F1: 2023 British GP at Silverstone Preview (Update)

The expected attendance over the three days of the British Grand Prix at Silverstone this weekend is 480,000. Last year’s attendance was 401,000.

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Round 11 of the 2023 FIA Formula 1 World Championship brings the 10 F1 Teams to Silverstone, home of the British Grand Prix.

Silverstone was back where it all began for the Formula 1 World Championship on May 13, 1950, on the perimeter layout of the runway strips used by the Royal Air Force in World War II. Britain has been a mainstay on Formula 1’s calendar since the championship’s inaugural race and Silverstone has been the host venue each year since 1987, following spells at Brooklands, Aintree and Brands Hatch.

Silverstone is renowned as a fast and flowing circuit, which tests the aerodynamic prowess of Formula 1 cars, and puts a high-energy load through Pirelli’s tires. High-speed sequences such as Copse, Maggotts and Becketts, and Stowe have been tackled by the greats throughout Formula 1 history and now the class of 2023 are ready to sweep around Silverstone’s iconic tarmac.

As well as the location for Formula 1’s first championship round, Britain is the home for the majority of Formula 1 teams. Eight of the 10 participating entrants have either their headquarters or satellite operations in Britain, with many in close proximity to Silverstone. That means a large portion of the paddock has the unusual experience of commuting to work from home during the British Grand Prix weekend.

This weekend sees the full introduction of the new Pirelli tire construction, which all teams tested in Barcelona. This is expected to work well with the hard compounds that Pirelli have supplied for this event. All three compounds should offer useful trades of performance and degradation and will offer useful strategic flexibility.

Brad Pitt Movie Filming Begins

Filming for ‘Apex’ takes place at Silverstone this weekend during the British GP.

Brad Pitt even has his own garage:

Race Insight

• Race interruptions: The Safety Car has been deployed in all but one Grand Prix held at Silverstone during the hybrid era. In that period, there have also been three red flags. However, Virtual Safety Car deployments are rare; there has been just one deployment at Silverstone.
• Overtaking: The overtaking difficulty is close to average. There have been 25 passes per race over the last five races – ignoring starts and restarts – and most of the passing takes place in the DRS zones, while Turns Three, Seven and 16 also offer opportunities.Strategy: The hardest tires in the Pirelli range have been allocated this weekend. Generally, tire degradation is low – despite high loads on the tires through the fast corners. This often means the race is a one-stop event with a focus on keeping track position.

Unlocking the Lap

• A short run to begin the lap and then it’s flat-out through the opening corner, Abbey, and the following Farm corner. Turn Three is a hard braking right-hander and Turn Four is a tight-left hander. Getting the exit right is crucial for a rapid run down the following straight. Brooklands is a medium-speed left-hander that leads directly into Luffield, where the car threatens to run wide on the exit. Again, it’s important to get a good run to blaze down Woodcote.After the straight comes Copse, Turn Nine, which is a high-speed right-hander. This leads to the famous and blisteringly fast Maggots, Becketts, Copse and Chapel sequence: left, right, left, and a tighter right-hand bend complete the sequence that leads onto Chapel corner and the following Hangar Straight.Finally, drivers shift down a couple of gears through the Stowe right-hander, hurtle down towards the final chicane and avoid losing traction on the exit to retain some momentum through the final Club Corner and down the start-finish straight.

Fact File: British Grand Prix

• At 5.891km, Silverstone is the fifth-longest circuit on the 2023 calendar. It was previously the fourth-longest, but the introduction of Las Vegas (6.120km) has demoted it down a place.
• Silverstone’s legendary layout is tough on tires, especially the left-front which has huge loads imposed on it through Turns 1, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 and 15.
• Given its high-speed nature with fast, flowing corners, brakes are not put under a great strain at Silverstone. Teams therefore can focus on other areas such as fine-tuning aerodynamic set-up rather than on brake cooling.
• As an open, exposed, former airfield, the circuit is notoriously windy and changes in wind direction happen frequently. That can have a major impact on vehicle balance and change the car’s behavior. This forces drivers to adjust accordingly in terms of braking points, entry speeds as they approach the apex of turns, and acceleration as they exit.
• From the start, drivers will complete two corners before hitting the brakes for the first time at Village (Turn 3). The distance from pole position to this point is 644 meters but, on full fuel tanks at the beginning of the Grand Prix, they do have to lift off the throttle after 225 meters.
• The only race where we see a longer distance from pole position to first braking zone is at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico. The vast start/finish straight there sees drivers hit the brakes for the first time 811 meters from pole position.
• Silverstone also has the second longest pit lane length of the season at 509 meters – the pit lane entry begins after Turn 15, with the pit exit feeding in at Turn 2.
• This means that whilst time in the pit lane clocks in at 23 seconds, the third highest of the season, time loss is limited with drivers not having to negotiate Turns 16, 17, 18, and 1.
• The long straights and flat-out sections around the circuit mean that 78% of the lap is taken at full throttle, the fifth highest total of the season.
• Silverstone boasts some of the most iconic corner names in the whole of motorsport. It is one of only three tracks on the calendar where engineers discuss corners through their names and not numbers; the other two being Spa-Francorchamps and Monaco.
• Drivers experience some of the highest lateral g-forces of the season at the British Grand Prix, with an expected maximum of 5g at Turn 11 through the Maggotts-Becketts sequence.
• Silverstone is something of a home race for the team. The Brackley factory is a mere nine miles away and the home of Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains at Brixworth is just over 20 miles from the track.

Pirelli Tires

MARIO ISOLA – MOTORSPORT DIRECTOR   

“The British Grand Prix will mark the debut of a new slick tire construction, using materials that have been brought forward from their anticipated introduction next year. This change in specification was made necessary due to the increased performance of the cars seen since the start of the season – both in terms of outright speed and loadings – compared to the pre-season simulation data supplied to Pirelli by the teams last winter, and the fact that this trend is only set to increase as the championship goes on. We’ve worked very hard on simulation over the last few years in order to not only supply a product that meets the performance targets set by all the stakeholders but also to have the ability to anticipate any eventual issues and react to them promptly.

The new specification gives the tire extra resistance against fatigue but does not affect any technical parameters or its behavior on track. All the teams already had the opportunity to try the new tire construction out at the Spanish Grand Prix, when two sets were put at the disposal of each driver in free practice. Their comments were in line with our expectations, especially when it came to transparency in terms of performance. The new specification also allows us to keep front and rear tire pressures largely unchanged compared to last year, despite a significant increase in average loads.

This debut will come on a track that is traditionally one of the hardest on tires; on our internal charts Silverstone is right at the top in terms of stress and lateral forces exerted on them: particularly the front-left. The track also takes a lot out of the drivers, who have to cope with lateral accelerations in excess of 5g throughout its rapid corners. The compound choices – which, unlike the structure, are not undergoing any change in specification – are identical to previous years, at least in name: C1 is the hard, C2 is the medium, and C3 is the soft. However, the current C1 is in fact a brand new compound for this year, which fits in between the C2 and the C0: our new name for the hardest compound in the 2022 range.”

Tires for Silverstone

• The teams will have the C1 as the P Zero White hard, C2 as the P Zero Yellow medium and C3 as the P Zero Red soft in Great Britain: a choice dictated by the high energy loads that Silverstone puts through the tires.
• The track is one of the most demanding of the whole season, especially for the front-left tire that has to cope with heavy loadings throughout eight different corners.
• Some of the highest average cornering speeds of the year are seen at Silverstone (Maggotts, Becketts and Chapel are all taken flat-out) while the drivers are subjected to lateral forces that can exceed 5g.
• A two-stopper was generally the most popular strategy in 2022. All three compounds were seen during the race: including on the starting grid.
• Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz claimed his debut win last year at Silverstone, having started from pole position.
• Pirelli will remain at Silverstone from July 11-12 for a slick tire development test without tire blankets. Taking part in the test is Red Bull (for one day), Haas, and Williams.
• After Monza, Silverstone is one of the most historic permanent tracks on the F1 calendar, having hosted 57 grands prix. In 2020, the British Grand Prix was followed one weekend later by another grand prix to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the very first F1 race in history – which took place at Silverstone on May 13, 1950.
• The most successful team at Silverstone is Ferrari, with 15 wins, while Sir Lewis Hamilton is the most decorated driver at Silverstone with eight wins. Having been honored by Queen Elizabeth II, Hamilton was later knighted by the current King of Great Britain, Charles III.