The British Grand Prix Preview

History and hot air will be among the prevailing themes at Silverstone this weekend. Red Bull arrives at the track aiming to complete a British Grand Prix hat-trick, with Sebastian Vettel having won in 2009 and Mark Webber taking the honours last year.

Ordinarily the Red Bulls would be ranked as near-unbackable favourites, but there's a twist. Silverstone will mark the introduction of the ban (or rather, the severe limiting) of off-throttle blowing of the diffuser, and with Red Bull having been considered the primary beneficiary of the technology, it's little surprise that its rivals will be eager to see how much of a difference it will make to the performance of the RB7.

Red Bull technical chief Adrian Newey believes that the ruling will come as a serious blow to the team on the basis that the exhaust concept was integral to the overall design of the car. Changing it now, he believes, will make a fundamental difference to how the rest of the car works, and not for the better.

McLaren and Ferrari will clearly be grateful for anything that brings the Red Bull back into range, and for McLaren in particular, a slight shift in the balance of power could not come at a better time. The team has an excellent record at its home race and it is going into the weekend needing to live up to its history.

This is a critical race for the Woking team if it is to have any hope at all of stopping Red Bull from marching away with the 2011 World Championship - Vettel's lead over Jenson Button and Red Bull's advantage in the constructors' standings are both rapidly approaching treble figures.

There is one historical element to the British GP that the team would be quite pleased to reverse though, and that is Button's wobbly record there. His 11 visits to Silverstone have never yielded a better finish than fourth (last year and also with BAR in 2004), and never could a first home podium seem more timely.

It's also a crunch race from the perspective of the team's relationship with its drivers. Neither Button nor Lewis Hamilton are tied to McLaren long-term, and having a competitive car to work with this weekend would go some way towards instilling the two former world champions with a sense of confidence that they can be given opportunities to fight for more titles in the future.

The championship might no longer be at the forefront of Ferrari's thoughts, but the Scuderia will have other things to worry about. Despite some encouraging signs over the last few races, Fernando Alonso in particular is nervous that Silverstone's demands for high levels of aerodynamic downforce will highlight some of the weaknesses in the F150.

Ferrari will also be concerned about the tyres. Pirelli is bringing its hard and soft compounds this weekend, and the team's memories of the hards in particular are not happy ones - remember Alonso finishing a lap down at the Spanish Grand Prix?

The nomination of the softer tyre will come as some consolation for the Maranello team. Originally, Pirelli had considered taking the mediums and hards to Silverstone, but opted for the softs instead after consulting with the teams. Ferrari is one team that can expect to benefit slightly from the compromise, and coupled with the raft of updates that it has planned for this weekend, can offer at least some cause for optimism.

Amid all the intrigue up the front, this weekend will also forever be a significant one for Daniel Ricciardo, who will make his debut with Hispania. The Red Bull-contracted Australian has performed well during his Friday running with Toro Rosso, and has been put into Narain Karthikeyan's seat to evaluate whether he is ready to take the final step. Expect all of Australia - and at least one pair of nervous eyes in the Toro Rosso garage - to be watching with keen interest.

Weather

Strategy

The start/finish line and pit entry and exit have moved from last year, and it will be interesting to see what impact, if any, it has on strategy.

It was suggested by some of the competitors who raced on the new configuration in the GT1 World Championship race a few weeks ago that a driver running a close second could win the race by pulling into the pits on the last lap because the new pit entry is shorter. Anyone who remembers the 1998 British Grand Prix can tell you that it wouldn't be the first time that someone has won in the Silverstone pitlane.

To an extent, tyre strategy will be influenced by the level to which each team fancies its chances. The frontrunners might feel confident enough to try a series of sprints on the softs, while other teams could decide that they'd be better-served staying out on the hards for as long as possible.