Silverstone Circuit is a British motor racing circuit next to the Northamptonshire villages of Silverstone and Whittlebury. The circuit straddles the Northamptonshire and Buckinghamshire border, with the current main circuit entry on the Buckinghamshire side. The Northamptonshire towns of Towcester (5 miles) and Brackley (7 miles) and Buckinghamshire town of Buckingham (6 miles) are close by, and the nearest large towns are Northampton and Milton Keynes.
Silverstone is the current home of the British Grand Prix, which it first hosted in 1948. The 1950 British Grand Prix at Silverstone was the first race in the newly created Formula One World Championship. The race rotated between Silverstone, Aintree and Brands Hatch from 1955 to 1986, but relocated permanently to Silverstone in 1987.
The circuit has been modified quite a bit in the last few years and changes to the pit lane have changed the strategy planning, as the time taken in the pits is now longer at 25 seconds.
TRACK CHARACTERISTICS
Track length : 5.891km
Race distance : 52 laps (306.227 km)
Corners : 18 corners in total. A high speed circuit based on an old WWII airfield. Lots of high-speed corners, aerodynamically challenging, very easy on brakes.
Aerodynamic setup : Med/High downforce
Top speed : 311km/h (with Drag Reduction System active on rear wing) – 301km/h without
Full throttle – 66% of the lap (medium). Total fuel needed for race distance – 150 kilos (average/high). Fuel consumption – 2.36kg per lap (high)
Time spent braking : 9% of lap (very low). 9 braking zones. Brake wear- Low.
Total time needed for pit stop : 25 seconds
Fuel effect (cost in lap time per 10kg of fuel carried) : 0.38 seconds (high)
Lap Record : 1:34.661 - K Raikkonen (2012)
WEATHER FORECAST
The weather in England, even in summer, is notoriously hard to predict. Last year saw torrential rains spoil the weekend. It could be warm and sunny, or cold and wet. Currently it is warm and sunny in the UK. There has been very little rain in the build up to the event, unlike last year. The long range forecast for this weekend is for temperatures around 18 to 19 degrees, cloudy, but no rain forecast for race day.
TIRES
Pirelli tyre choice for Silverstone: Medium (white markings) and hard (orange markings). This is a similar combination to what we saw at Malaysia, Bahrain and Spain.
Pirelli will give all the teams an opportunity to use the prototype hard tyres during practice at the British Grand Prix. The Formula One teams were originally given the prototype to test during Friday practice for the Spanish Grand Prix, but no significant running was done when the session was hit by rain. The tire resembles the 2012 rubber and will be available during both sessions on Friday at Silverstone.
DRS
Silverstone Circuit have confirmed that there will be two DRS zones at this year's British Grand Prix located on both the Wellington and Hangar straights. The Hangar straight becomes the second of the DRS zones, after Wellington was the only zone in use in 2012. The DRS Zone 1 will be detected 25m before Turn 3 at Village with the activation coming into play 45m after Turn 4 at The Loop, which is the new section of the Silverstone layout. The DRS Zone 2 detection is just before turn 11 with the activation between turns 14 and 15.
CHANCE OF A SAFETY CAR
Silverstone is a fast, open circuit with lots of run off areas. So for marshals it’s relatively safe to recover a broken car. The chances of a safety car are 57%, with 0.6 safety cars per race.
Silverstone has always been an interesting race to watch, even with this new layout. This year there will be 4 British drivers racing here as well. Hopefully the weather holds and we don't see a Red Bull procession again. But Red Bull has been strong here and the circuit layout does suit them so fingers crossed.
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