Silverstone

Silverstone is a 5.891 km, 18-corner circuit built on the site of a Second World War bomber airfield in Northamptonshire. Its reputation rests on a run of fast, high-downforce changes of direction: Copse, then the Maggotts, Becketts and Chapel sequence, followed by the Hangar Straight and the quick Stowe corner. Cars carry very high speed through all of it, so an aerodynamic weakness is exposed immediately.

The lap is wide and open, and the weather often decides the picture, with rain or a change in wind direction altering the balance of the fast corners. The Arena section, added in 2010 (Village, The Loop and Aintree), and the Wing pit complex are the biggest modern changes. The lap record of 1:27.097 was set by Max Verstappen in 2020 and still stands.

Silverstone hosted the first race of the Formula 1 World Championship on 13 May 1950. Giuseppe Farina won the British Grand Prix in an Alfa Romeo 158, watched by King George VI. The circuit had been created from the former RAF Silverstone airfield and became the home of the race from that day on, although the event did not stay in one place for the first decades of the championship.

Between 1955 and 1986 the British Grand Prix alternated with other circuits: Aintree hosted five races between 1955 and 1962, and Brands Hatch hosted the event in even-numbered years from 1964 to 1986. Silverstone has held every British Grand Prix since 1987. This page lists only the races actually run at Silverstone, including 2020, when the circuit staged two rounds: Lewis Hamilton won the British Grand Prix on three tyres after a puncture on the last lap, and Max Verstappen won the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix a week later.

Hamilton has won more times here than any other driver, with nine victories. In 2026 Charles Leclerc took his first Silverstone win for Ferrari.