Next up is the heavy braking zone and medium-speed left-hander of Brooklands. Luffield is one of the slower corners of Silverstone GP and it requires lots of patience as it continues for a long time. There are a few different lines you can take, however, the focus should always be on your exit speed. It can be flat in a lot of cars, however, a lot of care should be taken in more powerful cars with less grip or in the wet.
Plenty of accidents happen on the exit of Woodcote, when drivers take the wrong line and lift — resulting in a spin towards the inside wall. The next 7 turns at Silverstone GP are some of the best in the world. After the high speed right of Copse comes the infamous left-right-left-right-left of Maggots, Becketts and Chapel. Difficult, high-speed and exciting this is one of the most enjoyable sequence of corners anywhere in the world.
Stowe is a medium-to-high speed right hander over a slight crest. Vale is a slow speed left-right which is important to getting a good lap time, as it leads on to the new start-finish straight. The final corner of Silverstone GP circuit is Club. In most cars Club is flat, meaning that the exit out of Vale is critically important to lap time. The collision also exposed the fact that debris could end up in the grandstands and it was clear that changes were needed.
The GP was held at Brands Hatch in , but by the time the new season arrived in , a chicane greeted the racers at Woodcote, as did brand new pit garages.
The national circuit continued to bypass the chicane, as did the motorcycle course. One thing that has always stood Silverstone apart from many other circuits is its speed with no slow corners to speak of and long straights taken at full throttle, average speeds continued to climb. Even the addition of the chicane at Woodcote did little to abate the high-velocity charge.
By the time of the turbo era in F1, cars were passing through the chicane faster than their predecessors had managed through the original corner Some of Silverstone's corner names seem straightforward, others are less obvious. Here's what they are really named after:. Things came to a head in , when Keke Rosberg set a mph average lap speed in qualifying despite a slow puncture and three other cars posted laps of more than mph.
By the time the F1 stars arrived for - the race again skipping a year at Brands Hatch - dramatic changes had been made to Woodcote. The S-bend chicane was removed and replaced by a new sharp left-right bend on the approach. The changes also allowed the introduction of a longer 'National' course, which utilised a new right hand turn off the Club Straight later named Brooklands and right hander onto the chicane, forming what became known as the Luffield Complex.
The Club circuit remained unchanged. Further significant redevelopment happened over the winter of , designed to take the circuit through the s. The run off at Copse was increased by tightening the entry and re-routing the corner, while the original Becketts corner was by passed with a sweeping — and high speed — series of corners forming a new Maggotts-Becketts-Chapel Curve sequence, which drew universal praise. Hangar Straight was unchanged, save for the addition of a traffic bridge, but Stowe was slowed and tightened into a fourth gear turn, before the track diverted off into the new Vale complex and a left-right flick back onto Club.
Further track revisions came in after the deaths of Ayrton Senna and Roland Ratzenberger at Imola and a testing crash for Pedro Lamy at Silverstone saw a renewed focus on circuit safety. Copse was further re-aligned to increase run-off, while a new and slower Stowe was constructed. The entry to Club was also tightened and a new chicane inserted at Abbey. Priory corner was diverted, turning in earlier than previously and leading to a hairpin-like corner at Brooklands.
A new South Course was created, running from Abbey back round to Chapel Curve, which could be run simultaneously with the National or Club circuits, though with no pit facilities to speak of was only used for school use or testing purposes. Silverstone hosted the first round of the world championship in and has been the permanent home of the British Grand Prix since They were subsequently relocated to a new position between Woodcote and Copse and remained their for decades, during which time the race often alternated with the Brands Hatch circuit in Kent.
Paddock Club-seating gets you a nice view down the Wellington Straight and through Brooklands, as does the general admission ticket, while there are stands at the Luffield and Woodcote corners. There is numbered seating down the following old pit straight before three sections of covered seating at Copse. General admission is available throughout this section, through Maggotts and Becketts and then down the Hangar Straight.
As the lap comes to a close fans can plonk themselves at Vale with trackside and seated viewing spots, while the grandstands at Club complete the array of options. Silverstone is on the A43 in Northamptonshire, 8km 5miles from Towcester and 9km 5. It is easily reached by two motorways — the M1 and the M Main line rail services from London and the regions are available at both Milton Keynes and Northampton.
As for those traveling by air, Luton and Birmingham are the closest airports to the circuit, but both are around 50 miles away. Fans would flood onto the circuit to celebrate when Nigel Mansell claimed victory, something he did on three occasions. The World Champion would camp at Silverstone just like the fans did, enjoying a barbeque before watching the highlights, so it's no surprise that he built up a solid connection with the British fanbase. It was just a fantastic occasion. Mansell Mania though is only part of Silverstone's rich history.
It was in when we saw Mansell give his rival Ayrton Senna a lift back to the pits after his McLaren ran out of fuel. Speaking of McLaren, how about when Lewis Hamilton truly burst onto the scene in with that legendary wet-weather drive in front of the Silverstone crowd?
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