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Visited the prestigious Silverstone F1 Circuit and Museum in the UK

30th November 2023, 16:28 by Utkarsh Chaudhary

As we entered, we were greeted by a Mercedes Formula One car hanging from the ceiling.

BHPian commander.sri recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Prologue:

My current profession as a part of the senior leadership team of a German MNC demands quite some travel to Europe, the US, the Middle East, and South East Asia once every 3 months or so.

When I am in Europe, most of the time it's just short stays in the UK, Germany or the Czech Republic for around 10 days mapped with super loaded schedules of meetings followed by late dinners leaving little to no time to go around. My recent visit was to the United Kingdom a couple of weeks ago. This time around, I had the chance to breathe a little non-business air and so came in the privilege to visit the Silverstone F1 Circuit and museum with some amazing artefacts from the racing world.

Monologue:

The entry into the lobby area was greeted with a splendid atmosphere and was fantabulous, to say the least. Silverstone, the history dates back to World War II when the RAC (Royal Automobile Club) in the 1940s was looking for a racing track to promote racing and discovered a few ex-RAF (Royal Air Force) airfields at Silverstone and with a few modifications, they might very well be converted into fantastic race tracks.

And so, in 1948, marked the first milestone of impromptu racing which in the later years has graduated into many prestigious Grand Prix at the infamous Silverstone F1 Racing Circuit of the world. The track surprisingly not only hosts Global Grand Prix races but also lets club racers have fun with their race/track tuned beauties as well.

Epilogue:

Please pardon my ignorance if I have missed clicking the right images with the right perspectives of view engaging more attention to detail and holding more information to feed. Given the short time I was able to spare at the track, the F1 simulation network gaming and the museum, I tried my best to capture what I could from my smartphone’s camera (a Fold 4’s camera – well, not the best but ain’t the worst too).

Hope you do enjoy the clicks. Cheers.

A Mercedes F1 car suspended from the roof greets our way in.

Followed by a warm welcome with grandeur by three legendary bikes.

The Triumph Moto2 765 Prototype was very interesting of the lot.

A peek from the top section gives a nice view of what’s more to explore.

A wonderful 3D projected presentation showcasing the evolution of the Silverstone circuit.

This is one of the most exciting exhibits – The very first prototype of a track car embedded with a 500cc motorcycle engine. These were the very first set of wheels to ever run on the track.

And this is how the race car evolved during the 1960s.

Evolution into the 70s | The Viking built by Alan Baille in his workshop. He won 21 races from 1972-76 using the same car including the Monoposto Formula Championship in 1974, 1975 and 1976.

”7UP” Jordan 191 | Often described as the best looking F1 car ever made. Well, to me looks are subjective but what makes it special is the fact that this was the car that legend - Michael Schumacher made his Formula One debut at the Belgian Grand Prix in 1991.

Williams FW14B | Crown jewel of Williams which enabled Nigel Mansell to win 9 out of 16 races including 1st place in the 1992 British Grand Prix at Silverstone. With FW14B Williams design team introduced several advanced features including a semi-automatic gearbox, traction control, active suspension, and a blown diffuser.

Williams FW16C | The one designed with no technical aids such as traction control and active suspension after the ban by FIA for the 1994 season excelled in every race in the season launching Damon Hill to the position of team leader.

Some more stars of Formula One

McLaren MP4/15 | Mclaren’s 2000 Formula One Championship Car driven by David Coulthard who finished the season in 3rd place after 3 wins and 11 podium finishes.

The Legendary Brawn BGP001 | A clear example of why Honda Racing shouldn’t have given up the team in December 2008, smartly taken over as a management buy-out by Ross Brawn, the then team Principal going ahead to win 6 of 7 races from the season in 2009, to be later acquired by Daimler forming the Mercedes Formula One Team in 2010.

Red Bull RB10 | Redbull’s 1st ever V6 Turbo-engined F1 Car driven by Daniel Ricciardo and Sebastian Vettel during the 2014 British Grand Prix at Silverstone.