British Grand Prix

Silverstone Track guide

The current Silverstone circuit is very much made for high speed throughout. With the exception of a few areas where the cars decrease their speed dramatically.

The start/finish begins at the start of the ‘Club’ straight, in which drivers go flat-out down towards turn 1 (Abbey) and turn 2 (Farm). Staying flat-out through turns 1 and 2 towards the hard braking right turn 3 (Village) before maintaining a low speed to navigate the left hairpin turn 4 (The Loop).

A brief sprint to the left-hand turn 5 (Aintree) before coming to the first DRS straight of the track known as Wellington Straight. Drivers drop down gears to enter the left turn 6 (Brooklands) and the right hairpin of turn 7 (Luffield), before going flat-out through turn 8 (Woodcote) towards turn 9 (Copse).

Turn nine is a difficult right-hand corner in which drivers attack it at a speed of 175 mph in the dry. This then follows onto another difficult section of the Maggots, Becketts and Chapel combination of corners.

These corners are done at speeds around 130 mph through a series of left/right/left/right/left where drivers have to maintain a speed quick enough to not lose time, but also have enough grip and the best line going into the Hangar Straight.

Turn 15 (Stowe) after the Hangar Straight is a right-hander taken at 125 mph and a good overtaking opportunity after the DRS used on the straight. After turn fifteen down to the last slow part of the track, slowing down a lot for the left of turn 16 before accelerating through the rights of turns 17 and 18 before going back onto the pit straight.

Race history

For the first five years Silverstone was used as the circuit for the British Grand Prix from 1950-54. Giuseppe Farina won the first race for Alpha Romeo before Ferrari dominated the next four races held there.

Between the years of 1955 and 1962 the British Grand Prix venue was shared by Silverstone and Aintree. During these years we saw the first British winner of the British Grand Prix in Stirling Moss the first year it was held at Aintree in 1955. He later went on to win it again at the same venue in 1957.

1962 was the last race at Aintree, won by Jim Clarke, the first of his five British GP victories. He then went on to win the next three as the venue returned to Silverstone and started to share with Brands Hatch every other year up until 1986.

During these years’ winners included Jackie Stewart, Emerson Fittipaldi, Niki Lauda, James Hunt, John Watson, Alain Prost and Nigel Mansell.

Since 1987 Silverstone has held the British GP with record numbers of crowd appearance turning up to support Nigel Mansell. After the events at Imola in 1994 parts of the track were altered to slow certain areas down to increase safety and lessen the risk of any crashes happening.

Michael Schumacher broke his leg in 1999 after crashing heavily at Stowe, which put him out of Championship contention after having to miss races.

Lewis Hamilton won his first British GP in his Championship winning season of 2008 and has won four more between 2014-17 to match the record of five wins with Jim Clark and Alain Prost.

In 2017 the owners of Silverstone activated a break clause in their current contract, meaning that unless a new contract is signed, 2019 will be the last year that Silverstone host the British Grand Prix.

When is the 2019 British Grand Prix?

The race weekend in Silverstone kicks off Friday July 12th, with Free Practice 1 starting at 10am local time (5am EST). FP2 starts that afternoon at 2pm (9am EST). On Saturday, FP3 starts at 11am local time (6am EST), and qualifying for the British Grand Prix takes place at 2pm on Saturday (8am EST).

The British Grand Prix will start at 2.10pm local time on Sunday July 14th (9.10am EST).