What's is the general opinion on the new Donington Park curcuit layout compared to the old layout?
New:
http://www.motorcyclenews.com/ ... ngton-park-new-layout.jpg

Old:
http://www.donington-park.co.u ... days/track-days-the-track

I personally believe that Tilke has gone and butchered a world class Venue when all it needed was a few minor changes and an extra loop to accomodate minimum track length.

All the good bits are remaining, except perhaps Coppice which has been tightened, hopefully there will still be a blind uphill entry to the corner.

I reckon that new infield part will be like the infield part of Interlagos, first sweeping downhill, then uphill (from what I remember of the land around there.)

He has got rid of a 90/90 degree chicane and a rather nodescript hairpin, I can't see anything bad in that.

Lets see if they can build it in time.

Meh, on the fence about this one. Many of the corners that made Donington, well, Donington are still there, but maybe I'm not a huge fan of the infield section. I guess it's not too bad considering that size-wise it's the same as old, not much room to work with probably. I pray that Tilke does not flatten the circuit or I (and possibly other Donington fans) will be way more ticked off than now.

1 n in the middle of Donington

It looks OK IMO.

Could have done much worse, left the good corners as they were

I would have quite liked to see the cars bouncing over the [foggy] esses, I'm not too bothered about seeing the goddards section dissappear. I agree with what you said about coppice though 5haz.

I wonder what they will do with the Dunlop bridge?

Quote from 5haz :

Lets see if they can build it in time.

I was going to attend a track day last month at Donnington & it suddenly got canceled due to the new track building. Dam shame I never got to drive the old track before they tore it up
but at least we know they started work on it back in December.

Quote from anttt69 :

I was going to attend a track day last month at Donnington & it suddenly got canceled due to the new track building. Dam shame I never got to drive the old track before they tore it up
but at least we know they started work on it back in December.

Indeed, 2 years ago I was given the chance but I promptly got to drive the Donnington gravel trap instead (before they pave that over Tilke Styley. ).

I thought Donnington closed in December every year?

Looking at photos and from what I can remember from 2 years ago, that infield section is going to be fairly steep if they don't flatted it, I hope they don't!

Quote from Mike Bingo :

I would have quite liked to see the cars bouncing over the [foggy] esses, I'm not too bothered about seeing the goddards section dissappear. I agree with what you said about coppice though 5haz.

I wonder what they will do with the Dunlop bridge?

I heard on the news it would be torn down, not sure how reliable that information is though...

Quote from 5haz :

I thought Donnington closed in December every year?

Looking at photos and from what I can remember from 2 years ago, that infield section is going to be fairly steep if they don't flatted it, I hope they don't!

There were two track days advertised on http://www.trackdays.co.uk/ for the middle of December, I went to book one & they had taken it off the site.
Maybe they had a change of plans.

Yeah the new corner will be an awesome downhill sweeper . Imagine the slope that the craners is on & then look at the diagram. Thats gona be one scary corner at F1 speeds.

With a bit of luck, i.e. I don't run out of money, I'll be racing at Donington before they close the circuit for the major works. I could be one of the last ever to race on the current config.

But they at least only really butchering two corners - one isn't that great anyway (the chicane), and the second seems quite nice but it's world reknowned.

I quite like it, even if it does look a bit forced in the diagram.

They haven't messed with the good half of Donnington so I'm not going to cry about it, so long as they don't do something daft like pave the Craners. Not sure if I particuarly like the new Grand Prix track but then again the old Melbourne Loop was just a (intentional) waste of space to make the lap longer and delay further the painfully long run between Coppice and Redgate if you don't happen to have something that can disapear down the straight at warp speed.

I think any change is a good change. I'm sure we'll find out in the future.

I quite like it. New big sweeper looks very interesting.

Sweeper will go down that hill, interesting if they dont flatten it out.

http://static.panoramio.com/photos/original/8285685.jpg

but the last turn was one of the best parts of the track, not to mention this does not show were the club racing layout will be.

Quote from Alistair :

but the last turn was one of the best parts of the track, not to mention this does not show were the club racing layout will be.

Do you mean the final chicane? T'was a fine passing place I guess, but the new Hairpin looks failry good too.

It does, you can only see the club parts on the map if you truly believe, honest.

Im not drunk, honest.

hm Coppice was a good corner especially if you don't have any downforce........now that's gone.

Looks fine to me. That long sweeper will give for some interesting racing I think.

If you look closely you can see the the club layout(s) I count the ability to have at least 4 different configs.

As least he's left in Craner, that always provides some entertainment.

There are two undiagramed changes.

Firstly the moto cross track has gone, I imagine, as the new loop runs straight through it. This is not really a loss although one nuance of racing on hot dry days is gone. The other thing, and this really is an absolute shame, is the best spectator vantage point on the circuit is now destroyed.

From a racers point of view nothing much is different, and from a GP point of view the mound where they're building all these grand stands would have been useless due to crowd crush, but from spectating club and national events the magic of being a spectator at Donnington has just been absolutely destroyed.

Where-ever you stand now you'll only see a fraction of the circuit, it was bad enough they had that billboard up to stop people seeing the start straight from it, but now everywhere you stand you can only see a small part of the circuit.

Donnington was wonderful as a non-GP circuit, i'm not sure it is anymore.

The council invested heavily in roads to give better access to Silverstone. Donnington has 1 single carriageway road in and out. I for one wont be attending.

Hehe it was hard enough to get in and out when Renualt had their free day there! There would need to be improvements to the roads for sure. They are small and winding.

Quote from 5haz :

Sweeper will go down that hill, interesting if they dont flatten it out.

http://static.panoramio.com/photos/original/8285685.jpg

That is a bit of a lump, i doubt very much they will leave the gradient like that. It will probably get smoothed out a bit otherwise the corner will be plain dangerous.

its ok not too sure tbh, at least they have kept the cranor curves although i wonder if they have widened it, if they have i think it will loose its magic tbh

Quote from Minimaxman :

As least he's left in Craner, that always provides some entertainment.

Especially when some people take it flat out on the first lap while others decide to
brake.

Quote from Becky Rose :

There are two undiagramed changes.

Firstly the moto cross track has gone, I imagine, as the new loop runs straight through it. This is not really a loss although one nuance of racing on hot dry days is gone. The other thing, and this really is an absolute shame, is the best spectator vantage point on the circuit is now destroyed.

From a racers point of view nothing much is different, and from a GP point of view the mound where they're building all these grand stands would have been useless due to crowd crush, but from spectating club and national events the magic of being a spectator at Donnington has just been absolutely destroyed.

Where-ever you stand now you'll only see a fraction of the circuit, it was bad enough they had that billboard up to stop people seeing the start straight from it, but now everywhere you stand you can only see a small part of the circuit.

Donnington was wonderful as a non-GP circuit, i'm not sure it is anymore.

The council invested heavily in roads to give better access to Silverstone. Donnington has 1 single carriageway road in and out. I for one wont be attending.

Oh and they're going to be bringing everyone in on buses, no parking at circuit, lets see how long that plan lasts.

The spectating isnt exactly awful even with the changes, to say you will only be able to see a small part of the circuit is a bit exaggerating tbh, from the outside of Starkeys Bridge you can see from almost the exit of Redgate through to the top of the hill at Mcleans, not much less than half the circuit! Although I have to agree the motocross track was a good vantage point (apart from the trees that prevented you seeing the exit of Redgate, if I remember correctly), but there are plenty of good ones too.

The only thing that is a bit of a shame is Coppice, which has been 'Tilkified' into a tight constant radius corner, while at the moment it starts off tight and opens out, hopefully the entry will still be blind and that it will become a good passing spot for those who get a good run out of Mcleans.

Quote from Alistair :

but the last turn was one of the best parts of the track, not to mention this does not show were the club racing layout will be.

The chicane is horrible, not really a good passing spot unless someone really balls it up. Aside from the fact it is a pretty horrible end to the lap it is also very dangerous, plenty of big accidents have happened both on the entry and worse on the exit into the pit wall, although it seems fairly slow by the time fast cars loose it on the exit they are normally traveling very fast and have little they can do but make very hard contact with a concrete wall on either side of the track and often get thrown back into traffic. For the number of red flags, write offs and serious injuries the chicane causes it really should go if it is feasible to do something to get rid of it in its current form.

Quote from Becky Rose :

The council invested heavily in roads to give better access to Silverstone. Donnington has 1 single carriageway road in and out. I for one wont be attending.

Donnington already holds a festival which is of a similar size to a Grand Prix (if not larger), quite how it manages traffic I don't know but I'm sure it will be possible, people will just accept that it is going to be jammed like a lot of big meetings and events are, so long as the traffic is managed sensibly it will eventually get in and out on single lane roads.