Legendary Formula 1 teams to relive famous British Grand Prix victories with dramatic circuit demos
Fan Zone to showcase recent Formula 1 development with special Mercedes F1 display
Alain Prost’s 1993 title-winning Williams FW15C joins the showcase
Latest Formula 1 icons take pride of place in the Fan Zone
Wide range of tickets on sale – kids under 16 go free!
Two of the most successful teams in British Grand Prix history in recent decades – Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS and Williams Racing – will be supporting Silverstone’s 75thanniversary celebrations at Silverstone Festival over the fast-approaching Bank Holiday weekend (25-27 August).
Williams famously won its first-ever Grand Prix win at Silverstone in 1979 and since then has racked up seven further victories with star drivers including Nigel Mansell, Alain Prost and Damon Hill.
Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1, too, has eight British Grand Prix wins – seven of which were with Sir Lewis Hamilton.
Now both multiple title-winners will be showcasing their Silverstone heritage with unmissable displays and demos both on- and off-track at Silverstone Festival.
Based locally in Brackley, the Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team will be displaying six of its recent racers, including a number of icons as campaigned so successfully by Lewis Hamilton. These range from a Mercedes MGP W01 as raced by Michael Schumacher on Mercedes’ return to Formula One in 2010 as a works team right up to a showcar of the current W14 – raced by Hamilton and George Russell at the helm in the 2023 F1 season (photos below row three).
The team’s driver, Esteban Gutiérrez, will be joining the special 75th Anniversary Demonstration of Grand Prix at Silverstone on Sunday when putting a 2013 Mercedes F1 W04 through its paces on track.
Much to the crowd’s delight, local hero Hamilton (photo top) took pole position in the 2013 British Grand Prix in a W04 ‘Silver Arrows’, while his team-mate Nico Rosberg went on to win the race. Ten years on Gutiérrez will be honouring those achievements and giving Festival goers a rare opportunity to experience a genuine Hamilton ex-racer in action.
Williams Heritage, too, will be reviving its glorious past at Silverstone Festival. In the Fan Zone, it will be displaying Alain Prost’s 1993 World Championship winning Williams FW15C (photos below top and row two right. Credit: Mike Hayward Collection) alongside one of its latest cars in the current 2023 livery.
The nine time Constructors’ Champions will also be well represented on the Silverstone Grand Prix track. As in period, Williams’ are always to the fore in the two Masters Racing Legends showdowns for Formula One cars from the legendary DFV era between 1966 and 1985.
Now, paying special homage to Silverstone’s more recent history, the team will be running a FW19 in the spectacular 75th Anniversary Demonstration of Grand Prix laps at Silverstone on all three days of the Festival weekend.
Jacques Villeneuve (photo below row two left) raced the FW19 to victory in the 1997 British Grand Prix on the way to that year’s World Championship title. Back at Silverstone, the car will be driven by owner, Ted Zorbas.
“We are thrilled to have both Mercedes and Williams Racing Formula One teams teams joining us for the 75th anniversary celebrations at this month’s Silverstone Festival,” commented Event Director, Nick Wigley. “We have wonderful retro races covering much of the circuit’s early history dating back to its opening in 1948 and now we have its more recent F1 eras covered too, both on the Grand Prix track and in the Fan Zone. The exciting addition of W04 gives us the most modern Formula 1 car to have ever taken to the track as part of the Festival and, in this special year, enables us to truly illustrate Grand Prix racing through ALL the ages on track.”
W04 and FW19 will both be based in the garages at the International Paddock over the weekend, while the Fan Zone – featuring the static displays – will be based in the heart of the event close to the Shopping Village.
As well as enabling fans to stand toe-to-toe with the latest Formula 1 cars from BWT Alpine, McLaren, and Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant (as well as the displays from Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS and Williams Racing), the Fan Zone also gives them a great chance to take part in a wheel-changing pit-stop challenge and interactive racing simulators will add to the competitive fun.
Providing great value-for-money, all tickets give access to the Fan Zone plus a wealth of other entertainment and fun-packed Bank Holiday activities. These include the Foodie Fest, funfair rides, Switch Live powered by myenergi, the Yokohama Shift & Drift Zone, Silverstone Museum, trackside grandstands and live music from chart-topping bands on all three bank holiday evenings.
A wide-range of tickets for the Festival are available, including VIP hospitality options.
