A lap of Silverstone

Opinions are divided about Silverstone among the drivers - especially the Brits. Whilst it's true that some points are a little bit 'point and squirt', other corners - notably the Becketts complex - are superb. As the drivers cross the start-finish line, they are flat out in sixth and reach 180mph before braking - and flicking down one or two gears - for Copse. Copse used to be nearly flat in sixth gear, but was revised to a third gear corner in 1994 after the deaths in 1994 and although it has been made faster it is still not as fast as it was. It was revised again earlier this year, speeding it back up. Next are Maggots, Becketts and Chapel. With the exception of Eau Rouge, the Maggots-Becketts-Chapel complex is probably the most demanding and technical set of turns of any Grand Prix circuit in the world. The track flicks fast left, fast right, change down two gears, and exit a fast right - it's that quick! The driver will be experiencing in excess of 2G lateral force as he negotiates each corner, struggling all the time to point the car in the right direction. There's no rest for the drivers, however, as they scream down the Hangar Straight passing under the Mobil bridge. The next corner, Stowe, has been remodeled, as 1995's and, subsequently, 1996's revised versions were considered a little too tame for Formula One. The right-hand corner is taken in fourth at an estimated 110mph. The cars then pass through the Vale straight and enter the tight, second gear, left hander at Club. Drivers then enter a tight right-hander that opens up at the exit, allowing them to accelerate hard and breifly reach sixth gear before braking for the Abbey chicane. Accelerating out of Abbey, usually taken in second, the cars pass through the flat out, right hand bend: Bridge. The next few corners: Priory, Brooklands and Luffield were a fairly dull series of second gear, left and right handers in years past. However, Brooklands and Luffield have been re-profiled to allow a faster, more flowing transition into Woodcote. The exit to Luffield is important, as it leads to Woodcote - a flat out right hander - and onto the main straight where the tough process begins once again.

Circuit length: 3.194 miles / 5.140 km Race length: 60 laps (191.640 miles / 308.400 km)

What happened last year?

The Field

Winfield Williams-Mecachrome Goodyear
Things are definitely getting better for Williams but unfortunately while they improve, so do the other teams. That said, the FW20 is now a much better car than it was at the start of the season and Jacques Villeneuve at least is making the most of it, turning in solid performances that net points even if they don't get him wins or podium finishes. Heinz-Harald Frentzen is looking less convincing and I expect that this is down to the uncertainty surrounding his future. Paradoxically, the drop off in performance is going to lower the price of his stock in the eyes of team bosses and make things worse. I would expect Villeneuve to be the dominant driver this weekend but while points are likely, a podium finish seems unlikely except in exceptional circumstances.

Marlboro Scuderia Ferrari Goodyear
Things are looking better for Ferrari than they have for a long time but part of me still thinks that Ferrari and Michael Schumacher are capable of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory regardless of how fast and reliable the car is. In Eddie Irvine the team has a great number 2, happy to play second fiddle to Schumacher and fast enough to hold up the McLaren drivers without making it too easy for them to pass. Testing suggests that pole position and race win will be a 3-way battle between Schumacher and the McLaren drivers with Irvine close behind. Times from the test indicate that whoever gets into Copse corner first will win the race so there is a clear chance for Schumacher to win his 4th of 1998 and close Hakkinen's lead to at most 2 points.

Mild Seven Benetton-Playlife Bridgestone
The last Grand Prix did not do much for Benetton with Alex Wurz taking only 2 points and Giancarlo Fisichella finishing 9th. For Silverstone things look to be much better (as you would expect from a teams home circuit) and in the tests last week, both drivers were consistently near the top of the time sheets. Both drivers are on top of their form, the tyres are good and the chassis working well so the weakpoint is obviously the Mecachrome engine. The v10 that powers Benetton and Williams is essentially the same as the Renault engine that both teams ended 1997 with and is now almost 1 year old. Based on test and previous form, you can be sure the Benetton pairing will be pretty evenly matched and racing in the top 6 and potentially finishing on the podium.

West McLaren-Mercedes Bridgestone
It's a difficult time for McLaren at the moment as everyone expects the drivers to walk each race and yet Ferrari is almost as fast without such expectations. Eddie Irvine said last week that McLaren have lost the Championship already but I have a feeling this is more than a bit premature as the current run of bad luck cannot continue for the Woking team. There still remains little to fault at McLaren with both drivers proving that they are smooth and fast and can extract stunning lap times from their machinery when given the opportunity. Bridgestone performed poorly at Magny-Cours but for Silverstone should be back on song again. You can expect a McLaren on pole and more than likely a second alongside it, but the race depends entirely on how well they start. Finally, David Coulthard should be the top dog this weekend if only because he is to be performing in front of his home crowd.

Benson & Hedges Jordan-Mugen Honda Goodyear
A slightly better weekend for Jordan in France in terms of performance, but not in terms of reliability which has, so far, been appalling. Another area that is said to need improving is the Mugen-Honda engine which has come in for criticism from Damon Hill recently. He has said that there are huge gaps in the power band and that the team will be limited until Mugen improve their powerplant. In testing at Silverstone (which is right across the road from the Jordan factory) both cars went well and Ralf Schumacher ended the final day second only to his big brother Michael. I'd expect Jordan to qualify at the front of the midfield teams but not to worry the big teams too much. Picking a winner from the pair is a hard one, but I'd say with Damon racing at home he should have the upper hand over Schumacher by the end of the weekend.

Gauloises Blondes Prost-Peugeot Bridgestone
Things are getting worse for Alain Prost and his team. Rumours of the impending arrival of John Barnard to replace Bernard Dudot as technical director are matched by those saying that Peugeot is on the point of pulling out of F1. Whatever the truth behind the rumours, things need to improve for Prost fast if the team is to retain the support it enjoys from the French media and industry, and without this the team is destined to remain an also-ran. The talk of Olivier Panis leaving Prost at the end of 1998 is not going away and the team are certainly looking on Jarno Trulli as the future after the young Italian has done better than his experienced team mate in the first half of the season. Following on from this and last weeks tests, expect Trulli to be the faster of the two drivers throughout the weekend but don't expect points unless the rest of the field has serious problems.

Red Bull Sauber-Petronas Goodyear
It's difficult to know what Sauber can do in a race weekend really. They are consistently near the front of the midfield, the drivers are very evenly matched and the team knows what it is doing, so where is the problem? The most obvious answer is the engine. Although it is a Ferrari engine under the Petronas cam-covers it is at best 1 specification behind the Ferrari, and it is this, more than anything else, that is holding them back. I'd expect Johnny Herbert to do better than Jean Alesi just because he's at his home Grand Prix, but with his 1999 plans in flux there remains the possibility that Alesi will sneak ahead.

Danka ArrowsBridgestone
It appears that Arrows has the reliability problems that dogged it in the early part of 1998 well and truly beaten, but have a long way to go to improve the speed of its cars. Without a doubt Arrows is the worst performing team per pound spent (although Prost is close behind) and Tom Walkinshaw will not be happy with the progress that his team has made since the same period last year (the team has gone backwards if anything). Monaco proved the chassis is good but the engine, yet again, lets the team and drivers down owing to it's lack of top end power. Pedro Diniz should be the slower of the two drivers but with Mika Salo suffering most of the engine problems in qualifying don't be surprised to see Pedro ahead of Mika.

Stewart-Ford Bridgestone
Despite the optimism after qualifying in France, things have not improved for Stewart. New-boy Jos Verstappen is hardly any faster than Jan Magnussen was in relation to Rubens Barrichello and once again this is either down to Stewart or Barrichello. While Barrichello is good, Verstappen and Magnussen are also very fast and this amongst other things points to the inability of the team to give 2 cars equal attention over a race weekend. Expect Jos to lag behind his Brazilian team mate in all sessions.

Tyrrell-Ford Goodyear
The first of the customer Ford teams must be wishing it had stuck with Yamaha as even at it's worst, the Yamaha v10 had better reliability than their current engine. With poor reliability the drivers can do little for the team except perform well until the engine gives out but with the Ford v10 not exactly brimming with power even when it does work, they are facing an uphill task. Tora Takagi is still dominating Ricardo Rosset (and will this weekend) but Rosset seems to have managed to find some extra time in the car and is closer than ever.

Minardi-Ford Bridgestone
Minardi are also suffering with their customer engine, but whilst the Minardi cars have more reliability than the Tyrrells, they have much less power (both teams control their respective engine development programmes at Cosworth). Watching the cars you get the feeling there is little left that the drivers can do with the equipment available, but they are usually around the bottom of the timesheets. Esteban Tuero should beat Shinji Nakano this weekend as both have similar experience of the British circuit and Tuero appears to be the more gifted of the two.

Enjoy the race...