Silverstone Marshal Posts

[Shelagh]

It is something that has gone on for years, so maybe now is the time to address it......

Silverstone seems to think that it has some special "get out clause" for actually making life better for its marshals. Well, Silverstone, listen up ......

1) All posts (flag or otherwise) should be easily accessible (try getting to the Club In flag point). If I wanted to hike, I'd take up a different hobby.

2) There should be a toilet facility available for every post (Vale Flag had to cross the track (or fill the pond) last weekend) - You won't like to hear it but Dr JP has sorted this out at his circuits and they are much appreciated - still think you, Silverstone, are the best?

3) Donington may have done it first, but is it really something you have to still gripe about? PUT THE SAFETY CAR BOARD ON THE FLAG POST WITH THE HAZARD BOARD. Free up some of your flag marshals' many arms. This, to me, just strikes of "us and them" child-type attitude - Pathetic!

[chezza]

Shelagh...have you actually made these points to any of the marshals team "staff" so that they can take this forward to the circuit management, whilst the points you have are valid I don't think saying them on here is necessarily going to get them sorted out.

[Paul Newns]

Well said, Shelagh. Mind you, it's not just Silverstone that needs to improve.

Is it too much to ask for somewhere to keep kit dry, SC board attached to the post, and a toilet within easy distance (try flagging on your own at a meeting with a tight timetable)?

[Woolley]

The Silverstone flag points are pretty atrocious, but then that's pretty standard across most circuits. Donington's were probably the best, if only you could reach the phone. I wonder we've never come up with a standard design to be adopted by all circuits. Would be much cheaper to build them in bulk as well.

[Shelagh]

Originally Posted by chezza

Shelagh...have you actually made these points to any of the marshals team "staff" so that they can take this forward to the circuit management, whilst the points you have are valid I don't think saying them on here is necessarily going to get them sorted out.

When I mentioned about the SC boards while in Race Control a year or so back, you'd have thought I'd grown horns. It seemed that because Donington did it then there was no way that Silverstone would do likewise. How pathetic.

I just get the impression that "Silverstone" folks ain't interested in improvements because they seem to think that "they do best". Happy to be proved wrong....

[pauln]

There's definitely an issue round the Vale/Club area, but a lot of that is down to the construction work that's going on for the new pits/paddock area. Once that's done - and they're progressing very fast - it should improve greatly (not least on the loos front).

[Dean Watson]

I raised the issues in the Club area with Penny following the FIA GT meeting in May and noticed some of my points had been addressed in time for the GP. I am not a regular to Silverstone in the sense that I only manage about 3/4 meetings per year. Penny is doing a great deal for the marshals at Silverstone and can only get things sorted if she knows about them. At the GP all post chiefs were asked to fill in a post status report, in which we had to make notes of all things right or wrong with each post. For the GP Vale had a portaloo towards the new pitlane it was also there for the GT's. The Club in flag point is accessable from the side of the Vale Grandstand by slipping by the fence much easier than going in from the main club post.

[HairyDJ]

Hopefully, the pressure to get the tarmac strip sorted to a tight deadline is now eased and some effort will go into the periphery now and "off season".

Perhaps in the interim the points you've raised will be borne in mind by those allocating folk to posts out in the boondocks - either double man the flaggies, or have a roving relief?

From odd snippets that I pick up, some of the problems with the site / layout changes have been bothering the senior marshal folk too. I understand that timescales were so tight that undoing some daft bits simply couldn't be sorted in the short term.

Perhaps the SC board being mounted isn't being firmly requested through the right channels? It is a bit generalised to say that Silverstone specialise in ES / Incident, whilst the visiting club tends to focus on PC & Flags, but maybe some of the regular visiting clubs could request that sort of improvement a little more forcefully? In the meantime, go for clamping the SC over the hazard at the start of the day - I've seen it done with elastic luggage straps, but prefer some clamps that I picked up from the market. It's quick to deploy, and easy to undo if you need the hazard instead.

Fingers crossed that Paul's insight means that the new posts will be kitted out with coat cooks, boot warmers, kettles, microwaves etc - but just take a look at how rapidly the storage boxes have become damaged in a year or so? At times we are our own worst enemy in the way some equipment is abused or not cared for .....

I've found quite a few improvements in the care of marshals at Silverstone in the past year or so, so hopefully things will continue to progress - but I'm sure we could come up with a pretty intimidating list if we tried hard!

As one who spends most of my time on Incident, I'd love to see more places easy to get to or move along easily. Whether we can prise the fence away from the armco is debatable, but it shouldn't be to hard to get non-mud pathways to run along on the bank - loads of rubble and scrapings to spare somewhere on site!

[pauln]

We can but hope (probably forlornly on some of those)

[graham-ne]

having had one of my poorest experiances as a marshal to date was at the last GP

not one that i wanna experiance again

its the first time i have been on a post at any race circuit which has not rotated . there was myself and a first time marshal at the gp who manned a section of our post for two whole days with out rotating been the friday and saturday .
1 is this now normal practice at silverstone?

2 the new marshall should have been buzzing with the excitement of his first gp and was not

[pauln]

That is most definitely not normal practice at Silverstone! I've been asked to not rotate only once in the 40-odd days I've done there over the past 16 months.

[Dean Watson]

Originally Posted by graham-ne

having had one of my poorest experiances as a marshal to date was at the last GP

not one that i wanna experiance again

its the first time i have been on a post at any race circuit which has not rotated . there was myself and a first time marshal at the gp who manned a section of our post for two whole days with out rotating been the friday and saturday .
1 is this now normal practice at silverstone?

2 the new marshall should have been buzzing with the excitement of his first gp and was not

The post rotation is down to the individual IO on post, who has to ensure
1 the experience and skills are spread effectively
2 the guys and gals are happy

I know the marshals on Vale all rotated through the 3 or 4 positions under the direction of the IO. Again if you feel there was a problem have you contacted Penny - if she doesnt know how can she be expected to make changes and try to sort problems.

Penny is making huge efforts in addressing long standing issues with bith the circuit and past attitudes, and in a little over year she has done a lot, but these things take time.

[Stuart Hill]

Originally Posted by graham-ne

having had one of my poorest experiances as a marshal to date was at the last GP

mmmm..... wonder why i didn't volunteer again?????? some things never change, doesn't even need to be the GP.

[HairyDJ]

Graham - surprised to find that happening, shame it spoilt the enjoyment for you both. Was the post one where rotation might have been awkward, or was it just down to the style of the PC / IO running it? Maybe others were not to their liking and you were needed to stay in the most critical of sub-posts, should still have been discussed with you though!

Hopefully, the comments already made will reassure you & the other marshal that it's a one-off. Make sure that you email Penny & let her know - she does an incredible job of remembering combinations that don't gel and trying to avoid clashes!

[Woolley]

I think the only time I've ever not rotated on post was at a GP. Curious. But not normal Silverstone practice, or anywhere else, in fact.

[gachjoel]

Graham,
did you discuss this with your I/O about rotation.
if so, and you still weren't happy then chat to your P.C.
i don't get up to Silverstone that often, but have never had an issue at the circuit, but there again i am pretty open and to the point, but polite.
i usually make the suggestion of rotation to the team if i am incident.
when i I/O at other circuits i feel teamwork is a must and let the team decide how they want to rota.
But regardless of the circuit, if i have an issue,i contact them,let them know about it, plus offer a suggestion of ways of improving.
An old boss of mine quoted to me many years ago that i stand by....
"Don't come to me with a problem, Come to me with a solution"

[Steven Humphrey]

Originally Posted by graham-ne

its the first time i have been on a post at any race circuit which has not rotated . there was myself and a first time marshal at the gp who manned a section of our post for two whole days with out rotating been the friday and saturday .

I don't know what post you were at but this happened at my GP post (Wellington Straight/Aintree). Our I/O said he would leave us in the same place for day 1, then the next day asked if we were all ok staying where we were again. His logic behind this was that we all knew the post well & knew what to look out for, which was fine by me and no one else on the post disagreed with this. Then later on that day (Saturday) the I/O asked if we would mind swapping places with another crew on Sunday as he had heard from the P/C that someone wasn't happy where they were. Again, I had no problem with this, along with my colleague-I was at the GP & that's all that mattered!!

The point I'm trying to make (probably rather badly) is that the I/O gave everyone plenty of chances to say if they wanted to move places but no one did. Then 2 days into the meeting, he heard from the P/C that someone wasn't happy! No one minded moving around so I really couldn't see why the unhappy marshal couldn't have made his point clear in the morning briefing instead of griping about it to the P/C later in the day. I've said in other posts & I'll say it again-I've never had any issues with I/Os at Silverstone, they have always been open to any suggestions regarding manning positions, rotations, standing down for comfort breaks etc. Yes, there are some issues with posts at the moment but these are slowly being addressed. There's such a busy calendar at Silverstone this year that changes can't be made overnight.

[m1fcf]

Originally Posted by arnage arnie

...so I really couldn't see why the unhappy marshal couldn't have made his point clear in the morning briefing instead of griping about it to the P/C later in the day...

Not everyone who wears orange is as comfortable about speaking up about issues they think only affect them - myself included at times. I think this is where the skill of the PC/Observer/IO/Fellow Marshals comes in by picking up on the non-verbal communication when someone is not so happy.

[Steven Humphrey]

Originally Posted by m1fcf

Not everyone who wears orange is as comfortable about speaking up about issues they think only affect them

This wasn't an 'us vs them' issue, as a lot of people seem to create at Silverstone - the I/O wasn't in Silverstone blacks.

[Shelagh]

I'm sorry, but as far as I am concerned, Silverstone seems to think it runs to different rules to any other circuit in the country. And that is me as a flaggie rather than incident...........

Come on Silverstone - consider all marshals and do something to make life a bit easier for them whatever their job. As said before, JP has to be your guide.

[m1fcf]

Originally Posted by arnage arnie

This wasn't an 'us vs them' issue, as a lot of people seem to create at Silverstone - the I/O wasn't in Silverstone blacks.

I wasn't trying to suggest it was. But I was trying to say that for some people it can take a lot to start talking to and with people they may not know too well. Even more so if it is to speak up and say they do not agree with something b

[Norbert]

I am aware of a couple of I/Os at Silverstone who do not rotate their incident crew.

If you are not happy with this mention it at briefing. If the I/O still will not rotate you then let Penny know that you do not want be placed with that I/O again but state your reason for the request in a polite and professional way.

[cowchap]

Whenever I marshal at one of 'JP's circuits I have to park my car outside,from there carry all my gear for the day to sign on,then out to my post which could be anywhere. At Silverstone ,apart from very occasional meetings I can usually park very close to my post.

[Steven Humphrey]

I can't comment on other MSV circuits but the toilet situation at Snetterton isn't perfect. Revett Straight, Riches In & Russell In don't have portaloos or toilet blocks that close. Some posts at Rockingham, especially on the outside of the oval, are also a bit remote. So why all the emphasis on Silverstone?

[Shelagh]

Blame two VERY long back-to-back weekends at Silverstone for singling it out as not very marshal friendly. Now that the feet and knees have almost recovered, I'm in a better frame of mind. But still not impressed by Silverstone's lack of thought regarding the black/orange crew.

Saying this, just remember that Silverstone is still my "spiritual home" and, even if I can't remember where Brooklands is during the small hours, I probably know it inside out more than a lot of you (or at least until they changed it!)

Can't comment on Snetterton as it is more years than I care to remember since I last visited! But Oulton Park has definitely improved over the last umpty years since JP took over. Remember the Foulston woman????