Silverstone is a small village located south of the town of Northampton, 100 kilometers northwest of London.
Built in 1943 like hundreds of airfields built to defend Britain's coasts and to launch bomber attacks on mainland Europe, Silverstone Airfield became the base for the Royal Air Force's 17th Operational Training Unit . Its primary function was to teach air crews how to fly twin-engine Vickers Wellington bombers.
Obviously such large aircraft could not operate on small grass airfields and so Silverstone was equipped with three runways, two of which were bitumen, one 882 meters long and the other over 1000 meters long.
Like so many wartime airfields, Silverstone was decommissioned at the end of the war, which suited very well a certain Maurice Geoghegan who used it in 1946 to operate his new Frazer-Nash sports car on a track primitive constituting roughly an eight with the tracks and the runways. He was so happy to be able to fully test his car there that he told a few of his friends, and in 1947 an illegal race was organized with a dozen cars. Legend has it that this race became known as “The Mutton Grand Prix” following Geoghegan's collision with a stray sheep…
At this time the RAC (Royal Automobile Club) were traveling the country looking for a venue for the British round of the new Formula 1 Grand Prix series. The story of the “Mutton GP” came to their attention and , one thing led to another, they rented the former Royal Air Force base to the army to organize a first Formula1 GP. This was won in 1948 by Luigi villoresi at the wheel of a Maserati, in front of 100 people protected by a few bales of straw, ropes and canvas barriers. The Italian unleashes the crowd by winning from the back of the grid, having arrived too late for the official tests…
The first 3,67-mile route, which had cars racing towards the central crossing point, head-on and at breakneck speed, was deemed too dangerous and was modified the following year. King George VI attended the 1950 race, and in 1951 the BRDC took over the lease of Silverstone from the RAC. They set themselves the task of transforming the airfield runway into a more permanent circuit.
But history was in the making and, even today, Silverstone is more than ever the crucible of the F1 world.
On the motorcycle side, the first Grand Prix held at Silverstone in 1977 was also the first motorcycle Grand Prix to be held on the British continent, while the British round of the world championship had taken place since 1949 on the circuit of the Isle of Man, 60,72 km long.
On a 4,71 km track, the winners of this first Grand Prix at Silverstone, the last of the 1977 season, were Pat Hennen (Suzuki) in 500cc, Kork Ballington (Yamaha) in 350cc and 250cc, and Pierluigi Conforti (Morbidelli) in 125cc.
It will also be the last Grand Prix for Giacomo Agostini.
The British Grand Prix was held at Silverstone until 1986 before migrating to Donington Park and then returning there from 2010, after 23 years of absence, on a circuit layout that has been revised numerous times and increased to 5,9 .XNUMX km.
In 2018, unlike the tests the races could not take place there, due to torrential rain. The circuit underwent a final resurfacing in 2019 (in several episodes, after numerous controversies) and the 2020 edition was canceled due to Covid.
To date,ngel Nieto et Kork Ballington are the most successful drivers at Silverstone, with 6 wins each.
Since the return to the calendar in 2010, the MotoGP winners have been Jorge Lorenzo (2010, 2012 and 2013), Casey Stoner (2011) Marc Márquez (2014) Valentino Rossi (2015) Maverick Vinales (2016) Andrea Dovizioso (2017) and ALex Rins in 2019 during a very eventful edition for fabio quartararo et Andrea Dovizioso...
After a cancellation in 2020 due to Covid, Fabio Quartararo won there last year, ahead of ÁLex Rins et Aleix Espargaró, another contender for the title this year: place your bets!
