How Silverstone has evolved into a modern classic

Silverstone hosted the first Formula 1 world championship race on its converted World War 2 airfield track in 1950. Late in the 1940s when it was first used for motor racing, the opposed V-shaped main runways were used to link up with the perimeter road and form the circuit. I vaguely remember being taken there by a family member around 1958 and standing on the earth banks watching cars racing, but I don’t recollect whether it was for a grand prix.

From those early days, when Silverstone alternated with Aintree and Brands Hatch to host the world championship, the simple layout with no chicanes made for high average speeds and a true driving challenge. The sweeping complex at Maggots, Becketts and Chapel was all there, albeit in a slightly different format, with the current configuration adopted in 1991.

There was no chicane at Woodcote at all until 1975, two years after one of the most famous accidents in F1 history at the end of the opening lap when Jody Scheckter lost the rear of his McLaren. He slewed across in front of the chasing pack and carnage ensued, the resulting pileup eliminating nine cars and causing the race to be stopped as a result.

By 1987, the quick right-left at Woodcote had been replaced by a heavier braking zone into a left-right at Luffield, as Woodcote took its current guise. I made my debut as an F1 race engineer with McLaren two years before that year’s famous victory for Nigel Mansell. My car, driven by Alain Prost, won the 1985 British Grand Prix when Ayrton Senna’s Lotus-Renault was slowed by a problem with his electronic fuel injection system.

The track had changed again by 1995 when I was the race engineer for Johnny Herbert as he scored his first grand prix victory for Benetton. The collision between Damon Hill and Michael Schumacher gave Herbert the lead, but he was being challenged by Hill’s Williams team-mate David Coulthard. Back then the circuit turned right after Bridge and headed towards a left-hander at Priory, where Herbert always took a wide line and left a gap for Coulthard to consider. I will always remember sitting next to Flavio Briatore, the then-Benetton boss, who was yelling at me to tell Herbert on the radio to “mind the gap” - but in much stronger language! Coulthard was handed a penalty for speeding in the pitlane, which decided the race.

That final sector of the lap was altered again in 1997, before the most recent swathe of changes in 2010 with the road turning right at Abbey and into a new section of corners at Village, The Loop and Aintree before heading up the Wellington Straight. As the circuit has been developed, so the car set-up has had to keep pace. Do you run less wing for the straights and compromise for the twiddly bits? This conundrum has never been straightforward and has become increasingly less so down the years with those second and third-gear corners in the mix.

Prost takes the first of Wright's two British GP wins that he race engineered

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The old Woodcote was flat out pretty much even then, and was a popular place for watching the likes of Ronnie Petersen indulging in four-wheel drifts. But the current grand prix layout makes a lot of sense to me. There are more challenging corners to spice it up a bit now, which makes it a lot more interesting.

The modern Silverstone is a fantastic circuit for racing and there’s no reason for anyone to turn their nose up at it. I don’t understand why people don’t like to go there. I’m sure if it had more elevation,
like Brands Hatch or Spa, then people would view it differently. There is in fact some elevation, it’s just gradual and you don’t see that so much.

As a driver’s circuit, it’s brilliant and from an engineering point of view it’s a huge challenge to get the set-up right for the two extremes of fast and slow corners. Regardless of the category, the car needs to be relatively stiffly sprung for the fast corners, but supple for sections like Club.

The atmosphere was always incredible because the grandstands were lined up all the way around the kink at Woodcote. The crowds always make such a difference, at just about every circuit you go to, and the British fans are just brilliant

Modern shock absorbers have had a huge effect in helping with this problem, not only by coping with drivers bouncing over kerbs but keeping a car’s composure under braking and acceleration. Managing tyre wear is another headache for today’s F1 engineers, but I believe this to be a problem more with its current supplier than an inherent circuit trait. The left-hand side tyres do get higher wear at Silverstone, due to the high-speed corners and the tendency towards a fairly low downforce set-up, but I don’t remember anything too worrying on cars I engineered.

For the spectators, the current layout works well too. I always enjoyed when we were based at what are now the National pits going onto the grid before the start of the race. The atmosphere was always incredible because the grandstands were lined up all the way around the kink at Woodcote. The crowds always make such a difference, at just about every circuit you go to, and the British fans are just brilliant.

Mansell mania hits its peak in 1992, with Wright feeling the fans make the British GP special

Photo by: LAT Photographic

As well as drawing in passionate crowds in their droves, the British GP at Silverstone has always been a Mecca for celebrities. I even once met George Harrison, a neighbour of Emerson Fittipaldi when they both lived in Henley, who turned up at one test in his black Porsche 911 turbo. During the lunch break, he kindly offered his keys to us to take turns driving it around the paddock!

At the National pits, you have one toilet block shared between two garages, so if you’re desperate you need to pop into someone else’s garage to use their loo. It’s a weird layout with the old garages; they’re so small and F1 outgrew them probably in the ‘80s.

Ron Dennis decided one year that he would smarten up the two garages allocated to McLaren and deemed a more corporate look necessary. He commissioned a company to completely cover the existing floor with expensive grey ceramic Italian tiles, which at the entrances to the garage also had the McLaren logo etched into them. But he had overlooked the fact that, because the tiles were smooth, they became treacherous when wet. This resulted in mechanics slipping over and the cars finding no grip when venturing onto the pitlane!

It didn’t go down well with the Silverstone hierarchy either as Ron hadn’t asked for permission to enact the modifications. I can well remember circuit safety officer, the late ‘Silverstone’ Syd Herbert, coming to survey the scene and uttering a few choice words after shaking his head.

There is a huge benefit to working in the Wing located by Club Corner, where the huge garages have high ceilings. The circuit has also improved its facilities with the new Museum and Experience Centre, just to the left of the circuit entrance, while a state-of-the-art hotel has been built opposite the International circuit pits.

After the track limits controversy in Austria, the drivers will need to be wary of running over the white lines at Copse. Of course, one way of keeping the drivers in check would be to line the track in Armco, or just have circuits like Monaco or Baku where any mistake is severely punished, but it would be extremely boring if every track was like this. We need fast, flowing circuits on the calendar like Silverstone, and I will welcome its continued place on the calendar after too many years of uncertainty.

After a turbulent time for Silverstone in the early 2010s, its future on the F1 calendar looks cemented for many years to come

Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images