Last Friday, my husband and I went to the 40th anniversary of Williams at Silverstone and it was amazing. I was one of the 30,000 fans who joined them on the day. Rebecca (from becster.com) was there too and we went on the pit walk together. Prepare for lot of pictures, I was so excited that I pestered my husband to take lots of pictures.
I saw that Williams was organizing a special event at Silverstone to mark their 40th anniversary and we’ve decided we should apply for tickets. We got them and we also bought the Pit Walk tickets for the 5pm session, the earlier ones were sold out. We got there just in time to hear the interviews with Claire Williams, to see Sir Frank.
I was a bit emotional when I arrived at Silverstone and I saw the start line. 19 years ago I’ve started watching F1 and Silverstone was the first whole race I saw. In 1998 Schumacher won the race on the pit lane, after a controversial decision. I forgot about it, until I saw a re-run on youtube. I think I should get the old races on DVDs and watch them. It was so exciting back then.
First of all, we went into the International Straight Grandstand. It was packed with people, so were the other two Grandstands opened for the event: Club Corner and Abbey.
In this picture, you might recognize Claire on the left, giving her interview. On the right, in black, is Nico Rosberg with his father, Keke (black jacket). They both drove for Williams. Massa, Stroll, Coulthard, Webber were there too. It was so exciting to see them.
After the interviews, I went to the Club Corner Grandstands. It was exciting to pass by the podium and see another part of the circuit.
We went to Abbey to see the cars on track. Some of them were historic cars, some were quite new, only a few years old. It rained a bit, so it was even more exciting to see them on track.
Two was the maximum number of cars on track. I saw an overtake, so that was exciting too.
Near the grandstands, there were plenty of other attractions, merchandise and food stalls.
One of the attractions was this Monster truck. I thought it’s amazing, but I know I wouldn’t feel comfortable in it, so give it a miss. There was a small track for mini-Monster trucks for children, so cute.
There was a police presence and they were very popular, children wanted to have their picture taken with an officer or in the police car. There was a machine that tests the reflexes and that looked interesting when my husband tried it, but a queue of children formed in the minute he tried that, so I gave it a miss.
This track was very popular with children, trying to get top speed. Amazingly, some of the kids we saw managed to score 9 or even 10 mph. That is impressive. I would have tried it, but I was in heels and there were so many children queuing.
At about 4 and a half, we went to the queue for the pit walk. Rebecca was already there, in front, and we joined her. We were all so excited to get on the pit walk. This is a picture of the start from the first corner. I can’t wait next month to see the cars in action here.
On the left is the exit from the pits at eye level and on the right what an F1 driver can see from his car. The difference is amazing, isn’t it?
From top left: the first car, from 1977 – Nigel Mansell’s car – the 1982 car drove by Keke Rosberg and Jacques Laffite – the 2003 car drove by Ralf Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montaya.
Us, on the pit lane.
And a picture of me with Rebecca. She was wearing her “I love Mark Webber” jumper. I need an F1-themed jumper.
The podium with some dents from the champagne bottles’ corks, as you can see in the next picture.
We finished the pit walk and went towards the car park.
Then we saw these kids having fun. I have to admit I was considering having a picture taken like that, Rebecca said it was wet (but I think she was considering it too). Not the right conditions and for me, not the right outfit either. When I left home I thought a dress and high heels are perfectly acceptable and, besides missing this photo opportunity, was fine.
It was exciting and we all enjoyed ourselves. I’m so glad we got the tickets for the event and that we found tickets for the pit walk too.
I was going to say how on earth did I miss this, but I was at a Take That concert the night before so wouldn’t have been able to make it. It sounds like a fantastic event though 🙂
Oh my! What a great event! I didn’t realised that it is their 40th Anniversary! you are so lucky to get the tickets!
I have not been before this place. I would love to visit them with kids!
This looks like such an amazing event. I actually had tickets for it, but because they did arrive until a week before the event, it was too short notice for me to get the time off work.
Tyrone was telling my something about an F1 library when you can watch all the previous races online. Kind of like Netflix but just for F1. I’ll have to ask him more about!
Aww, what a shame. Netflix for F1 sounds like a dream. x