Silverstone circuit's history and British Grand Prix predictions for 2010
The British Grand Prix is a high speed circuit with a total of 52 laps’. Cars started revolving around Silverstone in 1948 but since then, it has been on and off the radar as a consistent race track. However, it has been the only venue for the British GP since 1987 and has hosted races in each of the last 23 years. No driver has been to completely dominate the Silverstone circuit as the last 23 events at the circuit have been won by as many as 16 drivers. Since 1987, the year in which Silverstone became a regular feature of the Formula Calendar, Nigel Mansell and Alain Prost won the British GP on three different occasions each. Along with Jacques Villeneuve, David Coulthard and Michael Schumacher with two wins each, there are only five men to win the British GP on more than one occasion. The last ten races at Silverstone have been won by nine different drivers. Since 1987, six different constructors have won the races which include McLaren, Ferrari, Renault, Red Bull, Benetton and Williams.
Since its introduction into Formula One’s calendar, Jim Clark and Alain Prost have been the most successful drivers on the circuit with five victories each. Nigel Mansell has won the British GP on four occasions while Jack Brabham, Niki Lauda and Michael Schumacher won it on three times each in their respective careers. McLaren and Ferrari have won the British GP on a record number of 14 times each. Team Williams are not far behind with 10 wins in Britain while Team Lotus has won it on a total on 8 occasions at the venue.
The lap record at the circuit has been held by Michael Schumacher with a lap time of 1:18.739 seconds set in 2004. However, with recent changes in the layout of the circuit and an additional turn, a new lap record is yet to be set.
Only last year, Sebastian Vettel won the British Grand Prix in a Jenson Button dominated season. Vettel flew through the opening laps of the race and pulled away from Rubens Barrichello and the rest of the pack. From then on, he was never challenged. Mark Webber, who started on third spot managed to gain a position and finished right behind Vettel to earn a Red Bull one-two victory. In 2008, it was a dream-come-true for Lewis Hamilton when he won a grand prix at home for the first time in his career. Hamilton’s then teammate Kovalainen snatched the pole position while Hamilton started from fourth position on the grid. On a damp circuit, Hamilton made a burst through the start to take second position behind his front running teammate. Hamilton kept piling the pressure and in the fourth lap of the race, he made a pass on Kovalainen by gaining the lead and never looked back. A year prior to Hamilton’s victory, Raikkonen reigned supreme at Silverstone when he drove his inch perfect race.
Silverstone’s history poses some very interesting questions to this year’s championship. No driver in the last 7 years has won at Silverstone on two occasions. If the trend continues, fans are going to see a new winner this time as well. Interestingly, one of the two drivers of Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull have won the British GP in the past while the other driver from the same team has failed to do so. Supposing if a new champion is going to be crowned this year, the likely contenders would be Jenson Button, Mark Webber and Felipe Massa. However Robert Kubica is equally hard to beat on his day and all depends on how well he qualifies.
Another interesting statistic is that in the last 8 years, 5 drivers that have won the Silverstone GP also went ahead to win that years’ championship too. Projecting these numbers to 2010 and keeping in mind McLaren’s upgrades, its straight line speed and its ability to challenge the Red Bull cars, Jenson Button appears to be the strongest of the contenders to win in Britain.
To sum up, the law of probability states that if a coin is tossed a hundred times and it comes out as heads, there is no guarantee that the next time is definitely going to land as heads too. However, it’s a safe bet nonetheless. So here we have it, will Jenson Button go for Silverstone glory?
Tags: