GP REPORT
Silverstone Circuit is a racing circuit at Silverstone, England. It is best known as the 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.
Half the circuit is in Northamptonshire and half is in Buckinghamshire, roughly equidistant from Milton Keynes, Northampton and Oxford. It is built on the site of a World War II bomber base, RAF Silverstone, which opened in 1943. The airfield's three runways, in classic WWII triangle format, lie within the outline of the present track. During the Grand Prix, the airfield becomes the busiest in the UK, complete with its own air traffic control.
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Montoya celebrating his win at the British GP 2005
The first two races were held on the runways themselves, with long straights separated by tight hairpin corners, the track being demarcated by hay bales. However, for the 1950 event the race was switched to the airfield perimeter road. This layout remained largely unaltered for the following 39 years. For the 1989 meeting, a chicane was introduced to try and tame speeds through the mighty Woodcote Corner, before the track underwent a major redesign between the 1990 and 1991 races. The reshaped track's first F1 race was perhaps the most memorable of recent years, with Nigel Mansell coming home first in front of his home crowd, prompting mass hysteria in the grandstands. On his victory lap back to the pits Mansell even found time to pick up stranded rival Ayrton Senna and give him a lift on his side-pod, after Senna's McLaren had expired on the final lap.
In recent years Silverstone has been, some say unfairly, criticised for its deteriorating facilities. Silverstone has, in the past, been attacked due to traffic jams on race day. This problem had been largely eliminated with the completion of a major dual-carriageway road just to the north of the circuit. When the race was moved to an April date in 2000, rainy conditions turned the fields used for car parking into mud baths, causing chaos for spectators trying to park.
On 2004-09-30, British Racing Drivers' Club president Jackie Stewart announced that the British Grand Prix would not be included on the 2005 provisional race calendar, and if it was, would probably not occur at Silverstone. However on 2004-12-09 an agreement was reached with Bernie Ecclestone that the track would in fact host the British Grand Prix up to 2009.