Hello all, I'm off to Silverstone for the first time this weekend, anybody know of the better places to catch the action, clearly the section from maggots down to chapel is good. I'm going fri/sat/sun so I hope to have a good idea of where to be by Sunday but any insider info from an experienced Silvertstone attendee would be nice.

Thanks

DC for the win?

from when i went i thought (dont know the corner names!) that the last corner woudl be good, but there wasnt much overtaking (although still good to watch and not too full), and if you want noise just go to the section by the bridge at the end

Quote :

I'm going fri/sat/sun so I hope to have a good idea of where to be by Sunday but any insider info from an experienced Silvertstone attendee would be nice.

I usually watch the race around the Luffield complex somewhere, anywhere in this area is generally pretty good as you get to see a lot of the cars and there's usually a spin or retirement in the area, although overtakes are rare. I found the infield pass for this part of the track isn't really worth the money because you actually see less because the Diamondvision screen is behind you, and the field of view isn't quite as good as on the outside of the track.

I hear The Vale is also a good spectator spot, although i've not personally tried it.

Pack a disposable B-B-Q for afterwards and dont bother leaving until after the support races are over because the car parks tend to jam up.

Yeah - the complex is good viewing. If you sit by Bridge you can watch them go right round the complex.

When I was there for the testing, the track was only open from exit of Abbey to the entry of Copse. Watching the cars go through Bridge, and then flicking left into, umm, Priory(?) was quite impressive, but it won't be a brilliant place to watch unless it's wet or you happen to be there when an accident happens (rule of thumb: accidents always happen where you aren't).

Copse will be quite good this year, with the very high speeds, and maybe the odd overtake too if you're lucky, but I think it's mostly Gold ticket holders around there.

The Maggots, Becketts, Chapel complex will be a wonderful sight, especially in qually 2 (low fuel), and watching the third drivers through there on Friday might be special.

My place of choice is the end of Hangar Straight into Stowe, Stowe into Vale, Vale into Club (the slow left into increasing right), and up the hill to Abbey. I think most of the action will be around those bits, which is why I have a grandstand ticket for Stowe, and I plan to concentrate my wanderings at this side of the track.

When I've been in the past (only to qually, this is my first GP at Silverstone) I've always found this section to be the best. I used to enjoy Bridge a lot more, but since the powers that be neutered Abbey it's been easy flat since then and poses no challenge unless something breaks or it rains. Copse is too fast now to be a great racing point unless the drivers are VERY brave.

PM me your mobile number, if you want, and we'll try and have a burger together or something and chat about the Saubers

Also, see this thread I made on the same topic
http://www.lfsforum.net/showthread.php?t=8794

hey tristian do you know any places to stay overnight, cos I'm planning to go for both the quali and race.

You should check out the f1.com website.

http://www.formula1.com/race/destination_guide/758.html

does anyone know how much it is just for saturday qualy?

Quote from JJ72 :

hey tristian do you know any places to stay overnight, cos I'm planning to go for both the quali and race.

We've got a huge V8 American motorhome (a Four Winds if that means anything to anyone), so we'll be staying at a campsite [field] about 5 minutes walk away. Not bothering with Friday, but leaving here about 7pm Friday evening to avoid traffic and queues.

cool think I'll join you

Why oh why doesnt it rain???? I miss rainraces...

Quote from Vykos69 :

Why oh why doesnt it rain???? I miss rainraces...

Last proper wet race dates back to US GP 2003.

They predicted rain far more times than it acutually rains.illepall

All this rain-on-race-day thing has become sort of a joke now.

Back!!!!

Friday - arrived just after F1 had gone to bed, but watched some GP2, some Porsches and Historics. The GP2 is quite good, the Porsches are the dullest racing cars ever (to look at, and to watch), and the historics sound (and smell) wonderful.

Saturday - F1 cars!!! Some good entertainment. Watched a Super Aguri spin in front of me at Becketts. Got sunburnt. Also, I went into the BMW Pitlane Park - got to see bits of car (and see how heavy they were), do a pitstop challenege (I didn't), watch some failed racing driver do two miserable burnouts in a Sauber F1 car (Andy Priloux?), and had a go on the Realistic Driving Simulators -> What a joke. Crap graphics (although it was Silverstone), crap T-bar view. Every driver aid in rFactor on. Black Momo wheels, but set up so that you only needed about 10 degrees of lock for the whole course, a super soft, extra-long travel brake pedal. The same for the throttle. On both pedals only the last 4mm did anything, so you had to press for about 60mm before anything happened. Auto gear changes (even though I asked for Hard mode with manual shifts), and AI somehow worse that LFS's. Quite simply the worst driving GAME ever made. It has fully and unreversably cemented rFactor as a hateful waste of money. It has zero redeeming features, and the only reason Sauber uses rFactor is because Sauber wanted decent versions of the real tracks just for them, but didn't want the public to get them.

Sunday - More F1. Don't watch a race from Becketts/Maggots. It's great for qually, but in the race you can't get a decent idea of the race progress, so you get bored. Thank God for Radio Silverstone

I have decided that I hate british people. The campsite was all about disgusting, loud music, even at midnight. Shouting. Swearing. For the whole weekend I think everyone except me had a beer can in their hands every second. Do people really NEED to drink that much? I think it's (and anyone who drinks like that at any opportunity) is retarted. The british public should be ashamed of themselves.

Also, why oh why did they have to lower the tone of the whole weekend showing that rubbishy football on the screens. It ruined the GP2 race going on at the time, and meant the place was full of football fans (almost without exception hooligans).

So, the on-track stuff was good/great. The noise was awesome. The pitlane park was crap, and the members of the public were shite. Other than that I loved it. Got 1.56GB of photos (about 616) to sort through and tweak, but hopefully I'll find someway of getting them online soon enough.

Thought the race today was crap, turned the TV on on lap 2 (they never showed a replay of what happened at T1) so all saw was Button blowing up and Schumacher passing Raikkonen in his pitstop.

As for the Sauber experience all I can say is LOL.

Sounds like you had a good time though and I bet the GP2 were fun to watch, hopefully they'll be shown next Saturday on ITV.

As for the football it was a crap game anyway, but still a good excuse not to watch the F1 qualifying.

Oh HERE you are

watching F1 live is really different from TV....on TV it looks like the cars are hooked to the track, but in real life, especially if you look at the less sorted cars like the aguris...you realize these are cars with mass and they have inertia as well, slight understeer at the entry of maggots, rear swings out a tiny tiny bit 3/4 out of the corner, settle the rear with some gas and wrings it into Becketts.....um can't imagine how'd it feel like just to strap myself inside that car, let alone driving it, they are going sooooo bloody quick, i need a proper camera with a quicker shutter next year, really an unforgetable experience, motorraces in the end are best watched live and upclose.

Quote from tristancliffe :

watch some failed racing driver do two miserable burnouts in a Sauber F1 car (Andy Priloux?)

Oh, isn't he the current World Touring Car champion and occasional F1 test driver? http://www.castrol.com/castrol ... 166&contentId=7016657

Anyway, back OT - I've thought about going to Silverstone several times and never done anything about it - both people I've spoken to about it who've been say it's a must (specifically mentioning the noise and the 'buzz'), but always seems a load of dosh for something that it feels like you'd get a better picture of on TV. Is it worth going?

Shame about the idiots too...

Yes, go! You won't understand the race as much, even with the PA system or Silverstone Radio, but you NEED to go to understand the energy involved in F1. At the very least go on a Saturday for qualifying even if you go home to watch the race.

There are 4 tracks I want to go to to watch F1:

Spa - done, 1998
Silverstone - numerous practice/qually days, a test day, and now the race
Monaco - not yet
Suzuka - not yet

The old Hockenheim would have been on that list, but Tilke ruined it (although the racing is arguably better the spectacle is 95% worse imo).

any race is worth going to if you can, i seriously miss it when my dad used to own part of Road Atlanta, there is absolutely no better feeling if you love cars than walking down pitlane and going through the garages and stuff.. nothing better i promise you

agree totally about british, h8 to say it but us welsh can be the worst, if you ever go to royal welsh show and camp you'll see what i mean.

how did the gp2 sprint race look live, it was bril on tv, especially hamilton, i've been following him in mags etc ever since mclaren started to support him.

did anyone else look at schumi's attempt on kimi after the safety car in slow mo ? that was as close as you'll ever get without hitting each other.

What a dull race , we need to strip some aerodynamic downforce of these cars - but the FIA have decided to reduce grip with tyres again next year and we have to wait until 2008 before an F1 car is seen doing an overtake again. After last year, this years racing is such a let down.

It's been a couple of years since I F1'd, but I always found it more of a carnival atmosphere rather than yob culture - I just hope it was a world cup anomaly and it'll be back to normal when I go back next time.

What really annoys me about the F1 at the minute though is they only show the GP2 race the following week, and have already announced the winner 5 times ! 5 TIMES! How the hell am I supposed to watch the GP2 race next weekend with any interest now?

Quote from MrGrumpy :

Oh, isn't he the current World Touring Car champion and occasional F1 test driver? http://www.castrol.com/castrol ... 166&contentId=7016657

Anyway, back OT - I've thought about going to Silverstone several times and never done anything about it - both people I've spoken to about it who've been say it's a must (specifically mentioning the noise and the 'buzz'), but always seems a load of dosh for something that it feels like you'd get a better picture of on TV. Is it worth going?

Shame about the idiots too...

You will get a better overview of the race on TV, that's true. But to me being able to follow the race perfectly is not the reason I go to races. It's all about the experience and the thrill of seeing it live. It's a completely different experience. Also, I feel that on TV you don't get a really good impression of the power these cars have. I've been to several grand prix dating back to Zandvoort in '84 with my dad (yes i'm old ) and everytime I go to one I still get excited when the first car comes screaming by.

My most recent GP was this year at the Nurburgring and I had a great time. There was a big screen in front of us so we were able to follow the race quite perfectly actually. Ahhh the noise Really don't understand people using ear plugs... GP2 was very enjoyable also.
By the way, I had the feeling that the slowest cars in the field, the Super Aguri's, have the loudest sound of all

About the British, I think there's rotten apples in every nation. I've certainly got irritated by people in Germany also (hint: they were not Germans!) I feel I get extra irritated by people when they are from my own country because you feel they give you and your country a bad reputation.
I've seen dutch people on campsites, parking spaces and around the track acting like complete nutters playing terrible terrible music really really loud and screaming along at the top of their lungs, being obviously completely drunk. I wonder if they even made it to the race At times like that I get embarrased about the Dutch too. But for those people there's much more people who can behave and are nice.

earplugs lol

..i wish i had some back in the days, my ears are like destroyed from all that, i think i need to sit in a silent room for a year and hope they somehow repair themself, my ears are deffinetly better until that airshow a few years ago where a B1 bomber flew over with afterburners wide open.. ground shook it was so loud lol

if you ever go to a drag race never.. never use earplugs, instead get some earmuff things and when a car goes by make sure your mouth is open cause the pressure will... increase a good amount

Quote from tristancliffe :

The campsite was all about disgusting, loud music, even at midnight.

People were still awake? At midnight?? :Eyecrazy:

Earplugs are for girls!!!oneoneoneshiftonetwoone Even at drag racing, viewing a top fuel or a jet engine from behind.

Yes, people were playing 'music' (the boom boom boom crap) from about 4pm to about 1am. And they seem genuinely surprised that someone (me and my parents) didn't actually enjoy someone elses music. If it had been on a street the police would be called for public nuisance, but as it's a campsite people forget that it's EASIER to annoy everyone.

I think campsites should ban loud music (except live music) and alcohol. And people should be heavily fined for having fireworks.

ive never camped at the grand prix but i reckon if the world cup wasnt on there might not have been so much crap going on.

ive found motorsport fans to be freindly people especially things like Bike racing fans there always a good bunch of blokes.

There's always been somthing about are country and colture and getting drunk. I go to beer festivles now and again and the people there are the most freindly you will ever meet.

Sadly its larger lads who drink Stella and Carling who cause the problems.

I went through the F1 race in 2003 on the streight with one ear plug, my right ear rung for 2 days lol