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The British Grand Prix is a race that is part of the FIA Formula One World championship since the latter’s inception. The 2019 British Grand Prix is the 70th edition of the race and it will be staged on July 11-14, 2019 at the Silverstone Circuit in Silverstone, England.
The Silverstone Circuit
Built on the site of a World War 2 airfield named Royal Air Force airfield which is located in Northamptonshire in Central England, the Silverstone Circuit became the host of the first ever British Grand Prix in 1948. The race was said to have been attended by 100,000 spectators and it was won by Italian Luigi Villoresi who drove a Maserati.
Two years later, Silverstone was chosen as the venue for the inaugural Formula 1 race and one of the seven races in the first-ever World Championship of Drivers. It is one of only four races from the original Grand Prix races of 1950 that remain as part of the Formula One calendar. Only Britain and Italy have held a Grand Prix in the World Championship since its inception in 1950.
Third Longest F1 Race Track
At 5.891 km long, the Silverstone Circuit is the third longest circuit in the F1 calendar. Only the Spa Francorchamps in Belgium and Baku in Azerbaijan are longer at 7.004km and 6.003km, respectively. The current circuit configuration is called the Arena Grand Prix Circuit and it has been used since 2011. The circuit has been modified many times already mostly to reduce speed and increase the safety of the drivers.
The fastest ever lap in the 18-turn configuration was 1.25.892 by Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton during the qualifying for the 2018 British Grand Prix. On the other hand, the official lap race record is 1.30.621 and was also set by Hamilton at the 2017 British Grand Prix.
Winningest Drivers
Speaking of Lewis Hamilton, he is one of three drivers to have won the British Grand Prix the most times. Hamilton, fellow Englishman Jim Clark and Frenchman Alain Prost each won the British Grand Prix a total of five times. Hamilton is the only driver to have won in four consecutive years, doing so from 2014-2017. Another British driver in Nigel Mansell won the Britsh Gran Prix four times while Michael Schumacher, Nikki Lauda, and Jack Brabham have three wins each at Silverstone.
A total of 12 British drivers have won their home race. Aside from Hamilton and Mansell, other British drivers who have won multiple times at Silverstone were Jackie Stewart, Stirling Moss, and David Coulthard who each had two wins at the British Grand Prix. In 1963 and 1965, the podium for the British Grand Prix was composed of three British drivers. Jim Clark won both races and he was joined by John Surtees and Graham Hill in both races.
History For Hamilton
There is a lot of history on the line for Lewis Hamilton in the 2019 British Grand Prix. If he wins pole position in the race, he will set the record for most poles in one’s home event. Right now Hamilton and Aytron Sienna share the record with five poles in the British Grand Prix and Brazilian Grand Prix, respectively. If Hamilton also goes on to win this race, he will separate himself from the group and become the only driver to have won six times at Silverstone. Also, this year’s race could be memorable and sentimental for the five-time Formula One world champion because it could very well be the final British Grand Prix at this race track.
Silverstone almost lost the right to host the British Grand Prix to rival Donington Park in the 2000s so in 2010, the British Racing Drivers’ Club ( BRDC ), who own the race track, signed a deal that should’ve extended Silverstone’s place in the Formula One calendar until 2027. However, the new contract has a clause that includes a clause that increases the hosting fee each year, which means that the BRDC will have to pay Formula One an escalating fee every year. And because the circuit has struggled to turn in an income despite being one of the most popular races on the F1 calendar, BRDC activated the “Break” provision in the contract days before the staging of the 2017 British Grand Prix. Because of that and unless the owners can renegotiate a better deal, 2019 could be the last race at Silverstone.
Betting on the British Grand Prix
British Drivers have been very successful in their home event. Hamilton and Clark have five wins each. Mansell had four while Stirling Moss, Jackie Stewart and David Coulthard each had two. Johnny Herbert, John Watson, James Hunt, and Peter Collins had one each. In total, 24 British Grand Prix races were won by British drivers.
As for Constructors, Ferrari has the most wins in the British Grand Prix win 16. McLaren has 14, Williams 10 and Lotus 8. Mercedes has 6 while Red Bull has 3 victories at the British Grand Prix. This means that 36 out of the 59 races have been won by British Constructors.
Last year, Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel won the 2018 British Grand Prix, ending Lewis Hamilton’s four consecutive victories in his home event. Hamilton set the track record for the fastest lap during qualification and thus earning his fifth ever pole position in the race. Hamilton finished in second place while Kimi Raikkonen came in third to complete the podium.
As far as F1 betting is concerned, the odds for this race aren’t out yet because there is still a race scheduled for this weekend in Austria. Keep it here with us as we will give our preview and predictions once the odds are released after the conclusion of the 2019 Austrian Grand Prix.
