A year ago it didn't look good for Silverstone and F1. The deal to host the British Grand Prix had been given to Donington for the next 17 years. Cue a global financial crisis a bit 'o' wheeling and dealing ala Bernie style and hey presto, Silverstone got its Grand Prix back and the Wheatcroft family got its race track back. Everyone happy then...

One year on and here we are on Friday with 80,000 (!) spectators basking under the summer sun in all its glory. Welcome to the 2010 British Grand Prix.

It's hard to beat the atmosphere of the Northamptonshire track on a Grand Prix weekend especially if the sun's shining. With its history steeped in memorable races like Mansell's win over Piquet in 1987 all the way back to the likes of Jim Clark to Fangio and beyond, drifting their steeds around the fast and sweeping circuit, the place just buzzes the whole race weekend.

Red Bull arrived at Silverstone as the team to beat. McLaren was expected to run them close with a raft of upgrades brought in (some earlier than expected) to help narrow the gap.

The introduction of their blown diffuser a race earlier showed how game McLaren was to take the fight to Red Bull. It also demonstrated how with no testing allowed, teams have to go out on a limb on Fridays to test new parts, that have only been part tested on the multi million pound simulators the top teams possess.

An example being Gary Paffett's all-nighter on the simulator this weekend after Friday's upgrade tests proved inconsistent with the team taking off the new diffuser and floor etc only to have to revert to the original parts for Saturday. This meant that Gary would spend all night setting the cars up for Qualifying on the simulator to save time for Saturday. It showed great team commitment and is a credit to McLaren's tenacity.

Next door at Red Bull was another team with a raft of upgrades ready to be tested on Friday. On went the new front wing and another tenth of a second was in the bag. Unfortunately, Vettel's broke so his advantage was gone. Or so you'd think!

Come Saturday Vettel's car was fitted with the upgraded front wing whilst Webber's wasn't. You can imagine Mark's view on this...

The only way to do the talking in this business is on the track, come race day, you sensed Webber had a lot to say.

From the first corner, his soliloquy began and duly finished with that line:

"Not bad for a number two driver..."

To enjoy my images from the British Grand Prix, please visit the formula 1 section of my website and select Great Britain.

posted on 13th July 2010 12:00amview comments (1)leave a comment