Silverstone memories
and what's in store this year.
The British Grand Prix is one of those sporting weekends that instantly takes me back to my childhood.
Some of my earliest memories are of riding across fields on the back of a tractor after my family had parked at a farmer’s ‘park and ride’ somewhere outside Silverstone. I don’t think we knew the ‘ride’ would be a tractor, and I’m not sure whether that still happens, but I have wonderful memories of those weekends in the mid-90s.
Oddly, Silverstone wasn’t actually the first Formula One race I attended. That honour belongs to Magny-Cours in France. Silverstone came later, but it quickly became the one that always felt special. Sometimes it brought glorious sunshine, sometimes torrential rain, but it always had an incredible atmosphere, helped by a fantastic generation of British drivers.
I spent plenty of time in the Formula One paddock as a teenager. If you don’t know that story, I’ll pop a link to it here because it explains how those early experiences shaped everything I’ve gone on to do.
One of my favourite Formula One memories wasn’t even on the circuit.
After the Grand Prix had finished, because most drivers stayed in the BRDC campsite, there was always a post-race party and an impromptu concert on the back of a flatbed truck - possibly belonging to David Coulthard’s family haulage business. With the sides folded down, it became the ideal stage. Damon Hill was playing guitar, Johnny Herbert was on the drums with Eddie Jordan, naturally, trying to steal the show by being the best drummer. It perfectly summed up that era of Formula One.
