It's time for the big one; Watch every British GP session live on Sky F1; Button, Brundle, Hill, Kravitz, all part of coverage this weekend
Wednesday 10 July 2019 13:23, UK
After an awesome Austrian GP, Formula 1 heads to Silverstone for one of the biggest sporting events of 2019 - the iconic British GP.
Get ready for the highlight of the motorsport summer. Sky Sports F1 will have the most extensive coverage from the showpiece weekend with insight from pundits and experts including Jenson Button, Martin Brundle and Damon Hill.
It's not one to be missed, and there's plenty of reasons why the British GP is one of the most anticipated weekends of the season for fans - with another bumper crowd expected this year - as well as the grid's stars.
The track, which is steeped in history having staged the first world championship race in 1950, features one of the most thrilling combinations of high-speed corners of the season and is frequently described as a drivers' favourite.
There aren't many who take a shine to Silverstone as much as Lewis Hamilton, with the world champion - who will be cheered on by his adoring home faithful - looking to become the first driver to win the British GP six times this weekend.
Lando Norris and George Russell join Hamilton as the UK drivers on the British GP grid this year.
Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes: "It has become the most anticipated event of the year for me and the one I enjoy the most. The fans are really what make the weekend and the atmosphere what it is."
Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari: "Racing at Silverstone is something special for all the drivers because it's such a cool track. There are a lot of fast sections. It is also very technical, especially in the first part of the track with the new corners. There is one of the most epic corner sequences in Formula 1 on this circuit, with Maggotts, Becketts and Chapel leading onto the Hangar Straight. I think every driver enjoys that part and I certainly do. We won there last year and it is also the place where Ferrari took its first race win in Formula 1 a long way back, so there is plenty of history there for all of us at Ferrari."
Toto Wolff, Mercedes: "Austria exposed the biggest vulnerability of our car and it meant we couldn't challenge for the win at any point of the weekend. We've been working on our cooling for a while, but the combination of high temperatures and altitude in Spielberg ultimately meant that we had to do too much temperature management to be competitive. We will continue to work on this to have a better fighting chance at future races in the heat. Fortunately, the English summer is known for more moderate temperatures, so cooling should not be a major issue for us in Silverstone - although we've learned in the past that the weather at the British GP can be highly changeable. We've had some of our best performances this year on tracks with a wide range of corner speeds, so on paper we should be in relatively good form. But we've also had a number of reliability issues that could have easily robbed us of a considerable amount of points, so we know that we need to stay vigilant and perform to the best of our abilities if we want to be in the fight this weekend. "
Lando Norris, McLaren: "Going to my first home race as an F1 driver means quite a lot to me. I've done a lot of racing there before in the junior formulae but having a home race in Formula 1 is totally different. I can't wait to see all the fans dressed in papaya, experience the atmosphere and enjoy the weekend. The track itself is fast, fun and good for overtaking, and I enjoyed my weekend there in F2 last year, especially when I overtook two cars going through Turns 16 and 17. Hopefully we'll be able to do something similar this weekend. The most important objective from the weekend is that we keep up the good work and keep pushing as hard as we can for those points."
Mattia Binotto, Ferrari: "We do not expect Silverstone to suit our car particularly well, but at every race, we have seen that the balance of power can change, often unexpectedly. For the British Grand Prix we are bringing a further small aerodynamic modification as we continue to push hard on the development of our car. This weekend will be a useful opportunity for us to see if the work we have carried out recently means that we can be closer to our main competitors, on tracks with specific characteristics."
Daniel Ricciardo, Renault: "Silverstone will always be a special one for me, as it's where I made my Formula 1 debut in 2011. I've always loved Silverstone, it's a pretty epic track. It just has this nice flow to it, it's all very high-speed and a great venue for Formula 1. You get a real buzz on every lap as there's a lot of brave corners to get right. The British Grand Prix is a race I always get very excited about! The British fans are amongst the most passionate and that creates a really cool, electric atmosphere."
Sky Sports F1 is the only place to be this weekend and our key times are:
We'll kick off coverage from Silverstone with The F1 Show live from out on the track from 4.30pm in a show featuring special challenges and interviews with drivers in front of the fans.
You can also enjoy an uninterrupted feast of a Friday - we'll be live from Silverstone from 9.30am-5pm - ahead of our qualifying and race shows on Saturday and Sunday which will include several must-watch features:
Plus, that's not all. In the premiere of a special programme on Saturday teatime after the track action has finished, we pay tribute to F1's longest-serving team boss in Sir Frank: Celebrating 50 years.
After eight Mercedes victories to start the season, F1 2019's formbook was thrown out of the window at a thrilling Austria weekend, when Max Verstappen took a magnificent victory for Red Bull following a controversial late-race overtake on Ferrari's Charles Leclerc.
In fact, while Mercedes will still be the team to beat and have a brilliant record at Silverstone, they were nowhere near that Spielberg battle and Ferrari have claimed two of the last three pole positions this season.
It was also the Scuderia who won this race last year, as Sebastian Vettel out-paced Mercedes following Hamilton's first-lap collision with Kimi Raikkonen,
F1 2019 heads to Silverstone this weekend for the big event of the motorsport summer. Join Sky Sports F1 for extensive coverage across nine live shows from Thursday to Sunday, when the race starts at 2.10pm. Find out more here to watch all the season live.
