Silverstone will welcome back a capacity crowd for the first time in over a year after it was announced that the British Grand Prix would be part of the British Government’s Event Research Programme, allowing for full capacity.

Last year, the sport hosted two races at Silverstone, with the British and 70th anniversary Grand Prix taking place at the Northamptonshire venue with fans barred from entering.

Ticket holders will either need proof of a negative lateral flow test 48 hours before arrival at the circuit or a second dose of a Covid vaccination within 14 days of the Grand Prix weekend commencing to enter Silverstone.

Fans attending will be present for the first-ever Sprint qualifying, which will see drivers partake in a 25-30 minute race to decide the starting grid for Sunday's race rather than the usual qualifying session, which will now take place on Friday afternoon.

It will be the second race weekend to host a capacity crowd, with next week's Austrian Grand Prix set to become the first race since the 2019 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix to welcome an unrestricted number of fans.

"We are delighted to confirm that the Formula 1 Pirelli British Grand Prix 2021 has been included in the latest phase of the UK Government’s Event Research Programme (ERP) allowing a full capacity crowd for the event between 16th – 18th July. Ticket holders will be asked for either proof of a negative lateral flow test taken within 48 hours of arrival at Silverstone or proof of full vaccination, the second dose having been received at least 14 days prior to the first day of attending the British Grand Prix."

"The Silverstone team will be working closely with the ERP experts and particularly the Director of Public Health in Northamptonshire on the specific conditions of entry that will enable the event to operate safely and will be announcing these details to ticket holders in the next ten days."

Formula 1's CEO Stefano Domenicali praised British government ministers and Silverstone's managing director Stuart Pringle for their efforts to secure a full crowd.

“It is fantastic news that Silverstone will be a full capacity event and it will be an incredible weekend with hundreds of thousands of fans being there to see our first event Sprint event on the Saturday and the main event on Sunday. I want to express my huge appreciation to The Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, Secretaries of State, Oliver Dowden and Michael Gove and Silverstone’ Managing Director, Stuart Pringle for their tireless work to achieve this great outcome. All of the drivers and the teams are hugely looking forward to Silverstone and we can’t wait to be there in July.”