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Silverstone circuit is built on the site of a World War II bomber base, RAF Silverstone, which opened in 1943. It is best known as the home of the British Grand Prix, which it first hosted in 1948. The race at Silverstone in 1950 was the first in the newly created Formula One World Championship. From 1955 to 1986 the British GP rotated between Silverstone, Aintree & Brands Hatch, but has been held solely at Silverstone since 1987. During the British GP, the airfield becomes the busiest in the UK.
The first races used the original runways, with long straights separated by tight hairpins, and hay bales to demarcate the track. In 1950 the circuit was re-configured to use the perimeter road, and remained largely unchanged for ~40yrs, when average speeds for a GP car exceeding 160mph became unacceptable. A major re-design was completed for the British GP in 1991, which Nigel Mansell won, famously giving Ayrton Senna a lift back the pits on the back of his Williams.
Circuit configurations include GP, International, National & Historic GP, but it's the GP layout you'll probably want to drive!
Facilities are good, with a reasonable restaurant on-site.
Silverstone is roughly equidistant from Milton Keynes, Northampton and Oxford, with half the circuit in Northamptonshire, half in Buckinghamshire. It is clearly signposted off the A43, about 10 miles NW of Milton Keynes, accessible from the M1 (J15a) or M40 (J10).
Silverstone GP is a wide, power circuit and your initial impression may be that underpowered cars will feel a little lost here. However get to know the circuit a little better and it will reward you in any car, not only are you driving in the footsteps (wheelturns?) of the GP stars but there's a lot more speed to be carried through some of those corners than you might initially think!
Highlights include: the ultra-fast Copse Corner at the end of the pit straight (plenty of tarmac run-off on the exit!); the right-hander Stowe at the end of Hangar Straight; and Bridge, leading in to the Priory-Luffield complex.
Top tip: getting the technically challenging Maggots-Becketts-Chapel complex right is vital to a good lap time on the GP circuit, most especially the exit from Chapel as it leads onto the longest straight on the circuit, Hangar.
Words kindly provided by Andrew Kell (ajk)
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