Breaking news
Formula 1 British GP
Hamilton: Silverstone now "bumpier than the Nordschleife"
Formula 1 world champion Lewis Hamilton has criticised the resurfaced Silverstone track, calling the British Grand Prix venue "bumpier than the Nordschleife".
Scott Mitchell
Edited: Jul 7, 2018, 12:52 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
The circuit was resurfaced at the start of the year to remove several major bumps that were particularly problematic for MotoGP riders.
Hamilton admitted the circuit is "the fastest it's ever been" but was relieved when practice ended on Friday and hit out at "wasted money, which could've gone to much better use".
"The people they hired did the worst job ever," said Hamilton. "It's the bumpiest track I've ever experienced.
"It's bumpier than the Nordschleife, which is 100 years old. It's rattling your freaking eyeballs out of your brain.
"Apart from that it's fantastic but jeez, they need to hire someone better. I don't know how you could do such a bad job in layering the track."
Silverstone's resurfacing has been carried out by Aggregate Industries, which carried out the circuit's last major resurfacing project 21 years ago and the partial repair work since.
It worked to a 3mm tolerance when laying the new track, which Silverstone managing director Stuart Pringle told Motorsport.com was "a huge undertaking" and "a massive financial commitment on our part".
"The partially re-laid surface had introduced a circuit that was bumpy, with particularly changeable grip," Pringle explained.
"The asphalt mix is state-of-the-art. It's been laid to extremely fine tolerances, much finer than on the public highway, that are not easily achieved by most people in that business.
"There's a reason we use [Aggregate], and why our circuit manager of 30 years insists we use them.
"It's not what we wanted to hear on day one, particularly not from the star we're all rooting for, but we very much take it on board."
Not every driver was critical of the new surface, with McLaren's Fernando Alonso calling it "better, less bumpy, with more grip".
When he was told of other drivers' complaints, Alonso said: "They don't remember the race last year!
"It was very, very bumpy. It's the natural ground here, but it's definitely much better than last year."
Faster corner speeds and aggressive car set-ups will likely be accentuating the track's bumpy characteristics.
Silverstone will monitor feedback through the weekend and Aggregate will rescan the track to check for abnormalities beneath the surface.
This is particularly important ahead of next month's MotoGP round.
"There's no point doing it if it's not right," added Pringle."In making the circuit faster we may have brought some of its historic character even more to the fore.
"It's fantastic to hear it's grippier and quicker, which was the aim.
"We hear the comments, but it will be interesting to see how the weekend plays out and what we learn about our brand-new circuit after our first grand prix, particularly in view of the extreme temperatures we're experiencing.
"It's all part of a learning process. We will try to understand it – we don't spend that sort of money to do half a job."
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article British GP: Hamilton tops FP3 as Hartley shunts heavily
Next article Hartley to miss qualifying after heavy crash
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Scott Mitchell
Alfa Romeo must do better in "chaotic" races - Vasseur
Formula 1
Formula 1
Alfa Romeo must do better in "chaotic" races - Vasseur
Honda: Verstappen relationship 'like a young Senna'
Formula 1
Formula 1
Honda: Verstappen relationship 'like a young Senna'
Key team personnel shouldn't be F1 boss - Ferrari
Formula 1
Formula 1
Key team personnel shouldn't be F1 boss - Ferrari
More from
Lewis Hamilton
Oscar Piastri on his Singapore puncture: “Ironically, it probably helped”
Formula 1
Formula 1
Singapore GP
Oscar Piastri on his Singapore puncture: “Ironically, it probably helped”
Why Ferrari caved in to Lewis Hamilton’s failed Singapore F1 gamble
Formula 1
Formula 1
Singapore GP
Why Ferrari caved in to Lewis Hamilton’s failed Singapore F1 gamble
More from
Mercedes
Why Mercedes switched George Russell to its old F1 car spec in Singapore
Formula 1
Formula 1
Singapore GP
18 h
Why Mercedes switched George Russell to its old F1 car spec in Singapore
Christian Horner admits that F1 rivalry with Toto Wolff became "theatre"
Formula 1
Formula 1
Christian Horner admits that F1 rivalry with Toto Wolff became "theatre"
Latest news
Did Max Verstappen already know the impact of Red Bull’s big upgrade when he signed his new deal?
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Singapore GP
25 min
Did Max Verstappen already know the impact of Red Bull’s big upgrade when he signed his new deal?
WEC: Barcelona 6 Hours schedule and TV times
WEC
WEC WEC
Barcelona
1 h
WEC: Barcelona 6 Hours schedule and TV times
Brennan Poole joins Jordan Anderson Racing for 2027 NASCAR O'Reilly season
NASCAR O'Reilly
NOAP NASCAR O'Reilly
Phoenix II
3 h
Brennan Poole joins Jordan Anderson Racing for 2027 NASCAR O'Reilly season
Kaden Honeycutt wins incident-free Phoenix NASCAR Truck race, extends points lead
NASCAR Truck
NSTR NASCAR Truck
Phoenix
7 h
Kaden Honeycutt wins incident-free Phoenix NASCAR Truck race, extends points lead
Feature
Discover prime content
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe