Silverstone Circuit

Motor racing circuit on the Buckinghamshire and Northamptonshire border, UK

The Airfield Where It All Began

A wartime bomber station on the Northamptonshire border staged the very first World Championship race in 1950 and still hosts a fast, flowing British Grand Prix.

Silverstone was built for bombers and adopted by friends with fast cars. The circuit occupies the old RAF Silverstone, a bomber station in service from 1943 to 1946, and the triangle of wartime runways still lies within its outline. It straddles the line between Northamptonshire and Buckinghamshire, near the villages of Silverstone and Whittlebury, a few miles from Towcester, Brackley and Buckingham. Racing started informally in September 1947, when a group of friends took to the empty airfield. A year later the Royal Automobile Club leased the site and ran a British Grand Prix on a course whose edges were defined by straw bales and oil drums.

On 13 May 1950 Silverstone opened the new World Championship, with King George VI and his queen, Elizabeth, among the spectators. Giuseppe Farina won, and Alfa Romeo filled all three places on the podium. The British Racing Drivers' Club took over the lease soon afterward and owns the circuit to this day. From 1955 the British Grand Prix wandered between Silverstone, Aintree and later Brands Hatch, before settling here for good in 1987.

For decades the old perimeter road made Silverstone one of the fastest circuits anywhere. A chicane appeared at Woodcote for 1975, and after the 1990 race nearly the whole layout was redrawn into a more technical track that still rewarded bravery. Nigel Mansell won the first Grand Prix on the new version in 1991, then carried his stranded rival Ayrton Senna back to the pits on his sidepod, the most generous move of the afternoon. The layout in use since 2011 measures 5.891 kilometers. A lap leaves the Hamilton Straight, runs flat out through Abbey and gathers itself for Maggotts and Becketts, a rapid sequence of direction changes that pours onto the Hangar Straight and the quick entry to Stowe.

Lewis Hamilton has made the place his own. His nine wins here are the most by any driver, with Alain Prost on five, and in December 2020 the pit straight took his name, the first part of the track named after a person. That year Silverstone also staged championship races on consecutive weekends, the second titled the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix. A ten year extension signed in February 2024 keeps the British Grand Prix here until 2034, and Charles Leclerc won the 2026 race for Ferrari, the 61st championship round on the airfield where it all began.

Every Grand Prix here

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