The contract for Donington Park (DP) was secure, DP was well under construction and was due for completion and to hold a race in 2010, but things went wrong (money worries on the DP developer’s part) and because it was so late when DP redevelopment was cancelled, Silverstone was allowed to step in and host the UK round of the Championship.
Silverstone originally stole the Moto GP from DP, but they had to alter the layout of the track because bikes cannot take Bridge – it is too dangerous.This layout was designed to be the Moto GP layout starting in 2010:
http://img199.imageshack.us/img199/7169/45493670silverstone.gif
However, when it was realised the F1 would be back at Silverstone so soon, it was decided that the new layout, known as ‘The Silverstone Arena Circuit,’ would have to be altered in order to accomadate the F1 cars as well as the MotoGP and Superbike’s (ANOTHER ONE OF SILVERSTONE’S TOP TIER SERIES) motorcycles. This design, the current layout was chosen:
http://www.silhouet.com/motorsport/tracks/gb/silverstone_arena_2010.jpg
Silverstone still has to meet certain facility criteria in order to be sure it keeps the F1 for many years to come.
Donington Park did terribly out of this, it lost the MotoGP, and then the F1 left without 1 race, and the place was destroyed by unfinished construction – however I beleive the original layout has been returned to DP.
Anyone know if they finished the F1-spec layout at DP after being so close to finishing it?