This weekend see's the sun set on Silverstone as the home of the British GP, as plans continue to move the event to Donnington Park for the foreseeable future.
Other tracks exiting the championship include the Circuit de Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal and Magny-Cours in France in a trend that seems to be seeing off some of the most history drenched formula one venues of all time.
Taking their place are the latest wave of "Tilke-dromes" built in the regions with the highest budgets and populations, combined with the highest quality facilities. These venues are built on man made islands and oil soaked deserts in the middle of nowhere, running through multi-million dollar Five star hotels and the streets of the worlds most exotic cities.
These tracks however are missing vital ingredients that can't be purchased by a wealthy prince or powerful government; history and soul.
Sure, give these tracks a few years or even decades on the calender and they will no doubt amass a rich history full of great formula one moments, but they will nonetheless be great "modern" formula one moments.
The advancement of technology has, whether we like it or not, stolen a piece of formula one's soul. Long gone are the elements of surprise and the unknown because if these factors appear in a formula one team these days, then their employees are not doing their jobs properly.
Formula one needs tracks like Silverstone because unlike the cars, the teams, the drivers, and the fans who have all evolved with the advances of technology and the monetary political power game that has become formula one, these tracks have remained relatively the same since the days that Ascari, Fangio, Brabham, Clarke, Stewart, Prost, Mansell, and Senna were greeted with the checkered flag.
These tracks remind us of a time when formula one was only about the racing, and this is a time that the future will unfortunately never repeat.
Classic tracks keep the history and soul in formula one at a time where every other aspect of the sport is being modernized. Silverstone is a track with a hell of a lot of history and soul.
On May 13, 1950 Giussppe Farina claimed victory in Silverstone at the first ever FIA Formula One world championship race in an all conquering Alfa Romeo that eventually delivered him the crown of the first ever drivers world champion.
Since then Silverstone has produced some of the greatest and most dramatic formula one races in history.
The race in 1960 will be remembered as the race that Graham Hill lost, rather than the one Jack Brabham won. After stalling his BRM on the starting grid, Hill commenced the race from dead last and then proceeded to carve through the entire field and eventually take the lead from Brabham on lap 55.
Five laps from the finish however, the breaks failed on Hill's machine thus destroying his chance at victory for BRM. A victory that Hill would have to wait another two years to achieve.
The race of 1962 is regarded as the first ever "Silverstone type finish," when Jim Clarke in his Lotus 24 seemed certain of a win over Hill's BRM. In a time where the "old" woodcote corner was just before the finish, overtaking could go down to the very last second, and it did.
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