Formula 1 News: 2024 British GP at Silverstone Preview

Round 12 of the 2024 FIA Formula 1 World Championship brings the 10 F1 Teams to Silverstone, home of the British Grand Prix.

–by Mark Cipolloni–

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.

Max Verstappen of the Netherlands driving the (1) Oracle Red Bull Racing RB19, Lando Norris of Great Britain driving the (4) McLaren MCL60 Mercedes and Oscar Piastri of Australia driving the (81) McLaren MCL60 Mercedes battle for track position at the start of the race during the F1 Grand Prix of Great Britain at Silverstone Circuit on July 09, 2023 in Northampton, England. (Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images) // Getty Images / Red Bull Content Pool

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.

Start of 2023 British GP — Lando Norris, McLaren MCL60, leads Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB19, Oscar Piastri, McLaren MCL60, Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF-23, Carlos Sainz, Ferrari SF-23, and the rest of the field at the start during the British GP at Silverstone Circuit on Sunday July 09, 2023 in Northamptonshire, United Kingdom. (Photo by Glenn Dunbar / LAT Images)

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.

Lando Norris Lap Guide

Abbey and Farm Curve

The first corner at Abbey is flat out. The driver has to throw the front of the car into the corner, and then hang on to it on the exit, because we immediately go into turn two – the Farm Curve. There is also a bit of a bump in there, so if we are too aggressive the car will destabilize.

Village and The Loop

Next, is the slow-speed section of the track, putting the brakes on as we enter Village, which provides an overtaking opportunity, albeit not an easy one by any stretch of the imagination. It is very easy to lock the front-right tire under braking which compromises our line into the left-hander, The Loop, but the exit is key because the kink at Aintree takes us on to the long Wellington Straight, and the first of two DRS zones.

Brooklands

We then head into the old part of the circuit, driving at nearly 220mph, before we approach the long, left-hander at Brooklands. Here we brake and shift down the gears. There is a chance for overtaking around the outside.

Luffield and Woodcote

Luffield, the ensuing right-hander, is endless and is the most frustrating corner on the track. We turn in and want to jump on the throttle immediately, but we have to be patient, we have to wait as we battle with understeer. There are two lines you can take; go deep and focus on a good exit, or slow down earlier and carry a tight line. If we do the latter, we will be faster through the bend, but our exit will be compromised.

Pit Straight and Copse Corner

Up next, is the old-start finish line and the high-speed right-hander at Copse – where Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen collided in 2021. We take the bend at 190mph so if we miss the apex we’ll never make the corner and we will be forced to use the run-off area on the exit.

Maggots, Becketts and Chapel Curve

This has to be the best set of corners in Formula One. The first left at Maggots is a small flick, but at the next right-hander, it is important to carry speed to the point that you use three-quarters of the track. If you use all of the asphalt, it is difficult to get back online for the next left at Becketts. If you are a little bit wide on the first part, it just multiplies the problem through the remaining series of corners.

Hangar Straight and Stowe

We exit Chapel Curve and head on to the Hangar Straight and the second DRS zone before we arrive at Stowe. Although Stowe provides an overtaking opportunity, it is not a good one because it is so fast. It’s vital to hit the apex at Stowe. If you don’t, the front of the car washes out, and you end up on the astroturf on the exit.

Vale and Club Corner

Club Corner is vital to be taken at 100% throttle because it leads onto the pit straight

Weather Forecast – Rain-Hit weekend Expected

FRIDAY, JUL 5 – FP1 AND FP2
Conditions: Gloomy weather all day long with a moderate to high chance of rain, especially by the late morning. Rain amount : 3-6 mm. Light to moderate south-westerly wind with gusts up to 40 km/h in the afternoon. FP1 : 17°C // FP2 : 17°C
Maximum temperature expected: 28 Celsius
Minimum temperature expected: 11 Celsius
Chance of rain: 60%

SATURDAY, JUL 6 – FP3 AND QUALIFYING
Conditions: Mostly sunny at first, then mix of clouds and sunny spells with a slight to moderate chance of one or two showers moving quickly around noon. Decreasing chance of rain in the afternoon. Still a moderate westerly wind with gusts up to 50km/h by mid-morning. FP3 : 16°C // Q : 17°C
Maximum temperature expected: 17 Celsius
Minimum temperature expected: 9 Celsius
Chance of rain: 40%

SUNDAY, JUL 6 – RACE
Partly cloudy at first becoming mostly cloudy by late morning with a moderate chance of quick showers by noon. Lighter south-westerly wind with gusts up to 40km/h during the race. Race start : 17°C
Maximum temperature expected: 17 Celsius
Minimum temperature expected: 10 Celsius
Chance of rain: 40%

Fact File: British Grand Prix

At 5.891km, Silverstone is the fifth-longest circuit on the 2024 calendar. It was previously the fourth-longest, but the introduction of Las Vegas (6.120km) has demoted it down a place.
Maggotts, Becketts, Chapel – Silverstone boasts some of the most iconic names for corners in the whole of motorsport, and it is one of only three tracks in F1 where engineers give names to the corners and not numbers, the other two being Spa-Francorchamps and Monaco.
Drivers complete almost 80% of a lap at full throttle at Silverstone, the third-highest percentage seen so far this season after Australia and Saudi Arabia
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 650 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.
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.

Pirelli Tires

The British Grand Prix marks the midpoint of the 2024 FIA Formula 1 World Championship and round 12 of 24 takes place where it all began 74 years ago. In 1942, a Royal Air Force airfield was established in Silverstone, Northamptonshire and on 13 May 1950 it hosted the first of the 1112 rounds that have taken place to date. The winner back then was Nino Farina, driving an Alfa Romeo fitted with Pirelli tires.

5.861 kilometers long, the track is the fifth longest on the calendar after Spa-Francorchamps (7.004 km), Jeddah (6.175 km), Las Vegas (6.120 km) and Baku (6.003 km). It features 18 corners and is one of the most exciting and also one of the most demanding for the car-tire package. Some corner combinations, such as those from 10 to 14 – Maggotts, Becketts and Chapel – are taken at high speed and generate lateral forces on the tires and drivers of over 5g: the average figure at Silverstone is similar to that seen at Spa and Suzuka. This, along with other technical aspects, means that as is always the case here, the compounds chosen for this round are the hardest in the range, the C1 as P Zero hard, the C2 as P Zero medium and the C3 as P Zero soft. The front axle comes under the greatest strain and the prevalence of right hand turns means that the left front is the tire that wears the most.

The weather in England in the summer can always be very changeable, a further factor to be taken into consideration, especially as conditions can change very rapidly. Last year the entire race was run in the dry, with the Soft a somewhat surprising protagonist, with only two teams not using it. However, the most used compound was the Medium, which was used to complete half the overall mileage. The great majority of drivers went for a one-stop strategy, even if in the past, a two-stop had been a popular choice.

At this race last year, Pirelli introduced a new tire construction to deal with the increase in loads seen over the first few races of the season, as these forces exceeded the average figures seen from simulations provided by the teams over the previous winter. Without changing tire performance in any way, the construction proved its worth and will be used up to the end of the 2024 season, even though there has been an increase of around 10% in the loads generated by this year’s cars compared to figures seen at the end of last season.

Only two Grands Prix have been permanent fixtures on the Formula 1 calendar, this one and the Italian Grand Prix. Silverstone therefore hosts the 75^th British Grand Prix this weekend, the 58^th to be held at this track. The race has also been run twelve times at Brands Hatch and five at Aintree. In 2020, Silverstone hosted an additional round, celebrating the championship’s 70^th anniversary.

Despite the fact that the majority of Formula 1 teams, past and present, had or have their headquarters in England, the most successful team at this Grand Prix is Scuderia Ferrari with 18 wins to its name. Then come McLaren on 14 and Williams on 10. With 16 pole positions, Ferrari also tops this list, as it does for fastest race laps (20) and podium finishes (59). The most successful driver in the UK is Sir Lewis Hamilton who has won eight of his home Grands Prix, while next up are Jim Clark and Alain Prost with five wins apiece. The seven-time world champion Mercedes driver also has the most poles (7) and podium finishes (13) while fellow countryman Nigel Mansell tops the list for fastest race laps in this event with seven