Silverstone after Valencia
author: Andries van der Walt
The Grand Prix circus returns to Silverstone, one of the hallowed racing circuits in the history of Grand Prix racing, for the Santander British Grand Prix. Formula One aficionados will flock to the circuits in their tens of thousands with the events following the running of the European Grand Prix at Valencia still fresh in their minds.
He teams will hopefully have put all the tensions of the past week behind them. After the fiasco at Valencia recriminations were the order of the day. Fernando Alonso stated that the race had been rigged, a statement he later retracted. There was general unhappiness with the way in which the safety car was deployed and the way in which Hamilton got in front of the safety car.
And then some cockpit TV footage emerged showing Mark Webber fiddling with the F-duct on his Red Bull car with his left hand while bearing down on the back of Heikki Kovalaine’ns car. His left hand was clearly not on the steering wheel. There was also much unhappiness about the stewards handling of the penalties for those drivers who, like Hamilton, speeded past the safety car.
The expected full house at Silverstone will naturally be there to cheer on the local McLaren team and its two drivers, Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button, both former world champions and both in the running for the championship in 2010. Silverstone is the home circuit of the McLaren team. The track has undergone some changes in the past year.
"Of course, the big unknown for this year is the new track configuration. On paper, it looks to have kept most of the classic corners, which is important. We've lost Bridge, but we've still got Copse, Becketts and Stowe, which is great.
"There's no substitute for actually driving it though, and a new circuit is always great fun to try out and get to grips with, so I can't wait for Friday morning," Jenson Button was reported as saying.
"Our home race at Silverstone has a special significance for all of us, and it would make the whole team tremendously proud if either Jenson or Lewis were able to stand atop the podium on Sunday afternoon. Such a result would be the highlight of our season so far,” Martin Whitmarsh, the Team Principal of the Vodafone McLaren Team was quoted as saying.
The Formula One season reaches its halfway mark this coming weekend. The championship race is still far from over with the top four leading drivers within easy striking distance of each other.
Hamilton is leading the points log on 127 points, followed by his team mate, Jenson Button on 121. Third is Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull on 115 points and Mark Webber also from the Red Bull team on 103 points.
The British Grand Prix at Silverstone has a long history of exciting racing. This weekend may be no different.
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