There are several things Britain still does very well: a proper bacon sandwich; a well-organised queue; a high-speed FIA Grade 1 circuit. There aren’t many venues on the calendar that challenge a Formula 1 car across the full range of its capabilities – but Silverstone occupies an exalted position within the handful that do. It tests the bravery of the driver as it does the dark arts of the designer. The skillset of the race engineer also gets thoroughly worked over too.
The circuit mods in 2010, designed to make Silverstone more bike-friendly, created a more nuanced Arena layout for F1 cars. Instead of being a high-speed monster it became a high-speed monster… with some really complicated slow bits. The bluff, old traditionalists may choke on their cucumber sandwiches but making a safer, more modern circuit also made it better.
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