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Race information - Britain 2016 - Back to back races moves the F1 circus to Silverstone

Published by Christine

We're having a brilliant summer of sport this year, with Wimbledon, the Euros, and the Olympics coming up soon. Tucked away in the middle of all that is the British Grand Prix, a race that many teams consider to be their home event, and one that is eagerly attended by fans and drivers alike. This weekend, Silverstone plays host to the next installment in 2016's Formula One saga, and hopefully it can live up to the promise.

Event schedule

There's plenty of drama as we go into this weekend, as the Mercedes boys had something of a falling out in Austria and have had little to no time to deal with it. Toto Wolff has never looked so angry as he watched his drivers crash into each other on the final lap of the race. What was said behind closed doors, we'll never know, but they've been on the defensive ever since and there's no reason to think Silverstone weekend will be any different.

Because of the incident, the championship is hotting up, and in Austria we saw some drivers finishing in the top ten that desperately needed the points. Jenson Button boosted into the points and that has helped morale for the struggling McLaren squad. Pascal Wehrlein finished tenth for a single but important point for Manor. Everyone will be hoping the unpredictable nature of the British Grand Prix will aid more drivers get points on the board.

Session timetable
DateDaySessionTimeLocal time
08 JulFridayFree Practice 110:00
GMT +01:00
10:00
GMT +01:00
Free Practice 214:00
GMT +01:00
14:00
GMT +01:00
09 JulSaturdayFree Practice 310:00
GMT +01:00
10:00
GMT +01:00
Qualifying13:00
GMT +01:00
13:00
GMT +01:00
10 JulSundayGrand Prix13:00
GMT +01:00
13:00
GMT +01:00

Support racing for this event includes GP2 Series, GP3 Series and Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup.

Expected conditions

Predicting the weather for the British race is always tricky, we're prone to seeing sunshine, rain and sometimes even snow all in the same day. But the professionals have had a go and come up with the below - cloudy, humid and overcast for practice and qualifying, with the potential for rain to hit during the racing action on Sunday. Just the way we like it.

Partly cloudy

Silverstone, Friday

22℃

  • Low 13℃
  • Humidity 69%

Partly cloudy

Humid with variable clouds

Silverstone, Saturday

22℃

  • Low 15℃
  • Humidity 75%

Humid with variable clouds

Scattered showers

Silverstone, Sunday

22℃

  • Low 12℃
  • Humidity 72%

Scattered showers

Circuit history

Circuit information
CircuitSilverstone Circuit
LocationSilverstone
CountryUnited Kingdom
TimezoneGMT +01:00
Race debut1950
Laps52
Length5.891 km
Distance306.198 km
Line offset0.134 km

The British Grand Prix has been on the calendar since the F1 World Championship began in 1950, although it hasn't always been at Silverstone. It's also been held at Brands Hatch and Aintree, but Silverstone has notched up the most events.

The track has undergone many changes since those early airfield and hay bale days, but it has remained stable for the last couple of years. Ahead of the 2016 race, the only tweaks are some new artificial grass installed around Copse, Stow and Club.

Lewis Hamilton won the race impressively last year, winning from pole position. Starting from the first spot on the grid isn't crucial at Silverstone though - since 2000, only four drivers have achieved victory from pole position.

Results for the 2015 British Grand Prix
SessionDriverTeamTime
Free Practice 1Nico RosbergMercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team1:34.274
Free Practice 2Nico RosbergMercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team1:34.155
Free Practice 3Lewis HamiltonMercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team1:32.917
QualifyingLewis HamiltonMercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team1:32.248
Grand PrixLewis HamiltonMercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team1:31:27.729
Fastest lapLewis HamiltonMercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team1:37.093

Tyre compounds

From using the ultrasoft compound in Austria, we move to the other end of the spectrum in Britain, with the hard compound making its first appearance since the Spanish Grand Prix. Drivers have opted for more of the softer compound, as per usual, but we are definitely starting to see more of a mixture of strategies.

Sauber have gone for nine sets of the softs, limiting their selection of hard and medium tyres, whilst Force India have gone to the other extreme, loading up with three hards and only six softs.

Selected tyre sets per driver
Hard tyreMedium tyreSoft tyre
Lewis Hamilton157
Nico Rosberg157
Sebastian Vettel238
Kimi Räikkönen238
Valtteri Bottas157
Felipe Massa157
Daniel Ricciardo247
Max Verstappen247
Nico Hülkenberg346
Sergio Pérez346
Kevin Magnussen157
Jolyon Palmer157
Daniil Kvyat238
Carlos Sainz238
Marcus Ericsson139
Felipe Nasr139
Fernando Alonso157
Jenson Button157
Pascal Wehrlein157
Rio Haryanto157
Romain Grosjean247
Esteban Gutiérrez157

Press conference schedule

Official press conferences are organised by the FIA and happen four times during the weekend. The qualifying and post race press conferences will take place after the television unilateral interviews.

Press Conference Schedule
DayAttendeeRepresenting
ThursdayValtteri BottasWilliams Martini Racing
Jenson ButtonMcLaren Honda
Romain GrosjeanHaas F1 Team
Lewis HamiltonMercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team
Jolyon PalmerRenault Sport F1 Team
Pascal WehrleinManor Racing MRT
FridayMaurizio ArrivabeneScuderia Ferrari
Éric BoullierMcLaren Honda
Vijay MallyaSahara Force India F1 Team
Dave RyanManor Racing MRT
Claire WilliamsWilliams Martini Racing
Toto WolffMercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team
SaturdayThree fastest drivers
SundayFirst three finishing drivers

Race stewards

The FIA stewarding process includes a former F1 driver to offer added insight. These stewards are overseeing the weekend's action.

FIA stewards
NamePosition
Nigel MansellFormula One World Champion 1992, CART Champion 1993, Le Mans driver and President of the Institute of Advanced Motorists.
Tim MayerFIA alternate delegate to the USA and FIA Steward, son of former McLaren Team Principal Teddy Mayer, plus involvement in management of IndyCar and CART.
Nish ShettyFIA Steward and member of the FIA International Court of Appeal.

All content in the series Britain 2016