WHERE TO WATCH
This year’s race takes place on July 12-14 and Silverstone has changed beyond measure since it hosted its first event more than 70 years ago. In 1948, the Royal Automobile Club International GP took place on what was effectively a figure-of-eight layout, with cars thundering towards each other from opposite ends of the same runway, drivers protected from 300mph closing speeds by a few oil drums and the odd straw bale. That was a bit of a stretch even by the primitive safety standards of the day and the track soon evolved to adopt a clockwise route around the converted airfield’s perimeter.
By reputation, the original, sweeping Woodcote Corner was one of the sport’s finest, but that would be lost to grand prix racing following the pile-up in 1973 – and the layout has altered since.
In ’73, Ronnie Peterson qualified his Cosworth-powered Lotus 72D on pole at an average speed of 138.102mph; last year, Lewis Hamilton capitalised on his Mercedes W09’s hybrid sophistication to conjure a 153.422mph Saturday best – a figure comfortably eclipsed in 1985 by Keke Rosberg, whose Williams FW10-Honda had more power than the team’s dynamometer could measure. He averaged 160.924mph, despite Woodcote long having been diluted by a chicane; irrespective of format, Silverstone has always been a showcase for the spectacular.
MOTOR SPORT’S TIP
Wherever you watch, make a point of visiting two of the venue’s longest-standing vantage points – Copse and the Maggotts/Becketts complex, especially when the cars are in qualifying trim. In aerial view, Copse looks like a fairly tight right-hander… yet F1 cars take it at about 185mph. In eighth gear. Similar momentum is maintained at Maggotts/Becketts, where it’s not so much the speed that captures the imagination as the rapidity of the accompanying directional changes.