Council backs Donington Park’s Grand Prix plans ahead of application hearing

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World Series by Renault cars tackle the Craner Curves at Donington Park

Donington Park’s plans to run the British Grand Prix from 2010 have won the support of South Derbyshire District Council.

Director of community services Mark Alflat told the Derby Evening Telegraph he is recommending the scheme gets planning approval when it goes before Leicestershire District Council on Thursday:

The development offers substantial economic opportunities. The Grand Prix has the potential to attract both visitor spend and inward investment. New facilities, along with associated developments, will create substantial construction employment opportunities. This would bring new investment and highly-skilled employment opportunities to the area.

Although Mr Afflat conceded the changes to the track would result in some surrounding buildings being exposed to greater noise levels, he said the economic benefits of hosting the race would be a benefit for the region.

More about Donington Park’s 2010 British Grand Prix plans

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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8 comments on “Council backs Donington Park’s Grand Prix plans ahead of application hearing”

  1. Great news! Hopefully, we won’t lose the British Grand Prix, even though I have to admit that Silverstone really belongs to F1, while Donington, despite hosting GPs in the thirties, has nothing to do with Formula 1.

    KingCobra

  2. I still don’t think it’ll happen…

  3. If this is completed on time and on budget I’ll be absolutely amazed relieved and excited, provided that is its a good track to show off F1 cars at there very best – which I can’t really tell by the plans… after all many were disappointed by Valencia.

  4. Valencia is a street course, so there was not much to expect without the Safety Car intervention. Unfortunately, there was no Safety Car period, which would have made the race much more exciting… To be honest, F1 has to have more Safety Cars, as they would freeze the race for some time and there is usually a lot of overtaking at the restart. SCs are used even on ovals, where there is a lot of room to overtake (alright, they HAVE to be used on ovals, as there are many crashes there combined with the lack of run off areas and huge speeds), so in F1 they would certainly be handy…

    KingCobra

    1. F1 has to have more Safety Cars, as they would freeze the race for some time and there is usually a lot of overtaking at the restart.

      Or they could just build cars that are able to follow each other closely to enable overtaking.
      Hopefully the new cars will be able to get close to each other without losing all of their downforce & with a refuelling ban in 2010 we may see a return to the good old days where the racing was done on the track rather than in the pits.

      The last thing we need is more artificial incidents, the occasional safety car period once or twice a season throws up some interesting results but we shouldn’t have to rely on them for entertaining races.

      The tracks wouldn’t be such a big issue if they could sort the cars out, I reckon that even some of the most dull Tilkedromes would give us some great races if the cars had far less aerodynamic grip and this is pretty much proven every time we have a wet race.

      I’d happily do without wings & other aerodynamics in exchange for some massive & very sticky slicks and some ground effect or venturi.

      I’m hoping they can get the work at Donington done on time & on budget but like Chaz I’ll be amazed if it is.
      Let’s just hope it doesn’t turn into another Wembley Stadium style fiasco.

  5. Dastardly Dick
    4th January 2009, 0:13

    I agree with Paul F… It’s just some bizarre scam by the poisoned dwarf..

  6. A bit more on Gillet’s plans for Donington on James Allen’s blog: Why Donington might well work

    1. And given that he also claims to have negotiated very good terms with Bernie for the five years, in other words he’s got the race on the cheap.

      Are these the lengths Bernie went to to ensure that Silverstone lost the GP ?
      I know he doesn’t like the BRDC and has been very critical of the circuit & facilities but I never thought he’d give Donington the race on the cheap !

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