Silverstone : Saturday 6th July 2024

Again we were up early to get to the gates for when they opened so we could get a good spot at Vale for Qualifying. And we did, we sat higher up near the gate on hard ground and could set up camp as we knew we wouldn’t be moving for some time. We thought we were prepared, but we were wrong. British summer time decided to really kick in and it rained and rained and rained. We had rain ponchos but these just weren’t adequate.

Top tip: get a golf umbrella that can cover yourselves and your chairs, we ended up nipping to the Silverstone shop for one.

The weather meant the feeder series were having trouble getting some good racing in but they were entertaining which helped us to forget the fact that we were cold and soaked. But that’s the thing, if you’re at a Grand Prix you can’t let the weather spoil it for you. You’re getting to witness the wonderful chemistry between driver and machine and you need to just absorb every second. Thankfully, the weather cleared up a bit for qualifying as FP3 was basically a wash out and again, our eyes became accustomed to the speeds so that we knew where the drivers were going to place even before they’d crossed the start/finish line and the timing screens at Vale only confirmed it.

The sound of the cars was just amazing and coupled with the tension and excitement of qualifying, I can honestly say that watching F1 live is very overstimulating!!!! In a good way, but be prepared for how exhausted you will feel from the sheer adrenaline.

We thought we’d finished for the day so headed back to camp to prepare for an extremely early start on race day. Trouble is, that adrenaline hadn’t subsided and there were still driver interviews scheduled so we went back to the main stage. You know, the trouble with being so obsessed with motorsport is that you forget other sports exists. In his case, the Euros and England were playing. And we were at the British Grand Prix. Actually, you can’t fault Silverstone for putting the match on every big screen around the entire circuit, they knew how to keep the people happy. It did mean that the main stage area was rather full and rowdy, but still really friendly and we figured the match would be over soon so we dived in.

Reader, the match was not over soon. Extra time meant they cut the audio for the match to conduct the interviews, poor George Russell came out to boos!!!!! However, George is a man of the people, read the room and was so distracted by the match that he got them to put the audio back on then sat down on stage to watch with us all!!! What a lad!!! Extra time became penalties, which then clashed with Lewis’ interview. Again came the boos but Lewis didn’t even bother trying to answer questions, he just sat with George and watched. I’ve never been a football fan but its not every day you can say that you watched England win a penalty shoot out with George and Lewis!!!!! And yes, I’ve totally bragged about this multiple times since!