Tuesday, July 13, 2010

The First GP on the New Circuit

Well, it's all happened. We've had the first British GP on the new circuit. Mark Webber will go down in the history books as winning the first GP on the new circuit configuration.

Here's a thing though, the new layout was designed for MotoGP and F1, the one thing everyone is forgetting is that, it was designed to work best of all with next year's starting grid. Imagine the first lap, two corners flat out two abrest, much like Copse, Maggotts, Becketts, is now. except next year you go from 185mph 2 abrest down to 80mph 2 abrest at Village and the Loop, it will be overtaking and argy bargy central.......

Anyway a few quick pics from the weekend.









Monday, July 5, 2010

Further to my last post, have a look at this:



Me talking at the Forum - courtesy of Andrew Ferraro - LAT photo


Last Thursday I was fortunate to be invited by James Allen to the F1 Fans Forum in Piccadilly London. Present were, Martin Whitmarsh, FOTA chairman and team principal of Vodafone McLaren Mercedes and featured Tony Fernandes, team principal of Lotus Racing, Jock Clear, Senior Race Engineer, Mercedes GP Petronas F1 team, Luca Colajanni, Head of Motorsport Press Office, Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro and Paul di Resta test and reserve driver, Force India F1 team.

The afternoon was extremely well put together by James and very informative. I think everyone there wishes they could have asked such an amazing panel at least one question, with the way us petrol heads are we could have talked all night, but with the time limit James had picked a great mix of diverse questions and broke the 90 minute session down into six 'chapters': The fan experience, Overtaking, The third car, 2013 engine regulations, New teams and how they're getting on, and finally Is F1 challenging enough for new drivers.

With British GP approaching next weekend James finished off the afternoon by discussing prospects for next weekend. James showed Martin Brundle's lap of the new circuit recorded at the April launch and then he introduced me as the architect of the new circuit and invited me to say a few words. I must say I am greatly honoured to not only speak at such an auspicious event, but also to have the opportunity to re-design and hopefully improve (next weekend depending) such an historic motor racing circuit.

Well with a few days to go until we find out if the reception is as good for F1 as it was for MotoGP I shall try and make a regular update. I'll be there on Friday to get the first response from anyone I can get my hands on, or indeed be introduced to.