Author's product rating: 
| Advantages: |
Great Atmosphere, Fast Cars, Not Just F1 |
| Disadvantages: |
Very loud, Expensive, Hotel accomodation hard to find |
| Recommend to potential buyers: |
yes |
Around late September 2004 Formula one mogle Bernie Ecclestone announced that the Silverstone, British Grand Prix would be removed from the FIA 2005 race calendar for Formula one. The supposed reasons for this removal were that Silverstone were unable to pay enough for the rights to host the race and that the facilities were very out of date compared to the new tracks of Bahrain and Beijing. This is a great loss to the economy of area around Silverstone as the Grand Prix generates £40,000,000 each year and has been the center piece of motor racing in Britain since the 1950s. In July 2004 I attended the Grand Prix and this is my account of the weekend.
Since around March time during my final GCSE year my school were organising a school trip for some reason to the British Grand Prix for sixth formers of which I was not one, but numbers were down and I was asked whether I would attend because I was an avid racing fan and wouldn't give up this opportunity of attending one of the sporting spectacles of the year. The trip cost me £115 which included hotel accomodation, bronze pass into silverstone and coach trip to Silverstone.
When our party arrived in Silverstone it was the Saturday so it was the day for qualifying which decided the grid positions for the race on Sunday. What I had noticed initially upon my arrival was that the parking for Silverstone was easily not upto par. The parking area was basically a big area of gravel, no organisation and was obviously jam packed with coaches and cars.
To get into Silverstone we required tickets and I had a bronze ticket which entitled me to just get into the circuit and I had no seating rights. The usual price for a Bronze ticket was around £80 and only being entitled to watch the track from anywhere but the stadia was a bit overboard but obviously demand is high and prices must be high (just something i learnt from economics). The women with their Royal Ascot style attire must have looked down upon the likes of me with my bronze ticket and them with their gold ticket hanging around their necks strutting around as if they were royalty. It wasn't that I couldn't afford the £300 for a gold ticket, it was the fact that I wasn't given the option but I blame my school. As I only had a bronze ticket I realised I would have to walk round trying to find the right spot to watch the Qualifying.
Seeing as I'm a teenager I had to be mischievous and my friends and I attempted to get into the stands with that good old fashioned tool called "blagging". We told the gullable marshalls that our teacher had our tickets and we didn't know where they were. Being the nice people that marshalls are they let us in. It was still the first session of qualifying and we got into the best part of the circuit in my opinion Luffield. This is because Luffield is located on the part of the circuit with the most turns so it would be great for taking pictures as opposed to trying to take a picture if they accelerate off at the main straight. This part of the circuit also gave us a longer view of the cars on the track because there are a few slow turns so you could enjoy those one million pound pieces of moving metal accelerate off into the distance also the dashed hopes of people trying to take a photograph on the grandstand at the main straight. The first thing I noticed when I was in the stands was that it was filled with the usual drunk German Michael Schumacher fans who literally scream down your ear when a Minardi comes past because they're too intoxicated so they think its Schumacher about 20-30 times. Now I'm not very stereotypical but you can usually spot a German Michael Schumacher fan from about a mile away, with their endorsed Schumacher Ferrari caps, pint of beer and their incredibly loud and equally annoying horn. Now if there are any disadvantages to coming to Silverstone are that
other spectators are not considerate of others and they have the nerve to sound their horn when every car comes round. I'm all or supporting your favourite team but I can't see everybody supporting the Minardi or Jordan team. But it wasn't all bad because next time I go to the Grand Prix I will get a horn aswell and annoy everyone else who has a horn just for the sake of "supporting" a team.
One of the best things that the Grand Prix creates is atmosphere, the atmosphere that is expected at every great sporting event. For example the great support some drivers get when they pass the fans, like Jenson Button who gets near enough a hero's welcome even though he has never won a race or Michael Schumacher who is either loved or hated. In the first qualifying session Michael Schumacher spun off at one of the last parts of the track and the amount of cheers there were because of it was amazing and the great atmosphere of the fans was apparent.
The most unexpected thing I found out was when you're watching the formula one on TV with James Allen trying to be half as good as what Murray Walker was that the cars on tv don't seem that loud or fast. But in reality they are incredibly loud and fast. I found this out the hard way when I first heard a formula one car go past and I dropped my camera in shock. A tip for people if they ever try to take a picture with a old digital camera is they should press the capture button a few seconds before a car is due to pass as it will not show up due to the speed of the cars.
For some people who couldn't stand the noise they smartly had ear plugs to drown it out. For people who wanted ear plugs they had to walk around the area to find the 3M booth who had boxes of ear plugs to give away for people who may have sensitive ears or if you just can't stand the noise of the cars.
The qualifying session for the Grand Prix was very good with the atmosphere at full blast and the drivers on top form, especially Kimi Raikkonen much to the applaud of the crowd beat Schumacher to pole position for the race. The qualifying session is always exciting even if you're watching at home because sometimes it can be anyones chance to get pole because of the rules that are in place.
After the qualifying session many people tend to go to the shops for Formula one merchandise or food. The food on offer is varied. There are around 6-10 stalls for each type of food you want which include :
-Pizza
-Chicken
-Burgers
-Toasties
-Roast Pork
-German Sausage
-Pot Roast
The quality is the food is usually good and enough to fill up your empty stomach plus the prices are reasonable aswell with the average portion of chips being £70 and 12 inch pizzas at a reasonable £5. Also for the people who can drink you can go to the Fosters booth which serve beer if you have some special pass and you can also see the lovely Foster's girls who always reject any advances, they must have thought I was intoxicated. The only things I would say are not value for money are the drinks because it is usually around £1.50 for a 300ml bottle of orange juice which was extremely expensive even if i was practically dying of thirst. The merchandise on sale at the Grand Prix were the usual items, clothes, key rings, toys and posters. Only a few teams had merchandise on sale at the Grand Prix these were :
Ferrari
Renault
Williams
Mcclaren
Toyota
the other team's merchandise wasn't sold but it was understandable because I would have thought there was little demand for their merchandise. From the many merchandise stalls there I bought :
-Michael Schumacher Ferrari Cap
-Williams BMW T-shirt
-Toyota Jacket
These 3 items cost an expected £30 each and they each accepted my debit card nicely. The only problem I have is the prices they charge, even toy cars were being charged at £30 each and many people were discouraged by this.
Apart from the stalls and food there were additional things to do like karting which I didn't try and exhibitions like F1 cars, mcclaren mercedes F1 car(one of the fastest cars in the world), new BMW 1 series and some playstation sponsored computer ride which didn't seem very appealing.
Usually after the qualifying finishes the tv show ends aswell but nothing stops at Silverstone as there are additional races hosted there inconjunction. These included the F3000 races on the qualifying day and some more which I'll explain later which happened on race day. These were also mentioned in the programme for this event which cost £20 which was pretty expensive and put me off buying but my friends were still interested and bought it, this meant that I could read it all on the coach and not bother buying it.
After a great nights sleep, it was Sunday and it was race day at Silverstone. We arrived at 6am because traffic would be even worse closer to the start of the race and it was already packed. This is partly because of people camping in the area outside Silverstone so they were able to get up early and get in early to find a good spot to watch a race. Since it was race day it was obviously going to be very full so it was impossible for us to get into the stands so we had to find a good place to stand. Since it was 7am I thought that we could try and get somewhere quite easily. After an hour or so we settled on a spot right next to the main straight. This is a great place if you want to get a feel of the cars accelerating past you at over 170 miles per hour and having to rub your ears after due to the excessive noise they produce. The itinery of the Grand Prix was:
-Porche Carrera Supercup
-Mazerati Cup(I think)
-Red Arrows Air Display
-Race
-Vintage Car Race
I found most of the itinery except the race quite boring but luckily I was sat on a nice paving stone which got me some good kip just before the race even though the sound of the cars wasn't really helping.
When the race came I was excited and anticipant, the cars on the grid looked amazing parked there with the pit girls and I couldn't wait for the start of the grand prix with those 20 cars going past at incredible speeds. When the race commenced I was amazed at the atmosphere and more importantly the cars, they went so fast and I'm amazed at how those drivers can control them. The race itself was very interesting with alot of strategy involved and eventually led to Michael Schumacher winning the race after having to do 1 less pitstop than rival Kimi Raikkonen even after his chase due to the safety car because Jarno Trulli had a horrific crash but wasn't seriously hurt.
I won't describe the Grand Prix to you because it is very long and this review would be even longer. Seeing as the specific criteria says layout and difficulty as if I've driven there then I'll give my opinion on how it would be if I drove there from my experience from playing it on computer games.
I feel that the British Grand Prix is one of the main sporting events that Britain has and is up there with Wimbledon and it is a great experience for anyone who has been or who anyone who will go if it is reinstated into the 2005 calendar. In my opinion I feel the only reason the British Grand Prix has been taken off the calendar is because Ecclestone has been in favour of a London GP for a long time but alot of people know it is not viable as it would mean businesses in the area closing for a few days. If the British Grand Prix is ever put back on the calendar then I would certainly recommend that you attend if you like F1, motor racing or sport in general.
TICKET PRICES
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Bronze - £80-100 (No stadia seating)
Silver - £100-200 (No roof seating only)
Gold - £300-400 (Grandstand seating)
HOTELS / ACCOMODATION
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I recommend that you book your hotel very early into the year possibly even the December before, simply because hotel rooms are very hard to find around the area around Silverstone. If all else fails you will have to stay in the Birmingham area like me which is around an hour from the circuit.
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