synaesthesia

Just to add to the above, I also believe Silverstone gets the largest crowd of any world circuit - that's something I've heard a few times but can't find anything decent to back that up.

The crowds at Silverstone are amazingly huge and I do think you are right some of the biggest in the world for F1 as I recall Sky saying that today in the build up show.

I have been twice and both times have been fairly lucky with the traffic, however the last 2 years have been either baking hot or damp and sunny. I park on the grass carparks usually and they are damp but as has bee said they are farmers fields I would expect it to be bad if it rained like it has there is just too many people who have no idea of reality or how life works.

I think the Silverstone team and those in surrounding villages who have put peoples tents up in gardens and given drives for parking for those stuck etc... deserve a medal and true credit to them they are worth it .

It has been a bad year for them, they won't deny that, they will be back next year with lessons learnt from this I am sure of that and I hope that me and other geeks are there next year, this year there was just thescalfedone there.

I say having been and worked at this place it makes some places look very very small in comparison. Crowds are at around 130,000. Silverstone themseleves cannot be blamed for the Campsites AFAIK they are completely separate and if you turn up on other weekends in the year they have cows in. Major Investment has been made in the infrastructure around it (I've been around 20 times in the last 4 years) and a lot has changed. They are however also trying to push for more things like Music events to be held inside the track to raise funds towards more improvements.

People love a bandwagon.

"They should have seen this coming, it's Britain after all" - indeed, we all predicted flash flooding in July, that happens every year, doesn't it?
"Donnington would have done it better" - that being the Donnington that almost got given the GP but didn't at the last minute as its infrastructure wasn't up to scratch? Genius.

And they wonder why the country is going to the dogs.

(insert joke about going to the greyhounds after being unable to get into the GP)

Having just got back from Silverstone I cannot fault the track and the staff at all. They were sympathetic, helpful and generally top notch. The camping however could have been better organised if a wet weather plan had been devised. This could have prevented the following:

Firstly the car park was about a mile from the campsite, only had one row that had any boards laid down for traction and was already churned up on Thursday. Most people had to do four or five trips per person from car to tent to get all their gear in - this didn't help the mud situation at all.

Although I understand the reason for not letting cars park next to the tents it might have been easier and probably would have caused less foot traffic and therefore less mud churning to let them park at the top of the field they were parked in.

More loo blocks (that don't leak into the mud ).

Better paths (stones rather than sandy/dirt stuff).

A decent exit strategy: I queued for about four hours to get out while cars were being pushed and pulled in all directions through the mud. It was so muddy tractors were getting stuck. All the while the camper vans were being let out first from a different field. If this was a planning thing then people should have been informed so. The piece of paper we were given just said the car park exits would be open.

Having said that there was no ill temper from anyone and the car park staff were also great.

Certainly the rain that had been constant before Thursday didn't help, nor the previous events held there in the past weeks. The fields simply could not recover in time. My tent virtually slid down the campsite on top of a river of mud. I was cold, wet and a bit fed up for most of the weekend but at least the sun came out for the duration of the race. Sadly I wasn't expecting it and got my head and nose burnt

Freak events compounded by no respite. That's all.

HBJB

... Oh and I've been to Donnington and it was worse.

HBJB

@Heebeejeebee The Campsites run completely seperate are they not from the actual Silverstone circuit i.e you book a ticket to the race track but have to get camping from a third party? That was always my understanding of the situation silverstone all the times I have been there.

I know - that's why I praised them separately.

All staff were good.

HBJB

Yeah it's all separate but Silverstone themselves try and co-ordinate all together. Glad to hear people actually there were in decent spirits all things considering! That's one thing us Brits are fantastic at

I know Stuart @TheScarfedOne was also there but he did a park and ride this time, I didn't make it and neither did our fellow F1 criminal mind @timbo343