What's wrong with Brands Hatch?

[Valve Bounce]

I remember going to Brands many years ago with my brother to watch a GP - the one in which James Hunt won and then had it taken off him for repairing the car after the first lap pile up. My impression was that Brands was a fantastic drivers circuit. It had turns with compound horizontal and vertical curves, quite unlike the planar corners of many other circuits. Certainly, Silverstone wouldn't come within cooee of it. There were access problems, I will admit, but we went by bike, and my brother studied army ordnance maps to find a really great route in and out. We were home listening to the radio that cars were stuck there trying to get out. But it was a great circuit. Can anyone tell me whether present day F1 cars will have many opportunities to overtake there? As for access, I think the circuit operators should include a free shuttle bus service from the nearest train station, recovering the cost of this from the cost of entry tickets. Double decker busses could take so much pressure from traffic for others wishing to arrive by car. I remember Brands as a beautiful place, with beautiful trees; I watched the Superbike race there on TV yesterday, and all the memories came flooding back. The only fond memory I have of Silverstone was a nightingale which hovered over us and sang while we had lunch. Apart from that, it was just a flat featureless airfield circuit and it took us half the day to get there.

[fatbloke]

What's wrong with Brands ? At the moment, the owners aside, absolutely nothing. Sadly, in twelve months time if Bernie gets his way, it'll be destroyed to let F1 back Leave it a lone you arse! Leave it at Silverstone, or take it up the M1 to Donington (and don't even think of changing that either!)

[MichaelC]

The major problem with BH is that it simply isn't big enough. The F1 circus has grown considerably since a GP was last held there, and by the time you got the top four teams in along with all the stuff they pull around with them, there'd be no space left for anything or anyone else.

Also, from the track point of view, the run-off areas are nothing like large in almost all the areas. Look at what happened to James Thompson in the BTCC race this year as an example. An F1 car would be coming through that section of the track considerably faster than he was, and the consequences could be horrific.

Jackie Stewart said that the only way to hold a race at BH would be to bulldoze it and rebuild from scratch, and unforunately he's right. The best tactic would be to hold it at Donnington, which has pretty much everything it needs to stage the event, and would need a lot less work than BH. Brands would lose all it's character if it was changed, and it should be 'retired' gracefully from the F1 scene. Leave the F3, Touring Cars, Motorcycles etc. - they're all fine there, but F1 cars should not run there again.

[Valve Bounce]

Gosh, this is a sad situation. I can still remember the Ligiers speeding away from me going up the hill. The tremendous sound made my teeth fillings rattle.
So, are they going to bulldoze the place and start again?? I understand that the British GP will be held therre after next year; is this correct??
I live in Oz now, and I have never been to Donnington. Only Brands and Silverstone.

[Super Tourer]

Brands would have to change beyond all recognition to hold a GP, why ruin a great circuit for a once a year event....

The paddock bend run off would probably end at the A20, the whole circuit would be turned into a sanatised track for Bernie's circus.

Silverstone has become an uninviting, flat, 'industrial estate'. Donington is still a good track for racing on and viewing.

I think the way forward is to create a purpose built venue, that serves as a state of the art GP track, oval and 'major' event track. It could serve as a multi-purpose venue, i.e. exhibition centre, concert venue. In other words, purpose built rail links, helicopter facilties and road network.

Somewhere that is capable of staging major events that attract 100's of thousands of people, without bringing the immediate area to a standstill.

You never know, by starting from scratch, somebody might put their mind to designing a track that cars can actually overtake on. Just a thought.....

[MichaelC]

Originally posted by Super Tourer
You never know, by starting from scratch, somebody might put their mind to designing a track that cars can actually overtake on. Just a thought.....

Careful now, this is Britain we're talking about after all!! The purpose-built centre is the ideal solution, but we'd probably be more likely to end up with a Speang-style solution than something we actually liked.

[jc_nl]

Didn't someone put a map of the new Brands Hatch track on this forum not so long ago??

I don't know if it still is here somewhere or who posted it, but I do know the track looked horrible. From what I remember they are going to turn Hawthorn Hill into the pit straight and, speeking of sepang, change Hawthorn bend into a hairpin followd by a quite sharp left turn. There also was something with Dingle Dell but i don't know what it was anymore.

[Peter Mallett]

Originally posted by Valve Bounce
I remember going to Brands many years ago with my brother to watch a GP - the one in which James Hunt won and then had it taken off him for repairing the car after the first lap pile up.

That was 1976. The stewards decided to let him race because the crowd was going wild. They thought there would have been a riot if Hunt had been excluded.

The circuit hasn't changed dramatically since then.

[Sparky]

jc_nl, that 'map' person was me! And you're right, it does look awful.

I took the actual Tilke blueprint along to Snetterton to show the gang, and the consensus was; What a mess! Can't tell you where I got it, but it's genuine.

MichaelC, I'm afraid Thompsons crash at Dingle Dell is not likely to be repeated by an F1 car, as Dingle Dell doesnm't feature on the blue print at all! It's been bypassed. I'll see if I can locate the map, or failing that, I'll launch and link it here again.

[angst]

It's **** isn't it? Why destroy a perfectly good circuit and make some dull auodrone - ie A-1 Ring, Nurburgring. Why hasn't anybody learnt from Spa that the basic feel of a circuit can be retained while making it safer. If they're going to build a 'modern' sanitised circuit they should build a new one, not destroy the old ones.