[Official] British Grand Prix: Grand Prix Weekend Thread - Round 10 of 21

[Born Racer]

The British Grand Prix is one of two to have been a presence on the Formula 1 calendar since 1950 (along with Italy). The sport's development has also seen an impressive amount of engineering might developed in the UK, with the majority of teams based there. With such racing roots, it makes this race seemingly indispensable. Add in the fact that you have a super-fast and flowing circuit in Silverstone and a knowledgeable and keen crowd, and you have the sense that this is one of the elite events.

Silverstone is a spectacular place at which to watch a Grand Prix car stretch its legs. The excellent corners are many. Copse is a rapid right-hander, and watching the cars approach head-on and then flick right gives an incredible sense of their cornering speeds. Cars need to slow significantly into Stowe following the Hangar Straight and yet the corner rewards those who can carry great speed into it. The Maggotts – Becketts – Chapel sequence is one of the best set of corners on the calendar, a wiggly left-right-left-right.

The inaugural British Grand Prix is often considered to be the 1926 event, known as the Royal Automobile Club Grand Prix, the first of two races to be held in succession at the banked Brooklands track in Surrey. The layout was a mixture of the banking and a revised configuration in which the cars went straight on at The Fork and had two chicanes on the start-finish straight.

Only nine entries figured on the list, but it was a tough race for drivers and cars. Albert Divo took the lead from the start in his green-painted Talbot GPLB, followed by Malcolm Campbell's Bugatti 39A and George Eyston's Aston Martin GP. It was soon a Talbot 1-2-3, although Jules Moriceau's front axle broke at the first sandbank. Divo's engine misfired and he fell to the rear, charging through the field, but later retiring with a supercharger failure. Robert Benoist led in the Delage 15 S 8, two laps ahead on Lap 15, but at a pit stop on Lap 81 with his exhaust overheating and 15 laps from the chequered flag, he gave up his car for André Dubonnet, who had never driven a lap of the track.

There were just 3 cars remaining and Louis Wagner was out front in his 15 S 8. He had taken over driving duties from Robert Sénéchal on Lap 83, having suffered a similar exhaust problem to Benoist. Due to the heat in his car, he had to make regular pit stops just to bathe his feet in cold water, eroding his lead. After 110 laps, Wagner won, followed by Campbell, who overtook Dubonnet, the latter having flames from his engine as he drove.

1927 saw an increased entry of 13 cars and a higher lap tally (125). Delage 155Bs monopolised the top 3, with Benoist winning from Edmond Bourlier and Divo.

Leicestershire's Donington Park hosted its own Grands Prix between 1935 and 1939, but the next race to have the designation of British Grand Prix was at Silverstone in 1948. The layout saw the start-finish straight head to Woodcote, before a shorter straight to Copse, the Seagrave Straight, followed by a 90 degree left and 90 right, and then a left kink which took cars onto the Hangar Straight. After a right and the Seaman Straight, cars went left towards Club, right towards Abbey and then went left to complete the lap.

The works Maserati 4CLTs got delayed and failed to arrive. The Monegasque Louis Chiron took pole in 2:56.0 by a second in his Talbot-Lago from Emmanuel de Graffenried's Maserati 4CL and Philippe Étancelin's Talbot-Lago. De Graffenried got off the line in 1st, but was passed by Chiron. Luigi Villoresi and Alberto Ascari got past Chiron in their Maseratis. They managed to extend a big lead over the others and changed places various times. Ascari then dropped back significantly from Villoresi during long pit stops to change tyres. Villoresi had his own dramas – the tachometer fell off and got stuck beneath the clutch, preventing him from using it for the remainder of the race. Nevertheless he held on to win from Ascari and Bob Gerard who was 3rd in his ERA B-type.

The following year at Silverstone, Villoresi won again, this time from the Maserati of Prince Bira, with Peter Walker 3rd in an ERA.

In 1950 the Formula 1 World Championship started, which was to become the biggest motor racing series on a global platform. The Northamptonshire circuit had the honour of being the first to host such an event.

The race was notable for the absence of Scuderia Ferrari. The grid was laid out with alternate rows of 4 and 3 cars and Alfa Romeos locked out the front row. Giuseppe Farina led away from Luigi Fagioli and Juan Manuel Fangio, the latter of whom retired with engine problems. Farina won from Fagioli and Reg Parnell in 3rd, a dominant performance for the Alfa Romeo 158s, as they filled the podium.

In 1951, Silverstone was the fifth of eight Formula 1 rounds and a 90-lap race. José Froilán Gonzalez took the first ever non-Alfa Romeo pole position in Formula 1 for Ferrari. Alfa driver Felice Bonetto shot from 7th on the grid to the lead at the first corner, but was overtaken on Lap 2 by González. Fangio passed González in his Alfa on Lap 6. González's Ferrari was significantly mych more fuel efficient than the Alfas and he eventually overtook and pulled out a big lead to take the first non-Alfa victory in Formula 1 and Ferrari´s first too.

Ferrari's Alberto Ascari took the lead near the start in 1952 and was thereafter never headed in the 85-lap race, while he won again in 1953 (this time over 90 laps).

In 1954, González won from his Ferrari team-mate Mike Hawthorn and Maserati driver Onofre Marimón. Fangio's fastest lap in his Mercedes exceeded100mph at Silverstone for the first time.

The following year, the race was held at Aintree on Liverpool for the first time and was Round 6 out of 7 in the championship after the cancellation of the German, Swiss and Spanish Grands Prix due to the big Le Mans accident. Mercedes took the first four places and Stirling Moss his first Formula 1 win.

1956 saw Fangio win from fellow Ferrari drivers Alfonso de Portago and Peter Collins (sharing a car) with Jean Behra 3rd for Maserati.

Aintree bore witness to the 3rd and final time two drivers won a Grand Prix in a shared car, with Stirling Moss and Tony Brooks sharing the Vanwall. It was also a nice touch that the first win for a British-built car in a World Championship race came in a British Grand Prix.

1958 was back at Silverstone and Peter Collins beat Ferrari team-mate and eventual world champion Mike Hawthorn by 24 seconds. In 1959 at Aintree, Jack Brabham took his second win, in his Cooper T51, leading from start to finish, finishing 22 seconds clear of Stirling Moss in the BRM P25, who cleared Brabham's team-mate Bruce McLaren near the end of the race. McLaren became the youngest driver to set a fastest lap until Fernando Alonso in 2003.

World Champion Brabham won at Silverstone in 1960, while John Surtees, in his second F1 race, finished 2nd. Wolfgang von Trips took his second and final Grand Prix win at Aintree in 1961, in a Ferrari 1-2-3, from Phil Hill and Richie Ginther. The final race at Aintree was in 1962. Jim Clark took the first of his multiple British wins (and four on the trot) in the Lotus 25. John Surtees was second and Bruce McLaren was again 3rd.

In 1963, Clark won again and repeated the feat in 1964 at Brands Hatch in Kent, still with the Lotus 25. Graham Hill was 2nd for BRM and Surtees 3rd for Ferrari. Clark's win in 1964 was close. Hill was running in 2nd with brake problems, but Clark was losing oil pressure. He cut the engine in fast corners and managed to hold on by 3 seconds.

In 1966 the regulations stipulated 3-litre engines and Jack Brabham led home team-mate Denny Hulme at Brands Hatch in the Brabham BT19 for the first Brabham 1-2 after rain arrived part way through the race. Jim Clark won again at Silverstone the following year, with New Zealanders Hulme 2nd and Chris Amon 3rd for Ferrari. The privateer Rob Walker Racing Team took its final Formula 1 win in 1968 at Brands Hatch, with Jo Siffert in a Lotus-Ford.

Jackie Stewart lapped everyone at Silverstone in 1969 en route to victory, a race during which he had signalled to Jochen Rindt (with whom he had been battling intensively) that a rear wing end plate had worked loose and was rubbing on his tyre.
1970 saw a dramatic denouement, as Jack Brabham ran out of fuel in the lead at the final corner at Brands Hatch and eventual posthumous world champion Jochen Rindt came through to take his third win in a row. Brabham managed to grab second and his final Formula 1 points, with Denny Hulme 3rd for McLaren. In 1971, Jackie Stewart won at Silverstone in his Tyrrell-Ford from Ronnie Peterson in his March-Ford. There were some good battles between Peterson, Tim Schenken and Emerson Fittipaldi and between Henri Pescarolo and Rolf Stommelen.

In 1972 Emerson Fittipaldi won at Brands. When Ronnie Peterson had an engine failure two laps from the end, he crashed into the parked cars of Graham Hill and Francois Cevert.

At Silverstone a year later, nine cars were wiped out at Woodcote at the end of Lap 1, when Jody Scheckter spun across the track. Jackie Stewart had had a start that vaulted him from 4th to 1st in under half a lap. Beginning 4th again on the race re-start, he went up to 3rd. On Lap 6, as he tried to pass Peterson for the lead and was closed off , he spun into the grass. He ended up in 10th.

A year later, Scheckter made British Grand Prix amends and took the win, while in 1975, on a layout which now had a chicane at Woodcote, the race was defined by a hail storm which started on Lap 53. Jody Scheckter, James Hunt, Mark Donohue, Wilson Fittipaldi, Jochen Mass and John Watson were among the drivers to go off and the race was stopped. Emerson Fittipaldi took his final Grand Prix win and Carlos Pace and Jody Scheckter were classified in second and third in the results on countback, despite having gone out of the race.

1976 also had its share of drama, when McLaren's James Hunt was in a crash on Lap 1 that stopped the race. Hunt had taken his car back to the pits but had gone through an access road instead of following the track round and was deemed by the stewards to be ineligible to take the restart, as he had not been on circuit when the race was red flagged. The crowd chanted Hunt's name and the stewards reversed their decision. Hunt was allowed back in and won the restarted Grand Prix. The decision was overturned the next month after a Ferrari appeal and Niki Lauda was retrospectively declared the race winner.

In 1977, Hunt turned the tables to win from Lauda, with Gunnar Nilsson third for Lotus. Gilles Villeneuve made his debut for McLaren, only to soon move to Ferrari. 1978 was a race of attrition up front, as both Lotuses retired, Peterson with a fuel leak and Andretti with an engine failure after having also sustained a puncture, while various others retired near the front of the field. Carlos Reutemann passed Lauda on Lap 60 to go on to win. A year later, Clay Regazzoni took Williams's first victory.

The 1980s were characterised by Williams and McLaren wins, as they took all the wins, bar 1983. Keke Rosberg's 160.02mph qualifying lap in 1986 stood as the record for 17 years.

In 1987 at Silverstone, Nelson Piquet led Williams team-”mate” Nigel Mansell most the way and after Mansell stopped for tyres, he was 29 seconds behind the leader with 28 laps to go, but he stormed up to catch and pass him with just 3 remaining at Stowe corner, sending him a dummy move before getting by. Since that year, the race has remained at Silverstone.

In 1994, unlike Monaco, where Graham Hill had various victories, Damon Hill achieved what his father never managed by winning the British Grand Prix. The win came after Michael Schumacher was black flagged, but ignored the flags and only served a stop-and-go penalty. The eventual world champion was later banned for three races. Hill made a misjudged manoeuvre on Schumacher a year later and took both of them out, leaving Benetton's Johnny Herbert to take his first win (after an attempted move by Williams's David Coulthard at Priory almost paralleled Hill's move).

Heavy rain struck in 1998 and Mika Hakkinen spun off after Bridge. Leader Michael Schumacher was handed a stop-and-go penalty for overtaking under the safety car. He actually served the penalty after he crossed the line to win, but did not lose the victory. A year later Schumacher broke his leg after crashing at Stowe and David Coulthard the first of his two wins.

In 2008, Lewis Hamilton dominated in the wet to win by more than a minute from Nick Heidfeld's BMW and Rubens Barrichello's Honda. In 2010, Mark Webber believed Red Bull team-mate Sebastian Vettel had been favoured after he was given the new front wing design that Webber had tried. When he won the race, he declared over the radio “not bad for a number 2 driver”.

This year's championship leader, Lewis Hamilton, has won a total of five times at Silverstone, including four on the bounce, although last year it was Sebastian Vettel who claimed victory in Hamilton's backyard.

What are your biggest British Grand Prix memories?

Circuit length: 5.891km
Number of laps: 52
Race distance: 309.198km
First French Grand Prix: 1926
First World Championship British Grand Prix: 1950
First Grand Prix on this configuration: 2010
Dry weather tyre compounds: C1, C2 & C3
Lap Record: 1:30.621 - Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes (2017)



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