Silverstone Circuit

Silverstone hosted the first round of the inaugural Formula 1 World Championship on 13 May 1950, and it remains the sport's fastest permanent road course after Monza. Laid out on the perimeter roads of a wartime RAF bomber station, the circuit's flat, open character means wind direction genuinely changes how the lap drives from session to session.

The signature sequence is Maggotts–Becketts–Chapel: a series of rapid direction changes taken in sixth and seventh gear that loads the car harder laterally than almost anything else in the calendar year. Copse, the first proper corner, is now close to flat out in a modern car. Stowe and Club at the end of the Wellington Straight provide the main overtaking opportunities, and the Hangar Straight before Stowe is where DRS decides most passes.

The circuit was substantially reconfigured for 2010, when the new Arena section and a relocated pit complex were added between Abbey and Brooklands. Lap records set before that year were set on a different circuit, which is why Max Verstappen's 1:27.097 from 2020 stands as the record rather than the quicker times of the mid-2000s.