Silverstone’s famous racing circuit sits on the grounds of the former RAF Silverstone bomber base, which operated from 1943 to 1946 during World War II. The old airfield featured three runways arranged in the classic WWII triangular layout—and those runways still sit inside the modern track’s outline today.
The circuit stretches across the border between Northamptonshire and Buckinghamshire, with easy access from the A43. It’s close to the towns of Towcester (about 5 miles away), Brackley (7 miles), and Buckingham (6 miles). The nearest city is Milton Keynes, home of the Red Bull Racing Formula One team. Several F1 teams are based in the UK, but Aston Martin (formerly Force India) is the closest—its brand-new headquarters is less than a kilometre from the circuit.
Silverstone’s racing story began in a wonderfully improvised way. In September 1947, a group of friends decided to hold a casual race on the abandoned airfield. One of them, Maurice Geoghegan, lived in nearby Silverstone village and knew the site was empty. Twelve drivers took part on a roughly 2-mile (3.2 km) course. During the race, Geoghegan accidentally hit a sheep that had wandered onto the track; the sheep was killed and his car was destroyed. The incident gave the event its joking nickname—the “Mutton Grand Prix.”
The following year, the Royal Automobile Club stepped in, leased the airfield, and laid out a proper racing circuit. The first two official races were run directly on the airfield’s runways, using long straights connected by tight hairpins and marked out with hay bales. By the time of the 1949 International Trophy, organizers switched to the airfield’s perimeter road, a layout used for the 1950 and 1951 Grands Prix.
In 1952, the start line was moved from the Farm Straight to the straight between Woodcote and Copse, and that general layout stayed largely the same for nearly four decades. Safety updates came later: in 1975, a chicane was added to slow cars through Woodcote (though motorbikes continued using the original fast version until 1986), and Bridge Corner was subtly redesigned in 1987.
