Will the sun be in my eyes at Silverstone?
It comes down to two things: the time of day and which way your grandstand faces.
Use the tracker above — choose your session time, tap the direction you'll be looking, and it tells you whether the sun is
ahead of you (glare), off to one side, or behind you (no glare, best for photos). The lower the sun sits,
the worse the glare, so early sessions and the late afternoon are the ones to watch.
Sun times for the 2026 British Grand Prix weekend
At Silverstone across 3–5 July 2026, the sun rises around 04:50 BST,
climbs to its highest point of about 61° at roughly 13:08 BST (due south),
and sets around 21:27 BST. The race starts at 15:00, by which point the sun has swung
past south into the south-west and is dropping through the afternoon — so it lights the circuit from the
south-western side, getting lower and more glaring as the race goes on.
How it works
The sun's compass bearing (azimuth) and height (altitude) are worked out with a standard solar-position algorithm for
Silverstone's exact location and the time you pick, in BST. The big beam shows the direction the sunlight travels across the
track. It's the same maths behind sites like SunCalc — this one just draws it straight onto the circuit so you can read it
against the grandstands.
Circuit diagram from Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA).
Unofficial and fan-made — not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to Silverstone Circuits Ltd, Formula 1 or any associated party.
