The last post about being able to fit in 132,000 fans in…MotoGp attracted 139,000!

p.s
before you argue with me…I work at donington!!

I dont beleive Bernie has thought this though, due to the size of donnington there is no way he is going to fit in 132,000 fans if he does they will be mostly gen admin and not grandstand or VIP (which pay for sliverstone) so get ready for Gen admin tickets to raise to near £150-200 at least !!!!! bad bad news for F1 fans and as a ex BSB rider I will be joining protest groups to prevent the track from being changed ! Well done Bernie you upset bike & car race fans with this one you muppet ! Bernie and Max’s need to go and quick ! they had there day in the 80′s & 90′s when they did sort F1 out and we thank them for that but they have now lost touch wth real everyday motorsport fans the world over. raise up people make your voices heard and protest ! do not buy tickets for 2010 BGP write letters of protest to the FIA FOM and most of all SUPPORT BRITISH MOTORSPORT !!!!!!!!!

To Bernie,

you said on sunday that you signed with donnington becasue they need a contract to be able to submitt planing applications and to fund the money !! Sliver had both ! they just need a contract and money would be there the planning was already there and you would not sign ! I want to why ??? you wanted something that Sliverstone could or wouldnt give you what was that? do you really need more money?

Whilst I agree that Donnington needs a lot of work on it, I think it will be a shame if they cover the whole place in stands and restrict open viewing. The open spaces add to the feel of the circuit. Car park access / exits need to be improved but once out it isn’t difficult to get home.

I always feel valued as a visitor to Donnington, not like the walking wallet you are treated as at Silverstone.

Whatever comes of this, I hope they don’t trash the character of the circuit too much; Wide, 3rd gear turns might be cool for F1 but it’s a snooze for everyone else.

The rumours of planes dumping fuel are nonsense, but there are other issues with the track of more consequence. The track is just 10m wide with very limited run off space. This is an aspect of the track that the bike racing fans love – spectators are able to get unbelievably close to the action. For example, at the Esses, the crowd are crammed onto a grassy bank, separated from the track by a wall and fence and just 3 metres of grass. When F1 arrives, I have no doubt that this will be very different. The organisers this year also made extensive use of temporary fencing with limited success – a last lap track invasion was both dangerous and stupid, but a consequence of bars opening at 10:00, flimsy fences and a couple of hundred idiots.

Aside from this, the paddock buildings are a joke, 60′s prefab concrete and tiny in size, and simply not suitable for MotoGP, let alone F1. Spectator facilities are dire, with limited seating and camping on grassy banks the norm. The last time I was at an F1 race with the same approach was at Silverstone, but in 1987.

£100M seems like an optimistic figure for the amount of work required. Hopefully the work will not affect the character of the track itself, but I think this is probably not realistic. However, the removal of the Melbourne Loop would not be mourned over by many.

I still can’t quite conceive of the switch happening, but it does look like it will.

I assume Donington gave a higher bid or better promises for facilities which is fair enough I guess. Different rates are set for different tracks based on their importance to Formula 1 (The Bahrain GP costs a lot more than teh British GP), but I am worried that if the rates become to high to allow the tracks to be run at a profit, quality in the long term could be compromised.