Those petrol heads lucky enough to be heading to Silverstone this weekend may struggle to recognise the place. After last year's upgrade to the famous track, this year the teams can luxuriate in a brand new pit and paddock complex. It's not before time, to be honest. You may recall a couple of years ago I was lucky enough to sneak my way into the pits and was more than a little surprised to see a glamorous, multi-billion-dollar industry making do in such cramped circumstances.
The old pits were pretty cramped for the F1 teams, but it was even worse for the support races. The GP2 teams had to make do with a tented enclosure a couple of hundred metres away and then wheel the cars, spare tyres and the rest of the equipment to the pit lane. The F1 cars sat in the garages, cordoned off from the GP2 teams who had to make do the best they could outside in the elements. Crowded it was; ideal it wasn't.
The paddock hid the signs of ageing a bit better, after all the motorhomes lined up at any race circuit on the calendar are the biggest and best money can buy. But the permanent structures were creaking. I can't imagine Bernie Ecclestone, the man who has driven the sport's transformation into the exclusive, top end event it now is, would have been happy to see broken, dripping drainpipes. It just didn't fit into the Bernie brand.
The new pit complex is much more 'on message' for Ecclestone. More than GBP27 million (HK$337.6 million) has been pumped into the 'Silverstone Wing' as some have dubbed it (although veteran commentator Murray Walker thought it looked like a 'corrugated Concorde', perhaps a description that was 'off message').
It's been made possible because at last Silverstone has the security of a 17-year deal. That enables the British Racing Drivers Club, owners of the circuit, to invest knowing they will get a return in the long term. Of course, it suits Bernie Ecclestone, who always gets what he wants in the end.
After years of arguments with the BDRC, threatening to remove the grand prix unless facilities were improved, he's got a better track and more importantly a better deal. He pockets a reported GBP2 million a year, increasing every year on an 'escalation fee'.