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1089th GP
Silverstone Circuit


Last year's race

A massive start crash that featured Zhou flipping through the barriers avoided a tragedy as red flag was called while streakers invaded the track. Strategy put Leclerc as a sitting duck and gave Sainz his first victory

Season standings
after round 9

DRIVERS
POS   DRIVER   NATIONALITY   CAR   PTS
1   Max Verstappen   NED   RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT   229
2   Sergio Perez   MEX   RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT   148
3   Fernando Alonso   ESP   ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES   131
4   Lewis Hamilton   GBR   MERCEDES   106
5   Carlos Sainz   ESP   FERRARI   82
6   Charles Leclerc   MON   FERRARI   72
7   George Russell   GBR   MERCEDES   72
8   Lance Stroll   CAN   ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES   44
9   Esteban Ocon   FRA   ALPINE RENAULT   31
10   Lando Norris   GBR   MCLAREN MERCEDES   24
11   Pierre Gasly   FRA   ALPINE RENAULT   16
12   Nico Hulkenberg   GER   HAAS FERRARI   9
13   Alexander Albon   THA   WILLIAMS MERCEDES   7
14   Oscar Piastri   AUS   MCLAREN MERCEDES   5
15   Valtteri Bottas   FIN   ALFA ROMEO FERRARI   5
16   Zhou Guanyu   CHN   ALFA ROMEO FERRARI   4
17   Yuki Tsunoda   JPN   ALPHATAURI HONDA RBPT   2
18   Kevin Magnussen   DEN   HAAS FERRARI   2
19   Logan Sargeant   USA   WILLIAMS MERCEDES   0
20   Nyck De Vries   NED   ALPHATAURI HONDA RBPT   0

CONSTRUCTORS
POS   TEAM   PTS
1   RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT   377
2   MERCEDES   178
3   ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES   175
4   FERRARI   154
5   ALPINE RENAULT   47
6   MCLAREN MERCEDES   29
7   HAAS FERRARI   11
8   ALFA ROMEO FERRARI   9
9   WILLIAMS MERCEDES   7
10   ALPHATAURI HONDA RBPT   2

Timetables
all times are local (GMT+1)

FRIDAY 7th JULY      Local time

FIA Formula 3   Practice Session   08:45 - 09:30
FIA Formula 2   Practice Session   10:05 - 10:50
Paddock Club   Paddock Club Track Tour   11:00 -11:30
Paddock Club   Paddock Club Pit Lane Walk   11:00 -12:00
FIA   F1 Car Presentation   11:00 - 12:00
Formula 1   Formula 1 Pirelli Hot Laps   11:30 - 12:00
FORMULA 1   FIRST PRACTICE SESSION   12:30 - 13:30
Historic Cars   Historic F1 Car Demonstration   13:40 - 13:55
Formula 1   Teams' Press Conference   14:00 - 15:00
FIA Formula 3   Qualifying Session   14:10 - 14:40
FIA Formula 2   Qualifying Session   15:05 - 15:35
FORMULA 1   SECOND PRACTICE SESSION   16:00 - 17:00
FIA Formula 3   Press Conference   17:05 - 17:35
FIA Formula 2   Press Conference   17:40 - 18:10
Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup   Practice Session   17:40 - 18:25
Aston Martin   Aston Martin 110th Anniversary Demonstration   18:35 - 19:05
Paddock Club   Paddock Club Pit Lane Walk   18:40 -19:40
Paddock Club   Paddock Club Track Tour   19:10 - 19:40

SATURDAY 8th JULY      

FIA Formula 3   Sprint Race (18 Laps or 40 Mins +1 Lap)   09:20 - 10:05
Historic Cars   Historic F1 Car Demonstration   10:15 - 10:30
Paddock Club   Paddock Club Pit Lane Walk   10:15 - 11:00
FIA Formula 3   Press Conference   10:25 - 10:55
Formula 1   Team Pit Stop Practice   10:30 - 10:50
Formula 1   Formula 1 Pirelli Hot Laps   10:35 - 10:55
FORMULA 1   THIRD PRACTICE SESSION   11:30 - 12:30
FIA Formula 2   Sprint Race (21 Laps or 45 Mins +1 Lap)   13:15 - 14:05
Paddock Club   Paddock Club Track Tour   14:10 - 14:40
Paddock Club   Paddock Club Pit Lane Walk   14:10 - 14:40
Air Display   Spitfire Display   14:15 - 14:30
FIA Formula 2   Press Conference   14:25 - 14:55
FORMULA 1   QUALIFYING SESSION   15:00 - 16:00
Formula 1   Press Conference   16:00 - 17:00
Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup   Qualifying Session   16:45 - 17:15
Paddock Club   Paddock Club Track Tour   17:30 - 18:30
Paddock Club   Paddock Club Pit Lane Walk   17:30 - 18:30
F1 Experiences   F1 Experiences Champions Club Grid Walk & Trophy Photo   18:30 -19:30

SUNDAY 9th JULY      

FIA Formula 3   Feature Race (22 Laps or 45 Mins +1 Lap)   08:20 - 09:10
FIA Formula 2   Feature Race (29 Laps or 60 Mins +1 Lap)   09:55 - 11:00
Historic Cars   Historic F1 Car Demonstration   11:10 - 11:25
FIA Formula 2   Press Conference   11:20 - 11:50
Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup   Race (14 Laps or 30 Mins)   11:55 - 12:30
Paddock Club   Paddock Club Track Tour   12:45 - 13:15
Formula 1   Drivers' Parade   12:50 - 13:20
Paddock Club   Paddock Club Pit Lane Walk   12:50 - 13:50
Formula 1   Formula 1 Pirelli Hot Laps   13:25 - 13:45
Air Display   Red Arrows   14:15 - 14:37
FORMULA 1   GRAND PRIX (52 LAPS OR 120 MINS)   15:00 - 17:00

will be someone spraying orange powder on the track during the race?

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Motorsports trend for 2024: everything is a bad taste joke now

I used to love Silverstone circuit, but after the 2010 renovation the track lost its soul IMO. Like Hockenheim or Assen, they were ruined beyond recognition. Ok, Copse, Maggots, Becketts, Chapel and Stove are still there, but did they really need to alter the rest? I think motor venues should be treated today like historical buildings. You don't go to modernise Westminster Abbey, revamp Colosseum or rebuild Eiffel Tower, that would be a cultural-historical crime. Similarly, by altering circuits they're doing permanent cultural damage - erasing history in other words.

Well, it's just old man yelling at cloud. At least the atmosphere is still top-notch in Silverstone. Britain and motorsport belong together like USA and baseball. But maybe it's time to move somewhere else. I have never seen F1 race in Brands Hatch and Donington Park live on TV, because those happened before my time. Obviously I don't want those tracks being altered (apart from pitlane and other facilities), because of the very reasons in my previous paragraph.

Anyway, busy weekend again with F3, F2 and Porsches supporting F1.

Hopefully no more track-limit nonsense, unfortunately Silverstone has a long history for them.
https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/silve ... 1/5041051/
https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/f1-ti ... 6/4980716/
https://scuderiafans.com/fia-confirm-st ... rand-prix/

Looks to be a dry weekend, but you know, "never trust English weather".

I'm leaving saturday to go on a week long vacation with the kids so gonna miss the race. Which also means it probably gonna be epic. If it does, you can thank me later.

I´m not a fan of the new section either, and I still can´t get used to the start/finish being somewhere else.

But in the past years we have often seen nice battles and daring overtakes between corners 6 to 10, so that is something to look forward to.

If you want to be annoyed at changes to the historic layout, you need to be annoyed at the 1991 changes

What you really mean is "it's not like it is when I first started watching" lol

The track was a fast, top speed, flat out fest in the 70s and 80s, with gradual additions of a chicane at the start/finish and after Bridge

Then came 1991 and they, imo, fucked it up then. It went from a flat out, balls to the wall challenge to a boring chicane fest where it was hard to overtake, particularly after 1994 and the addition of the abbey chicane

2010 brought some speed back to the track with the Wellington Straight and Abbey section, and I think they've done a great job creating some overtaking oppurtunities here, plus increasing the speeds to the point that a lower downforce setup is needed, so the existing parts of the track are more of a challenge to.

No, all we lost in 2010 was the boring Abbey Chicane and a Bridge corner that had long stopped being a challenge and was merely an acceleration zone (and you had to immediately brake the second you were through it anyway)
Nothing happened there aside from Hill/Schumacher in 94 (and that SHOULDN'T have happened either lol) and Trulli having a suspension failure and flipping in 2004.
The rest of the lap was boring and slow too, it's been no loss.

The racing has got so much better since the changes too, I honestly can't see how anyone would see it as an improvement, but nostalgia is a powerful thing I guess

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RIP Birmingham Wheels: here's some of the crash videos I recorded when it was there:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIaKIE ... 5t9d5PvoHA

Twitter:

http://www.twitter.com/paulhadsley

You're right that my logic is flawed. Because, obviously, if tracks should never be altered, Silverstone would look this:


Spa would look like this:


And Monza like this:


But that's why I wrote "venues should be treated today like historical buildings." So whatever has been modified, it's done, but don't alter them any further. Protect the current layout. Add it on Unesco World Heritage list.

And if you want to try new corners and section, build another track. Would it be great if there existed multiple Silverstone tracks side by side? One with pre-1991 layout, one with mid-90s layout and one with post-2010 layout. Then they could rotate the race each year. Everyone's happy, except the owner who needs to pay the costs of 3 circuits instead of 1.

That's why it's good we have video games, because that way Pescara, Circuit de la Sarthe, olf Nordschleife, Charade and Riverside will live forever. I think in 30 years graphics have become so lifelike that Electronic F1 racing with 1950s circuits and cars is more interesting than real life racing. And at least it's safer.

cannot wait to see races generated by AI featuring modern cars at venues like Pergusa or Charade classic layouts

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Motorsports trend for 2024: everything is a bad taste joke now

The new layout literally produces great racing year on year. On paper it shouldn't, the mickey mousey section simply shouldn't..... but it does, and we get often treated to cars going side by side for almost an entire lap as the corners for whatever reason just lend themselves to one another. This layout of Silverstone is def the best for racing

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"An idea whose time has come cannot be stopped by any army or any government"


3x TBKL rFactor Hillclimb champion

https://www.twitch.tv/ai_racingtv



Also

https://www.youtube.com/@Mitsos1311

I've driven a lot of current car + old track combos in sims and it's usually pretty boring because the tracks have massive full throttle sections and the cars have so much grip that the corners mean nothing.

I tried old Spa once in a current F1 car and it's almost 100% flst from Brunenville to Blanchimont.

Yeah, it's almost more interesting to drive modern tracks with old cars (Albert Park / Abu Dhabi on 1930's cars) than old tracks with modern cars.

The big difference is that old track don't have run-off areas, only trees and buildings. Sadly, nearly all simulators have non-existent damage models (due to licensing), so the risk of spectacular crash is missing. If you go out, you just hit reset. I still prefer playing GP4, because at least its damage model was realistic or at least better than today with wheels flying, car splitting half etc. I can't really bother watching modern Esport, because the crashes are so boring (and because the players are so good they never crash.)

The real conundrum is: why should AI racing be clinical, if we are already bored by clinical racing of today. I don't understand why people would watch modern V6 Hybrid era Esport, when there's so many more interesting eras (like the 1960s). And what's the idea of having the halo in video games? There's no risk of debris hitting the virtual driver in video games (unless you're playing GP4, lol). Not everything needs to correspond to real world.

Mclaren running a bit of Chrome this race.

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Yeah but then it's not Formula 1 esports anymore? It's fantasy-land esports?

I agree it is shit there isn't enough virtual deaths in the e racing community.

Silverstone layout is good for racing, I think it would get less puzzled comments if the S/F remained at Woodcote. This is the main thing that seems wrong here, it makes me feel that the Copse/Hangar/Stowe sector is relegated to a backyard section of the track rather than being the main highlight of the lap. Brooklands gained more importance as well and became a battle hotspot, instead of an insignificant corner prior given how close it was to Priory.

So it's a matter of feeling. The track is objectively better for racing (and arguably as a driving challenge), but it will forever feel slightly "wrong" to people who grew up with the older layouts.

There's nothing fundamentally wrong with the current track layout, although Club could be turned back into a long corner rather than that double apex layout.

People who yearn for old layouts just need to move on. Same goes with Hockenheim, which always put on good racing.

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Follow me on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/135625678@N06/

Rain possible

By that logic, they should change the iconic layouts of Suzuka or Spa, and it's acceptable if afterwards they are objectively better for racing. And why change just one corner, redo whole tracks: make Suzuka layout like exact copy of Bahrain and Spa layout like Austin. If they produce better racing after that, which they would do, there's nothing bad about the changes. Those who liked the old Suzuka/Spa layouts are just nostalgics.

Ok, I'm exaggerating here, and I'm not trying to be a smartass. But fundamentally I detest the idea that in order to improve racing, the track needs to be somehow different. Put Minis there and you see wonderful racing. If F1 racing sucks, it's not the track's fault.
On the other hand, why is "racing" such an important criterium that it requires changes to the track layout? Like I've said about Monaco, I don't care about Sunday races. Watching qualifying, practice sessions and onboards are magical enough. Why can't people appreciate other things besides overtaking? If you want to see DRS passing, there's plenty of Tilkedromes for that in the calendar.

And this is where I arrive to my last point, that all changes seem to make tracks more "standardized". Bit by bit we lose uniqueness and variety as new sections "built to provide overtaking opportunities" seem to be something from's Tilke's handbook. New Hockenheim might be alright for racing, but you can hardly describe it as one-of-a-kind circuit like the old Hockenheimring. Even minor changes like removing gravel from Parabolica at Monza strip some of the uniqueness of that corner and makes the track feel more "sanitized". That's why I'm also concerned that in the wake of van 't Hoff's accident they will remove the uniqueness of Eau Rouge-Raidillon even further (although it's been already butchered badly over the years).

However, I'm not against all changes. Skipping the last chicane of Barcelona and regraveling Spa are welcomed changes, because they fix earlier unneeded alterations. Modifications to Albert Park seem to have little effect on racing, so I'm neutral about them, yet the new section reminds me too much of Jeddah/Miami, so maybe it's an example of unneeded change. Dunno.

I remember reading about Anderstorp when F1 went there for the first time and a quotation from Mario Andretti was quite interesting, he said "this track is great, you can do a whole lap in 3rd gear". Of course he was being sarcastic and the track wasn't much of a challenge, neither was a death trap like the other places they went back then like Nordschleife or Zandvoort

I guess the main thing track developers and owners should do is make it more like a challenge for drivers, of course without track limits travesty

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Motorsports trend for 2024: everything is a bad taste joke now

IMO the changes have improved the racing in the area between Brooklands and Copse.

All I can say to you guys is: shhhhh, let people have their opinion!

Today Norris said he looked forward to the chrome McLaren because that was the car he grew up with, and all I could think of was dude, a McLaren is either orange or red and white! But I´m not going to tell him that he is wrong.