New Silverstone pits 'just the start'

The track's managing director Richard Phillips said that with last year's circuit revamp and the new-for-2011 pits between Club and Abbey having made a major difference to the circuit for drivers and teams, attention would now turn to significant new features for spectators.

"Well Silverstone wants to be the number one destination in the world, that's our ambition, and that's a blend of a number of different things really," he told AUTOSPORT.

"We have some buildings in place now, we have invested in the track which is a good circuit. It's a flowing speedy track. We are ticking some of the boxes. But working forward we have got to improve more of the spectator facilities and have better viewing.

"But you have also got to improve the overall experience, so for example, what do you do between the races? Create three days of full-on entertainment and so on.

"It's very much down to working with the heritage and visitor centres and those sort of things. We are starting Silverstone radio this month which will be web-streamed all over the world and will cover the events here and talk about motorsport in general. So we are building up the whole thing really."

He said it was essential that Silverstone appealed to more casual motorsport fans.

"You have got to have things for people to do and you have also got to appeal to a wider demographic than perhaps we have in the past, so if some of the family is interested in motorsport, then providing the rest a passport to be able to go and do something that they enjoy instead," said Phillips.

"It's on a big scale as well so you are not going to achieve it overnight but that is the aspiration moving forwards."