A legendary venue of Autosport: Silverstone Circuit
Silverstone Circuit is one of the world’s legendary venues of auto sport which is situated in the villages of Silverstone and Whittlebury, England.
Being the home of Formula 1 British Grand Prix, it has witnessed quite an interesting history since its inception. Before its foundation as an Auto racing circuit, it served as an airbase of the Great Britain in the World War II.
In 1945, after the World War II, two of the Britain’s circuits which include the famous Brooklands and Donington Park were plunged to a state of disrepair and the Royal Automobile Club (RAC) adopted Silverstone circuit by interconnecting its runway for the
British Grand Prix. The circuit was quite challenging and fast so it was reformed in 1949 which remained the basis of the track since then.
In 1950, Silverstone held the very first round of the Formula 1 World Championship which was won by Guiseppe Farina in an Alfa Romeo. In 1951, RAC handed over the lease of Silverstone to the British Racing Drivers' Club (BRDC) and some massive modifications
were made in which a small circuit was built in the larger circuit, cutting to Woodcote from Becketts corner.
British Grand Prix switched venues from 1955 between Silverstone and Aintree. However, in early 60s, the races were switched between Silverstone and Brands Hatch because of Aintree’s falling out of favour.
In 1971, BRDC redeveloped the track after buying whole 720 acres plot of Silverstone and built new pits. For providing more overtaking opportunities and early finishes to the drivers, an erection of chicane at Woodcote was made.
In 1987, in order to cope up with the astonishing levels of speed, a bend was created before Woodcote. Furthermore, new composite of corners was built between Woodcote and Farm in 1992.
In the recent years, many facilities have been provided at the circuit which includes the racing school and the new bypass which has been built with the help of government’s fund helping access to the track which once seemed to be completely out of the way.
In 2010, some of the major changes were made in the Silverstone circuit in order to improve the scene for the spectators and creating more challenges for the drivers. In February 2011, Arena configuration for the circuit was declared for the British Grand
Prix in which the length of the track was to be increased by 759 metres. The new design of the infield bends before entering into the Arena complex of turns, projects towards right at the amended Abbey.
In 2011, the decommissioning of the bridge section was confirmed and large amount of work has been done for opening the area for the spectators by the Silverstone circuit.
The current length of the track is 5.891 km with the lap record of 1:30.874 by Fernando Alonso in 2010.
Silverstone is renowned for hosting many auto sport events for its fans around the world including the British round of the FIA International GT Championship and the Silverstone Classics. It is also famous for hosting some of the British Championships which
include British Touring Cars and British Superbikes. It will be important here to mention that Silverstone circuit is not only famous worldwide for hosting the auto sport events but it has emerged as an exclusive venue for the global corporate entertaining
too.
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