British F1 Grand Prix at Silverstone: Village / Arena View

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Silverstone‘s new section is fantastic and the view from what’s now called Village grandstand (was called Arena) is excellent.

We dropped in there for one of the GP2 races and since it was new I thought a panorama shot might be useful for anyone considering it. Unfortunately I didn’t quite line the photos up so it doesn’t stitch together properly. So there are two, the left half and the right half.

In the left half you get a bonus in that you can see the cars go through Maggotts / Becketts / Chapel and onto the Hangar Straight as well as Village / The Loop / Aintree.

Left Hand Side of the View from Village (click for bigger)
The Right Hand Side of the view from Village B (click for bigger)

There’s a really good overtaking opportunity if you can get a good run round the outside at Village because you’ll have the inside at The Loop. This is a very bad line for the corner and you’ll run wide on the exit, but it’s seriously difficult for your opponent to duck inside – we saw a couple of people making this stick in the GP2. A lot of people were running too wide out of Village, too, meaning more excitement at The Loop.

A word to the wise, though. The grandstand is quite exposed to wind, so make sure that you have some form of wind-proof clothing option with you because even when it was 25C in the sun it was cold up there.