way in.
I feel sorry for you Nexus that you didn't get to see anything. I knew getting off and going through Silverstone village was a good idea and it saved my day. But if everyone had have done the same it would have been gridlocked that way too.
I think most people just thought the A43 would be the quickest way to the circuit.
Soldato
- Joined
- 30 Aug 2009
- Posts
- 8,109
- Location
- one nation under sony
Man of Honour
- Joined
- 21 Nov 2004
- Posts
- 46,288
What is the weather like there at the moment?
Best picture of the weekend!
The HFO (Historic Formula One) was great. They were having a right laugh on track
Nothing beats a British crowd.
And the European races are all around the same price and would all suffer the same problems in this weather.
The HFO (Historic Formula One) was great. They were having a right laugh on track
They did look a little cautious in what must have been a massive field of priceless classics! Some epic stuff though.