David won at Silverstone twice – in different millennia – and has a soft spot for a circuit which he describes as a “high-speed, get stuck in, challenging race track”. Here’s Mr Coulthard’s preview to the Northamptonshire venue’s final British Grand Prix.

“Silverstone is a happy hunting ground for Red Bull Racing. If you remember last year Mark Webber qualified second which would suggest it suits the characteristics of the Red Bull DNA and on top of that, we have a much more competitive car this year. So, off the back of Sebastian’s pole in Turkey, we’re hoping that we can convert that into a better race result in Silverstone. The demands of the track? The first half of the lap all the way down to Club Corner is all high speed. The first corner Copse is almost flat-out, if not flat-out now depending on the performance of these cars. Becketts is entered flat, you drop down one gear for the middle of it and then you drop a further gear for Maggotts which takes you out on to the Hangar Straight. Hangar, and you don’t realize this until you get there, is actually quite a downhill section. On television it all looks flat so you’re down to fourth gear but it’s a very high-speed corner, before eventually taking a breath at Club. You’ve done more than half the lap and you’ve never got below fourth gear and probably never gone below 160-170 kilometres an hour. The remainder of the lap is all about low speed second and third gear traction and change of direction: from Club you power up to Abbey which is a third gear chicane, Bridge is a fast corner but everyone’s flat through there so there is no real performance and then if you come into the Complex it’s all second gear short bursts through the double-apex Priory through the famous Woodcote Corner and across the start-finish line.

“It is a great venue for a grand prix, great viewing for the spectators and all in all I expect it to be a great a atmosphere, especially as we believe it could be the last British Grand Prix at Silverstone.

“When you go to Monaco or Montreal there is a different feeling and a different atmosphere, I used to stay in my motorhome as do a number of drivers and therefore it doesn’t matter if you’re in the middle of the Northamptonshire countryside, what matters is you have got a great race track in a historic venue and an opportunity to go out and, hopefully in Red Bull’s case, pick up sixteen points.”