F1 2011

Webber fastest in the wet, 1st practice.

Horrible day at the track - no meaningful rain for months in Buckingham and then, bang all of it in one day. Hopefully that means Sat & Sun will be rain free although I'll be watching the rest on TV.

A few things :

1. Could the designers of the non-track areas at Silverstone please spend a GP as a paying customer so they can improve access around the track for those without priviledged passes. After FP1 I walked from the new pit straight grandstand to the bridge over the Wellington straight to try to then get across to the tunnel at Copse and then go around to Becketts. Even though the old paddock area isn't the F1 paddock anymore you can't get across the bridge without centre transfer tickets. This meant a walk of anyhing up to 30-40 minutes which I eventually gave up on because it started raining again and I wanted to see some GP2/3 action rather than missing it due to walking the circuit (I ended up in the new grandstand at Club which is excellent - giving views from Stowe, down through vale and the new pit entry and then up pit straight to Abbey (it's also directly opposite the podium) . They should really make clear on the circuit maps the areas that are out of bounds so that you don't waste time like this. They did it both times I visitied the Australian GP and it meant GA ticket holders didn't waste time trying to walk to places that they wouldn't be able to get to. It probably didn't help that there appeared to be more people there today than I can remember seeing on a Friday before.

2. Although I love the flow from Abbey through to the loop section as seen from opposite the pits you can't actually see either into the pits or the cars coming down pit lane from the pit grandstands. This is because the track rises from Club to Abbey but the new pits lane is flat and so the RB, McLaren, Ferrari end is hidden from the grandstands opposite by the rise of the track.  Everyone being interviwed was generally pretty positive about the new pits but no one seemed to pick this up - mind you all being interviewed were all in the pits or paddock so get to see plenty anyway.

3. All the people in the granstands and around the track gave up a day at work and paid good money mainly to see F1 cars in action. OK FP1 was pretty good and the last few minutes of FP2 were almost as good but they only ran for about 45 minutes out of an hour and a half session. Yes it was raining on and off but not so heavy to prevent a car on full wets going around. I know the regulations limit the amount of tyres they have but in situations like this why can't the FIA just allow them a coupe of extra sets of wets so that they can get out there and entertain the people who pay to see them?

4. Car parks. For those arriving from the south of the circuit on the Dadford road - why can't we be allowed to park as far south in the car parks as possible so we don't have to get involved with those who have to go north up to the A43?

Apart from that it was great to get my annual fix of F1 engine noise. Hope the weather is better for those going Sat & Sun.

Cheers
 

Just got back from Silverstone and I tend to agree with anderson.council, it didn't seem very well organised this year. There seem to be fewer toilets and queues were longer than ever, longer even than usual on race days and there was an extremely long queue, just to get through the one narrow gate out of the car park! And I thought it was the queue to get in to the circuit!

As for the weather, it seemed to be fine between races, and then as soon as a race was about to start the heavens opened. In the GP3 race, it started raining when the cars were on the formation lap and they all pulled in to the pits to change tyres. There was a strange site of only about a quarter of the cars starting on the grid and all the rest from the pits. 

As for the F1 it was clear from the start that the McLarens were well off the pace and that it was between the Ferraris and the Red Bull. Hamilton, in particular, was struggling to get anything out of the car all day.

Still, young Paul di Resta gave a very good account of himself, as he has all season and has put that Force India where it has no right to be. A very good prospect, I think.

Mark

Congrats to Alonso and a much improved Ferrari. 

Shame about the pit stop mistakes, would have loved to see the race decided by Vettel and Alonso facing off for the win. At least Vettel made another podium and wasn't done as hard by as Button with their pit stop mistake.

Tony

You posted this 3 days before all hell broke loose with regards to Murdoch & the NOTW. A good call or inside information

Either way, you must be delighted with the way things have panned out this week. Me too !

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14213249

"Formula 1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone has been named by prosecutors in Germany as allegedly bribing a former banker during the sale of the sport in 2006."

Nothing would surprise me.  Ecclestone gives every impression of being unlikeable and ruthless.

Note the word -  allegedly. Also note that the current address of the former banker making these allegations is a German prison.

Pitpass.com have been following this for months via their extremely well connected financial contributor and, at least up til now, they have been pretty clear with their message (or at least what I read it to be) that it doesn't make any sense for BCE to have bribed a banker. I guess we'll find out when this guy goes to trial.

As to being unlikeable, the impression I get (and it's only an impression because I don't know him) is of a man who doesn't really care what people who don't know him personally think of him but prefers to take great pride in how he has built F1 over the years. Like it or not it is a very successful operation and a lot of people have made a lot of money from his stewardship of it. When asked recently what his biggest concern was of the future of F1 Frank Williams replied (and I'm paraphrasing here) - the demise of Bernie.

A couple of Pitpass's stories on this are here :

http://www.pitpass.com/43112-W...er-F1s-jailed-banker

http://www.pitpass.com/43439-G...d-Ecclestone-for-40m

Cheers

Scott

Another good race for Ferrari.

Anyone notice Bumble has nearly fixed the DC "Vet'ell" word. 

He actually said "Fvettel" today,  just the once mind.  

I really do think we won't get to see F1 in 2012 without paying Sky.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/h...mula_one/9550930.stm

So it looks like that will start in 2012, not in 2014 (which would be after the current contract expires)

What a PoS news.

Oh, and if R. Murdoch thinks I'm going to give Sky £42 a month so I can have SkySports1, in HD, (to match the current BBC picture quality) I'll happily tell him where to poke it.

John

Oh well. Looks like I'll be doing more on Sundays and buying the DVD. It was good while it lasted.

BBC's F1 coverage the 2nd time round has been superb but the moment they're reduced to showing half the races and highlights for the remaining is a one-way street. Within a couple of years, it'll be highlights only ala Match Of The Day with maybe the odd live race (Silverstone). A sad day indeed.

Well done the BBC...

Same here. Not in this life.

And yet what should I see yesterday but another BBC reporter and crew standing in a street exclusively reporting that nothing is happening. Or how about two recent awards ceremonies where a reporter voiced over the podium speeches, then told us what the speaker just said? They've really zeroed in on where the cuts are most needed! We should be grateful. 

Like the previous posts, I'm not about to pay into the Murdoch empire.

Slightly off topic but one has to admire Sky's marketing dept in how they have hoodwinked the paying punters over the years. Ask anyone how much the BBC licence fee is and they will say about £145. Ask a Sky customer how much they pay for that service and they will say it costs £42 (or more).

When people are surprised that I don't subscribe to Sky, I say that the £12 I pay for the whole of the BBC output is a bargain compared to £504 that Sky would cost.

Just posted this over on Pitpass (the only other non-work related Forum I take part it) :

The BBC needs to save money, fair enough I get that. But how do they propose to do that by showing highlights I wonder ? Are they planning to buy the highlights from Sky's production company ? That would be the only way it would make sense to me.

On the other hand if they cover all the GPs anyway in order to provide just highlights for half of these then the numbers don't seem to add up to me. I admit I only understand the sort of maths that I was taught as a school kid and not the sort of "banker arithmetic" that is in vogue these days so perhaps I'm missing something.

Don't get me wrong I probably would be prepared to pay something to see F1 ... but just F1. Unfortunatley I was in Australia when Bernivision was around so never got the chance to see that BUT I have no interest in the rest of Sky's output. So it's back to the early 80s as far as coverage for half the season goes.

Here's my wishlist for the BBC live races in addition to Monaco,  Silverstone & the last race (whatever it may be) that are already secure :

    Spa
    Monza
    Suzuka
    Canada
    Brazil
    Hungary
    USA - I guess we need to wait and see on that one

Sky can have
    Singabore
    Valenzzzzia
    China
    Badrain
    Abu bling dabi
    Kor-blimey-it's-finished-ea
    Spain
    Malaysia (actually quite like this one but prefer those above)
    Australia (actually quite like this one but prefer those above)

Regards
Scott

Dont forget the most money making  track in the world INDIA,

BE,does not give a fook.

He makes over £100,000 an hour.

He wont get his craved for knight hood after his Labour party bung got sent back a few years ago though.

I wonder if the red team ever hacked Rons Phone?

Give me MOTO GP anyday.

It should be a good start tomorrow  though.

Stu

Vettel in pole, can he bring home the bacon.

The wet conditions made it quite interesting, good win for Button - Vettel extends his lead.

Hamilton seemed to be the fastest but took himself out with the double whammy of wrong tires and drive through penalty.