British Grand Prix - Race Briefing

Hello everyone

After eight rounds we’re now approaching the halfway point of the season. Following the calm of Magny-Cours it’s back to Silverstone for what will undoubtedly be a very busy race weekend for the Shell team.

For the many mechanics, engineers, hospitality and marketing staff in the paddock, Silverstone is their home Grand Prix - in fact many of the team factories are located not too far from the circuit parameters. The Shell track side team have also swapped a plane for a car; whilst several of our colleagues on the Shell Formula One programme are based out of Hamburg and Maranello, Dan Jamieson, Lucy Taylor and myself have travelled down from our Shell base in Thornton which is just a couple of hours north of the track.

For Shell, like many of the other Formula One teams, this weekend will be very busy in terms of activation and guest programmes; so we expect the paddock and garage to be thriving with guests and VIPs hoping to get a peek into the world of Formula One. Shell guests who come to the races are also shown the track lab, so as we are analysing the fuels and lubricants for Kimi and Felipe’s cars we welcome people into the lab giving them an insight into what we do onsite.

Silverstone 2008 is particularly significant for Shell as this week we are celebrating Shell’s 150th victory with Ferrari. It was Felipe’s win in Magny-Cours just a couple of weeks ago which clinched the milestone.

There is no planning for these moments as you can’t work out when a team is going to win, so what makes this even more special is that it was at Silverstone that Shell powered Ferrari to its first ever victory back in 1951.

Over the course of the weekend, in between our analysing, meetings and the on-track sessions, we will find a moment to celebrate our 150 wins with Ferrari which we are all very proud of.

Enjoy the race!

Ian