They were camping, where me and my dad were staying in a hotel. I know that sounds 'unfair' but there's a bunch of things that are a bit private that explain why that was the case.
Anyway, having met up with them we set out to get our fanvision. These used to be known as Kangaroo TV (the devices themselves still had Kangaroo on them) and are basically like little TV sets, but also allow you access to all sorts of other goodies too, including statistics, news and various commentaries. The advantage with these sets is that you get to have your own system that you can carry around with you and plug your earphones into. That means that you can hear stuff (F1 cars are amazingly loud - to the degree that you really have to experience it before you'll believe just how loud they really are) and watch stuff no matter where you are.
The only problem with them is that they seem to have scaled back since they became Fanvision - they used to have loads of places to pick up a set, but they only had 3 at Silverstone, so there was a huge queue. Also, even though we pre-ordered, we still had to queue up.
Thankfully the queue did move quite quickly, so we weren't too long. I think we actually made a bit of an error here, as we got two units between five of us. They're actually quite small things, so I think 3 between five would have been better. Also, despite having used them before, the others failed to bring headphone splitter. Both me and my dad had them, but that still meant only 4 people could listen.
This was partly solved because we had a separate radio unit, but that person was listening to the on-track announcer commentary, rather than 5 live, which we listened to during the F1 bits. To be fair, this was something of a double edged sword, as it meant that person could here commentary during the whole thing, whereas fanvision only showed pictures and commentary during the actual cars-on-track stuff - the rest of the time it repeated highlights.
Anyway, we'd wandered up to the Village area to get our fan vision, which meant we were about a quarter of the way around the track. We kept going and eventually completed a full circuit of the track. It stayed rainy and cold throughout the day, but we managed to time it such that we were mostly sat in a stand when it happened.
Village itself is where they've made the most radical changes to the layout of the circuit. We actually walked along the bit of the circuit they've cut off, which included walking under the famous Bridge section. This area is also now a focus for the entertainment and concession stands.
The next stand we sat in was up at Luffield. This was another good place to sit, especially as it had the camera on a wire. This gave some great shots and was interesting to see it buzzing along its cable, which is apparently 400 meters (a quarter of a mile!) long.
Our second port of call was Luffield, up at the top end of the circuit. This is a compilation shot showing the Luffield area, which as you can see has a whole bunch of bends in it.
This is the old BRDC building.
If you were of a non-sane persuasion, available entertainment included bungee jumping. This is actually over in Village, where there's loads of the concessions and stands and stuff.
You can see the track was mildly moist for second practice too.
You can't see it in any of these shots, but this is where the cracking camera was that swooped around showing you the cars. It gave some really cool shots.
The next stand we went in was at Copse. This was a less good position, I'd say, but we watched some stuff there while it rained. So here's those photos:
Our third stop on Friday was Copse, where you can look over at the old Paddocks. It's when you see the old ones that you realise how much of a step change the new area is.
These are actually GP3 cars, if memory serves. It's good that they now have a clear progression of formulas.
It rained quite a nit while we were sat in Copse.
As you can see, plenty of spray being kicked up. I'm fairly sure this was actually the GP3 qualifying, so they were kind of forced to go out, despite the damp.
The last section was us walking down past Maggets and Beckets and on down to Stowe. I wanted to watch some on track stuff, but I think the others were feeling a little too fatigued, damp and miserable. I can understand this, as it had been a long, wet and rather cold day.
Our final mission was to drive to the hotel. I have to confess that if I'd been on my own I'd have probably tried to load up with some caffeine before attempting this. As it was, I felt really tired, but the presence of my dad in the car navigating kept me awake.
For dinner we just got some hotel bar grub and then went straight to bed.
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