Revival 2018 theme pits to celebrate 70 years of Silverstone

“The first themed pits came about because of those cars,” Peter Russell tells GRR. Peter is in charge of the pits and transforms them into the yearly theme. “It was a big opportunity and we thought ‘this is a bit special, we should give them a special setting’. 

“It was always viewed as a one-off – we built an enormous construction that was programmed to come down after the event. We’d invested quite a lot of money so after the Revival that year we wondered whether we could get another bite at it. Some wanted them to come down, some wanted them left. After months of discussions they were left in place and were used the following year.”

By September 2013 the themed pits took visitors to Le Mans in the 1960s with a selection of GT40s. 2014 saw the 1954 Monza pits with Maserati 250Fs, in celebration of the car’s 60th anniversary and in 2015 it was Sebring in 1965, filled with all six Daytona Coupes. “I never expected this to happen,” commented designer Peter Brock, when seeing all the cars united for the first time. “It’s indescribable, really.”

By 2016 it was Reims, filled with 3-litre Formula 1 cars, and then last year saw the 1957 Nürburgring pits in honour of Juan Manuel Fangio’s famous victory in Germany that year. Little did we know that his two sons would drop in, unannounced, on their way from Argentina to see the Pope...

“With the themed pits,” continues Peter, “you’re not doing a complete like-for-like – you’re trying to give an idea, a flavour of a certain place at a certain time. For example, Le Mans: you have the iconic buttresses, but the building was three or four stories high and we can’t do that. You’re aiming for something that, when someone looks at it, they think ‘Ah yes, that’s Monza’ or ‘that’s Reims’.”

Peter either sources or makes everything that turns a relatively plain line of pits into the theme and part of the challenge is finding images from the correct era. “We can’t get the iconic clock from Le Mans, and we can’t get the fire alarm housing from Monza so we have to recreate them. It’s extraordinary – even with the Internet, some of the pits have lots of images, and others don’t. In fact, the Nürburgring was very difficult to get detailed photos of and, just by luck, a man I was introduced to at Rétromobile in Paris was a German who had a passion for the Nürburgring. He had an incredible archive and very, very kindly sent me the pictures I wanted so that I could find the detail, and I could get the font of the lettering correct. It’s the detail that’s important.”

This year will be the first year that Peter Raumann isn’t here to see the fruits of Peter’s work. Raumann ran an agency in Germany which looked after UBS, the sponsors of the themed pits. “He designed and organised all the build in the Jackie Stewart Pavilion,” says Peter, “and he was so enthusiastic and supportive – he was a really key part of the themed pits.”

Snap up your admission tickets whilst they are still available for Sunday or Friday, and join your fellow Revival revellers for our 20^th anniversary celebrations. Due to popular demand, Saturday and weekend admission have now sold out.