British Grand Prix 2012, Silverstone - Race 9/20

Skeeter said:
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.



They did look a little cautious in what must have been a massive field of priceless classics! Some epic stuff though.
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Why would they suffer from poor organisation and lack of contingency?

Also they might be more sensible and have proper car parks and/or a more developed infrastructure.

MotoGP is a Sachenring in Germany this weekend. There was poor weather. The result? No reports of any traffic issues, no people being turned away, no issues for campers etc..
 
englishpremier said:
Why would they suffer from poor organisation and lack of contingency?

Also they might be more sensible and have proper car parks and/or a more developed infrastructure.

MotoGP is a Sachenring in Germany this weekend. There was poor weather. The result? No reports of any traffic issues, no people being turned away, no issues for campers etc..
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Been to Spa? We had to get towed out of the field, and the campsite had no water for toilets or showers for over a day.

And I doubt the same volume of people will be turning up to the MotoGP.

Silverstone works fine when its dry or just 'normally' wet. The issues were caused by the freak wether and very little Silverstone could do about it. What were they meant to do, tarmac all the fields in 1 day?
 
Skeeter said:
Been to Spa? We had to get towed out of the field, and the campsite had no water for toilets or showers for over a day.

And I doubt the same volume of people will be turning up to the MotoGP.

Silverstone works fine when its dry or just 'normally' wet. The issues were caused by the freak wether and very little Silverstone could do about it. What were they meant to do, tarmac all the fields in 1 day?
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MotoGP attracts a similar amount of people as F1. Oddly not at Silverstone though, probably because it's a boring track for Bikes (too long). Jerez enjoys around 120,000, and Brno stands out at around 150,000.

The issues were caused by poor planning. Why when include grass car parks in the facilities design at all, when the British weather is notoriously bad? Where is the contingency for then the weather is poor? This isn't the fist time there has been bad weather and chaos at Silverstone, or the first time it's been lambasted for it's planning and handling of the situation. It seems that they are planning an investigation into the matter, and things did improve after the fiasco in 2000, so perhaps it won't happen again.

I wonder what Donnington's solution was going to be had that all gone to plan? Apparently it had less transport infrastructure than Silverstone.

Never been to Spa, would like to though. Every time I ride passed it absolutely pees it down. I don't think i've ever been in that region and stayed dry.
 
But what could they do? There isn't enough carparking for the amount of people, they have to use the temporary carparks in the fields.

I do have to question why they don't run the park and rides on Fridays though...
 
Skeeter said:
But what could they do? There isn't enough carparking for the amount of people, they have to use the temporary carparks in the fields.

I do have to question why they don't run the park and rides on Fridays though...
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Well as you say, park and rides, the point people are making is not "what could they do on the day", but "what should they have done to be able to cope if it rains".

The answer is, not loads of grass fields for parking, more hard surfaces. Apparently they like the green and don't want to tarmac, fair enough, lots of other venues use concrete "pads" that have holes in that allow grass to grow through but basically leaves the area hard and fully capable of being used as a car park normally in the rain. Had they done that years ago, it would be a non issue this weekend.

That or, not oversell the capacity and pray it doesn't rain, its England. Basically they've sold far more tickets than the venue can cope with in bad weather.
 
So if it was sunny the circuit would be massively under sold?

Silverstone don't own the fields they use as temporary car parks either.

I think they have done the best job they could given the weather and the restrictions on the site. I think people complaining that more should have been done are expecting things to happen that simply couldn't.
 
Thats the main problem isn't it the fields are farmers they're hardly going to let Silverstone concrete them for the handful of times a year they're needed.

Not sure if it's financially viable for them to buy them and do it either even if they wanted to.

Moving forwards I guess what they should be looking at doing is finding extra potential park and ride locations.

I'm staggered we've made it till 12:00 on Saturday and not heard a peep from Bernie thought moaning about Silverstone was his favourite past time! Guess he's not interested now they've got a contract till 2022 and can't play his games with them.
 
Psycho Ned said:
Thats the main problem isn't it the fields are farmers they're hardly going to let Silverstone concrete them for the handful of times a year they're needed.

Not sure if it's financially viable for them to buy them and do it either even if they wanted to.

Moving forwards I guess what they should be looking at doing is finding extra potential park and ride locations.
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Yep, spot on. And its not like they could just implement P&R systems a week before the race given that they are pre booked and they seem to commender every bus in the midlands :D
 
Jake Humphrey was interviewed last night at Silverstone by Chris Evans on the One Show. I've been waiting for ages for it to show on iplayer. Jake made a funny comment about Eddie Jordan being hit by a flying bird while in a vintage plane. :D

Here's the iplayer link.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01kkzn1/The_One_Show_06_07_2012/


Go to 05:20, and then again to 27:24 at the end of the show







pingwing said:
Saw F1 in HD for the first time 4 weeks ago for Canada, it was beautiful! Need to invest in a HD box for the tv at some point.
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I've got one these. You should get one, it' s a great little machine and I connect it by HDMI into my Samsung TV. F1 looks amazing on it in HD.

http://www.tesco.com/direct/technik...uId=211-5147&pageLevel=sku&_requestid=131825#
 
Sky coverage just made a valid point, the loss of 20,000 spectators could mean the difference between a profit and a loss for the venue. Being a private enterprise they need to sell that many tickets to be able to host the event. Suggesting they should limit the number of tickets just in case it rains would mean the GP would make a loss every year.

Sensible words from MB on the P&R too, the buses they use on Saturday and Sunday aren't available to the circuit on the Friday.
 
Yeah some sensible opinions from Brundle, obviously he's been closely involved with the BRDC so knows what the logistical issues are.

It's not as simple as just concreting half the Silverstone area or sticking on a hundred extra buses they can't access without purchasing their own for 3 days a year.

Bernie did finally show up on Sky about 5 minutes after I posted and was actually fairly rational and fair :eek:
 
So basically they didn't have a contingency

I appreciate that they don't own the fields used for temp parking. Ok fine.

Locate and secure hard surfaces within 15 miles (or further if need be) of the circuit, and run a shuttle bus service. Negotiate with the field owners to use rubber matting.

Milton Keynes is just 17 miles away. Secure the parking used for MK dons stadium.

Northampton is even closer. Hire the University car parks, the Rugby ground car parks etc..

Negotiate with transport companies and have buses brought in from across the region, or country.

All of that would probably cost less than the loss they will make from up to 30,000 spectators missing out, and the terrible PR they are receiving again.
 
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