Another ‘week in motor sport’ episode where I talk to the editor Damien Smith about Lewis Hamilton’s stunning victory in the Chinese Grand Prix, Mark Webber’s rise through the field and the new ‘gimmicks’ in F1 like the DRS and KERS.

We also discuss Mike Conway’s first IndyCar win, Sebastien Ogier’s second WRC win on the trot and Silverline Chevrolet’s effort to get Jason Plato’s car ready for race 3 in the BTCC at Donington. Oh, and we also touch on two future Grand Prix champions who have just started karting.

The week in motor sport

We hope you enjoy it and – as always – do let us know your views.

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Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine

Gasps in the RAC Club last night at the annual Motor Racing Legends prize-giving. Its new Stirling Moss Trophy had got off to a great start in its inaugural year, the series victory finally going to Alan and Jason Minshaw for multiple successes in their Birdcage Maserati. But what was the trophy actually to be?

Series organiser Duncan Wiltshire thought it best to consult the great man himself, who duly dispatched Lady Susie to rummage around in the cupboard under the stairs for something suitable. What she returned with was the trophy given to Stirling for winning the 1955 British Grand Prix. Just think about that for a moment: not only is the trophy stunningly beautiful, it was awarded on the occasion of not only Sir Stirling’s first World Championship Grand Prix win, but the first time a British driver had won his home Grand Prix. What a thing to have your name on…

The evening also served as a great curtain-raiser for the fast-approaching new season. Despite apparently wall-to-wall bad news on the economic front, historic racing – or at least most parts of it – appears to be in joyously rude health. Grids are not just full, but full of great cars. There are more series than ever to take part in, with Duncan’s Group A Touring Car series kicking off this year and a whole world of relatively affordable opportunity opening up courtesy of Julius Thurgood’s two newly announced Historic Racing Drivers’ Club series. Throw in the first-ever historic festival to be held at Donington to go with the world-class festivals already held at Goodwood, Silverstone and Brands Hatch, plus the delicious prospect of Britain’s first-ever historic 24-hour race next year, and you can see that for anyone with any interest in the sport we really have never had it so good.

Andrew Frankel

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine

Hats off to Kevin Wheatcroft and everyone else involved in the recommission of Donington Park after its disastrous flirtation with modern Formula 1. I was actually quite excited about the plans, not least because Donington is such a great circuit for spectators, but like all of us, I feared for its future once it was clear it was no more likely to hold the British Grand Prix than jump over the moon.

Well, I’ve been back and the good news is it’s as good as ever, perhaps slightly better.

I happened to take part in the last race meeting held at Donington before it closed for its alleged transformation, and can remember a strange feeling as I pulled off the track that I’d never again lap the circuit, at least not in a form that made it my favourite in the land.

The scenes that greated visitors last year

But I was wrong. You can see patches in the asphalt where work has been undone but all the way from Redgate to Coppice, through the Craners, Old Hairpin and McLeans, it’s as if it were all a bad dream. All that’s changed is the chicane leading onto the pit straight, which has been pulled back to allow some run-off and eased to make it faster and more flowing. In other words, the only bit that’s changed is the only bit that needed changing.

So no matter whether you do track days, race or simply spectate, please remember that Donners is back on the menu. If enough people do, it will help ensure it stays that way.

Andrew Frankel

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine

The British Touring Cars will be at Silverstone this weekend from where they’ll head to Knockhill, Donington and finally Brands Hatch for the last round of the season.

Jason Plato and Matt Neal are separated by only 20 points at the top of the standings so expect some fireworks between the two over the three races. I sadly can’t make it this weekend, as I’m off to compete in the Citroen 2CV 24 Hour race at Snetterton. To say I am very over-excited is the understatement of the century.

I’ve never driven a 2CV, let alone raced one, so I’m looking forward to getting some practice laps in. Whatever happens though, I very much doubt I’ll be as much out of my comfort zone as Plato and Neal were when they tried wing walking for the first time ahead of this weekend’s racing.

The whole thing has been posted on YouTube and is extremely amusing, especially as the pair try harder and harder not to show that they’re bricking it. Something I may well be doing when racing at night for the first time…

Click here to view the embedded video.

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine

As part of the bid to host MotoGP, Silverstone has introduced a new loop on the track, called the ‘Arena’. It’s a large-scale operation, however you look at it. But a trip to the Northamptonshire circuit yesterday proved to be quite an eye-opener.

Firstly, the Silverstone you know is unrecognisable at the moment, and that’s because hosting MotoGP doesn’t just mean adding a new bit of track. Run-off areas need to be changed from asphalt to asphalt/gravel, and curbs need to be reprofiled to have negative camber so that riders can get their knee down.

And that’s just the start. Altering the run-off areas means work on the grandstands too, which need to be pushed back and rebuilt. And widening the track means taking the bridges down and rebuilding longer ones. All in all, this is a monumental undertaking.

I caught up with Silverstone’s managing director, Richard Phillips (below), while touring the track, and he was understandably proud of the progress made so far. “As you’re making changes like this your risk assessments change, so the knock-on effect is that you’re really revamping the place,” he explained.

“We’re keeping all the old heritage bits, but is it a shame that something like Bridge won’t be used? It will still exist, and we can still use it as [part of] a classic circuit. In terms of moving with the times it’s the right thing to do, and it’s also good to have something new for people to race on.” Indeed, Bridge corner is not what it once was, so I’m not sure it’s too much of a loss at all. The fact that Maggotts, Becketts and Copse remain unchanged is much more important.

So far £7 million has been spent on the track and Stowe circuit, 180,000 tonnes of earth have moved around the site (none of it has left the circuit yet as it is all being reused elsewhere), and more than 200 workers are kept busy every day.

Click here to see a larger image

Above was taken from the yellow dot on the map below and looks up towards Priory on the right. On the left is part of the new loop under constrcution.

One of the great things that came across when talking to Phillips was that the spectators are very much at the centre of Silverstone’s plans – the banking is being raised and views across the circuit from the grandstands should be much better.

This year’s Formula 1 Grand Prix could well take in the Arena complex. However, Silverstone is still waiting to get confirmation on those plans from a certain Bernie Ecclestone… Next year more money will be spent again on the new pits and paddock complex off the straight between Club and Abbey. It’s amazing what’s possible when you’re safe in the knowledge that you have a 17-year contract to host F1 in your back pocket… That said, all the work to date would have been done anyway for MotoGP, and only the different run-offs – to suit both bikes and cars – have made a difference to the plans so far.

The last time we saw a circuit in this condition it was Donington last year. Something tells me the future is much brighter at Silverstone, though.

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine

After the disastrous attempt to host the British Grand Prix at Donington in 2010, the circuit has been left a shadow of its former self. The last owner, Donington Ventures Leisure Limited, went ahead with ambitious plans to revamp the circuit before the company went into administration last November, leaving Donington Park without even the original functioning race track. To restore it to how it was just under two years ago is going to cost a minimum of £600,000.

For all motor sport enthusiasts this is sad news. However, there is light at the end of what has been a particularly dark tunnel: the control of Donington has been passed back to the Wheatcroft family. As we speak Kevin Wheatcroft, son of late circuit revivalist Tom, is doing everything he can to reopen it.

If you’re looking to invest in and save one of Britain’s best-loved circuits then now is surely the time. But if you’re not quite in the right financial situation then a motor sport enthusiast from Oxford by the name of Lee Coombs has come up with an alternative idea.

“I didn’t have any contacts, I don’t have any financial clout, but I’m a real enthusiast of Donington Park and historic racing in particular,” he says. “I found myself going on the internet every five minutes and reading about Donington and, quite frankly, depressing myself.

“I thought, ‘what can I do?’ I’m a Lotus owner and so contacted the forum and said ‘why don’t we drive up there and just show whoever owns the track that repairing it is a viable option’. So that’s what we’re doing. I didn’t realise it was going to take off like it has…”

The plan is to drive to Donington Park on March 7 and so far Coombs has managed to recruit nearly 700 people for the event through his new website (www.savedonington.co.uk) and various forums.

A hoard of spectators gather to see the top three finishers at the end of the 1938 Donington Grand Prix

The Wheatcroft family has had a torrid time of late and we urge you to go to Donington to show them your support on March 7. It’s not a protest, but merely a gathering of like-minded people trying to save one of Britain’s great circuits. Tom would have been proud.

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine

Whether you believe that Donington will be ready for the 2010 British Grand Prix or not is, at the moment, immaterial, as work on the track is already underway and everyone at the circuit is extremely upbeat. Especially Simon Gillett.

On a recent trip north I sampled the track for the first time on a simulator and if it is built then it will be a highlight of the Formula 1 calendar. Along with the Craner Curves, drivers will have to negotiate a new tricky inner loop and the steepest hill in Formula 1. It should be a corker.

I’ve added times into the words from Simon Gillett as he talks you through the new track and facilities so take a look for yourselves. Do excuse the sound of the video – I’m hoping the future Formula 1 cars don’t sound like that when they’re braking into a corner… Also he was talking through it while ‘onboard’…

Click here to view the embedded video.

[Time: 0.00] “I’m on the startline now, which currently is where the Dunlop Bridge would be. On the right hand side we’ve got our new pit and paddock area, plenty of garages on ground level and then 5000-person hospitality units above the grandstanding on the front over two stories.

“We head off down the pit straight; this on a flying lap is 1001 metres long with about 205mph into the braking zone here where we’ve got pretty much a dead stop into a 180 degree, 55mph corner, which is our existing Melbourne Hairpin. [0.10]

“Climbing up here, ordinarily we’d be looking to turn left now round Goddards but this is the exciting bit, our new infield loop that’s yet unnamed. [0.22] This drops down quite significantly, about 28 metres in elevation changes here, dropping down an eight percent fall into another slow corner.

“There you can see our clubhouse up on the right-hand side [0.29], these are our debenture members sat up there, 3000 of them in that clubhouse. This bit of Tarmac that I’m on now is the steepest bit of Tarmac in Formula 1, even steeper than Eau Rouge in Belgium [0.32].

“Coming round and joining the existing track now, that’s the existing pit and paddock on the left [0.36] and here we’ve got the new Redgate suites [0.44]; three stories of suites, 130 of them and new grandstanding. Interesting addition and quite a new concept on the right are 20 houses [0.49]. These houses are for the wealthy to come and store their cars in the basement and they’ve got their own pitlane and they’ve got their own track days that they can come out on and enjoy the circuit – it’s a bit of a motor sport’s club.

“From the previous corner onwards the circuit remains pretty much unchanged all the way through to Coppice Corner because if I touched any of this –the Craner Curves – I quite rightly would be lynched [0.57].

“The famous Craner Curves and the old hairpin [1.07]: we’ve got the new grandstand on the left and then the Starkey suites up there as well – a new set of suites replacing the Starkey’s bar.

“What we’re doing is keeping all the grass banking through here as natural spectating points which will stay in place. Not everyone is going to be sat in their suites, people will have the opportunity to bring a rug, have a picnic here and have a reasonable day out at the Grand Prix… financially reasonable day that is. Coppice Corner is now a bit tighter to promote a bit of overtaking into there [1.14].

“So here we go, this is 1001 metres now, race control there, the Formula 1 podium, we go over the crest, downhill and then you’ve got to try and stop it to get it into turn one.

“So there we are, that’s the 2010 lap.”

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine

The news that Donington Park has passed the planning hurdle to redevelop its circuit in time to host the 2010 British Grand Prix has been received with caution and reserve by the motor sport community. There remains plenty of scepticism over chief executive Simon Gillett and his team achieving their ambition of bringing Formula 1 back to the Leicestershire circuit for the first time since 1993.

Gillett knows he won’t convince anyone that Donington can actually honour its contract with Bernie Ecclestone. The doubts will remain until the venue is ready and Ecclestone has given the green light to signal that it’s up to his exacting standards.

There remains the hardly insignificant question of how Gillett will raise the £100 million required to fund the project through a debenture scheme, which he plans to explain to the outside world at the end of March. Then there is the traffic problem. North West Leicestershire District Council granted planning permission on the proviso that a Grand Prix traffic management scheme meets with its approval. The popular prediction of F1 at Donington is gridlock and total traffic chaos.

Unsurprisingly, Gillett has an armoury of replies to the doubters. At the Autosport International Racing Car Show in Birmingham last weekend Motor Sport took the opportunity to ask Gillett a few questions. Here is what he had to say. Does he convince you? We’d love to hear what you think.

Q: You want people to travel to Donington via public transport. How will that work?

A: “We’ll do it in phases by having park and walk first and foremost. People will get the idea that driving and then walking is actually not as good as getting on the train and then on a bus, then getting out of your grandstand seat, getting back on your bus and being at the train station in 15 minutes, and in London from two hours of leaving the Grand Prix – that’s what I want to do. People will get the idea, and we will get better at it. People will get better at planning their day around it, and that’s how it will happen.

“Year one, everyone will kick and scream and moan. Year two, they’ll kick and scream and moan a little bit less. By year three, they’ll say ‘this is quite nice actually. I can have a drink on the train, have a drink at the circuit, enjoy myself and then get home’. The die-hards I’m sure will say they are not turning up unless they can rev their car up in the car park, but the percentage that won’t turn up will be more than offset by the people who say ‘I don’t have to sit in a car park for four hours, I can just turn up and have a great day’.

Has the park and ride idea come from other sports?

“When I first came to the idea of getting the circuit I hadn’t turned to any other circuit to find out how to run one. I have turned to horse racing, rugby and football. All these sports that are out there forging ahead and changing the business model to make the customers’ experience better.”

Is that something you recognised that motor sport needed to do?

“People ask me why did I get to this point, acquiring the circuit. It happened because I was absolutely peed off with the treatment I got as a motor sport spectator. It got to the point where, like every British person, I moaned about it for years and then I finally thought, when I’d got rid of my last software company, I’m going to do something about it.”

Were there any particular events where you experienced these problems?

“I couldn’t possibly comment! When I spoke to Tom Wheatcroft originally about buying the circuit [on a 150-year lease], it wasn’t about money. While of course it was a consideration, the bit that got me through the door with Tom was when he asked why are you different to everyone else who is offering me cash? I said I want to talk about three things: security, food and toilets. I’ve always said this – they are the three elements that make a good day. Why when you turn up at an event is the first person you meet someone who doesn’t want you to get in? I don’t know. It’s ridiculous. That has to change. Look at Asda 10 years ago. You used to walk in with a flat-peaked security guard there saying ‘don’t nick anything’. Now you’ve got ‘Hi, my name is Bill, I’m happy to help, come in, what can I do for you?’ Fundamental difference.

“On food, the polystyrene thing with a polystyrene burger in it – gone. People still want burgers, but what’s wrong with ciabatta with a 100 per cent beefburger?

“As for toilets, there will be no blue plastic toilets. As part of the planning application we are putting in eight permanent toilet blocks on the site, while under the suite we are putting in another four toilet blocks. There will be hundreds of permanent traps, we will man them to death and make sure they are clean.
“If you do the basics right, and allow people to get in and out easily, all of a sudden it’s just down to the racers to do their bit.”

How is it sustainable to run a Grand Prix over the long term? Even Singapore is said to have lost heavily for its first race…

“Well, I couldn’t comment on how the others make or lose money because I don’t know what their contracts are. I know what my contract is and I know that the elements in there that enable us to make money will make it commercially viable. The other thing is not to focus on the GP. The media centre is one of the buildings I like to hold up [as an example]. Look at the plans for every media centre pretty much around the world and it’s a square box with hangers on the roof, and they bring in TV screens on the day, and you’ve got rented tables and chairs. When [it’s over] you are left with this empty hanger. What we are doing is building a 500-seat stepped auditorium with a big [screen] at the front. When you guys leave for 363 days of the year I’ve got a 500-seat auditorium that holds conferences, product launches, whatever it may be. That’s what’s commercially viable. Building a media centre is millions of pounds down the toilet. You’ll use it for MotoGP, World Superbikes etc, for maybe 10 days a year. You can’t sustain eight million pounds for 10 days’ usage, especially as you guys don’t pay for it! It will be absolutely fit for purpose for the media on the day, but it comes with added benefits. There’s roof-top viewing covering all of the circuit, it’s fully air-conditioned, it’s got a canteen, it’s got everything.”

So do you expect to make a loss in the first year, and then make it up in other areas?

“No. The construction is completely separate. How we fund the business, you take the two things apart. The debenture scheme looks after the capital cost of construction. The ticket income and everything else we have from our contract takes care of the inscription fee. So we are not trying to pay for everything with the ticketing fee.”

What’s the situation with the airport and how are you going to work with it?

“We’ve got a great relationship with the airport. The MD and I meet very often. We’re looking to give them as much commercial benefit as we can. At the moment the exact commercial benefit is unquantified and as it firms up I know they will do what they have to do to secure that business. We have a great relationship.”

Is it right that there is a technical problem for the airport with the teams putting up transmitters?

“Putting up a high pole is always going to be a problem with aeroplanes coming into land! Everyone forgets we run MotoGP, F1 is not the only big show in town. We run the MotoGP event quite happily. Yes, what we can’t allow them to do is stick up a satellite and transmit directly into the flight path of the planes. But the flight path for the planes is about 150 metres wide, so if it’s 151m that way or the other they can do whatever the hell they want. Normal transmissions etc, not a problem at all.”

What’s the truth about how aviation fuel affects the circuit?

“Would we get an FIM bike licence to run bikes round there if every time it rained the bikers fell off? I’ve realised what we have is strategic bombing because the only places it affects people are at Coppice and the middle of the Craners, which oddly enough are the two most technical corners on the circuit! I’ve never heard about it being a problem at Goddards, the Melbourne loop or Redgate. They throw it in the kitty litter at Coppice and say ‘bloody aviation fuel, it’s shocking!’ If we had that problem the circuit would be purple and just oily. The other thing I’d say is take the residents around Heathrow; how many of them wake up in the morning and have to wipe the grime of aircraft fuel from their windscreen? Aeroplanes are pretty fuel-tight.”

What’s the timescale for each stage of development? You must have your own deadlines and Bernie’s to meet.

“It’s started. Construction began two weeks ago. We intend to have the construction finished by the end of this year. Bernie is coming in September to make sure we’re doing something – quite rightly. If we haven’t done anything he’ll probably have some concern. But there’ll be a lot there. And then in April [2010] we have the FIA track inspection. We’re on course for all of that and they are two dates that have been planned for from the very beginning.”

And the council and everyone in the local area has been supportive?

“Absolutely. One of the councillors, the chairman of the council, said it’s like winning the Olympics every year for the next 10 years. I thought that was a fantastic quote from him and that’s the genuine feeling from them. The difference between us and the Olympics is that the taxpayer isn’t picking up the tab.”

Are there plans for road development from the M1 to the circuit?

“No. We’ll look at that in time. The thing is, we’ve got a race in 18 months. Planning the highways, compulsory purchase orders, road widening – it might be ready for 2020. So it can’t form part of our plan. Yes, we’ll always look to improve the road network around us but all that serves is for people to say ‘I’ll just be lazy and drive’. I want it to be quite awkward to come to us in a car. I’ll make it expensive and I’ll make it awkward.”

What sort of relationships have you built up with the F1 community, aside from Bernie?

“I’ve got some friends that are team principals. Bernie aside, I’ve made some good friendships in there. But to be honest we’ve just been getting on with working. You might have noticed I’ve not said an awful lot recently. I’ve just been thinking about delivering. I’m talking now because I’ve delivered something. I’ll go back into my little box now and get on with delivering and you’ll hear from me at the end of March when I’m saying ‘here’s the debenture scheme, here’s what it costs, here’s what you get’. And then I’ll go back to delivering again. That’s the message I want people to get from Donington: we’ll just deliver this.”

The financial crisis is obviously on everyone’s minds. How do you feel about it?

“I’ve got positives and negatives on the financial crisis at the moment. Obviously it’s a challenging time out there for anything. We’re lucky that our debenture scheme, our fundraising, is a long way down the track, we’re established and it works over a long period. We went for a 10-year contract because you can invest and get a return over 10 years. If we had a three- or five-year contract I think we’d have problems right now. But because of the longevity we all know what the market will be like in five or 10 years’ time: it will be completely different to what we’ve got at the moment. We’ve got a microcosm of panic at the moment. That will change and the people who are with us and supporting us understand that we have 18 months before we get there, so it’s 11 and a half years [from now]. The positive thing is that if you want a builder right now, it isn’t hard to find one! We have the best construction companies working for us and that gives us amazing confidence to deliver.”

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine

While in Monaco, for the Motor Sport Business Forum, I heard the address given by Simon Gillett on the plans to hold the British Grand Prix at Donington Park, and came away more impressed than expected, I must say.

It will be remembered that the FIA, with gratuitous cruelty, chose the Friday of the 2008 Silverstone race weekend to make the announcement that the ’09 British Grand Prix would be the last to be run there, that henceforth the race would be held at Donington.

Bernie Ecclestone, the FIA statement insisted, had done everything possible to reach a new accommodation with Silverstone, but this had proved impossible. Bernie’s proposition made no financial sense to a circuit lacking in government support, and so the 60-year link with the British Grand Prix was finally being broken. The move to Donington had Ecclestone’s backing, and a 10-year deal had been signed.

To say that most in the paddock received the news with a blend of cynicism and disbelief would be an understatement. “Bernie’s got to lose some European races, because they don’t make enough money for CVC,” one team principal suggested, “and Silverstone’s a prime candidate – he’s always hated the BRDC, apart from anything else. But if Silverstone can’t make financial sense out of running the race, how the hell can Donington do it? This is just Bernie’s way of losing the British Grand Prix – when Donington can’t raise the money, he can say he tried but…”

There are some wicked cynics in F1, and none more so than in the press room, where the response was very similar. Gillett was present at Silverstone that weekend, and, when asked how he proposed to raise the estimated £100 million it would cost to bring the circuit up to F1-spec, and to satisfy BCE’s financial requirements to put on a race, said it would be achieved through a debenture scheme. That sounded more than a little optimistic, and one would have thought the chances of the plan’s succeeding have hardly been increased by the current financial meltdown.

However, Gillett refuses to contemplate failure – indeed, he says that all the doubters serve only to increase his determination to fulfil the ambition to bring the race to Donington.

Anyone who attended the one-off European Grand Prix at the circuit in 1993 will need no reminding of Donington’s perennial traffic problems. The race, run on Easter Sunday and in foul weather, attracted only a small crowd, yet it took for ever to get in and out of the place. MotoGP fans will tell you the same story to this day, even though so many are on bikes rather than in cars.

How, then, to cope with a crowd venturing to the only Formula 1 race to be held in this country? ‘Park and ride’, that’s how. Cars, Gillett said, are not going to be welcomed to the track, and the plan is to have three large sites, well away from Donington, in which spectators will park, then travel on to the track by mass transit means. By this means, of course, traditional car parking areas at the circuit can be freed up for other purposes, such as larger-than-usual camping sites.

A real coup, it seemed to me, is the closure – for the duration of the race weekend – of East Midlands Airport, which is located right by the circuit. This will not only leave at the airport free for ‘race only’ flights, but also make available a lot of space for people to ‘park and ride’. Given that the race will almost certainly be run in July, and that this airport traditionally operates a lot of ‘bucket and spade’ holiday flights, it’s remarkable that Gillett has managed to negotiate such a deal.

Accessibility by train is also high on the agenda. A new station, East Midlands Parkway, is to be built on the main London-Nottingham line, and dedicated ‘British Grand Prix’ trains will arrive there from St Pancras (a two-hour journey), after which travellers will be bussed into the circuit.

A good deal of sound thinking seems to have gone into the sheer logistics of accommodating a Grand Prix crowd at Donington, and Gillett was nothing if not plausible in his presentation.

There remains a strong ‘I’ll believe it when I see it’ current running through F1 when it comes to the 2010 British Grand Prix at Donington Park, not least because people – even before the economic meltdown – simply couldn’t see how Gillett and his team were going to raise the necessary cash. Some believe that Donington will be cut some financial slack by Ecclestone, others that Bernie may himself be among the investors.

When, recently, plans for a Grand Prix at Disneyland Paris or whatever it’s called were cancelled, Ecclestone said it was vitally important that somehow the French Grand Prix should survive. We must hope he entertains similar feelings about the land of his birth.

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine