It comes but once a year. It’s not Christmas but Homecoming. The teams of the Formula One World Championship get their annual trip to Silverstone which allows them to enjoy some home cooking and to sleep in their own beds. For seven of the teams, the British Grand Prix is their home race so there is a lot of pride on the line as the factories clear out and the behind the scenes folk make their annual pilgrimage to the track for a Grand Prix.

That being said, even with pride on the line, it’s still a Mercedes world and everyone else is racing in it.

#1 Nico Rosberg
Nico might not be P1 in the WDC but he is in the Power Rankings. He also realizes that he isn’t P1 in the fans’ hearts: ” The crowds are really incredible at this race and it’s always a great atmosphere. Of course, I know they have their favourite! But hopefully we can have a good fight and keep the fans on their feet – especially the guys from our factories who have built such an unbelievable machine! It’s great that they have a chance to come and see it in action, so this weekend is all about giving them a great reward.”

#2 Lewis Hamilton
Old Lewis is hoping to catch lightning in a bottle for the second year in a row: ” I don’t feel like I ever really reached my peak in Austria. It wasn’t the smoothest of weekends for me – so to come away with P2 wasn’t a disaster in the circumstances. Silverstone, though… that’s different. I can’t describe the feeling I had last year – lifting that trophy again in front of the sea of fans on pit straight after so many years and after a tough start to the weekend too. It’s something that will always stay with me and nothing less than the same again will do. I’m lucky enough to have fans all around the world – but winning in front of your home crowd is something else.”

#3 Sebastian Vettel

#4 Valtteri Bottas
#BO77AS isn’t setting his sights on a win but he is gunning for the podium: “We do expect to be strong here, as the overall downforce has improved with the updates we took to Austria. After a podium for me last year and two podiums for the team in the last two races, I think we should be looking, once again, to take the fight to the cars around us in the Championship.”

#5 Kimi Raikkonen

#6 Felipe Massa
I think Phil might win generic PR quotage of the week: “Silverstone is a great circuit, with long high-speed corners which will suit the car’s characteristics. Heading to the team’s home race, we are looking to make it a hat trick of podiums, and spirits within the team are high right now. I hope we can give the home fans another positive result and we can continue the positive momentum from the last few weeks.”

#7 Daniel Ricciardo
You can see the smile on Danny’s face when reading this: “Silverstone’s awesome. I love high-speed circuits with high-speed corners – and so the run from Copse through Maggotts, Becketts, Chapel and then around Stowe… maybe the five coolest corners on the calendar and to have them coming at you one after the other. Yeah, I love it.”

#8 Nico Hulkenberg
The Hulk is looking forward to finally getting some proper upgrades on the VJM08. Fortunately for him, Silverstone is a low downforce track so it’s not like they can screw it up too hard: “I am really looking forward to getting behind the wheel of the upgraded VJM08 at Silverstone, which will give us the first impression of what we can expect in the second half of the season.”

#9 Daniil Kvyat
Formula One drivers can feel joy. Considering how stoic most of the grid is, I’m legitimately surprised: “Silverstone is a real classic. It’s a cool circuit: high speeds, incredibly challenging layout, I really enjoy it. If you get everything right with the car and your confidence is high then it brings you a lot of joy.”

#10 Romain Grosjean
Romain talks about his visit to the factory ahead of the weekend: ” It’s still a magical experience as you know there are so many people and so many resources just to make two cars that you and your team-mate will race around the world. It’s such a privileged position to be in and everyone at every level in Enstone does an amazing job. This year the team has made a good step back to where we want to be which has been great to see and that’s thanks to all the hard work that goes on at Enstone.”

#11 Sergio Perez
Checo talks about the home raceness of Force India at Silverstone: “Having our factory next to the circuit makes this a special race for the team. It’s a busy one too with lots going on with all our partners and events for the staff. I used to live close to the track – in Oxford – when I was racing in Formula Three, so this used to be my home race for a while and I still have a lot of friends in the area, which makes the week very enjoyable.”

#12 Max Verstappen

#13 Felipe Nasr
Even if you’re from Brazil, Silverstone is your home race: “Silverstone is a circuit which I enjoy driving on. It is not only one of my favorite tracks, but for me also kind of a home race, because I have been living in England for five years now. Therefore, it is always nice to come back to where motorsport and its great fans are at home.”

#14 Carlos Sainz

#15 Pastor Maldonado
The quotes for this race are dreadfully dull so here’s Pastor being dreadfully dull about tyre management: “Firstly, you soon learn as a racing driver that you have to manage your tyres and if you use up all the performance early on you’ll suffer later. The other thing I think that helps me is listening to my engineers and doing what they tell me. They have far more data than me so are in a better position to make any decisions either before or during a race.”

#16 Marcus Ericsson
Marky Mark has a lot of faith heading into this weekend’s Grand Prix: “The British Grand Prix is for me one of the highlights of the season. A historical track with some great corner combinations… I love to drive there, Silverstone is one of my favorite tracks. I believe it will be a challenging weekend for us, but I am convinced that we will make the best of it.”

#17 Jenson Button
I don’t think any one has mentioned the Maggotts-Becketts complex yet so let’s let Jenson do that: “Driving the Silverstone circuit is always immense fun for all the drivers, and it’s definitely one of my favourite racetracks. The combination of Maggotts-Becketts has legendary status for good reason, and it’s one of the most exhilarating corner combinations of any circuit on the Formula 1 calendar.”

#18 Fernando Alonso
We could ask Fernando about the Austrian GP but he’d rather talk about the test: “We go to Silverstone this week feeling optimistic after two good test days in Austria. We’ve been busy analysing all of the data which has been very useful to continue learning about our package and keep moving forward. It was very positive that we were able to pass the 100-lap mark on the second day, and we’re really motivated to keep pushing into the next couple of grands prix before the summer break.”

#19 Roberto Merhi
Bobby takes a moment to reflect on his rookie season so far. And to think that he was on a race-to-race deal at the start: “It’s hard to believe we’re almost at the middle of my first season in Formula 1, but I’m really pleased with how things are going. I feel like I’ve made some pretty big steps at every race and hopefully this weekend will be another good one for me and the whole team.”

#20 Will Stevens
Billy talks about motivation as an F1 driver and the incentive to perform better at your home race: “As a racing driver, you never need an extra incentive to do well in a Grand Prix, but you do get that at Silverstone as a British driver. It’s such a great and historic venue and the scene of some fantastic races in the past 65 years, you can’t help but feel that you’re racing somewhere really special.”