WARNING: As a component of Formula One efforts to secure a 2020 season despite the pandemic, Silverstone is preparing to organize two F1 races. But the track, local police and Lewis Hamilton had to give serious warnings to enthusiasts: ALEX KALINAUCKAS explains why
Just over 70 years ago, 150,000 spectators arrived at a former Royal Air Force base in Northamptonshire for the most important moment in motorsport history.
The first Formula One race at the world championships may have been a trip in Alfa Romeo, an even greater point of domination than we see today with the Mercedes fashion team, but it was despite all the formal start of an incredible journey. .
From a number of vital but necessarily unrelated occasions on primary occasions, Grand Prix races have become the European championship before World War II. Shortly after the resumption of races after the end of hostilities, Formula One (originally known as Formula A) was introduced, and then it was decided that some of the major GPs would form the world championship, starting with this race of May 13, 1950 at Silverstone.
Since then, it has reached its gigantic existing scale, sometimes (in years) on the five continents that constitute a racing calendar of more than 20 races that runs from March to December.
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In 2020, F1 will run twice at Silverstone, the 70th anniversary GP after next weekend’s British GP. This will echo what has happened so traditionally with the first repeated race that it took place last month at the Red Bull Ring, where the Styria Grand Prix followed a week after the opening of the Austrian GP season. This reflects the naturally distorted nature of the 70th anniversary of F1, thank you for having an effect on the COVID-19 pandemic.
The explanation for why Styria’s races and the 70th anniversary exist is that F1 achieves its goals in terms of the number of races that can be organized given the difficult cases of this deeply unpleasant year. No 8 races are required to claim a championship result, however, the more times F1 can be organized, the less you will have to potentially reimburse broadcasters who generously pay the right to clean up the action on the track. This, in turn, contributes particularly to the F1 coffers, from which equipment costs are shared.
F1 will compete in two races at grand Prix races headquarters in Britain; however, as in all races this year, they are surrounded by seriousness.
The British AND 70th Anniversary GPs will be held behind closed doors. But in recent weeks, Northamptonshire and Silverstone police have issued stern warnings to enthusiasts that they deserve to stay away and not go see the action or competitors.
The fact that the F1 projected short images of small teams of enthusiasts sitting on the slopes of the Red Bull Ring did not escape its attention, which, it will be said, has other topographical considerations that meant that long distance was possible. And while this demonstrates the hobby of enthusiasts, showing their efforts perhaps wasn’t the wisest resolution.
Warnings to stay away from Silverstone are reinforced through local hero Lewis Hamilton. While acknowledging the contribution of enthusiasts to their performances and how frustrating it is for those who like to see F1 action denied them the ability to attend Silverstone’s races, he says no one threatens his own protection, and that of others, in 2020.
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“It’s not my job to draft regulations and tell other people what to do,” Hamilton said, when asked about the scenario related to police warnings for the British GP through Autosport at the Hungarian GP last weekend.
“What I see on television is that other people visit their lives to live their lives through this difficult time, but this continues to spread. So I check to inspire others to stay distant and stay at home.”
“And us holding an event, which we’re really trying to remain [focused] and always keep our distances from everyone whilst we’re doing our job – I can understand people will want to go and watch from a distance, just to get the sound of the car or to get a sneak peek of the car. But if that means that you’re in a crowd of other people, that’s definitely not a good thing, and I wouldn’t advise that.”
To try and ensure nobody without permission can get near the Silverstone events, Northamptonshire police will create an ‘exclusion zone’ around the site. This does not mean local residents or staff at Silverstone Park will be prevented from accessing their homes or workplaces, but demonstrates how event organisers are clamping down on unauthorised access.
Any potential for viewing into the circuit from perimeter roads will be closed, while local traffic control measures will be put in place at either end of the Dadford Road, which leads to the main Silverstone entrance. Nearby laybys will be closed to discourage anyone planning on abandoning their cars and trying to walk close to the track, the footpaths at the rear of the site will also be closed and any cars parked in laybys will be removed. The airspace over the track is also closed to anyone attempting to fly drones – a serious problem for modern sporting events even in ‘normal’ years.
“I need our past messages: there will be an exclusion zone around the circuit and F1 enthusiasts deserve not to go through there, but they deserve to sign up in place of the millions of other people watching the races on TV,” said Northamptonshire Police Superintendent Dennis. Murray, the commander of the event. for the two Silverstone races.
“My officials will be about to attack anyone who intends to dedicate a crime and there will be groups of officials who largely control the area. You will not be imaginable to see the race from the perimeter fences and anyone who tries to do so will be evicted.”
‘Elite sport’ is an important definition when it now comes to hosting events such as the British and 70th GPs in the UK. There are certain dispensations that have been applied for professional sports as the pandemic has progressed, examples of which led to the resumption of football’s Premier League and English cricket’s summer test series.
But these must be held under strict conditions, and it’s the same with F1 action taking place. The work completed within Silverstone’s walls is governed by the FIA’s Return to Motor Sport guidelines, but everything just outside the track’s immediate perimeter must be tightly controlled by organisers. This is why the track and Northamptonshire Police have been so stark in their warnings.
“The government is asking you to be able to organize this occasion if there are no others,” Silverstone executive leader Stuart Pringle told Autosport. “So it’s absolutely opposite to that if we allow it to be provided to other people, and that includes picking up at the front door to see if they can see the drivers coming in and out. [And] you probably wouldn’t because they will stay on site in motorhomes, the vast majority of them.
‘And a lot of fear at the net around Silverstone, like a lot of fear on the net around Anfield [where Liverpool enthusiasts piled up to celebrate the team’s Premier League triumph], or a lot of fear on the net around Ageas Bowl in Southampton [who hosted England’s first fit test as opposed to the West Indies] is that those sporting occasions shouldn’t be a magnet for them accumulating the broadcast threat this virus.
“The plan we have developed is to meet government requirements. And we do it and we do a thorough job. We are simply spreading the message: spreading it early, being transparent and gaining a small subsidized authority, so that everyone knows serious.”
There are two takeaway points from the words of the world champion, chasing a seventh win on home soil in 2020, the Northamptonshire Police superintendent and the Silverstone boss.
F1 fans in the UK simply must not be tempted to sneak a visit to the home of the British GP even though movement restrictions have been eased and because a grand prix is a largely-outdoor event.
Not only does it risk the cancellation of the event itself, but above all else, anyone tempted to do so would be risking their safety and that of others.