Introducing the paddock at Silverstone, the site of the British MotoGP. A row of electric scooters for transportation.

Silverstone is a circuit with a long history

Let’s take a look at the paddock at Silverstone Circuit, where the 7th round of MotoGP, the British Grand Prix, was held.

Silverstone Circuit is located in the middle of London heading northwest towards Birmingham, and in the middle of Birmingham heading southeast towards London.

Located in the south of Great Britain, the weather in the UK in May is unsettled. It’s cold from night to morning, and then the sun shines and it’s warm during the day, but then clouds cover the sky and it gets colder. Just when you think it’s raining, you can see blue skies. The climate is so changeable that it’s said to have “four seasons in one day.” The British Grand Prix has traditionally been held in August, but this year it was held in May. As most people expected, the weather over the weekend was unsettled. (Incidentally, it has already been announced that the 2026 British Grand Prix will return to being held in August. This is not surprising.)

Silverstone Circuit has a very long history. Before it became a circuit, the site was requisitioned as an airfield by the British Air Ministry in 1941 during World War II and served as a training base for Bomber Command. After the war, the first Formula 1 race, the British Grand Prix, was held there in 1950. Because the circuit has such a rich history, the walls inside the circuit are decorated with paintings of F1 drivers’ faces and formula cars.

The Road Racing World Championship was first held at Silverstone Circuit in 1977. The British Grand Prix was then held at a circuit called Donington Park from 1987 to 2009, before returning to Silverstone Circuit in 2010. Currently, Donington Park is the venue for the Superbike World Championship.

In the current paddock, there is a pit building called “The Wing,” which was completed in 2011. “The Wing” is a huge complex that houses the pits, media center, press conference room, etc. MotoGP used the old pit (located between the current corners 8 and 9) until 2022, but from 2023, the new pit in “The Wing” will be used.

The British GP paddock… well, the atmosphere in the European MotoGP paddock is similar. European Grands Prix are traveled by trailer, so the team trailers, trucks, and hospitality are all the same, parked and standing.

In front of the pits, the trailers of each team are parked, and the trailer heads are perfectly aligned, creating a beautiful scene. In front of each MotoGP class team’s trailer, a screen displays a photo of the rider belonging to that team.

Other layouts vary slightly depending on the circuit, but in the British GP, the hospitality of each team was generally set up in front of their trailer. This was the case for the MotoGP class; in the Moto2 and Moto3 classes, the hospitality was often set up a little further away. This was also the case at Silverstone Circuit.

Hospitality is a place where team staff eat, hold meetings, and receive guests. When requesting an individual interview with a rider, the hospitality may be specified as the location. The cafe bar is always open even outside of meal times, and whenever I go to the hospitality, I’m always offered a coffee (unfortunately, I can’t drink coffee, so I always just smile and say, “Thanks, but it’s okay”).

Hospitality is also often the venue for team-sponsored events, such as the British Grand Prix where the LCR team hosted the media celebrations for Johann Zarco’s victory at the French Grand Prix. Everyone enjoys a drink and conversation over snacks.

Some hospitality facilities are one-storey, others three-storey (!). And of course, these hospitality facilities are dismantled and moved around the Grand Prix. Unfortunately, they can’t travel all the way across the ocean to Japan, so the paddock, lined with hospitality facilities, team trailers, supplier trucks, and other vehicles, resembles a small town, and is a sight you won’t see at the Japanese Grand Prix.

Because the paddock is so large, team staff, riders, and other related parties use scooters to get around within the paddock. However, at Silverstone Circuit, scooters are not allowed into the paddock, mainly during the day on weekends. Also, two-stroke and four-stroke scooters are not permitted. As a result, many electric motorcycles were parked around the paddock. People would ride their electric motorcycles there and then walk into the paddock.

In addition to electric motorcycles, electric scooters and bicycles are also widely used. In the past, I have seen Moto2 and Moto3 riders arrive at the circuit with electric scooters that they apparently just bought on Thursday morning. They are portable and may be convenient.

Did you enjoy the atmosphere at Silverstone Circuit, the venue for the British Grand Prix?