Questions about GP of Great Britain

I have not been back since they have this current configuration. the old pits straight was a bit boring.... Copse and woodcoote were good.

last time i was there was in the 90's - it was ok to walk around but it is a big place.

 

Ok - on landing at London Heathrow you can catch an airport train direct into Central London I think every half hour or so - most London tourist travel sites will have this info.

Both Newport Pagnel and Northampton are on the London North mainline routes I think from KingsCross so again that should be fairly easy.

I don't know your hotel choices but given the addresses and postcodes they shouldn't be too far by taxi from the train station.

Track access is very good on the outfield, likewise infield access (extra cost) is superb and not as far to walk, Silverstone is a very big place.

Copse & Woodcoote always guarantee good action.

Hope you make the trip - good luck.

 

There's a long thread last week about which stand at Silverstone

 

You have two sessions on Friday and Saturday, so that equates to 4 positions around the track. Silverstone is a big area and to walk takes some time. So plan ahead by picking two areas per day and just focus on those. Unlike other tracks you won't find the time to do more than that because of the long distances.

I would recommend Woodcote as possibly your best location because you see the cars from different angles. Needless to say you need to bring a long lens. And earplugs as it gets loud there.

Finally I see your tour organizer offers track transfers but I still highly recommend you look into the option of taking a short helicopter ride into the track. Your bus will simply get stuck in the prevalent traffic jam everybody else is in. Really sucks when you have to be there on time for the first practice session. Also note that you won't be the only photographer vying for the best spot.

 

Good point on the helicopter.

 

If you insist on using public transport use National Rail Enquiries - Official source for UK train times and timetables to find times and stations. You can purchase tickets there too.

I agree on the helicopter. Arrest me if I'm wrong but I believe the BGP is the most-attended race of the season. Traffic is horrible. Silverstone actually holds the world record for being the busiest heliport due to the amount of people that fly in via private charter. That was in 1999 and there were 4,200 movements in one day from dawn till dusk.

That alone says something about how much road traffic there will be. Last year ( or was it the year before?) the weather was awful and the congestion was so horrendous a lot of people didn't even make it to the race and got their tickets refunded. I believe there have been improvements in the handling of traffic since then.

 

It was 2012, I attended that year. It was only the Friday that had the massive screw-up by the organizers that caused a lot of people to be stuck in jams. Because of the massive rains the week prior, they ended up closing the on-site campgrounds, but didn't notify camping people and let them enter the grounds on the Friday morning with their trailers/caravans. With nowhere to go, they soon clogged up the roads in the site and nobody else could enter. If the organizers would have just been directing the campers out the exit road on the other side, the whole mess would have been avoided. It really was that simple, but the ineptitude of the people directing traffic, with nobody willing to make a decision to boot the campers off the grounds, was amusing!

I drove in early on the Friday, no problems, only a small 15 minute queue at 8:00 am, and was parked in one of the grass fields that turned to mud (in a rented Lotus Elise). I couldn't leave until about 6 pm because of the jam, though, but I was able to leave without the car getting stuck. On the Saturday, I drove in around 7:30, short queue off the carriageway, and ended up parked in the first lot near the main grandstand entrance. On the Sunday, I took a bus from a park'n'ride at an old airfield near Brackley, the bus ride took maybe 45 minutes. Catching the bus back to that park'n'ride lot was also uneventful, queued for 20 minutes at the track to get on the bus, then maybe 30 minutes ride to the old airfield. The traffic was much better managed on the Sunday, I don't believe anyone was turned away on race day. The refunds were for the Friday mess, and then on the Saturday they asked people with general parking passes to stay away because they didn't want to use the grass fields again for parking that day (as mentioned, I arrived early and was able to park in the main gravelled lot)

For seat selection, I posted in Andrew's thread http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/f1/444798-where-best-sit-silverstone.html

 

I was goin to recommend this as well. you can fly from central London to Silverstone in 45 min - last time we left from Luffton in stead of central London - think the cost was GBP85 per person - so figure 125 or so today? it was pretty easy - there is a lot of air traffic in and out especially on race day. we had a Eurocopter executive so sat 8 PP... was very slick.