British GP: What Makes Silverstone Special?

What Makes Silverstone Special?

Formula One has been coming to Silverstone since day one on May 13 1950. So what makes this circuit in Northamptonshire so special?

The RB16 Launches At Silverstone

Ask any F1 driver what it is about piloting a race car around a circuit that provides the most excitement and satisfaction, and you can bet your bottom dollar that never, ever has one responded: “You know what, I love a technically challenging stadium section of low-speed second and third-gear corners.”

Indeed, while those fiddly bits punctuate a lap with tests of often fairly dull precision, they just don’t stir the blood like the sections almost all drivers select as the most entertaining – high-speed corners.

And nowhere on the calendar does high-speed corners like Silverstone. Just close your eyes and think about it for a moment: You power across the start-finish line and just as you hit eighth gear you flick the wheel right and scream through the ‘new’ turn one of Abbey at just shy of 300 km/h. Soon after comes Brooklands, taken at around 290 k/m in seventh, and then the awesome heart-in-the-mouth moment of Copse, where you snap right at 320 km/h, before snaking through the sinuous Maggotts/Becketts/Chapel complex, if that is, you’re riding a snake capable of enduring a G-Force delta of 12.3G as it swings left and right at 290 km/h. Add the 250km/h right-hander of Stowe into the equation and it’s no wonders drivers venerate Silverstone.

“I consider it to be one of the top three F1 tracks,” said Alex ahead of last year’s race. “It’s quick, it’s flowing and it’s everything a driver really likes. Every driver loves Silverstone because it’s the sort of track where these fantastic cars really come to life, making use of all that downforce through the high-speed stuff.”

Alex Drives The RB16 At Silverstone

It’s no surprise that Silverstone ticks the high-speed box, given its origins. The circuit began life as an airfield in WWII, launching bombers from its three intersecting runways. In the post war period, the base’s flat terrain, runways, perimeter roads and wide-open spaces made it the ideal choice for motor racing and in 1948 the RAC Grand Prix marked the first major event at the new circuit.

It was in 1950, though, that the Silverstone name was properly stamped into the history of grand prix racing – when it hosted the first Formula 1 World Championship race.

In the 70 years since the circuit’s popularity as the venue for F1’s British round ebbed and flowed, and after hosting the first five events it then shared the honour with Aintree in the 1950s and early 1960s and with Brands Hatch from 1964 to 1986. However, since 1987 it has been the undisputed home of the British Grand Prix and only the circuits of Monaco and Monza have hosted more F1 races than Silverstone.

Across those 70 years Silverstone has provided the stage for some remarkable F1 moments, from Ferrari’s first win with José Froilán González in 1951, to Jim Clark’s epic, battling drive to the last of his five British GP wins in 1967 and on to classics such as the Mansellmania-defined wins of ‘Our Nige’ in the late 1980s and early ‘90s, Damon Hill’s home win in 1994 and Johnny Herbert’s surprise home win in 1995 as well as many others.

Union Jack Flag At Silverstone

It’s a hugely rich story that we’ve also played a distinctive part in shaping. We’ve also enjoyed some pretty special moments at the track. Sebastian Vettel scored our first Silverstone win back in 2009 with a dominant drive from pole to take just our second F1 win.

Mark Webber then joined the party the following year, and in dramatic style as he and Sebastian went toe-to-toe in turn one with the Aussie muscling his way ahead to claim the win. Mark then added a third British win in 2012. Add to those seven other pole positions, including Mark’s final emotional Silverstone in 2013 and brilliant drive to second by Max in 2016 in which he blasted past Nico Rosberg in the wet, and three pole positions, and it’s no wonder we’ve got a soft spot for Silverstone.

But speed, history and success aren’t the only reasons. Silverstone is also one of the season’s most inspiring weekends because of the atmosphere and the fans.

Sebastian Vettel Wins With Mark Webber Second At Silverstone 2009

As the circuit closest to our Milton Keynes base, Silverstone is home turf for us, and one of two home races along with the Austrian Grand Prix.

It means that when we head up the road to Silverstone we usually do it en masse. In normal circumstances it’s one of the few opportunities during the year for a lot of our factory-based personnel to get to a race and as such there’s a real festival vibe about the British Grand Prix for the Team.

There are few races around the world that managed to pack 130,000 fans into the circuit on race day but for Silverstone its routine. And with them they bring immense knowledge, intense passion and best of all a uniquely British support of motor racing that encompasses team as well as driver, and which while it is undeniably partisan also celebrates real skill and bravery, no matter where it comes from.

The corners at Silverstone are insanely fast and Copse is flat out! Maggots is also flat out in seventh gear which is already crazy, especially in qualifying as you don’t even tap the brake anymore, you just downshift.

This year we won’t have that incredible atmosphere and the two races at Silverstone will be all the poorer for it. But even though the grandstands will be silent the old airfield that first echoed to the sound of grand prix cars more than 70 years ago will still reverberate to the sound of 20 heroes defying belief by pushing racing machinery to the very edge of high-speed possibility. And ultimately it’s that awe-inspiring sight that makes Silverstone special, no matter what.