How Verstappen stacks up in F1's 70-year Silverstone speed battle

Max Verstappen's fastest lap in the 2020 British Grand Prix - following the tyre stop that arguably cost him victory - represented an incredible average speed of 151.3mph around Silverstone. That 1m27.097s effort is a record around the current 3.661-mile configuration of the Northamptonshire circuit, but it's not the fastest racing lap recorded during a British GP.

Perhaps appropriately given his affinity with the place and three Silverstone F1 wins, Nigel Mansell still holds that particular accolade. His 1m09.832s mark, set during his famous and successful pursuit of Williams-Honda team-mate Nelson Piquet in 1987, produced a 153.1mph lap of the 2.969-mile version.

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The two laps were produced in entirely different cars, built to different rules and on different layouts of the legendary circuit, but the comparison provides a fine jumping off point to examine the improvements - or otherwise - in F1 since the world championship began in 1950. And the battle between designers and teams pushing the envelope, and the rule makers.

The 1950 British GP kicked the whole thing off, and will be celebrated by the 70th Anniversary GP this weekend. Giuseppe Farina set a best lap at 94.0mph on his way to victory in his 1.5-litre supercharged Alfa Romeo, essentially a highly developed pre-World War Two design. He did so on a version of the circuit that would still be familiar to Silverstone spectators for three decades.

Under pressure from Ferrari, which would end Alfa Romeo's five-year run of success in that very race, Farina moved the mark considerably in the 1951 race with his incredibly fuel thirsty (1.5-2mpg!) Alfa 159. His lap at just under 100mph would stand until 1956 when Stirling Moss exceeded that significant marker for the first time (below), thanks to a combination of the unsupercharged two-litre F2 becoming the world championship category for two years in 1953, the early days of the 2.5-litre F1, and the fact that the British GP was held at Aintree in 1955.

As one would expect, the speed gradually improved over the next few years thanks to car and tyre improvements, the most notable being the switch to rear-engined machines. There was a brief step back when the engine formula was changed from 2.5 litres to 1.5 for 1961, but Graham Hill's 1965 114.3mph lap, set on the final tour as he chased a troubled Jim Clark, beat his own 1960 record.

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As with most of the events on the calendar, there was then an enormous jump when the three-litre rules arrived in 1966. That year's British GP was held at Brands Hatch, but Denny Hulme's 1967 Brabham fastest lap obliterated Hill's mark by more than five seconds and nearly 7mph.

Keke Rosberg's 1985 pole lap passed into legend as he averaged nearly 161mph on a slow puncture with his Williams FW10

As well as the extra power, tyres were getting wider and very soon wings would arrive to increase cornering speeds yet further. The 1969, 1971 and 1973 (Brands hosting the race in between) benchmarks continued the momentum, with slick tyres pushing things forward. James Hunt's 1973 speed of 134.1mph, set in his Hesketh-run March represented an increase of 42.7% compared to Farina's 1950 fastest lap.

All this time Silverstone had remained largely unchanged, but now came a significant move to slow the cars down at the famous Woodcote, perhaps influenced by the multi-car shunt at the start of the 1973 race.

Instead of a high-speed right, drivers now had to negotiate a right-left-right chicane. It had the desired effect, but it took F1's pursuit of excellence just six years to surpass Hunt's mark. With the ground-effects revolution now well under way, Clay Regazzoni's Williams FW07 lapped at a Monza-beating average of 141.9mph in 1979.

Despite the introduction of flat bottoms and regulations designed to cut the amount of downforce produced, turbocharged F1 cars helped push the speeds up further. Keke Rosberg's 1985 pole lap passed into legend as he averaged nearly 161mph on a slow puncture with his Williams FW10, which had more than 1000bhp from its Honda engine.

That era of turbo cars were often considerably slower in the races, running with less boost, but Alain Prost's winning McLaren still set a new British GP record lap of 151.0mph. Rosberg's qualifying effort, which underlined Silverstone's status as F1's fastest track at the time, would stand for 17 years.

Ever-more stringent boost regulations reined in some of the first turbo era's most wild excesses and, for 1987 (when the turbos were restricted to four bar), the Woodcote chicane was changed and moved back. Piquet's pole was nearly 2mph off Rosberg's record, but Mansell's charging drive to victory meant he beat Prost's fastest race lap from two years before.

Remarkably, Mansell would set the fastest race lap at the British GP for the next five years. The 1988 race was in the wet and by 1989 all cars were powered by 3.5-litre normally aspirated engines. Advancements such as sequential gearboxes and aerodynamic improvements meant progress continued, particularly on slower circuits, but Mansell's 1990 British GP best of 150mph was still a little off his turbo-powered mark.

Big changes arrived at Silverstone for 1991, with the Bridge/Priory/Brooklands complex in particular reducing lap speeds considerably. That was probably just as well, because the Williams FW14B - the fastest F1 car of all time up to that point - would surely have smashed the 1987 record.

As it was, Mansell averaged 141.6mph, having taken pole the previous day by 1.919s. As a percentage of lap time, that qualifying performance remains the most dominant (2.43%) in world championship history. Damon Hill's 1993 fastest lap was almost identical to Mansell's, despite narrower rear tyres on his Williams FW15C, but thereafter speeds dropped considerably again.

A ban on many of the 'gizmos', such as active suspension, and more Silverstone changes (a chicane added at the previously flat-out Abbey) meant speeds fell back to the levels of the late 1960s and early 1970s. A tyre war, good conditions and a hard-fought contest produced a jump in the 1997 race, where Michael Schumacher (now with three-litre power) managed 136.1mph.

But narrower cars and grooved dry tyres (eurgh!) arrived for 1998 - when the race was wet anyway - and Schumacher's mark would not be bettered until 2001, when Mika Hakkinen's McLaren managed 137.9mph.

Now F1's relentless push - and the particular excellence of the Schumacher/Ross Brawn/Jean Todt Ferrari era - forced speeds up rapidly. Schumacher's 146.1mph effort in 2004 came with what until recently could be considered the fastest F1 racing (as opposed to qualifying) car ever, the Ferrari F2004.

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Constant rule tweaking over the next few years, ranging from the no-tyre change rule in 2005 to a move to 2.4-litre V8s, meant F1 cars were slower for several years and the F2004 held many circuit records.

Even when the modern turbo-hybrid cars became wider and beefier in 2017 to make the cars quicker, British GP fastest laps could not break into the top five Silverstone quickest

In the final British GP before Silverstone's major changes to create the current layout, Sebastian Vettel's 2009 fastest lap in the Red Bull RB5 represented an average of 'only' 142.4mph.

Interestingly the different layout, with the slow Village and Loop corners, didn't change average speeds that much, but rule changes - including making blown diffusers almost impossible and the major new 2014 ruleset - kept Silverstone average speeds well below 140mph.

Even when the modern turbo-hybrid cars became wider and beefier in 2017 to make the cars quicker, British GP fastest laps could not break into the top five Silverstone quickest - Mansell (1987), Prost (1985), Mansell (1990), Mansell (1989) and Schumacher (2004).

That was until last year, when Hamilton was 5mph faster than he and Sebastian Vettel had been over the previous two editions to move into third on 150.8mph. Now Verstappen has moved into second, 0.5 mph faster than Hamilton, with Prost's 1985 speed between them.

Silverstone's 10 fastest laps

Fastest Silverstone laps by year

The F2004, a lightweight 605kg compared to the current F1 cars' 740kg (with driver), still holds some lap records, but they are gradually being picked off. The Mercedes W11 already has one (at the Hungaroring) and, if the Black Arrow gets to compete at both the extra venues on the 2020 calendar and the more 'normal' circuits in 2021, it could end up being able to take an unprecedented number. That is, assuming Verstappen and the RB16 don't continue to have such a chasm behind them that they can keep pitting for fresh rubber...

Despite last weekend's dramatic tyre failures, Pirelli is planning to bring softer compounds to the 70th Anniversary GP. That means Verstappen's mark might get beaten, and it would be fitting if it were Hamilton and the awesome Mercedes W11 - perhaps now the fastest road circuit racing car ever produced - that did so.

But Mansell's 1987 mark will probably remain just out of reach. For now...