Silverstone Circuit

Silverstone Circuit lies on the edge of Northamptonshire and Buckinghamshire, built on the runways of a former RAF bomber station that closed in 1946. The airfield’s three wartime runways still shape the track, which today hosts the British Grand Prix and the British round of the MotoGP series. The circuit sits close to the A43, with the towns of Towcester, Brackley and Buckingham all within ten miles. Milton Keynes, home to Red Bull Racing, is the nearest city, while Aston Martin’s new base is less than a kilometre away. The track straddles the county border and is reached easily from the surrounding towns. The circuit’s history begins in September 1947, when a group of friends raced on the deserted airfield and one driver hit a sheep in the first lap. The Royal Automobile Club leased the site the following year and turned it into a proper racing track. The first British Grand Prix in 1948 marked the start of the World Championship in 1950, and the race stayed at Silverstone permanently from 1987. Over the decades the track has been reshaped, with major changes in the early 1990s and after safety reviews in 1994. Nigel Mansell won the first race on the new layout in 1991, famously giving Ayrton Senna a lift back to the pits after his car ran out of fuel. A lap of Silverstone in a Formula One car begins with the Hamilton Straight leading into Abbey, a flat-out eighth-gear right-hander. The sequence continues through Farm, Village and The Loop, the slowest corner at 56 mph, before the Wellington Straight and the first DRS zone. Brooklands and Luffield follow, then the high-speed Woodcote and Copse turns where cars reach 180 mph. The Maggotts and Becketts sequence delivers lateral forces over 5g, before Chapel opens onto the Hangar Straight. Speeds peak at 202 mph before Stowe, Vale and the tight Club complex, where drivers finish the lap just metres from the start line.