NOVEMBER 28, 2008

No cars for Donington Park

The British Grand Prix at Donington - if it happens - will be held without fans being able to drive into the circuit. If all goes according to plan the spectators would have to take buses from Nottingham, Leicester or Derby, take the train to East Midlands Parkway Station or fly to East Midlands Airport.

The news was announced by Simon Gillett, chief executive of Donington Ventures Leisure Ltd. Gillett said that fans would be able to book their transportation along with tickets and accomoodation.

"This will be the first public transport Grand Prix. We are not bringing cars here," he said. "We are looking to use public transport from all the major conurbations, the airport and the Parkway station."

The news highlights the fact that Donington does not have the road infrastructure needed to cope with the traffic generated by a Grand Prix weekend and that as a result there was a danger that queueing traffic would block the M1 motorway.

Buses may sound like a great idea but it is not something that race fans are used to doing and experience in other places have shown that it is not always a sensible option. At the 2007 Japanese Grand Prix at Fuji large numbers of spectators were required to travel on buses but there were still traffic problems and thousands of fans did not make it to the race because of the traffic.