1995 British Grand Prix

Championship standings

Schumacher leads the Drivers’ Championship with 46 points, ahead of Hill on 35. The Ferrari drivers Alesi and Berger follow with 26 and 17 points respectively. In the Constructors’ Championship, Benetton leads on 48 points from Ferrari on 43 and Williams on 42.

Previous race

Schumacher won in France, overtaking Hill during the pit stop sequence from second on the grid. Hill finished second with Coulthard third. Schumacher has won three of the previous four Grands Prix and arrives at Silverstone as the man to beat.

Between-race developments

Footwork has replaced Gianni Morbidelli with Massimiliano Papis — an International Formula 3000 race winner who also tested for Team Lotus in 1994. Papis brings sponsorship from tie manufacturer Altea. Morbidelli stays on as test driver.

Pre-race discussion centres on the 1996 driver market: Schumacher is rumoured to be moving to Ferrari to replace Berger, which would reshape the rest of the grid. Herbert is reported to be in danger of losing his Benetton seat to test driver Jos Verstappen, who has been left without a drive since Simtek’s closure.

Hill set the fastest time in pre-event testing at Silverstone in the final week of June, almost a second ahead of Coulthard and 1.2 seconds ahead of Schumacher. He is also under some additional personal pressure: his wife Georgie is due to give birth to their third child imminently.

Car upgrades

Ferrari revised the 412T2’s sidepods to improve airflow around the tyres and reverted to an earlier diffuser design. McLaren overhauled the suspension geometry of the MP4/10B, and Häkkinen’s car is equipped with a more powerful version of the Mercedes V10 for Sunday. Ligier fitted power steering to Brundle’s car for the first time. Footwork also arrived with revised suspension.

Practice

In Friday free practice, Schumacher set the pace (1:29.238) just four hundredths ahead of Hill. The top six — Schumacher, Hill, Alesi, Coulthard, Herbert, Berger — came from Benetton, Williams and Ferrari exclusively.

Friday qualifying was dry and blustery with strong crosswinds on the high-speed corners. Hill (1:28.124) took provisional pole after a late set-up change, edging Schumacher (1:28.387). Saturday’s qualifying session was disrupted by rain: no driver in the top 24 could improve on their Friday time, locking in the grid. Hill keeps pole. Herbert crashed heavily at Copse corner on standing water; Benetton mechanics repaired the B195 monocoque overnight. Salo was excluded from his qualifying times for ignoring a pit lane weighbridge red light; Montermini did not participate after a brake master cylinder failure.