Umbrellas, sunblock, winter-weight fleeces, shirtsleeves – Formula One is taking leave of Silverstone, a place where a midsummer weekend can encompass four seasons’ worth of weather, in traditional style. And as it prepares to say goodbye to one of its ancestral homes, where drivers have tussled over world championship points for six decades, the farewell messages are couched in every register from the exultant shriek of a 700-horsepower racing engine to a tangle of malicious whispers.
It was a Brazilian who most eloquently enunciated the feelings of the Silverstone public. “I’ve loved this place since I ran here in Formula Three,” said Rubens Barrichello, Jenson Button’s team-mate, shortly after securing a starting position on the outside of the front row yesterday. “I know they cannot change the weather, but that’s England. It’s fast and it’s safe. Why the hell are they taking the race away from here?”…Â Details