Hamilton and Button have had differing fortunes at their home GP. While Hamilton has racked up five wins – the joint most in history with Alain Prost and Jim Clark – Button never managed even to step on the podium, having finished fourth three times – in 2004 with Honda and 2010 and ’14 with McLaren.
“You can often find that a driver’s bogey track is their home grand prix, and I can understand that, but it’s never been like that with Lewis,” says Shovlin. “He’s incredibly good at getting the balance between a car that can look after the tyres when it has to and get him around the lap with plenty of speed and grip. Silverstone just suits the way he drives, especially in the race as he can switch from tyre preservation to pushing on the limit so well.