Why history is not enough for Silverstone as F1 returns to its ‘forever' home

New York Times

a day ago

SILVERSTONE, UK — Sunday's Formula 1 race at Silverstone is set to be one of the biggest sporting events of the Great British sporting summer.
Some 166,000 fans are anticipated for the British Grand Prix, bringing the weekend attendance to close to half a million people. It will be an event record, and a new benchmark for races on the F1 calendar.
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'Whilst I don't chase numbers in any way, shape or form, there's quite a nice symmetry about a new record on the 75th anniversary event,' Stuart Pringle, Silverstone managing director, told The Athletic in an interview.
F1 has given plenty of hat-tips to its 75th birthday this year, starting with its glitzy season launch at The O2 arena February. But coming to Silverstone is a return to its spiritual home. On May 13, 1950, in the presence of King George VI, Silverstone held the very first race of the new F1 world championship.
But while Sunday's race will be a special landmark for Silverstone, reaping the rewards of F1's popularity boom and its work to develop in recent years, the track's focus lies on the future. It wants to ensure that in another 75 years, it will still be at the heart of British motorsport.
'Formula 1 is in great shape and Silverstone is in great shape,' said Pringle. 'History for both of us is not enough. We need to keep evolving things.'
Silverstone has played a hugely formative role in the career of every British F1 driver on the grid. Lewis Hamilton has won the grand prix nine times (a record for a driver at a single track), while Lando Norris and George Russell both took part in their first races at the circuit. This year, four drivers are racing under the British flag, while Alex Albon — who races under the Thai flag — was also born and raised in the UK.
'It's a great track, but it's more the fact that the fans are the best,' said Norris. 'It just gives you an amazing feeling that, for us, you don't really get it in any other sense of life. That feeling of support and endearment. It's so special.'
Russell watched his first British Grand Prix in 2009, standing on the outside of Copse (formerly the track's first corner). 'I knew that one day, that's where I want to be,' Russell said. '(Silverstone is) where I did my first race, my first win (in Formula 4). My first ever test in an F1 car was here as well.'
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While Hamilton has been the beacon of British success in the past decade, it is Norris who came into the weekend with the best chance of a home victory. The McLaren driver is yet to win in F1 at Silverstone, but admitted it was the race he most wanted to win. 'If I could swap all race wins for one, it would be for a Silverstone win,' he said.
Silverstone has tapped into the burgeoning support for Norris by creating a 'Landostand' for this year on the outside of Stowe. Decked in his trademark fluorescent yellow, the run of 10,000 tickets for what has typically been one of Silverstone's slower-selling grandstands went within 90 minutes. A further run of 1,000 tickets released in May were sold in days. The track placed a big emphasis on its social media campaign around the grandstand, which Pringle said had successfully helped reach a new audience. Seventy per cent of the 'Landostand' ticket buyers were women.
Norris visited the stand on Thursday to meet some of the fans and see it for himself. 'That's pretty incredible, to think that I'll have that many supporters and that many fans cheering for me,' Norris said.
'Every promoter will tell you they need home heroes,' said Pringle. 'We are very lucky that F1 is doing a fantastic job at promoting the championship as a whole and raising its profile.' But he also felt Silverstone had its own role to play in supporting the next generation of talent coming through. The aim is for the track to sell tickets to home fans in many years to come.
'The 75 years of consistency means that we have this deep-rooted ecosystem,' Pringle said. He highlighted the support given to talent by the British Racing Drivers' Club (BRDC), which owns Silverstone. The annual Autosport BRDC Award, conducted in conjunction with Autosport magazine, recognizes the best young British drivers and has provided many present stars with their first F1 test. This included Russell — after he won the award in 2014.
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'The fact that we're owned by a not-for-profit club that wants to do the best things for British racing, that creates this environment,' he said.
Pringle also felt Silverstone had a big role to play off-track, standing as a key landmark within the UK's 'Motorsport Valley.' As of next year, 10 of the 11 F1 teams will have some kind of UK base — the majority of which are within an hour's drive of Silverstone. Aston Martin and Cadillac, a new team for 2026, are based over the road. The track also has an on-site technology college that is helping nurture the next generation of motorsport engineers.
Earlier this week, F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali met with UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to discuss F1's impact, which is estimated to bring £12 billion to the British economy each year and creates 6,000 jobs through direct employment. Silverstone has a big role to play at the heart of this.
'We want Silverstone to prove an inspirational place,' Pringle said. 'The last 75 years have helped build that brand.'
The idea of Silverstone drawing in almost half a million fans over a race weekend would have seemed fanciful 15 years ago. Then, its future as the British Grand Prix host looked uncertain. F1 even signed a deal to move the race to Donington Park, a circuit in Leicestershire, in 2010, only for the project to fail and the race remain at Silverstone.
As recently as 2017, Silverstone triggered a break clause in its contract, saying at the time it was no longer financially viable to keep hosting F1 under its previous terms. It eventually agreed fresh terms with Liberty Media.
Plenty has changed since then. Silverstone announced last year it had agreed a 10-year contract to stay on the calendar until 2034 — one of the longest-term deals in F1. Prior to meeting Starmer, Domenicali said that while F1's relationship with the promoters of the race had been 'intense' in the past, he now thought the track had 'the right characteristics to stay forever on the calendar.'
Pringle referred to the period before 2024 as 'rollercoaster years' but said that with the shift in F1's fan base and the transformation of the race track's facilities, they were 'no longer a point of reference' for Silverstone.
Silverstone has diversified its offerings beyond F1 and the other racing categories it hosts, including MotoGP and domestic motorsport championships. A hotel now overlooks the main straight, and a set of luxury residences called 'Escapades' are located next to the track. Tapping into its history, the circuit also has a museum, and it is reviving its 'Lap of Lights' event in December, where fans can see Christmas lights as they drive around the circuit. Pringle said the strength of the F1 brand had helped Silverstone 'create this year-round leisure and business destination.'
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The circuit has also leaned into a festival-style atmosphere — complete with the large contingency of fans camping at the track — by hosting a number of big-name music acts that fans can watch as part of their ticket price. This is something a number of other tracks have done since the Liberty Media takeover in 2017.
The main stage at Silverstone is the second-biggest in the UK, according to Pringle, only second to the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury. Sam Fender opened the event on Thursday night ahead of Raye, Fatboy Slim and Becky Hill respectively performing through the rest of the weekend. 'We're fully bought into the Liberty Media vision for F1,' Pringle said. 'It's the biggest sports and entertainment property in the world.'
He felt the British Grand Prix had forged a strong identity that meant it could stand out among the glitzy, newer races on the F1 calendar. 'We're never going to take on Singapore for a downtown night race, ditto Las Vegas, or Miami for a cool ocean front vibe or whatever,' Pringle said. 'But actually this British summer festival, with music, sports, (the) tented music festival look and feel, works really well here.'
No extravagant celebrations are planned for F1's 75th anniversary at Silverstone this weekend. The track itself is honoring the landmark at the Silverstone Festival, taking place in August, where it is trying to bring in as many F1 world championship-winning cars as possible (or identical copies).
Pringle said it could be 'the greatest gathering ever of F1 world championship-winning cars ever gathered, arguably F1 cars ever gathered, in terms of the lineage and the spread of history.'
But the track's focus is very much on the future. After emerging from those 'rollercoaster' years to become one of the most popular events on the calendar among both fans and the drivers, it is now in a position where it can keep expanding.
When the F1 paddock returns each July, new facilities or buildings are springing up around the track, with the next big step being a state-of-the-art go-kart track that is set to open this year.
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But Pringle insisted Domenicali's belief that Silverstone could host the British Grand Prix 'forever' does not breed any kind of complacency in himself or his team.
'I should absolutely stress we do not take our place on the calendar for granted at all,' Pringle said. 'We will absolutely look to evolve and develop Silverstone over the next decade to ensure that there's not a scintilla of doubt when it comes to renewing the contract because we want to do it.'
Even with a long-term contract to 2034, the countdown to that date is already on. And, with the work that is ongoing to future-proof Silverstone and keep building on its status at the heart of British motorsport, it is looking far beyond.
'Silverstone is absolutely synonymous with the championship,' Pringle said. 'In 75 years' time, I sincerely hope that we are a Formula 1 circuit.'