4 - FIFA/CIES International University Network

ANATOMY OF AN EVENT:
BRITISH GRAND PRIX
The new track layout - Silverstone Circuits Ltd
years had been fair. Silverstone is
understood to be paying Bernie
a fee of £12 million each year for
the right to stage the race in the
new contract, a figure subject to an
annual escalator of 5 per cent. “The
issues Silverstone has faced in the
past were down to the fact Formula
One contracts have only been for
five years, and this wasn’t sufficient
to assure us it was worth investing
in better facilities.
“We have spent millions
and millions on infrastructure,
including roads and carparks, but I
think the criticisms in recent years
were about the fact we didn’t have
a new pit and paddock building.
We’ve now moved on lightyears
from that - our new pit building is
nearly half finished and we’ve also
made a lot of investment on the
track in the last 12 months.”
The new pit and paddock
complex, scheduled for completion
by summer 2011, is understood
to have been a guarantee made by
Silverstone to Ecclestone in the
new contract. The building will
feature new garages, a race control
building, media centre, hospitality
and VIP spectator zones.
Plans for the complex - the old
version of which was criticised for
its 1970s design - were first put
together around three years ago.
The complex, says Phillips, will give
teams, sponsors and guests a worldclass
experience and reaffirm the
circuit’s position as a premier racing
destination. The new building is
also a conference and exhibition
centre which Phillips says will
be “iconic” but perhaps more
importantly, will bring in additional
revenues from non-motor racing
avenues (see box page 72).
Ongoing track development
has been a central feature of
Silverstone’s - and its rivals’ -
evolution to remain one of the
best venues on the European
motor racing circuit. On one hand
redevelopments have been done for
a matter of safety - following the
deaths of Ayrton Senna and Roland
Ratzenberger for instance (at San
Marino and Imola respectively
in 1994), many tracks were
modified in order to reduce speed
and increase driver safety. For
Silverstone this meant modifying
the entry from Hangar Straight
into Stowe Corner in 1995 to make
it less dangerous. The flat-out
Abbey kink was also modified to
a chicane just 19 days before the
1994 Grand Prix.
“Safety is always at the top of the
list, in accordance with guidelines
set down by the various motorsport
authorities,” says John Barrow,
Senior Principal of Populous, the
architectural firm chosen to do the
design and planning for the circuit
and pit building in late 2008. “We go
through an obligation process where
all of the run-outs on the track are
designed to a certain formula.”
Get the pitch right
Phillips ranks the circuit
redesign as the most
important development
of Silverstone for the
new British Grand Prix
contact: “The thing
people always forget
to do is get the pitch
right: venues spend
money building the
grandstand but then
find out the grass doesn’t
grow on the pitch.
“This is what we
concentrated on last winter
- if we were going to redevelop
the circuit, we needed to get it as
right as we possibly could so that’s
what we did. We spent quite a lot
of money just making sure that the
circuit is the best one it can be. The
riders and drivers like it and there
has been plenty of overtaking in
the new section.”
For the new-look circuit,
Silverstone and Populous knocked
down the grandstands and
repositioned them further away
from the track, and extended
the lap distance by half a mile to
3.66. Instead of the iconic Bridge
and Priory corners, the new
circuit redirects cars right at
Abbey and through an S-bend
into the new Arena complex
heading up towards Becketts.
The circuit design was produced,
says Phillips, using Populous’
architectural experience and
the motor racing knowledge
of the British Racing
Drivers’ Club (BRDC) -
the owner and operator
of Silverstone.
“We decided we
wanted to have some
control because,”
70 SportBusiness International • No. 160 • 09.10