British GP claims 2026 event will smash F1's attendance record

This weekend's Formula 1 British Grand Prix will smash the attendance record with well over half a million fans in attendance over the weekend, according to the event.

The previous record is believed to be held by the 1995 Australian Grand Prix, the final event at Adelaide before that race moved to its current Melbourne home, with around 520,000 believed to have attended.

But at this weekend's British GP it is estimated that around 565,000 people will attend across the weekend (each person's attendance is counted per day, so someone attending Fri-Sun will be counted three times).

The British GP has increased its weekend attendance by around 70,000 year-on-year, with a record 175,000 tickets sold for the Sunday alone.

"We haven't sort of massively increased the capacity," Silverstone CEO Stuart Pringle explained ahead of the weekend.

"The sprint race has worked really well for us. People want to come to the sprint race.

"We've priced the tickets in a very thoughtful manner for Friday. If you're a fan of Formula 1, traditionally there's only one opportunity to see a Formula 1 race in Great Britain each year.

"This year there are two chances to see a Formula 1 race in Great Britain. So you're getting extra value in the ticket and we've been really committed to trying to put lots of value into the ticket, because the tickets are very expensive, so you've got to put the music in, and the sprint was absolutely a very worthwhile investment for that."

The British GP's headline music acts this year are David Guetta, Richard Ashcroft, Chase and Status and James Arthur, who will all be performing once the track action is done.

Plus there's a comedy club headlined by Jack Whitehall and Paul Chowdhry.

A logistical challenge

Getting those 565,000 people into one event is a huge logistical challenge, especially given Silverstone is not accessible via public transport.

"We can't get enough buses on Friday to meet the demand because double-decker buses have to take people to their place of work in their towns, schools etc," Pringle said.

"This year they came from Edinburgh, Exeter, Norwich, Brighton. Last year we rented 600 double-decker buses and we moved 120,000 people this year. I'm very proud to say we've reduced the number of buses by really working on the maths.

"That means 35 buses less, only 565 double-decker buses, but we'll move 160,000 people across the weekend on buses.

"Trying to persuade petrolheads to get on buses, that's a tough sell, but I think it works. It's really, really efficient, very efficient."

A changing audience

While Pringle joked about the challenge of convincing "hairy-chested petrolheads" to come via bus, he pointed to the changing audience of the British GP.

Nowhere is that more clear than the audience in the dedicated (and expanded for 2026) Lando Norris grandstand.

"The Lando stand was a great success last year, I mean that was very visible, so we've invested a significant £9million building a new Lando stand this year, which is significantly bigger than last year," Pringle explained.

"We had about 11,500 [seats last year], I can't remember the exact number. We put a new one in this year, which is 16,600 seats in the current configuration, with the ability to increase to 20,000.

"It's the largest stand that that grandstand [constructor] manufacturer, which is one of the big boys, has ever put up, that's 16,600.

"The O2 arena in various configurations is 18,000, 21,000, it's basically an arena in itself.

"So we know from the Landostand that last year 70% of the buyers were female, under 30, and 70% were new to our database.

"And that's mega. I've perhaps slightly later in the day realised that actually, just like most other businesses, we're a data business."

On Thursday at Silvertone Norris said: "The Lando stand, it looks amazing. I can't wait, honestly, to see it in the car.

"It's a lot bigger, a lot better than it was last season. The grandstand is huge. I went there this morning to already see everyone that was there, with the store, and just a lot more hospitality for people, some music, some DJs, things like that.

"I just want everyone that's there, everyone who's here to support me, to have a good time and enjoy it even when we're not actually on track driving.

"It's special, because I still see myself as just a kid that wants to go racing and enjoy driving, but at the same time have the whole unbelievable extra, which is a fan base and supporters and all of this.

"When I see all of this come together, and feeling like that normal kid, then it's just quite unbelievable, honestly, to see the size of it and see how many people are here to support me. It's something I've dreamt of."

For Norris, it's further evidence of how his brand in F1 has grown.

"Only three or four years ago, I didn't really have a brand," Norris admitted.

"I didn't have design, colour, personality, that was almost shareable through clothing, media. It's hard to tell any story through anything, whereas now we do.

"I'm good at the driving part and really that's about it. I leave the rest of it to them.

"But I'm always involved in terms of designs and schemes and storytelling and understanding what really the fans want at the end of the day."