Silverstone plans new layout for British GP

A revised layout of the Silverstone circuit could be used for next July's British Grand Prix.

With the Northamptonshire venue scheduled to also host MotoGP for the first time in 2010, plans for a new layout in the middle of the current lap are already in motion.

The new complex features a bowl-style arena in the infield, located to the right of the current Maggots/Becketts/Chapel complex.

The Arena/MotoGP layout will see the layout sweep to the right after the straight following the Club corner, rather than left for the Abbey chicane and the run to Bridge.

Like Bridge, also missing will be the Priory left-hander, the new circuit instead reconnecting with the existing layout for the tight Luffield curve before the run to the start-finish.

Silverstone chiefs intend to use the new layout for the 2010 F1 race, but as FIA homologation is pending, the existing track will also be ready for action next July.

"There is an awful lot going on," said Silverstone managing director Richard Phillips, adding that work on a new pit and paddock complex will commence after Christmas and be ready for 2011.

"I would love to run the Arena circuit (for F1 in 2010) because I think it will be incredible. It is keeping the best of the original circuit, but it is much safer because of the changes we are making for the bikes," he is quoted as saying by the Times.

It is feared, however, that the changes could result in higher ticket prices.

"It's not out of reach to expect that, as we get better facilities, people will pay higher prices for that," Damon Hill, president of the track-owning British Racing Drivers' Club, told the Independent.