29/06/2012
NEWS STORY
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What does the London Grand Prix by Santander mean to you?
Lewis Hamilton: It really captures my imagination. Racing up The Mall, along Piccadilly - how many fans would be there? How cool would the atmosphere be? Would the Queen be watching? I'd give her a wave on the way past. That'd be pretty neat...
The film has really drawn lots of thinking together, from a possible route to the practical logistics and having spent some time helping assess and develop the circuit, I have to tell you that this race would be utterly epic.
You cannot fail to miss the amount of thought and expertise that Santander has put into plan. When you make a movie you have to transport the audience into the world you're creating. It has to feel authentic. The London Grand Prix by Santander isn't just a few mark-ups on an A to Z, it's almost a living thing. There's even a transport plan for how spectators would get in and out, where we would park our race trucks, how the pits would fit in with the environment. The concept is inspiring but it also stands up to close scrutiny too.
Growing up, I always wanted to win the Monaco Grand Prix. But the feeling you get from winning at home is something special. A London Grand Prix could easily become just as iconic as Monaco. There's so much history here. It'd be a race I'd really want to win.
You've appeared in a Hollywood film [Cars 2]. How did making this relate to that?
LH: Making the London Grand Prix by Santander was a great experience. I'd recently seen Iron Man 2 on the plane and there's a sequence where Robert Downey Jr. is working with a big 3D hologram of a city. To arrive on the set for our film and be doing something similar was special, a real piece of movie magic. Shooting it was really easy. For the live action filming, we had just one set - the Roca Gallery London in Chelsea, so we didn't need a big crew. The creativity and attention to detail that has gone into it is incredible. Every bump in the road is there and we mapped it all out in our race simulator. When we say 'Ritz is a second-gear, 40mph corner,' we know that because we've done it in the most accurate simulator there is. Populous know how to design race circuits because they worked on the re-development of Silverstone, and they understand how drivers see things. This is a credible film as well as a spectacular one.
What makes London special as a venue?
LH: This year everyone is excited about London, with the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and the Olympics. It's a great time to show what we can do in our capital city - that it's a place with so much history but also one that's dynamic and always changing. Going round the circuit in the simulator, you pass buildings like Westminster Abbey and the Houses of Parliament, which have been there for hundreds of years, and the London Eye which is much newer and the circuit route ties this most dramatic backdrop - maybe the most dramatic of any city in the world - together with an incredible race track. It would definitely cement London's position as a sporting mecca if Santander's vision was realised.
Where do you see the main overtaking opportunities?
LH: You'd be going over 190mph down the Santander Straight, maybe more with the DRS activated, then at the end of it you go down four gears from seventh to third and lose some speed for the sequence between Buckingham Palace and the fountain. We're still talking 85mph here so you'd need to be brave and precise, but it can be done. After that, the Parliament Complex and Big Ben are taken in second gear, so cars could close up a bit, then you need a good drive out of Big Ben, down the Embankment and into Santander corner. That's going from around 180mph in top gear to around 40mph in second gear, a big opportunity for passing.
So London or Silverstone?
LH: I'd like to be greedy and have both. Why not? Some other countries have two races like Spain and Germany, and arguably the UK makes an enormous contribution to F1, so I reckon that would be completely justified. Silverstone is more than just my home race, it is a giant of a circuit, a real racer's track. The idea of a London race presents a completely different possibility and it would be great to reward our home fans with two races, wouldn't it?
How hard is it to assess a new circuit like this with a simulator?
Jenson Button: This one was very tricky at first because the first render of Santander's simulator model was a grey track with red buildings. From a driver's perspective, very much at ground level, street circuits can look pretty much the same, so you're always looking for landmarks that help you familiarise yourself with the location. When you learn a new track you need clear reference points - where to brake, where to turn in - and it was a very surreal experience with this track as suddenly you'd register that you were on the streets of London with no other traffic around! A landmark would flash by and it would prompt the sudden thought, 'Oh, right, that's the Houses of Parliament...' Anyway, as you will see, the amazing work of the CGI artists has now made the vision of a London Grand Prix so real that you can reach out and touch it.
What are your thoughts on the London Grand Prix by Santander?
JB: There have been times when I've been sitting in the back of a black taxi and idly thought to myself, 'This would make a pretty good corner on a racetrack.' If we ever could have a London Grand Prix, I think it would be spectacular and would be such a great addition to the city's status as one of the world's greatest sporting capitals. We did an F1 street demonstration on Regent Street a few years ago, and half a million people came out to watch - I remember the sight of thousands of people on rooftops and balconies on every storey of every building along the route. There's a mammoth following for Formula One in the UK and a race in the city would be at the heart of everything, easily reachable by public transport. It would be a fantastic race for the drivers and the fans alike.
Does the fact that this layout has been designed by Populous, the architects of the new Silverstone, make it feel more realistic?
JB: It certainly feels like the real deal to me in the simulator. It engages you instantly because it is a street circuit. All F1 drivers love street circuits like Monaco. The London Grand Prix vision would obviously be very different in character because the urban geography here is more open, the roadways wider, the space between the buildings greater. This would make the track stop-start in places, something akin to Singapore.
But having spent plenty of time racing the circuit, it really delivers from a driver perspective, it is great fun and whereas in Melbourne we are a little extracted from the city centre in Albert Park, and in Monaco, whilst we are 'downtown', there simply isn't the context of racing past globally-recognisable landmarks like Big Ben or Buckingham Palace. That's what makes this track so inspiring. I'm really impressed with the detail that's gone into planning the circuit. They've taken everything into account, even down to fitting the garages and hospitality around the trees, as if the city really was tailor-made to stage the race!
A few years ago Bernie Ecclestone proposed a medal system for Formula One. Wouldn't it be great if this was an Olympic Grand Prix, with medals as well as points for the winners?
JB: Obviously there is a huge buzz around London because of the 2012 Games and in a way, yes, it would make perfect sense if London could host an associated Formula One race with medals as the ultimate prize. I am not personally convinced by a medal system for the regular championship, but the notion of racing for a one-off gold medal in an Olympic year is pretty appealing.
So, it's the last lap of the inaugural London Grand Prix by Santander and you're side-by-side with Michael Schumacher into Trafalgar Square. Who gets through Admiralty Arch (above) first?
JB: There's a lot of history in that place and one part of you says 'Don't damage anything' while the other says 'Go on, add a bit of history of your own!' And that's one part of the circuit that has to be seen to be believed, it would certainly separate the men from the boys.
With all the discussion of a London GP, what about Silverstone?
JB: Let's be clear. London is currently the focus of the world's attention and it is an interesting time to theorise what a London GP might look like, and I think Santander have created an inspiring vision as well as a technically viable concept based on a forensically detailed approach. But plainly this is an idea, whereas Silverstone is a reality and a very good one too and it remains very much the heart of F1 in the UK and the home of the best race every season.
To watch the in-car footage of the London GP track click here.
To check out our picture gallery click here.