August 04, 2003
The long awaited get together of F1VWC admin staff, Team Owners, and Drivers took place at the Donington Park Museum on Sunday 3rd August 2003.

4 people were present:

Andy Graydon - F1VWC Admin & Phoenix F1 Team Owner;

Matt Maple - Mapes-VO Team Owner & now JTM driver;

Ted Cragg - Stealth GP Team Owner;

Chris Galloway - F1VWC Pit Reporter and Stealth GP Driver

With the following words and pictures I hope to convey the day from my perspective (I will ask for comments from the others present and will add them if and when they are received).

Left to right, Chris Galloway; Ted Cragg; Matt Maple; Andy Graydon

Andy Graydon's Day!

It all started at around 5am - having prepared the night before by printing off documents for discussion / perusal, I was up early in order to pick up Matt Maple (who lives around 150 miles from me) and then drive to Donington (another 70 miles on top) and then get to Donington by 10am!

Chris Galloway phoned around 7am to confirm all was OK. Having driven half way to Matt's by that time, I definitely hoped it would be!! It was the first time I'd spoken to Chris, and he sounded as old as I expected him to be (joke, Chris). We decided to meet up at Donington Park Services (having swapped details of each others cars in order to find each other!) and discuss where to meet for the rest of the day ( we had found out the night before that to get into the race meeting would be £12 each, a bit more than we expected!).

And so onto Matt Maple's. I turned up at 8.30am to find no answer at the door. Shock, horror, he's slept in! That's 18 year old for you!!! Managed to wake him up by ringing his mobile, and we were setting off to Donington around 15 minutes later.

In the meantime Ted was on a bus to East Midlands Airport (nearest place to Donington that he could get).

Chris Galloway then proceeded to undertake a recce of Donington Park as he drove to Donington Services, and sent a message to Andy's mobile phone confirming that the Donington Park Museum was seperate from the track, that it looked free to park and that at £7.00 for entrance it looked a good bet to go there rather than the race meeting.

We arrived at the Services and found Chris quite quickly - easy to spot his car with the T-Cam driving seat attached to the roof ! Oh, by the way, Matt confirmed that he too drives in this view, but I refused to let him sit on the roof as we drove to Donington!

We called Ted to let him know that we were going to go to the museum and watch the German Grand Prix in the afternoon, finding time during the day to discuss things F1VWC. Ted was going to walk to Donington, but as we drove "in convoy" I noticed the entrance to the airport - lucky I did, we saw Ted (wearing a dodgy Ferrari t-shirt) and took him to the museum - it would have taken him an hour to walk!!!

So, 10a.m - the museum had just opened, there was a cafe and they had a TV where they would show the Grand Prix. Perfect.

What a magnificent collection of cars! Williams' galore, even more McLaren's - and especially the Ayrton Senna stuff. Fantastic. We walked around for about 1.5 hours, a trip through motor-racing history - Graham Hill cars, James Hunt's Hesketh and McLaren, 6 wheel Tyrrell, and Jackie Stewart's Tyrrells. 1960's Lotus and BRM's. Remember the Yardley sponsored cars of the 70's - they were there too. Apparently the collection has over 130 historic Grand Prix Cars - the biggest collection in the world. Well worth a visit.

Villeneuve's Championship winning Williams

Williams' galore!

Senna - need I say more

1993 McLaren - Senna's last win was in this car

Jenson Button Williams

James Hunt's 1976 McLaren

We sauntered round the merchandise shop, then Matt (dying through lack of food) requested we have something to eat. Over lunch we discussed Grand Prix real and simulation, talked about F1VWC and the future, basically had a really good banter about anything and everything - including the collapse of the GPVWC (always a dodgy subject).

We then watched the German GP on the TV - a bit boring after Silverstone, but livened up by Schumacher's puncture.

And so, at 3pm, we parted with Chris, Andy took Ted back to Nottingham, and then Matt back home. Eventually Andy arrived home at 9pm having driven nearly 500 miles. Knackered - yes - worth it - DEFINITELY.

There was talk of arranging another such event - perhaps in a place that would enable our friends from overseas to come along? Who knows. I'm sure we'll be able to sort something out.

F1VWC and the future

More importantly we discussed the F1VWC and the direction it should take in the future. Suggestions were discussed, and a future base for the league (needing further discussion and clarification before I can confirm any details) was agreed in principle.

The basis for the league needs to be Teams who are committed - they will always find committed drivers. That way we will get 22 car grids. The link with the new base will hopefully help us to find these teams - and also the drivers. We currently have 8 teams listed in 2003, although not all have both race seats filled. We need at least 3 further teams who will need to show they are committed to competing, and the existing ones also need to fully commit if they are to keep their places. The only reason the league is where it is now is due to drivers and teams showing faith and wanting to compete - we have to keep these dedicated people in the league, and I'm sure that they will stay once they see what the future will hold.

An interesting point to note is that the GPVWC in the last two races of the 2002 season only 12/13 cars competed in the race. We are now at that level in the F1VWC. So things are not as bad as they could be!

Rules are to be re-vamped for 2004 and in place for the end of 2003 - when pre-season testing will start in earnest again. There were a few rules not in place in 2002 and 2003, but I hope to make them more challenging for Team Owners so that they need to think about the decisions they make - rather than "I'll spend money on testing and I don't need to worry about anything else". For example, sponsors reducing money if the team is not performing to expectations, etc.

Races will be held AFTER the real F1 events - this is so that qualifying and race weather can be mirrored exactly for each event. This happened in the French GP this year, and people seemed to have liked the idea. Hopefully, some of the new tracks can be modelled and in use in GP4 for 2004 season.

A larger team of admins will need to be in place - looking after file checking, finances, press - although overall Administration will be in Andy's hands. Andy is going to update everyone's finances during August, although teams should be looking after their own! (Phoenix F1's are up to date - are yours?).

An idea raised by Matt was that some "failures" would result in time penalties rather than outright failure e.g. punctures - not currently in breakdown rules - where you lose maybe 1 minute to reflect having to visit the pits; 2 minutes for repair of suspension parts (Justin Wilson had this in Germany) and gearbox issues (Fisichella in Germany).

One thing is for sure - plenty of ideas, and we will work on them and get them in place for the start of the 2004 campaign.

I hope that you can see that the F1VWC is moving forward, and that we will be better placed by November / December 2003 to come back with a bang!