Donington Redevelopment Plans Released

[www.donington-park.co.uk]

Donington Ventures Leisure Ltd submitted plans for the first phase of the re-development of Donington Park with North West Leicestershire District Council on Friday 5th September.

The Parkland circuit faces massive re-development in preparation for the British Formula One Grand Prix that will be staged at the circuit in 2010. An agreement was signed between Donington Park Leisure and the FIA in July to stage the British Grand Prix for ten years, starting in 2010.

“The submission of these plans heralds the start of a massive re-development project and a new era for Donington Park. It’s an incredibly exciting time for everybody involved,” explained the circuit’s Chief Executive Officer Simon Gillett. “We are delighted with the plans and when the work is completed we will have a facility that will be the pride of World Championship motorsport.”

The 2009 programme of major events at Donington including the British Motorcycle Grand Prix and the World Superbike Championship will be unaffected by the re-development.

Donington Park will not be issuing any more releases or making any comment about the re-development until the North West Leicestershire District Council announces their decision on planning in early November.





looks good i think, looking forward to see how the track goes. its good that they have left the classic corners still there as well.

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X (@ed24f1)



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/06/2008 05:43AM by SchueyFan.

Meh, still not too sure this will go ahead for F1. Its not bad, its no Silverstone.

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"Trulli was slowing down like he wanted to have a picnic" LOL

Lots of tarmac there... kinda expected.

Just don't change the Craners or the Old Hairpin. No widening. No happy-run-off-get-out-of-jail-free-cards. Don't destroy it for every other form of motorsport for a single 2hr race.

That's going to be a short lap though. Something along the lines of 1:10 I'd guess.

Doubt it Gav, 1:20 I reckon. Current S/F to the Foggy esses would take somewhere around 50 seconds. That new section adds about 10 seconds.

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Everyone knows that million-to-one chances happen 9 times out of 10; indeed, it's a common requirement in fairy tales. If the human didn't have to overcome huge odds, what would be the point? Terry Pratchett - The Science Of Discworld

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I think it may be interesting track. More important is that section between Hollywood and McLean's are unchanged, to bad for Coppice.Only not sure what will look new part (corners from 2-5) that reminds me on new section on Nurgurgring, which I don't like, but here may be better. And hope that old part will not be ruined by many asphalt run-offs. Lets see what that will end...

Wow, I'm very impressed with that. Tilke has managed to make new corners with character. What's more, the paddock looks nice too. This is much better than I expected, well done Hermann!

It's great to see a modern track without emphasis on chicanes or hairpins. I'm so glad to see plenty of sweeping turns and 'normal' corners (I can't think of any better word ). For once I'm very much looking forward to a new track design.

I don't think they're altering the old section, either. Look at the map that SchueyFan posted - only the new section is highlighted in red, standing for "racetrack (new part)". You can see that the track becomes narrower in the old section and wider at the new section. Hopefully they won't put any tarmac runoff at the old section, either. Surely it would be on the plans if they would?

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Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 09/06/2008 12:28PM by flat tyre.

Looks pretty good, professional I'd say Britain might just get it's first world class circuit there

I think the layout is good, largely because the best parts of the old track are kept. However, that huge tarmac run-off area around the outside of what could otherwise be a very challenging new corner (after the hairpin) is completely pants IMHO. I want to see cars hanging it out on the outside of the track with gravel and grass to greet them if they stray too far. That corner isn't going to be particularly high speed by the looks of things, gravel would be safe enough.

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I think it will be million times better than Silverstone. Donnington if one of my alltime favourite tracks.

I did always like the short version of this track more than long one, so these new corners wont make so big difference for me, but I agree with Gav about "happy-run-off-get-out-of-jail-free-cards". Hopefully atleast surroundings of few first corners will stay same as till now.

Kimi, so, Massa Fernando Sebastian is faster than you. Can you confirm you understood that message?

I'd agree with general consensus that we'd like to see less get out jail free tarmacked run offs, and more mistake punishing gravel etc.

But that is never going to happen in modern F1, so in that context the Donington plans are fairly impressive and not as unattractive as they could have been.

I think the real questions for me are, (because I think the proposals are pretty up Bernie's street) will the plans be approved by the district council, will the budget be made to carry out the development and will it be completed on time?

Also will other factors such as airspace difficulties due to the proximity of the airport, and traffic to and from the circuit be a success.

There are plenty of hurdles to clear to make this event happen, but I have to admit that I am fairly impressed with the plans.

Looks like the "Dunlop" bridge will bite the dust though.

That bridge needs to go IMO. A subway would be far better for access across the circuit, and AFAIK the bridge isn't even open nowadays.

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Everyone knows that million-to-one chances happen 9 times out of 10; indeed, it's a common requirement in fairy tales. If the human didn't have to overcome huge odds, what would be the point? Terry Pratchett - The Science Of Discworld

GPGSL S5 Race driver for IED.

Well it probably wouldn't fit very well with the new start/finish infrastructure for starters.

But even so, I feel it's a structure that adds character to the place, like Le Mans.

There is a subway not far from the bridges location anyway.

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they are no where near as bad as i feared they could be. looks like the owners have listened to peoples concerns so fair play to them.

I especially like that, looking at the grandstand plans, it looks as though general entry ticket holders will be able to sit along the hill on the run down through the craner curves.

its a shame the bridge is going as it is iconic, but i guess theres no where to put it on these plans.

hope the spark plug, the spitfire and the bluebird are staying though.


still wondering what they are planning to do about the roads in and out of the circuit.

i assume they'll be moving the museum too?

marwood82 Wrote:
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> hope the spark plug, the spitfire and the bluebird
> are staying though.

Spitfire wasn't in late July, so I wouldn't get your hopes up. It's had some pretty major issues in the past few years. 2 years ago 1 of the wings were missing. Nothing to do with the F1. It was just falling apart.


marwood82 Wrote:
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> i assume they'll be moving the museum too?

If the museum stays, then it's not exactly in the way at the moment, with the pits on the inside. Presumably the paddock will be around that area, though there's a hell of a lot of free space around the circuit. A lot hinges on whether they keep the campsite or not I guess.

good idea to tighten up coppice before the long straight that used to be dunlop, should help stop loads of speed being carried through the corner




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gav Wrote:
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> If the museum stays, then it's not exactly in the
> way at the moment, with the pits on the inside.
> Presumably the paddock will be around that area,
> though there's a hell of a lot of free space
> around the circuit. A lot hinges on whether they
> keep the campsite or not I guess.


yeah, i guess looking at the plans its just out of the way.

though i'd imagine if they've got the £ to spare maybe they'd want to move it into a larger building as i can see it being heaving with people on GP weekend.(+ the current one is starting to show its age)

You'd also imagine they'd want a few more exhibits if they expect to keep the GP for a long time. Not that they don't have a lot at the moment, but it's only going to get bigger.