British Racing Drivers Club president Damon Hill has hit out at the decision to stage the 2010 British GP on the new Arena circuit layout at Silverstone, saying that the new design was not the "perfect, fantasy track" he had in mind for the venue.
The move to the new layout was announced yesterday by Silverstone managing director Richard Phillips. The new track is being built at the moment, and was initially designed as a new "bike-friendly" layout for the impending move of Britain's round of the MotoGP series to the track from this year.
But Phillips announced that the British F1 Grand Prix, which returned to Silverstone with a new 17-year contract over the winter after the circuit initially lost the contract to host the race to Donington Park, would also use the new layout, which features new spectator areas that Phillips said would bring fans "closer to the action".
The decision, though, has not been met with a great deal of approval from a frustrated Hill, who admitted that the new track was a compromise, and was some way off his vision for the circuit.
"If you are asking me to say it's fantastic, I'm afraid I am not going to do that," Hill told the UK rag The Daily Mail when asked for his thoughts on the Arena circuit, "I am not satisfied that we will be providing the best facility we could.
"More money goes out of the sport than comes in. It means we have to be as tight as a duck's backside. We need every penny to survive. You end up having to do things you don't want to. It is very frustrating."
The biggest loss with the new track will be Bridge corner, with the cars now turning right through a chicane at Abbey rather than left and running through the new track before rejoining the old circuit at a redesigned Brooklands corner.
And Hill sees the loss of Bridge as a major issue with the new layout, which introduces a pair of straights and a hairpin into the circuit layout instead.
'It is fast, exciting corners that drivers love. It is what fans love," Hill guessed, "So, it's illogical not to concentrate on developing the sporting challenge.
"I have the idea of my perfect, fantasy track and that's not what we are building."
The new track is set to be completed in time for a GT race at the venue in early May, with the British Grand Prix taking place on July 11th.
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