BritishGrand Prix

What You Need To Know

Silverstone is something of a home race for the team.

The Brackley factory is a mere nine miles away and the home of Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains at Brixworth is just over 20 miles from the track.

There is an inextricable link between Great Britain and Formula 1 racing. Not only is the British Grand Prix the oldest race on the calendar, but seven of the championship’s 10 teams are based in the UK.

A former Aerodrome, Silverstone will forever have the honour of being the first track to hold an official Formula 1 World Championship race in 1950, and while the British Grand Prix switched between Aintree, Brands Hatch and Silverstone, it has found its permanent home at the latter since 1987.

In 2010 a new infield loop debuted, and this was followed one year later by the new ‘Wing’ pit complex. 

Fact File: British Grand Prix

• Silverstone's legendary layout is tough on tyres, especially the left-front which has huge loads imposed on it through Turns 1, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 and 15.

• Given its high-speed nature with fast, flowing corners, brakes are not put under a great strain at Silverstone. Teams therefore can focus on other areas such as fine-tuning aerodynamic set-up rather than on brake cooling.

• As an open, exposed, former airfield, the circuit is notoriously windy and changes in wind direction happen frequently. That can have a major impact on vehicle balance and change the car's behaviour. This forces drivers to adjust accordingly in terms of braking points, entry speeds as they approach the apex of turns, and acceleration as they exit.

• From the start, drivers will complete two corners before hitting the brakes for the first time at Village (Turn 3). The distance from pole position to this point is 644 metres but, on full fuel tanks at the beginning of the Grand Prix, they do have to lift off the throttle after 225 metres.

• The only race where we see a longer distance from pole position to first braking zone is at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico. The vast start/finish straight there sees drivers hit the brakes for the first time 811 metres from pole position.

• Silverstone also has the second longest pit lane length of the season at 509 metres - the pit lane entry begins after Turn 15, with the pit exit feeding in at Turn 2.

• This means that whilst time in the pit lane clocks in at 23 seconds, the third highest of the season, time loss is limited with drivers not having to negotiate Turns 16, 17, 18, and 1.

• The long straights and flat-out sections around the circuit mean that 78% of the lap is taken at full throttle, the fifth highest total of the season.

• Silverstone boasts some of the most iconic corner names in the whole of motorsport. It is one of only three tracks on the calendar where engineers discuss corners through their names and not numbers; the other two being Spa-Francorchamps and Monaco.

• Drivers experience some of the highest lateral g-forces of the season at the British Grand Prix, with an expected maximum of 5g at Turn 11 through the Maggotts-Becketts sequence.

• Silverstone is something of a home race for the team. The Brackley factory is a mere nine miles away and the home of Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains at Brixworth is just over 20 miles from the track.