silverstone 2012 with James hedges
Silverstone 2012 was my first Grand prix experience. Everyone who I had previously spoken to had said what a fantastic experience it was, so I decided to go and see for myself!
I had purchased a 3-day weekend ticket to sit in Club A on the Sunday, but my Silverstone experience started slightly earlier than some, as I had received an invitation from McLaren to attend a paddock tour on the Thursday afternoon!
The Paddock Tour was a great extension to my first Grand Prix weekend, where we got VIP access to the McLaren garage, it was fantastic seeing the team at work, the McLaren Team Members who showed us around were very welcoming and attentive, and willing to answer any questions we had. (Well almost every question!)
Due to the entrance I went in to the circuit, I only got views from one side of the circuit, ranging from Luffield down to Vale, while completely ignoring some great corners such as Copse, Becketts and Stowe, something I hope to remedy next time!
I had purchased a 3-day weekend ticket to sit in Club A on the Sunday, but my Silverstone experience started slightly earlier than some, as I had received an invitation from McLaren to attend a paddock tour on the Thursday afternoon!
The Paddock Tour was a great extension to my first Grand Prix weekend, where we got VIP access to the McLaren garage, it was fantastic seeing the team at work, the McLaren Team Members who showed us around were very welcoming and attentive, and willing to answer any questions we had. (Well almost every question!)
Due to the entrance I went in to the circuit, I only got views from one side of the circuit, ranging from Luffield down to Vale, while completely ignoring some great corners such as Copse, Becketts and Stowe, something I hope to remedy next time!
why Silverstone?
Seeing as it was my first grand prix, I thought it would make most sense going to a venue in familiar surroundings, plus Silverstone is only around a two and a half hour commute from my home in South London. Hopefully in the future I will be able to attend an overseas race; Montreal and Monza are the first that come straight to mind, or even Spain or Spa.
who did you meet?
For the Paddock Tour I had a spare invite as my Mum was unable to attend with me (she is a huge Lewis Hamilton fan – embarrassing!), so I gave my spare invite to @McLaren_Lew_F1, since I saw on Twitter that morning that she was desperate to be on one of the Paddock Tours! Antonela was a pleasure to meet and very grateful for the invite! She also shared her experiences of previous Grand Prix that she had attended and gave me some great tips (loved her northern accent as well!)
As part of the Paddock Tour we did bump into Sir Jackie Stewart, who was being interviewed at the time, and a few of the McLaren Team Members who generously gave up their busy schedules to show us around. If you are not a VIP guest or are unable to get a Paddock Tour with a team, then it is very difficult to meet anyone famous. What I would recommend doing is going onto the track after Sunday’s race (providing the organisers still allow this in future years), and head straight towards the International Straight towards the pit wall. If you are around anywhere from Abbey all the way to Vale you should be able to get to the pit wall, where I managed to get some great shots of Webber, Vettel, Christian Horner, Adrian Newey and the BBC & Sky presenting teams. Vettel and Webber briefly signed some autographs before heading off. I was also told that Hamilton and Button also made a quick appearance, but it seems I was too late to see them! |
How much did it cost?
Well the 3-day ticket for the weekend to sit in Club for the Sunday I think cost me £265, which also allowed you to sit in any of the grandstand on Friday and Saturday, and the view from Club offered good value for money. One of the downsides was that it was not covered, but luckily it did not rain during the race on Sunday! Another was that I found it very hard to get a good seat for qualifying on Saturday, so I ended up having to sit in Vale and got completely soaked! What could be an idea is that the organisers say that you have to sit in your designated seats on Saturday as well, or at least until after qualifying.
As for travel, I commuted day by day making it five hours a day at least travelling to and from the circuit. The only exception to that was on the Saturday night, when I stayed at a hotel in Northampton. I didn’t mind travelling myself, I may want to try camping one year if it would be sunny (can it ever be guaranteed?), but next year I may try and get a hotel for both the Friday and Saturday just to save time at a little extra cost. I had a bad experience with Stagecoach however, whom I was travelling with from Northampton Station to Silverstone Village on all three days of the event. On the Saturday the lady driving the coach took a few wrong turns and got lost, instead of approaching Silverstone from the north, we ended up being dumped three and a half miles south of the circuit, after she encountered a closed road from being lost. As a result I missed all of FP3, for which I’m still fuming. For those going from the station I would group share with other also going to the circuit and get a taxi, and get them to drop you off in Silverstone Village, where it is a 10-15 to the circuit.
tips and advice
Apart from mentioning about travelling, bringing your own food is preferable but not a must, I didn’t myself think that the vendors were that expensive, in fact fish & chips for £5 isn’t too bad I think! I did bring a couple of drinks in a cool bag though which saved a little bit of hassle. There were a couple of queues but they moved along swiftly. Otherwise I would recommend appropriate footwear (i.e. – wellie boots!), a good camera, and a portable charger for your camera and phone, I got a Duracell one that wasn’t too expensive and it was able to charge up 50% of my camera, invaluable when we went down onto the track after the race!
Make sure you also leave enough time to get to the circuit, especially after what everyone saw this year with the additional road queues due to the car park issues, the last thing you want to hear while approaching the circuit is the cars already making their way around! Lastly, please stay for the GP2, GP3 and Historic F1 races. They are great races on their own and add to the experience of the weekend, too many people in my opinion left before the start of the GP3 race on Saturday afternoon and they missed a treat! I feel it is also important to show your support for the lower formulae as you may be seeing a few of these drivers in F1 in the not too distant future! |
I’m almost certainly going to attend Silverstone 2013, in the meantime please follow me on Twitter @hedgeryhoops –where I tweet mainly about F1 and football, and feel free to give me some feedback on this On The Road review, and also check out my photos on Flickr - http://www.flickr.com/photos/hedgeryhoops/ - I am still editing some of them right now but hopefully they will be finished by the time you view them!