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Race Name: British Grand Prix
Circuit Name: Silverstone
Circuit Length: 3.194 miles
Race Length: 61 laps
Lap Record: Rubens Barrichello, Ferrari 1m23.083s

Jenson Button's View

"I approach the first corner, Copse Corner, at around 295kmh. The entry to this is very difficult because I can't see the apex as I turn in and it is a very quick corner, which I take in fifth gear at around 235kmh. The exit will lead down to the difficult Becketts complex, reaching a similar top speed of 295kmh. The first left-hand corner, Maggotts Curve, is taken flat before braking lightly and dropping my speed down to around 270kmh for the next right-hand section.

After this I need to brake much harder because I need to drop my speed down to around 210kmh in fourth gear for the penultimate left-hand corner, and then lose more speed, changing down to third gear at around 175kmh for the right-hand corner of Becketts. The slight left-hand kink, Chapel Curve, which leads onto the Hangar Straight is taken flat, hitting the apex at around 235kmh in fifth gear. Through this complex I will have experienced very high lateral forces both to the left and the right so the relaxation on the Hangar Straight is very welcome.

At the end of the straight I will reach the maximum speed on the circuit of around 310kmh before once again braking very hard and dropping down to 190kmh in third for Stowe. In the next short straight I will reach around 280kmh in fifth gear before dropping right down to 90kmh in second gear for the slowest corner on the circuit, the left-hander leading into Club Corner. Club Corner itself is very difficult and although I will apex at around 130kmh in third gear, I need to be able to get the power on well as I fight the car out of this very long corner.

In the run up to the chicane, Abbey, I will once again reach around 295kmh, a similar speed to the pit-straight. For the first part of Abbey I will have to brake hard to 125kmh in second gear, although on a good lap I will hope to take the right-hand part under steady acceleration, apexing at around 190kmh in third gear. Ahead of me is one of the most challenging corners on any Grand Prix circuit, Bridge.

On a qualifying lap I will definitely take Bridge flat at around 265kmh in fifth gear. Part of the challenge of this corner is that I need to position my car well over to the right to be able to take Priory, the first left-hand corner of the complex, correctly and while doing so I need to get my speed down to 175kmh in third gear. I will briefly reach around 215kmh in fourth gear before braking again for the long left-hand corner in the complex, Brooklands, which I will take at 105kmh in second.

Almost immediately I am into the last corners, Luffield and Woodcote. The apex speed is similar, but they form one very long right-hand corner, where once again the exit is both difficult and important as I need to get power on smoothly and fight the inevitable understeer to get good speed onto the pit-straight. This should enable me to complete my lap by crossing the finishing line at around 280kmh in top gear."

Ralf Schumacher's View

"I can't wait to go racing to Silverstone because we have been quite strong there over the course of many tests, as well as having good recent race performances. It would be really great if we could achieve a good result at Williams F1's home Grand Prix. The track is again a compromise between quick and slow parts, of which the latter may cause us some problems, but we are taking some new aerodynamic parts to the Silverstone and this should make our BMW Williams F1 car very competitive."

David Coulthard's View

"A flying lap of Silverstone begins with the extremely fast and challenging Copse Corner. You arrive at the right hander at 181mph / 290km/h, before dabbing the brakes, with your speed dropping slightly to 165mph / 265km/h in sixth as you swing through the bend, which is off-camber at the exit.

A short burst of power takes you to one of the best complex of corners we have at any Grand Prix track, the Maggots-Becketts-Chapel S-bends. You have to be careful as you reach Maggots as this is where you drive past the pit exit, however throughout the complex you maintain speeds of 131mph / 210km/h to 176mph / 285km/h as you take the sequence of right and left flicks flat out, before being swung onto the fastest section of the track, Hanger straight.

Taken flat out with a top speed of 190mph / 305km/h in sixth gear, this long blast leads to Stowe. Due to the late nature of the apex you are braking all the way into the corner, flicking down the gears to 112mph / 180km/h to negotiate the right-hander. The worst thing you can get here is understeer as it will affect your lap time a lot in that particular corner.
You then roll out into a very straight forward exit along Vale that takes you down into Club, reaching 175mph / 280km/h before braking for the long right-hander. You can develop a bit of oversteer here, as you accelerate through the corner reaching 130mph / 210km/h.

Then there is a straightforward acceleration from second to sixth gear out of Club corner which has been made easier by traction control. Then you go down the short straight to the left of Abbey corner, which is taken in third gear, at 75mph / 120km/h, has a very fast entry and is a good place for overtaking. There is a short exit before the flick right of Farm, and you then go up and over the hill into Bridge corner, which is taken flat at 135mph / 245km/h in fifth gear. You then enter the Stadium Complex and some of the best overtaking opportunities on the track.

It starts with a quick entry into Luffield in fourth gear. It's quite fun to drift the car out there and it tends to dance around with the back end. You come out of Luffield and get on the brakes straight away for the tight left of Priory, which is taken at 97mph / 155km/h, and is immediately followed by the 55mph / 88km/h second gear tight left of Brooklands, which sees you steer the car through 180-degrees.

The final corner in the complex is Luffield. Entering this long right hander your speed is around the 100mph / 160km/h mark in third gear, dropping to 65mph / 104km/h in the same gear as you exit.

The sweeping right of Woodcote is the final corner, you accelerate through the two apexes of the bend as you swing back round onto the pit straight to begin another lap of Silverstone.

The Track

Silverstone used to be an incredibly fast track (it still holds the record for the fastest speed over a lap set by Keke Rosberg in a Williams) but its original layout (of three enormous straights) dating back to its original use as a bomber airfield has been altered through the years to allow for a number of high and mid speed straights as well as 'the complex' — four 1st and 2nd gear corners before the start finish straight.

Overtaking is not very easy anywhere on the track though the best chance is at the end of the Hanger Straight and coming into Priory Bend. All the teams except Ferrari, Minardi, Toyota and Sauber have Silverstone as their nominated test track and it is also the track in the calendar that the drivers are most familiar with as nearly all of them have spent some years racing in Britain before graduating to F1.

The Track's F1 History

Considering how much testing all the teams do at Silverstone, it is surprising how often you get a freak result here! For the past seven years the place would be inundated with Damon Hill fans and before that the Nigel Mansell lager-louts would hit the track in abundance every July. In 2000 the Easter date combined with the lack of a charismatic potential British race winner (Jenson Button doesn't have a realistic chance of winning on Sunday and Coulthard hadn't really fired the public imagination) have led to lower than usual ticket sales and horror stories in the car parks. It was even claimed that more corporate hospitality was happening at the testing than happened at the race weekend! Last year plans were unveiled to show how Silverstone will be developed to keep the grand prix there for the foreseeable future. It is hoped that a new pits, an F1 style theme park and business area and some alterations to the circuit will help Silverstone hold the grand prix for the foreseeable future. Last week the government announced plans to support the British motorsport industry so with Sir Jackie Stewart and Martin Brundle steering the BRDC in the right direction.

The last few years have seen some great races.

In 1991 Nigel Mansell won for Williams after Ayrton Senna spun out on the first lap at Copse.

In 1992 Mansell repeated the feat while Ayrton Senna ran out of petrol on the last lap. Mansell then picked him up on his slowing down lap and was roundly criticized for this (rare) act of sportsmanship (admittedly Senna then memorized the Williams' setting on the dashboard and reported them back to McLaren!). The 1992 race also marked the debut of Damon Hill in F1 who managed to qualify the Brabham on the back row and ended up finishing last!

By contrast Damon Hill nearly scored his debut win in 1993 as he galloped away from his team mate Alain Prost. Eventually a loose water pipe finished his race whereby he went back to the racing club bar, had a pint and then went back to his garage to report in and change!

In 1994 Hill scored a memorable win when Schumacher was disqualified for ignoring a black flag caused by his overtaking Hill on the parade lap (Hill had qualified on pole).

In 1995 Hill and Schumacher had a coming together at Priory and Johnny Herbert won his first grand prix in the Benetton from David Coulthard and Jean Alesi.

In 1996 the hoards turned up expecting a Damon Hill walkover but a fluffed start combined with being stuck behind Hakkinen's McLaren put pay to that and he eventual retired with a seized wheel bearing which pitched him into the gravel at Copse. Villeneuve went on to win.

In 1997 Hakkinen was looking set for his debut win until his car retired with a handful of laps left resulting in Villeneuve repeating his win of the year before.

In 1998 monsoon conditions and a high attrition rate combined with some truly ridiculous rules all combined to allow Michael Schumacher to win whilst serving a stop/go penalty in the pitlane!

In 1999 Hakkinen's wheel fell off his car whilst he had a comfortable lead allowing David Coulthard to win after Eddie Irvine messed up his pitstop. However the defining moment happened when Michael Schumacher outbraked Irvine into Stowe only to find he had lost his rear brakes. His subsequent broken leg ruled him out of contention for the championship and set the scene for a memorable second half of the season.

In 2000 the event was fourth in the schedule and ended up being a washout. The car parks turned into quagmires and serious doubts were raised over the future of the event. As far as how the racing went, Coulthard made it two in a row as he won again with a great drive. Coulthard was helped by pole sitter Rubens Barrichello's Ferrari breaking down with hydraulic problems and both Schumacher and Hakkinen having pretty duff races but even so it was a great accomplishment even though it proved to be a false dawn for Coulthard's championship hopes.

In 2001 Hakkinen scored his penultimate grand prix win on a circuit he had always wanted to win on but had previously never managed. Schumacher looked vulnerable all weekend (as he often does at Silverstone) and was passed by both Hakkinen and Montoya. Montoya was held up by his team mate (as he had been two weeks earlier in France) while Coulthard's championship hopes faded after he collided with Jarno Trulli going into Copse for the first time. Nick Heidfeld won a race long struggle against Heinz-Harald Frentzen's Jordan to claim the last point. This led to an argument between Frentzen and Eddie Jordan after the race which saw the German fired the following Wednesday.

In 2002 the weather made all the difference to the race. Having Bridgestones was a must as treacherous wet conditions led to the Bridgestone runners holding an advantage over their Michelin shod competitors. All the Bridgestone runners looked in with a chance of points with even the Minardis and Arrows cars running in the points at some stage or other. Eventually Schumacher won from Barrichello with Montoya putting in an impressive performance to finish third ahead of the two BARs who finally scored their first points of the season.

Last year a protester and some changeable conditions led to the best race for some years. A safety car was deployed after a religious eccentric ran down Hanger Straight at Mark Webber's Jaguar (who was doing somewhere in excess of 200mph at the time). The resultant melee led to the two Toyotas of da Matta and Panis leading but order was soon restored when Barrichello produced some of the best driving seen in recent years in Formula 1 to surge through to the front of the grid and take a popular win.

Last Year's British Grand Prix Results

Circuit Name / Location:  Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Montreal

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