HOME HEROES
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The list of British World Champions alone includes Mike Hawthorn , Graham Hill , Jim Clark , John Surtees , Jackie Stewart , James Hunt , Nigel Mansell , Damon Hill and of course Lewis Hamilton . And there have been many more frontrunners who have captured the public imagination , notably of course Stirling Moss , a home Grand Prix winner in 1955 and ’ 57 .
A GOLDEN ERA
There ’ s no doubt that we are currently in a golden era for British drivers in F1 ®, with seven-times champion Hamilton joined on the Silverstone grid by two other Grand Prix™winners in George Russell and Lando Norris .
To that threesome can be added Alex Albon , who races under a Thai licence , but who has an English dad and who was born and raised in England . He came up through the ranks with his pals Norris and Russell . And then there are several potential future stars currently competing in F2™ and F3™ , including Oliver Bearman , who has already staked his claim with his impressive F1 debut for Ferrari in Jeddah back in March .
It might be a tall order to expect Hamilton to add to his impressive tally of eight Grand Prix wins in Britain , but the 39-year-old remains a focal point for many here this weekend , his last home race for Mercedes before he sets out on his Ferrari adventure in 2025 .
Remarkably this is his 18th consecutive British Grand Prix , although his relationship with the home crowd began earlier , during his GP2 season in 2006 . Hamilton was already well known to those who had followed his progress as a McLaren protégé through Formula Renault and F3 , but that GP2 outing – which saw him win both the sprint and the feature races in some style – won him even more fans .
When he came back a year later he was not only a McLaren Grand Prix driver but he had also already secured his first wins in Montreal and Indianapolis , and was in the middle of a sensational rookie season . He had to settle for third on that occasion , but he made amends with a brilliant wet-weather win in 2008 on course to his first World Championship title .
CHALLENGES
After that , fortune deserted Lewis at home , and over the next five years his only podium finish was second behind Mark Webber in 2010 . However , when the hybrid era began in 2014 so too did one of the most impressive runs by any driver in a home race . Hamilton won four on the bounce for Mercedes from 2014- ’ 17 , was second to Ferrari ’ s Sebastian Vettel in 2018 , and then won three more from 2019- ’ 21 .