For a short period in 1976, James Hunt was a British Grand Prix winner. However, two months after the race, he was stripped of this title, having been deemed not to have completed the full race distance at Brands Hatch, following a first lap incident that required him to dive into the pits for repairs, rather than completing a full lap, on his road to victory.

A year from his infamous disqualification, he arrived in Silverstone for the 1977 British Grand Prix, desperate to reinstate his title as a home race winner.

The successor to the title-winning M23, the M26, was a temperamental beast. So much so that reigning World Champion James continued to drive the M23 on occasion in 1977. However, at the hands of the mercurial British racer, it could be extremely quick on its day. The Saturday of the 1977 British Grand Prix was one of those days, as James wrangled the M26 to Pole.

He didn’t get a great start to the race on Sunday, dropping to P4 initially, but then hauled himself up past Jody Scheckter on Lap 7, and Niki Lauda on Lap 23. He initially got stuck behind leader John Watson, but when the British driver began experiencing fuel system problems, James saw his opportunity. He swept into the lead, claiming a first win for the M26 and taking the victory he’d been denied the previous season.

Silverstone has had several different track layouts over the years, and each has its merits, but the 1975 – ’86 version, absent of braking points and extremely fast, is arguably the most fearsome.

John Watson started fifth in 1981 and dropped back to seventh during a difficult start. He then fell further when a spinning Gilles Villeneuve caused a pile-up, which Wattie avoided, but at the cost of falling two further positions.  

From there, he staged one of the great comebacks. His McLaren didn’t have the power of those around him, but it was more reliable and he was able to pass Bruno Giamcomelli, Mario Andretti and Championship leader Carlos Reutemann, while Didier Pironi and Alain Prost retired ahead of him. By Lap 17, he was up to second, but 24 seconds behind leader René Arnoux.

There he stayed… until the Frenchman’s Renault started sounding odd. The crowd urged Wattie on, and the gap came steadily down, as he grabbed the lead with six laps to go, taking his first McLaren victory.

David Coulthard was already a British Grand Prix winner by 2000, having claimed the victory he would have “traded for any other win” (sound familiar?) in the previous season, but his second home win was the more impressive of the two.

The British Grand Prix is often a wet-dry affair, with the weather in the UK so famously unpredictable, but some are wetter than they are drier. The race in 2000 looked set to be one of those, having been plotted in earlier than usual on Easter Sunday.

Naturally, there was torrential rain, the car parks turned into a quagmire, the grass run-offs were so wet even the recovery vehicles got stuck but, miraculously, Qualifying was almost dry and the race somehow found a gap in the April showers.

DC got a good start, passing Mika Häkkinen for P3 and then inherited P2 when Heinz-Harald Frentzen pitted on Lap 24. David’s pass of Rubens Barrichello for the lead, however, was old-school: getting a tow down the Hangar straight and going around the outside at Stowe. The crowd rose to their feet.

There were still pit stops to play out, but DC never looked back. Mika followed him home in P2, securing what would be our last 1-2 at Silverstone for 25 years.

Lewis Hamilton secured a record-breaking ninth British Grand Prix victory in 2024, but his most famous home win was arguably his first, back in 2008.

After taking a historic Pole, Lewis had missed out on a home win in his rookie season, when he was overtaken by eventual Drivers’ Champion Kimi Räikkönen. In 2008, armed with the lessons learnt in 2007, Lewis had looked odds-on for victory… until his teammate Heikki Kovalainen snatched Pole.

No matter. On a truly filthy-wet day, Lewis was up from fourth to second at the start, and harried Heikki until he took the lead on Lap 5, up the inside into Stowe with a masterful move.

From there, he sailed serenely on, building a bigger and bigger lead that rarely attracted the cameras. The race behind was a litany of spins, slides, and cars beaching in the gravel, and yet Lewis, out in front, was driving as if there wasn’t a drop of rain on the track.

Lewis eventually finished over a minute ahead of second-placed Nick Heidfeld. You won’t see a finer wet-weather performance. So good, in fact, that it inspired a young Lando Norris…

Two years on from the 2023 British Grand Prix, when Lando and Oscar were both unleashed in upgraded McLarens for the first time – a key milestone in our current renaissance – we were back on the top step at our home race.

The MCL39 has been the class of the field for much of the season, but on Saturday in Silverstone, the Mercedes, Ferraris, and Red Bulls were all on par with us. Oscar and Lando rose to the challenge, managing second and third, but behind Max Verstappen, who had produced an excellent lap.

In race trim, however, the Red Bull was no match for the MCL39, as both Oscar and Lando dispatched of Verstappen. Lando briefly lost the position in the pits, but regained it once more as Verstappen spun amid the difficult conditions.

This put him in a position to capitalise when Oscar was dealt a 10-second penalty, with Lando emerging in first, ahead of his teammate, before the pair built up an unassailable lead, Lando crossing the line 37 seconds ahead of the nearest non-McLaren.  

Lando’s win – which he hailed as a dream come true - was our first at Silverstone since Lewis in 2008. Watching on from home that day in ’08 was an eight-year-old Lando Norris, our British star recalling the race as the first he remembers watching and a pivotal moment in his journey to the grid.