There most definitely was an atmosphere, as there always is when you put thousands of Motorsport fans together (all be it a bit stiffled by being minus a billion). The stadium tracks are always a bit slow but your confined in space. But if you spread them out over a larger track you then lose the stadium atmosphere.
The Mercedes was crap. Too big, too sensible, too quiet. The most exciting cars are the ROC buggies, and the EuroNASCARS are good fun too as they slide and drift and sound amazing.
The loss of the bridge is a shame, but given that the track layout was released very late, and that they have to have ripped the whole thing up and completely cleared the stadium by midnight tonight I'm convinced it was due to not being allowed or not having time.
There was meant to be Karting, but it never happened. It was a very late addition and some Reddit threads suggest it was because they didn't have enough of the tecpro barriers on site (the outside wall was all concrete, which wouldn't have to worked for Karting).
The stadium is also a lot smaller in real life than it looks on TV. The bottom rows of seats were blanked off because if a car went off, that's where they would land! Plus being down that low would have meant you couldn't have seen over the other side of the track.
TV certainly sterilises the event a bit, its much better actually being there. But yesterday wasn't without its moments of disappointment and failure in organisation, especially for something that costs as much as it did. If the tickets were cheaper it would be better. I enjoyed it and had a great day with my family, but won't be queing up to throw £50+ at it again next year.