Circuit of Silverstone

The circuit of Silverstone is a circuit speed located at Silverstone, England. A half of the circuit is in the Northamptonshire, other half in the Buckinghamshire. It is between the towns of Milton Keynes, Northampton and Oxford. The circuit of Silverstone is especially known to accommodate each year since 1987 the Grand Prix of the United Kingdom of Formule 1.

History

The circuit of Silverstone is located on an old air base of the Royal Air Force. Brought into service as from 1943 for the needs for the second world war, RAF Silverstone lost of its utility at the conclusion of the hostilities. Royal the Car Club then obtained military authorities the authorization to make use of it to organize automobile races, the United Kingdom being at this period particularly low in infrastructures likely to accommodate such events.

In 1948, Silverstone accommodates its first race, the Grand Prix of Great Britain de Formule 1 (gained by the Italian Luigi Villoresi over Maserati). Arranged to goes-quickly on the tracks of the aerodrome as on the roads bordering the base, the layout presents big problems of safety insofar as competitors are brought to cross on the track, divided into two by bales of straw. Also, as from 1949, it is decided to give up the runways to concentrate on the external portion of the circuit.

The layout of Silverstone thus altered accommodates the GP of Great Britain in 1949 (victory of Switzerland Emmanuel de Graffenried), then in 1950, as an inaugural sleeve of the very new championship of the world of F1.

From 1955, Silverstone loses the exclusiveness in the reception of the GP of Great Britain, which it must divide with the layout of Aintree close to Liverpool until 1962, then that of Brands Hatch until 1986. Since the fiasco of GP of Great Britain 1986 in Brands-Hatch (serious accident of Jacques Laffite, and blamed of the outdatedness of the circuit), Silverstone is become again the exclusive seat of the British Grand Prix .

The future of the GP of Great Britain with Silverstone appears very dubious medium-term. Even if the track remains one of the most appreciated pilots and the public, Silverstone is very criticized for the outdatedness of its infrastructures and its access roads.

Configurations

From 1949 to 1974, the layout of Silverstone almost did not evolve/move, except the site of the line of the stands, moved after the turn of Woodcote.
The first change of importance took place in 1975, with the transformation of the fast turn of Woodcote into a baffle. The reason of this change is to be sought in the first turns of the GP of Great Britain 1973, where the beginner Jody Scheckter, by losing the control of his McLaren in Woodcote, had caused one of the most important pile-up of the history of Formula 1. This modification did not deteriorate the character of the circuit, considered as a circuit very the high-speed, fastest of the calendar of the championship of the world of F1 with Monza. In 1985, with the apogee of the turbo engines, the Finnish pilot Keke Rosberg will sign there besides on his Williams - Honda a pole position at the mean velocity of 258,984 km/h. It will be necessary to wait the season 2002 so that Juan Pablo Montoya beater these speed records (in Monza).
In 1987, the addition of a new baffle came to slow down the mean velocity, but in fact especially the deep modifications of 1991 modified the aspect of the circuit. Traditionally, when the layout of a circuit is modified in-depth, that is done with the detriment of the spectacle, but such was not the case for Silverstone, which lost certainly its character of layout " high vitesse" , but became more varied and more interesting in term of piloting. The new fast sequence Maggots-Becketts-Chapel is regarded besides as one of the most selective passages of the championship.

See too

alphabetical List of the circuits of Formula 1

External bonds

Official site of the circuit of Silverstone
the page of Memory of the Stands

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