The Silverstone Circuit () is a motor racing circuit in England, near the Northamptonshire villages Silverstone and Whittlebury. It is the home of the British Grand Prix, which it first hosted as the 1948 British Grand Prix. The 1950 British Grand Prix at Silverstone was the first race in the newly created World Championship of Drivers. The race rotated between Silverstone, Aintree and Brands Hatch from 1955 to 1986, but settled permanently at the Silverstone track in 1987. The circuit also hosts the British round of the MotoGP series.
Circuit
The Silverstone Circuit is on the site of a Royal Air Force bomber station, RAF Silverstone, which was operational between 1943 and 1946. The station was the base for the No. 17 Operational Training Unit. The airfield's three runways, in classic WWII triangle format, lie within the outline of the present track.
The circuit straddles the Northamptonshire and Buckinghamshire border and is accessed from the nearby A43. The Northamptonshire towns Towcester () and Brackley () and the town Buckingham, in Buckinghamshire () are close by, and the nearest city is Milton Keynes, the home of Formula One team Red Bull Racing. Many F1 teams have bases in the UK, but Aston Martin is the closest to the track, with a new base having just been built under a kilometre from the race circuit.
Silverstone was first used for motorsport by an ad hoc group of friends who set up an impromptu race in September 1947. One of their members, Maurice Geoghegan, lived in nearby Silverstone village and was aware the airfield was deserted. He and eleven other drivers raced over a circuit, during the course of which Geoghegan himself ran over a sheep that had wandered onto the airfield. The sheep was killed and the car was written off, and in the aftermath of this event the informal race became known as the Mutton Grand Prix. The next year the Royal Automobile Club took a lease on the airfield and set out a more formal racing circuit. Their first two races were held on the runways themselves, with long straights separated by tight hairpin corners, the track demarcated by hay bales. However, for the 1949 International Trophy meeting, it was decided to switch to the perimeter track. This arrangement was used for the 1950 and 1951 Grands Prix. In 1952 the start line was moved from the Farm Straight to the straight linking the Woodcote and Copse corners, and this layout remained largely unaltered for the following 38 years. For the 1975 meeting a chicane was introduced to try to tame speeds through Woodcote (though motorbikes would still use the circuit without the chicane until 1986), and Bridge corner was subtly rerouted in 1987.
The track underwent a major redesign between the 1990 and 1991 races, transforming the ultra-fast track (where, in its last years, fourth or fifth gear, depending on the transmission of the car, was used for every corner except the Bridge chicane which was usually taken in second gear) into a more technical track. The reshaped track's first Formula One race was won by Nigel Mansell in front of his home crowd. On his victory lap back to the pits Mansell picked up stranded rival Ayrton Senna to give him a lift on his side-pod after his McLaren had run out of fuel on the final lap of the race.
Following the deaths of Senna and fellow Grand Prix driver Roland Ratzenberger at Imola in 1994, many Grand Prix circuits were modified in order to reduce speed and increase driver safety. As a consequence of this the entry from Hangar Straight into Stowe was modified in 1995 to improve the run off area. In addition, the flat-out Abbey kink was modified to a chicane in just 19 days ready for the 1994 Grand Prix. Parts of the circuit, such as the starting grid, are wide, complying with the latest safety guidelines.
A lap in a Formula One car The Hamilton Straight leads into Abbey (Turn 1). In a modern F1 car, this is a flat-out, eighth-gear right-hander. This leads immediately into Farm (Turn 2), another flat-out left-hander. The first heavy braking point arrives at Village (Turn 3), a slow right-hander taken in fourth-gear. Drivers must sacrifice the exit of Turn 3 to get a perfect line for The Loop (Turn 4), the slowest corner on the circuit, approached at . Getting the power down early here is vital for the blast through Aintree (Turn 5) and down the Wellington Straight, the first of two DRS zones.
At the end of the Wellington Straight, drivers brake hard for Brooklands (Turn 6), a sharp left-hander that rewards a late apex. It flows immediately into Luffield (Turn 7), a long, 180-degree right-hander that requires immense patience on the throttle. Exiting Luffield, drivers flick through Woodcote (Turn 8) and accelerate down the Old Pit Straight towards Copse (Turn 9). This is a fast right-hander, taken in seventh or eighth gear at with only a slight lift sometimes. Then comes the high-speed esses of Maggotts and Becketts (Turn 10–13). This is a rapid-fire left-right-left-right sequence where the car experiences lateral g-forces exceeding 5g, with the goal to carry maximum momentum through the final part, Chapel (Turn 14), which opens up onto the Hangar Straight.
The Hangar Straight provides the best overtaking opportunity under DRS with speeds reaching before reaching Stowe (Turn 15). This is a fast, sixth-gear right-hander with a blind entry and a downhill exit. A short burst of speed leads to Vale (Turn 16), the hardest stop on the track. Drivers drop down to second gear for this tight left-hand kink, then immediately navigate Club (Turn 17–18), the final complex. This is a long, accelerating right-hander that requires the driver to "unwind" the steering wheel carefully to maximize traction as they cross the finish line to complete the lap.
History
1940s
With the termination of hostilities in Europe in 1945, the first motorsport event in the British Isles was held at Gransden Lodge in 1946 and the next on the Isle of Man, but there was nowhere permanent on the mainland which was suitable.Peter Swinger, Motor Racing Circuits in England : Then & Now (Ian Allan Publishing, , 2008)
In 1948, Royal Automobile Club (RAC), under the chairmanship of Wilfred Andrews, set its mind upon running a Grand Prix and started to cast around public roads on the mainland. There was no possibility of closing the public highway as could happen on the Isle of Man, or the Channel Islands; it was a time of austerity and there was no question of building a new circuit from scratch, so some viable alternative had to be found.
A considerable number of ex-RAF airfields existed, and it was to these the RAC turned their attention to with particular interest being paid to two near the centre of England – Snitterfield near Stratford-upon-Avon and one behind the village of Silverstone. The latter was still under the control of the Air Ministry, but a lease was arranged in August 1948 and plans put into place to run the first British Grand Prix since the RAC last ran one at Brooklands in 1927 (those held at Donington Park in the late 1930s had the title of 'Donington Grand Prix').
In August 1948, Andrews employed James Brown on a three-month contract to create the Grand Prix circuit in less than two months. Nearly 40 years later, Brown died while still employed by the circuit.
Despite possible concerns about the weather, the 1948 British Grand Prix began at Silverstone on Thursday 30 September 1948. The race took place on 2 October. The new circuit was marked out with oil drums and straw bales and consisted of the perimeter road and the runways running into the centre of the airfield from two directions. Spectators were contained behind rope barriers and the officials were housed in tents. An estimated 100,000 spectators watched the race.
There were no factory entries but Scuderia Ambrosiana sent two Maserati 4CLT/48s for Luigi Villoresi and Alberto Ascari who finished in that order (notwithstanding having started from the back of the grid of 25 cars) ahead of Bob Gerard in his ERA R14B/C. The race was long and was run at an average speed of . Fourth place went to Louis Rosier's Talbot-Lago T26, followed home by Prince Bira in another Maserati 4CLT/48.
The second Grand Prix at Silverstone was scheduled for May 1949 and was officially designated the British Grand Prix. It was to use the full perimeter track with a chicane inserted at Club. The length of the second circuit was exactly three miles and the race run over 100 laps, making it the longest post-war Grand Prix held in England. There were again 25 starters and victory went to a 'San Remo' Maserati 4CLT/48, this time in the hands of Toulo de Graffenried, from Bob Gerard in his familiar ERA and Louis Rosier in a 4½-litre Talbot-Lago. The race average speed had risen to . The attendance was estimated at anything up to 120,000.
Also in 1949, the first running took place of what was to become an institution at Silverstone, the International Trophy sponsored by the Daily Express and which become virtually a second Grand Prix. The first International Trophy was run on 20 August in two heats and a final. Victory in heat one went to Bira and the second to Giuseppe Farina – both driving Maserati 4CLT/48s, but the final went to a Ferrari Tipo 125 driven by Ascari from Farina, with Villoresi third in another Ferrari. For this meeting, the chicane at Club was dispensed with and the circuit took up a shape that was to last for 25 years.
1950s The 1950 British Grand Prix was a significant occasion for three reasons: it was the first World Championship Grand Prix, carrying the title of the European Grand Prix; it was the first race in the newly created World Championship of Drivers;Mike Lang, Grand Prix! Volume 1, 1950 to 1965, p. 14World Championship of Drivers, 1974 FIA Yearbook, Grey section, pp. 118–119 and the event was held in the presence of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth – the first and only time a reigning monarch has attended a motor race in Britain.
The year was the institution of the World Championship for Driver, and Silverstone witnessed the first time that Alfa Romeo 158 'Alfettas' had been seen in England, and they took the first three places in the hands of Giuseppe Farina, Luigi Fagioli and Reg Parnell, with the race average having increased to ; however the race distance had been reduced to .
1951 was memorable for it saw the defeat of the Alfas, with victory going to José Froilán González driving the Ferrari 375. His fellow countryman Juan Manuel Fangio was second in an Alfa Romeo 159B, and Luigi Villoresi in another Ferrari 375 was third. The race distance had increased to , and the race average speed was now .
1951 also saw the British Racing Drivers' Club (BRDC) take over the lease from the RAC, and set about making the circuit into something more permanent.
The International Trophy attracted the cream of Formula One, including the seemingly invincible Alfas, driven by Fangio and Farina. However, the weather worsened for the final and visibility was almost nil, and in those conditions the Alfettas with their supercharged engines were at a distinct disadvantage. When the race was abandoned after only six laps, Parnell was in the lead in the "Thinwall Special"; no official winner was declared.