Police urge British Grand Prix fans to report suspicious behaviour
480,000 people attended Silverstone race track in Northamptonshire for the event last year
Northamptonshire Police are urging fans to report suspicious behaviour to sure this year 2025 British Grand Prix goes smoothly.
Close to half a million people will be making their way to Northamptonshire's Silverstone circuit for the British Grand Prix this weekend.
As well as uniformed and plain-clothed police officers patrolling the circuit, the campsites and the surrounding villages and road network, there will also be specialist resources including armed officers, search teams, and disruption officers.
Event Commander for Northamptonshire Police, Superintendent Pete Basham says the event is growing every year, but says despite the numbers it's a safe event:
"We obviously take into account previous crime trends and thankfully at Silverstone, considering there's around 500,000 people that attend the event, crime is relatively low, very low actually and the police are very much there as a backstop.
"Working with the race makers, with event security, with our our statutory and local partners as well and the emergency services to ensure that everyone has a has a safe event."
He's urging people attending to report any suspicious behaviour:
"What I'd rather have is the police commander is more reports that we that we look at and we find is nothing than somebody who sees or or hears of a concern and doesn't feed it in. And then it is something that we need to be aware of."
This year police are reminding visitors that the flying of drones near the circuit is strictly prohibited. They say a 2.3-mile flying restriction cordon will be in place around the circuit heliport, which will also take in many of the campsites, but the sheer number of people attending the event means it would not be safe or legal to fly even outside the circuit.
Flares, smoke bombs and pyrotechnics are also banned.
Superintendent Pete Basham says they'll be using technology too, with Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) units and Live Facial Recognition (LFR) is in use for the third year in a row.
"That will be a watch list of individual that are wanted for serious offences or anybody who we've got information to suggest is going to disrupt the event itself, and it also gives us a facility that, if we've got a vulnerable or missing person during the event, we can upload their image to the system as well.
"What I would say is that all of that data is is wiped at the end of every day it is, it is uploaded afresh."
He says as an F1 fan he's hoping for a British winner, there's 4 on the grid this year. Austrian GP winner Lando Norris, Lewis Hamilton, George Russell and this years rookie Ollie Bearman.
Sam Fender performed last night, and tonight will see Ivor Novello and Brit Award winner RAYE perform, fresh from Glastonbury, with Fatboy Slim tomorrow and Becky Hill on Sunday.