Cue the traditional patriotic music and aerial videos of a Spitfire gliding over the few expanses of countryside that haven't been built upon. Because it is that time of year when the grumbling masses of the F1 paddock roll up here, to Britain. We should be enamoured by the fact that not necessarily the greatest, but certainly the fanciest category of international motorsport has arrived on our shores. Maybe some people are, maybe some are completely enthralled by the idea, but here in Blog HQ... not so much. Here it is no different to any other race on the calendar - with the exception of the quality of the track. If Silverstone was plucked out of the ground and dumped in the middle of Holland or France it wouldn't be any more or less exiting than it is here in England. Does that make me unpatriotic - perhaps, after all the biggest celebration in Blog HQ during the world cup wasn't for either of England's goals - but for a French goal by a Newcastle player... But more to the point is because F1 as an entity is becoming more disassociated from the general population who form the fan base. Especially here in Britain... where you'd need to harvest souls and sell then en masse just to get past the entry gate. Furthermore the race is a long way south of here... because the powers that be constantly treat anything in the north as some form of tumour that needs to be financially starved until it is forced to defect to Scotland. So no-one can come close to affording access to our own event... and Sky are insistent making their coverage as expensive as possible so less people can see it anyway. Adding another football channel means that people who don't care about football have to pay more to watch none of it... genius. The most hilarious part is that Bernie seems to think that declining audiences has something to do the rules and suggests ever more ridiculous ideas to compensate...
The Venue
Despite the impassible chasm between the sport and its followers, Silverstone as a track and as a feature on the calendar has major significance - the vast majority of it historical. This time around marks the 50th British GP on this circuit - through all of the ultimately superior iterations of the layout before coming to rest at the one we have now. It comes as no surprise to realise that the modifications to the track were due to pressure from Bernie to scrounge more money in circuit fees out of the place... the same logic that has seen the elderly nutter threaten Monza.
The opening 'newer' section of the lap is almost a complete contradiction to the core ideals that whole history of the track was built on. Turns one and two are decent - representing the fast flowing traditions of Silverstone - but the two consecutive hairpins are not... I know why they are there - to encourage overtaking, because allowing drivers to figure it out themselves is clearly beyond their level of expertise. Turn five onto the Wellington straight was where the first tyre failures started to arise last season, marking the start of the first DRS section and the route back the normality of the Silverstone of old.
Was all that worth losing the original Abbey chicane and the brilliant Bridge corner... perhaps not, but at least the remainder of the track remains intact as the new section rejoins at Brooklands - which is faster and more open nowadays. Luffield has been superceded by most of the 'arena' section as the most annoying corner on the track. It is slow and ponderous and slightly off camber inducing terrible understeer - but out of Luffield and through Woodcote lies probably the greatest section of race track we'll see all season long. Infamous in it's brilliance, known the whole world over.
It all starts at Copse, where the better track used to start - to think that the first corner is going to be much more of a challenge with the newer regulations makes the rest of it very interesting. After Copse there is the magnificence that is the Maggots, Becketts and Chapel sequence of tarmac based wonder. In these new cars it is going to even more difficult than it has been in recent years when they had so much downforce. This time around these bends will not be easy flat, and seeing folk powersliding sounds brilliant. This exits onto the Hangar straight which used to mark the end of the immense first sector. Following the straight we reach Stowe corner, which is utterly marvellous, it is possible to carry plenty of speed as it opens up perfectly as the track falls away on the exit. Made even better by the fact that there is plenty of grass-crete on the outside of the track to punish those who run wide.
The final section of the lap bears all the scars of the modifications that were made a few years ago - Vale is much tighter than it used to be and Club is no longer the single continuous corner it once was. Instead it is a odd double apexed creation - probably because smooth round corners don't match with the pointlessly angular future configurations that blight these omnipresent clones we are cursed with across the globe...
The Form Guide
How can a track based primarily on power benefit anyone other than the factory Mercedes team, but this time I don't see the likes of Williams, Force India and McLaren being dragged along with them. While Silverstone is a very quick airfield circuit, the quantity of high and very high speed corners mean that aerodynamic efficiency is also very important. As a result Red Bull become the primary contenders for third place behind the Mercedes team. If Williams and McLaren do struggle due to weaker aero performance, it does open the door for Ferrari to steal a few places and some points.
The bottom end of the points may get very busy - with Williams back to Toro Rosso and potentially even Lotus all being potential scorers. Of the group there is a chance that Toro Rosso might do quite well, as they often have a car that can manage to extract lots of speed out of a Renault powered car. On the other hand it could easily be a difficult race for McLaren who have pointed out weaknesses in the downforce package which have held them back before.
Down at the very back of the grid it is turbulent times for Caterham, as Fernandes has officially been sold off to Colin Kolles, who was involved with the ill-fated HRT team and the non-existent Stefan GP entry. Dutchman Albers will become team principle - whose last involvement with the sport involved been flipped at Imola by Yuji Ide at Imola in an accident similar to Maldonado and Gutierrez's in Bahrain. Incidentally Ide was banned from the sport after that while Pastor is still here... Anyway this plays into Maruissia's hands and could potentially catch and pass Sauber this weekend.
F1 may not be for the people anymore, and it be increasingly pulling away from the nations and venues it visits during the season, becoming an ill-governed autonomous monster instead. Yet underneath all that cynicism and disproportionate costs we still get astonishing tracks like this one, steeped in history... well the bits that are left of it anyway. So many events have been replaced by anaesthetised generic clones - but this weekend we get to cling onto the remaining fragments of tradition that is the British GP
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