[Motorsport] Easter weekend at Silverstone - WEC & ELMS

In something of a departure from previous years, I've actually managed to get to a race meeting before I go to Le Mans this year! I suppose that's one of the benefits of living in the West Midlands rather than Fife - lots of tracks in easy range (there are four within an hour's drive of Coventry).

Easter weekend is traditionally a busy time for motorsport, with the four day weekend allowing tracks and series to run events over various combinations of Friday to Monday, meaning that if you plan well you can get to see more than one race meeting. This year you had British GT at Oulton Park and BTCC at Donington on the Sunday (both of which I considered going to), and British Superbikes at Brands Hatch on the Monday. But with my love of sports car racing I was always going to go to the endurance double header at Silverstone - European Le Mans Series on the Saturday for four hours, and World Endurance Championship on the Sunday for six hours. 

The new pit complex, known as 'The Wing'. It's not the prettiest building, but it certainly dominates the view at

the Southern end of the track. (Credit: David Brown)

It's been a long, long time since I was at Silverstone. About four years in fact, as it was the summer before I moved up to St Andrews to start my PhD if I'm not mistaken. A lot's changed at the track over that period. The layout is now different, and there's a new pit complex which has moved the start line for the grand prix circuit to a different location. It was therefore a slightly surreal experience entering the site on the Saturday morning; I'd obviously seen all of the changes on the television, but seeing them first hand was something else. My Dad had been complaining that lots of the good spots for pictures had gone, and that the new layout removed some of the good sight lines that had existed previously. I have to say that I agree with him, and although the new complex provides some decent racing I do feel that the track has lost a little something. But that's by the by, and although the view from Abbey is gone there's now a great spot between Becketts and the new complex where you get cars going past on both sides of you, which is a lot of fun.

The start of the first Formula 3 race as seen from my new favourite viewing spot. Don't be fooled by

the sky - it was cold! (Credit: David Brown)

One thing I'd definitely forgotten was how cold and windy it gets at Silverstone! Like a lot of English tracks it was originally an airfield, which means that it's pretty flat and exposed to the elements. I hadn't really thought about that when I packed, and as a result I got a little cold both days. Particularly my hands, as I only had my fingerless cycling gloves with me!

On Saturday my Dad and I travelled down bright and early to catch the WEC practice, ELMS qualifying, WEC qualifying, and European Formula 3 races that were taking place before the main event. As usual for our motorsport sojourns we moved around the track to get different views of the cars, and hunt down some good photography spots. I think I've finally got the hang of taking photos of moving vehicles with my digital camera, although in the high speed corners it's still almost impossible to get a decent close-up of the prototypes.

Stowe remains an excellent photography spot. (Credit: David Brown)

For the ELMS race I met up with a couple of my Le Mans travelling companions, John and Ed, who'd travelled down from 'oop North' to see the ELMS and WEC. We wandered around the track enjoying what turned out to be a rather good race. Typically for sports car endurance racing it wasn't necessarily on track, wheel to wheel action all the time, but the strategy was quite interesting and there were some interesting fights in terms of gaps opening and closing. That's not to say that there wasn't any fighting got position of course - the end of the race saw a great three way fight for the overall victory and LMP2 class victory. Sadly there was also a rather nasty crash for one of the LMP2 cars, the Jota Zytek, which was comfortably leading at the time. We were close enough to walk over and have a look, and the front of the car was pretty well destroyed. The rescue team took a while to get the driver out, but fortunately he was ok. That aside, I rather enjoyed the race and it seems like the ELMS is going from strength to strength.

The weather forecast for the Sunday wasn't looking fabulous, so Dad decided to stay home. But my brother decided he wanted to come with me, which was rather nice as I can't remember the last time we went to a race meeting together. It's much easier now that we don't have to rely on Dad to drive us there! If anything it was even colder than it had been the day before, but I was slightly more prepared for it the second time around. The forecast downpour held off until the last hour or so of the race, but when it came it was heavy enough to cause a premature end to the race. Luckily we were already pretty close to the grandstands on the pit straight when it got really bad, so hid in there until the race was halted.

It got very, very wet at the end of the race, not to mention quite dark. Stopping the race early was definitely the

right decision. (Credit: David Brown)

Speaking of the race, it was fantastic. This year sees new regulations for the LMP1 class which have enforced hybrid systems on manufacturer teams. Porsche have returned to the top class to join Audi and Toyota, with all three taking completely different approaches to their hybrid implementation. That's in turn led to the three cars having different strengths and weaknesses, which was very obvious during the race and made the first hour or so incredibly exciting. What the Porsche, Audi, and Toyota all have in common though is their insane speed. Even compared to last year they looked fast, and the speed differential between the LMP1s and the LMP2s, let alone the two GT classes, was a sight to behold. The Toyota in particular seemed to accelerate like a rocket out of the corners, while the Audi was on rails around the fast, sweeping combination of Maggots and Becketts. Some of the passes around the outside of the slower cars around there were breathtaking. 

The new LMP1 cars are like rockets on rails. Top left: Audi R18 e-tron quattro. Top right: Toyota TS040

Bottom: Porsche 919. (Credit: David Brown)

If the speed at the front was greater than in years past, then so it seemed was the fragility, particularly of Audi. Both of the R18 e-tron quattros had crashes that put them out of the race, and one of the Porsche 919s had a wheel fall off! But the Toyota TS040s seemed bulletproof, and one of them duly won the race. 

As well as the fascinating battle at the front of the field we were treated to a great battle in GTEpro between the works Porsche 911s and the leading Ferrari 458s. Again, the first hour featured a great scrap which then settled down during the pitstops, but there was a fight all race long. I was slightly disappointed by the lack of pace from the Aston Martins, but hopefully they'll get a break before Le Mans.

It was a great weekend. Not only did I get ten (10!) hours of quality racing, but I got to spend time with both my Dad and my brother doing something that we all enjoy, and that I don't get to do as often as I'd like. I'm now looking forward to Le Mans even more - roll on June!