How F1 teams prepare for the British GP at Silverstone

One question I am often asked is, how does a team prepare for a race? With Silverstone coming up I thought I would use this as an example of what the team does in the weeks leading up to the event, and how the new regulations for 2026 have changed the approach that is needed.

Many people talk about strategy as if it was the process around deciding when to make pitstops in a race and what tyres to use. In my book, strategy starts way before that. You may even argue that it starts at the point you design the car, but certainly it starts when you commence the planning for a race many weeks before the event itself. 

This encompasses deciding on the basic configuration of the car, for example what bodywork is needed for cooling in the expected ambient conditions and what aerodynamic components are required. There will inevitably be upgrades, because it’s common practice now for small incremental improvements to be made each race since these marginal gains are necessary just to keep up with the opposition.

Of course, because Silverstone is a former airfield, you also need to anticipate the inevitable wind that we always experience there both in terms of magnitude and direction

As well as this, it is important to understand the characteristics of the circuit. If we take Silverstone in early July, we can expect average daily temperatures peaking at around 21C to 23C, but statistically there will be 11 rainy days with around 65mm of rain spread through these days. 

So we need to be able to ensure we have cooling configurations capable of dealing with this. Of course, because Silverstone is a former airfield, you also need to anticipate the inevitable wind that we always experience there both in terms of magnitude and direction. 

The next factor to consider is the performance sensitivities of the circuit. Silverstone is a fast track with some high-speed corners that stress the tyres. The front-left in particular becomes very heavily stressed and indeed we have seen failures of this tyre occur in the past.

The Northamptonshire venue’s fast corners put particular stress on the tyres

Photo by: Alastair Staley / LAT Images via Getty Images

The track has 18 corners and the lateral loads are particularly high in the fast corners – Abbey, Copse, Becketts and Stowe. This will inevitably require high tyre pressures and hard compounds. 

In fact, the stresses on the tyres are so high that drivers often prefer the harder Pirellis since they are less prone to feeling the car ‘squirming’ on the tyres – something that can destroy the driver’s confidence in fast corners. The tyres will also run pretty hot at Silverstone, so the configuration of the brake cooling ducts needs consideration as these are also significant in controlling tyre temperatures.

With active aerodynamics, the approach to wing settings has changed somewhat. Prior to 2026, Silverstone had average sensitivity to downforce but very high sensitivity to drag, meaning that in the ranking of aerodynamic efficiency it placed sixth of the circuits we currently visit. 

The stresses on the tyres are so high that drivers often prefer the harder Pirellis since they are less prone to feeling the car ‘squirming’ on the tyres – something that can destroy the driver’s confidence in fast corners

Now, the majority of the drag is shed with the active wings that open up on the straights, meaning that in the corners, where drag is less important, a bigger wing might be used than would have been selected in the past.

This of course is linked to the fact that it ranks high in the power stakes. An improvement of 10kW will lower lap times by 0.3 seconds. When regulating the extremely complex energy management rules that have been introduced this year, the FIA now ranks circuits by what it terms the power limited distance. 

This means the proportion of the lap where the driver is demanding full power. In the case of Silverstone this distance is 3.833km (2.38 miles), or 65% of the total 5.891km (3.66 miles) lap distance. 

Energy management rule tweaks introduced for the Miami GP were no cure-all

Photo by: Clive Mason / Getty Images

What this means is that it is a circuit where a lot of energy is required and, as the braking energy is quite low due to the relative lack of low-speed corners and scarcity of hard braking points, we can see that there are limited pure recharge opportunities. 

This presents a challenge. Full electrical deployment is required at the start of each straight but exactly how to deploy the power becomes a strategic question that is effectively a zero-sum game. As the drivers have constantly complained about, deploying too much in one section will lead to a deficit of power elsewhere. 

A significant amount of simulation is required to optimise the MGU-K deployment in the knowledge that a full lap of deployment is not possible, and the limited opportunities must be balanced for the greatest lap time benefit and racing ability. 

With not much time for on-track optimisation, greater reliance than ever is placed on simulation and this in turn can lead to increased jeopardy

It becomes something of a chess game; you need to look several moves ahead. This is particularly so in qualifying when an out-lap needs to be driven in a particular way to best prepare the tyres for a qualifying lap, while at the same time ensuring that the battery is fully charged at the start of the timed lap. The changes made for Miami earlier in the year have helped this conundrum but not eliminated it. 

All of this is further complicated this year at Silverstone because, for the first time since 2021, it is a sprint event. This means that free practice is limited to one hour on Friday before the competitive element comes into play. With not much time for on-track optimisation, greater reliance than ever is placed on simulation and this in turn can lead to increased jeopardy. 

This is not necessarily a bad thing, because jeopardy is what makes sport the exciting action that fans love.

This article is one of many in the monthly Autosport magazine. For more premium content, take a look at the August 2026 issue and subscribe today.

It’s a British summer, so rain can rarely be discounted during the pre-race planning

Photo by: Zak Mauger / LAT Images via Getty Images