F1 Fanatic

@f1paddocks – I’m sorry for you, it’s a shame people damage other citizens when they aren’t involved. I hope no one else gets involved/hurt.

Very sorry to hear about the shop (and your car) f1paddocks and I hope Ajokays police friends (and the rest of the force) get through this without any more serious injuries.

I must say, looking in from the outside it was pretty worrying. I think that had the British GP been planned in these weeks it would have had to be postponed, if only for the logistics and amount of police force needed to make those work.

Following this on twitter and the news, I was supprised by how many people called for tanks and shooting these looters, as if that would work. Its understandable you feel angry, but that is almost just as stupid as what the looters are doing.

Good to see the police are making quick work of arresting many, and I find it encouraging that the same twitter and blackberry and FB are used to help find culprits, just as they were used by them to “organise” theft and arson.

The best reaction for me were the initiatives to go out with brooms and clean up the mess. That is a great show of solidarity and positive reaction. I hope at least some of the people involved in the destruction feel ashamed of themselves.

matt90, McLaren would have been fine getting stuff to Silverstone, but what about Sauber, Ferrari, Toro Rosso and Hispania? They would have had to figure out methods of getting their things from the port of entry to the circuit without encountering any rioters. Several cities were affected and it was getting difficult to tell where might get affected (and thus need to be routed around) next. There’s no guarantee there would have been a successful route, depending on exactly where the riots had been at the point their equipment had arrived in the country. That’s why it would have been “difficult” to host the race – if some teams couldn’t get there due to powers outside their control, especially ones in the championship hunt, holding the race would have had repercussions for the FIA.

The race would still have been possible (hence why I believe Bernie would have insisted). Even if the police had decided it would be dangerous to allow so many people in one place with the public mood as it was, they’d surely have been OK with the race running (for the benefit of TV). Silverstone already has a plan for such a situation (originally made during the foot-and-mouth crisis of 2001), so it could have hosted a race on that basis too.

@Alianora
The riots weren’t so bad that they couldn’t have been avoided simply by not driving through affected cities, or by not doing so at night. It was only in some built up areas- I doubt many teams go via Croydon for instance. Tbh the only reason you would think the race couldn’t have been held is if the media has exaggerated the riots. They were brutal, terrible, but not something that couldn’t be easily avoided- excluding those living and working in affected areas.