Silverstone Unveils New F1 Pits at LinesMaker.com

Silverstone Unveils New F1 Pits

By Sarah Holt
BBC Sport at Silverstone

Sil­ver­stone has unveiled its new multi-million pound pits and pad­dock com­plex, two months ahead of its flag­ship event, the British Grand Prix, on 10 July.

After strik­ing a new 17-year deal to host the race, the British Rac­ing Dri­vers’ Club (BRDC), which owns the cir­cuit, agreed to the redevelopment.

The upgraded Sil­ver­stone ‘Wing’ has cost £27m.

“There was a real threat the grand prix would go,” said BRDC pres­i­dent Damon Hill. “So this is very important.”

Hill was one of five British world cham­pi­ons along­side John Sur­tees, Sir Jackie Stew­art, Nigel Mansell and Jen­son But­ton, who attended the open­ing of the new facility.

Mansell, win­ner at Sil­ver­stone three times in the British Grand Prix, said: “This track is the best in the world for me bar none. The crowd gets behind the dri­ver if there’s a sniff of a win.”

But­ton, who is deter­mined to end his win­less streak on home soil with McLaren this sea­son, agreed that dri­ving at Sil­ver­stone was a thrilling experience.

“It was pretty emo­tional com­ing here as a world cham­pion,” said But­ton, who won the title in 2009.

“Even through the dif­fi­cult times for a British dri­ver you get so much sup­port here. It would mean so much to win here.”

Sil­ver­stone first staged the British Grand Prix in 1948 and the for­mer air­field in Northamp­ton­shire has under­gone a major facelift after secur­ing the rights to hold the race until 2027.

That deal was struck after a pro­posed move to Don­ing­ton Park fell through because of a lack of fund­ing but For­mula 1 supremo Bernie Eccle­stone warned that a revamp of Silverstone’s pit build­ing was a non-negotiable part of the agreement.

Eccle­stone has always expected more from Sil­ver­stone, once describ­ing the British Grand Prix as “a coun­try fair mas­querad­ing as a world event”.

The 80-year-old Eccle­stone was unable to attend the cer­e­mony but sent a mes­sage of congratulations.

“I’m delighted with the progress and prospects for the future of Sil­ver­stone,” Ecclestone’s statement said.

“The pits and pad­dock com­plex is a state-of-the-art facil­ity and will form the back­bone of Silverstone’s plans to be a world-class facility.

“It’s a great shame it couldn’t be com­pleted 10 years ago but well done.”

Hill added: “Bernie has acknowl­edged that Sil­ver­stone has come up to the require­ment that he stipulated.

“So much of this is the way it is because it is the way Bernie wanted it.”

The tow­er­ing three-storey pit com­plex has been designed by the archi­tects — Pop­u­lous — behind the Lon­don 2012 Olympic stadium.

It includes 41 garages, the race con­trol build­ing and podium, hos­pi­tal­ity suites, a media cen­tre and a new spec­ta­tor area towards the end of the lap.

Silverstone’s trans­for­ma­tion began in 2010 with the intro­duc­tion of a new lay­out which blended a series of cor­ners after Abbey before rejoin­ing the old track at Brook­lands and length­ened the track by almost half a mile.

Now the start-finish line, in use for the F1 race and June’s MotoGP event, has been moved between Club and Abbey corners.

The relo­ca­tion of the start-line could alter the rac­ing, with the com­peti­tors flow­ing into Abbey’s fast first corner.

The first F1 car to get a taste of the new pits was Mark Webber’s Red Bull which roared into the open­ing cer­e­mony set­ting the assem­bled guests’ ears ringing.

Web­ber took the che­quered flag at Sil­ver­stone last sea­son and when he emerged from the cock­pit the Aus­tralian com­mented: “It’s an absolute no-brainer to hold the event here.”

The new facil­ity, which is 390m in length and 30m high, was offi­cially opened by the BRDC pres­i­dent in chief, His Royal High­ness The Duke of Kent, who praised the “ded­i­ca­tion” of the club’s members.

The open­ing of the ‘Wing’ is just the first phase of Silverstone’s con­tin­ued rede­vel­op­ment as the BRDC is now focused on pro­vid­ing bet­ter facil­i­ties for British motor­sport fans, such as the build­ing of more per­ma­nent grandstands.

“We’ve got big plans and this is just the begin­ning,” added man­ag­ing direc­tor Richard Phillips.”

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• Sil­ver­stone Unveils New F1 Pits
• Sil­ver­stone ‘Wing’ Unveiled
• Fer­nan­des Thrilled with Step Forward
• Costa Relin­quishes Role in Fer­rari Reshuffle
• Pirelli Look to Reduce Tyre Wear in Spain

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