It’s been a long break. I’ve had to look it up and the last time I was at Silverstone for the British Grand Prix was in 2006, when I spent the weekend following the late, great, Formula 1 correspondent Alan Henry.
What an experience. Alan knew everyone and everyone knew and loved Alan. Clinging onto his shirt tails got me into motorhomes and press conferences and enabled me to eavesdrop on one-to-ones with F1 royalty. I was introduced to Keke Rosberg by Alan. An Autocar colleague greatly missed.
Thirteen years later, I’m back at Silverstone. No media accreditation this time, no golden card in the form of an F1 legend to hold my hand. Just a general admission ticket for Saturday qualifying. And a list of a dozen challenges supplied by the editor and a few other Autocar mates. I have, for example, got to get a driver’s autograph. That could be tricky. Some challenges are a lot easier, such as watching from the outside of Maggotts and Becketts as the F1 cars hammer through. Walking a bit of the old GP circuit should also not be too challenging.
The circuit has changed dramatically since I was last here and I don’t recognise a lot of it. I’ve flown over it many times but you can’t see the subtleties of the layout from 2000ft.
With me today is our photographer Olgun Kordal. He drove down from Birmingham this morning and I came up from London. Since I had the tickets, we met first for a coffee at Cherwell Valley services. Silverstone’s traffic scares me to death (I was caught in the famous car park mud bath of 2000) so I’ve come up on my Royal Enfield 650 Interceptor.
We’ve had to buy a car park pass for Kordal, which cost £30. Motorbikes park for free, which is another reason for coming on two wheels. The general admission tickets themselves are £95 each, so if you tot that lot up, you get a total of £220. Oh, and another £7.50 for posting the tickets to the office.
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I can identify with much of this . . .
. . . from flying over at 2,000' to having a beer with Gerry Marshall in the Kentagon. I once flew myself and three friends in to Silverstone, hammered the aircraft's brakes to slow down in the distance available, taxiied in and found I couldn't stop from total brake fade. Colin Chapman had to step smartly out of the way as I sailed past the twin he was disembarking from and into the ploughed infield. Happy days. Just home from VSCC Prescott and I couldn't agree more about that, too.
My father had the chance
My father had the chance decades ago to meet celebrities (drivers, team managers) and cars.
A time when drivers liked to watch the other races in tirbunes
That was F1.
But now, these over payed stars remain closed in their cars with halo and inside their hospitality bunkers.
Ban that, the DRS, the radio, the telemetry...
They have to merit their salaries.
@ Colin Goodwin
Contrast your experience with NASCAR in the states where it really is access all areas.....look at the packed stands- most staying all weekend.
Formula One holds no thrill for me anymore (although the last two races were entertaining...particularly the Fred Carno's circus which was the Mercedes-Benz pit).
The last time I saw a Formula One race was mid eighties at Silverstone, where the experience (even for free in the BMW hospitality area - mostly on a TV screen), was so underwhelming I vowed never to return....and havent to this day - for any event.
I hate the circuit anyway, the drivers might like it but it looks what it is - a windswept old airfield with poor access and facilities. Brands Hatch is a far superior circuit imo.
Thirty quid for parking?
It's almost as if they're expecting patrons to be grateful to be allowed in...
All of that plus, for Silverstone, horrible to get to, horrible to get away from, indiferently staffed (at best) all with an air of panic that, at some point, it will all end...their whole promotional drift is "PLEASE, come here, spend money! All else is fluff". Brands is far superior, and so might be any other airfiled simply repurposed for motor sports...at least it knows what it is.
One could tweak that rule, though, Colin and say that if one thinks an event will be enhanced by a special pass, or ticket, then that event, or indeed sport, probably isn't for you. And on that basis, only, venues and rights holders can and will stretch the definition of access for sales very far indeed.
Access to drivers is another thing. I'm not sure why anyone over the age of 10 would necessarily want to get up close and personal with a driver, in that environment (I suppose for Facebook likes these days?), but given the footbalification of most things now - in the my dad is bigger than yours frame - I wouldn't want to be freely exposed to any nutter with a Twitter grudge and a hammer.
The Stevenage W.I. were apparently furious about Lewis Hamilton's "slums" comment...imagine the damage they could do with knit needles and an egg beater.*
*Some, or all, of that may not be true.