Apply for free tickets for Silverstone 4/5 July 2009

philatio

We went Sunday.. bit of a mixed review here.

On one hand, having not been to any motorsport events before, being sat in the pit straight at Silverstone was awesome. For free as well! Some great racing.. seeing the F1 car do fast laps plus the added bonus of Nigel Mansell doing doughnuts.. just fabulous. Lovely weather too.

On the negative side, the traffic was a nightmare of almost biblical proportions. We left Manchester just after 7.30am. We reached J15A of the M1 about 10.30. It was 12:45 when we finally arrived at the circuit. And the journey home was worse. 2 hours to travel 4 miles. The car park marshalls were just teenagers who, once the idiots in 4x4s started shouting at them, quite understandably just upped and left.. so just getting out of the car park was utter utter chaos.
And Bernie Ecclestone is spot on about the facilities at Silverstone. The place is a shambles. It's supposed to be a world class event facility - in reality it's a dump. Toilets, merchandise shops - shocking. Litter everywhere. It got quite windy so there was rubbish blowing out of all the stands (I say stands.. they're actually scaffolding) all over the circuit. The few wheelie bins around the place were full to overflowing so litter was just being dropped everywhere. None of the tannoy announcements were loud enough to actually hear. Signage was poor.

No queues for the grandstands or gates but MASSIVE queues for all the food, the event stands and rides. I say queuing.. but for the ING Renault merchandise and the simulators and stuff it was just a mass unorganised pile of people. And I second whats been said above about kids.. there were prams EVERYWHERE. As if it wasn't bad enough for crowds without being rammed by a pram every few minutes. WHO brings babies to a motorsport event?? WHAT is wrong with these people????

Merchandise shops were sold out of pretty much everything too by the time we got there.


Would we go again? Dunno. The traffic was the killer blow I think. Maybe knowing more now - we would. We'd set off a good 2 hours earlier at least and possibly go the Saturday not the Sunday. I would dearly love to see an F1 GP there though.

Morganmoo

Philatio, Shame you had a bad experience at Silverstone, but I have to say I didnt experience the problems you did. I found the place very tidy considering the many thousands of people that were there. I got straight to the front of the queue for food and got what I wanted form the merchandise stands. Tanoys at motorsport events are always usless because of the noise of the engines.
Silverstone is a world class curcuit and is far from being a shambles. Anyway glad you enjoyed the motorsport part of the day, I had a great time !

philatio

Spoke to a few people who said Saturday was the better day to go. Not QUITE as packed and probably a bit cleaner too.

Silverstone is a world class curcuit and is far from being a shambles

Maybe a third-world class circuit LOL! Like I said.. first circuit I've ever been to, but if thats world class I shudder to think at what the others are like.

DaisyClaire

philatio wrote: »

As if it wasn't bad enough for crowds without being rammed by a pram every few minutes. WHO brings babies to a motorsport event?? WHAT is wrong with these people????

I took my pushchair. I took my kids. They loved it and theres nothing wrong with me thanks.

I think you are being a pramist.

DaisyClaire

SOO child unfreindly- no baby change anywhere.

There was in the disabled toilets.

And it's not somewhere to take children, I'd never take my kids near a race track. And I own a track car.

I didn't take my children onto the race track, I used the seats provided.

The reason being - Motor racing circuits are not designed for young children to be running around etc, there is not room for buggies in the very crowded areas of the World Series (Grandstands, Tunnels, Bridges etc). The Noise is very loud for a prolonged period of time for young people and 9/10 times i get the impression most kids dont want to be there or dont have a clue whats going on.

Pile of pants from the outer reaches of pants land.

My four year old adores racing cars like his Daddy....and my two year old screamed with delight (im his mother I should know) when a car came round the track in front of us.

Although my kids did have ear defenders. Way to noisy for little uns' without them.

TESCO_R+R_RAIDER

philatio wrote: »

We went Sunday.. bit of a mixed review here.

On one hand, having not been to any motorsport events before, being sat in the pit straight at Silverstone was awesome. For free as well! Some great racing.. seeing the F1 car do fast laps plus the added bonus of Nigel Mansell doing doughnuts.. just fabulous. Lovely weather too.

On the negative side, the traffic was a nightmare of almost biblical proportions. We left Manchester just after 7.30am. We reached J15A of the M1 about 10.30. It was 12:45 when we finally arrived at the circuit. And the journey home was worse. 2 hours to travel 4 miles. The car park marshalls were just teenagers who, once the idiots in 4x4s started shouting at them, quite understandably just upped and left.. so just getting out of the car park was utter utter chaos.
And Bernie Ecclestone is spot on about the facilities at Silverstone. The place is a shambles. It's supposed to be a world class event facility - in reality it's a dump. Toilets, merchandise shops - shocking. Litter everywhere. It got quite windy so there was rubbish blowing out of all the stands (I say stands.. they're actually scaffolding) all over the circuit. The few wheelie bins around the place were full to overflowing so litter was just being dropped everywhere. None of the tannoy announcements were loud enough to actually hear. Signage was poor.

No queues for the grandstands or gates but MASSIVE queues for all the food, the event stands and rides. I say queuing.. but for the ING Renault merchandise and the simulators and stuff it was just a mass unorganised pile of people. And I second whats been said above about kids.. there were prams EVERYWHERE. As if it wasn't bad enough for crowds without being rammed by a pram every few minutes. WHO brings babies to a motorsport event?? WHAT is wrong with these people????

Merchandise shops were sold out of pretty much everything too by the time we got there.


Would we go again? Dunno. The traffic was the killer blow I think. Maybe knowing more now - we would. We'd set off a good 2 hours earlier at least and possibly go the Saturday not the Sunday. I would dearly love to see an F1 GP there though.

to go to big events like this one best to get there for 7.30am like the marshals have to beat the queues of trafic. if u think silverstone was bad try donnington park its in a time zone of the 70s. no locks on toilet doors, like going to a very bad campsite in the sixties toilet wise, grandstands are the same all over the country circuits but if u went to brands hatch for the touring cars expect to pay a extra £15 each just to sit in them,
as for problems on the Sunday we had the following happening youths throwing stones on the track by Abbey, gas cooker blowing up by priory and parts of it was on the track, kids climbing the catch fencing, if u not been to a circuit before and not seen what gravel or bits of cars fly through the air past the fences u be screaming blue murder in pain, parents with those children should have stayed behind the wooden/metal barriers. and one of the worse was when we had cars coming through bridge going up to brooklands part of the track and we had a clio in the gravel and marshalls trying to get it out. the flag on bridge kept us informed by blowing his whistle when the cars where coming past him so they could take cover, until some idiots thought to blow awhistle for fun. could had been very dangours and lives lost.