4 Hours of Silverstone

In 1975, a round of the World Championship of Makes was not held in Britain for one of the first times since 1966. The 1000 km Brands Hatch which had been run almost consecutively during that period went under hiatus while track upgrades were carried out. Following upgrades of its own in 1975, plans were made for sportscars to return to Britain by using Silverstone instead of Brands Hatch. The event was a six-hour endurance, part of the Group 5 World Championship.

The first running consisted of a small field as some season competitors chose not to compete. British drivers John Fitzpatrick and Tom Walkinshaw managed to upset the factory teams by scoring the inaugural victory in a BMW. The following year, competition grew as the factory Porsche team, under the guise of Martini Racing, earned their first of two consecutive victories for drivers Jochen Mass and Jacky Ickx. The Porsche factory team was not able to continue their streak into 1979 when their lead car crashed, leaving the privateer Gelo Racing Porsche to a dominant win.

1980 saw the first victory by a sports-prototype. Alain de Cadenet managed to win the home event as a driver, team owner, as well as a constructor when he and Desiré Wilson won by 18 seconds in a car of his own design. A Group 5 car took its final victory in 1981 with the all-German Velga Racing Team before the class was phased out.

1982 was the first year of the Group C category in the World Championship, although the race that year was actually won by an older Group 6 Lancia. The first Group C victory came in 1983 as Porsche returned to their factory dominance of the event, going on to win the 1984 and 1985 events as well. Jacky Ickx and Jochen Mass still hold record of most wins, having won the race four times in 1977, 1978, 1984 and 1985. In 1986 British success returned as the Jaguar factory team was able to upset Porsche for the first time since the company had returned to racing. Jaguar then began to dominate in a fashion similar to Porsche, as they too won the next two years. American Eddie Cheever co-drove in each of the three victories.

No race was held in 1989 as Donington temporarily replaced Silverstone on the schedule, but sportscars returned in 1990 for a shorter 480 km event. Jaguar returned to their winning ways straight away before going on to earn a fifth straight victory in a 430 km event in 1991. Only after Jaguar officially retired from the World Championship was another manufacturer able to once again earn victory at Silverstone, this time being Peugeot. A lack of entrants however lead to the cancellation of the World Championship, temporarily ending endurance racing at the circuit. The race did make a one-year comeback in 2000 as part of the American Le Mans Series. The race served as a precursor to the European Le Mans Series that followed in 2001.

In 2004, the new Le Mans Endurance Series was created to resurrect several 1000 km endurance races in a modern era. Among these was Silverstone, running at its original distance. Once again, British success started off the return of the event as Allan McNish and the British Audi team won the event. Audi and McNish won again the following year, this time under the control of the French Oreca team, although the race was heavily hampered by rain. Silverstone took a brief hiatus in 2006 as Donington replaced the event once again, only to return once again in 2007. Peugeot earned their second victory, this time with a diesel-powered Le Mans prototype. The 2010 edition was the inaugural race of the Le Mans Intercontinental Cup, as well as the first time the race used the new 5.901 km (3.667 mi) "Arena" configuration. The race continued in 2012 as a part of the FIA World Endurance Championship.

On 2 October 2024, it was announced that the European Le Mans Series will return to Silverstone with a 4-hour race after 6 years.^[1]

Year	Drivers	Team	Car
6 Hour distance
1976	John Fitzpatrick   Tom Walkinshaw	Hermetite BMW	BMW 3.5 CSL
1977	Jochen Mass   Jacky Ickx	Martini Racing	Porsche 935/77
1978	Jochen Mass   Jacky Ickx	Martini Racing	Porsche 935/78
1979	Hans Heyer   Bob Wollek   John Fitzpatrick	Gelo Sportswear Team	Porsche 935/77A
1980	Alain de Cadenet   Desiré Wilson	Alain de Cadenet	De Cadenet Lola-Ford
1981	Harald Grohs   Walter Röhrl   Dieter Schornstein	Vegla Racing Team	Porsche 935J
1982	Riccardo Patrese   Michele Alboreto	Martini Racing	Lancia LC1
1000 km distance
1983	Derek Bell   Stefan Bellof	Rothmans Porsche	Porsche 956
1984	Jochen Mass   Jacky Ickx	Rothmans Porsche	Porsche 956
1985	Jochen Mass   Jacky Ickx	Rothmans Porsche	Porsche 962C
1986	Derek Warwick   Eddie Cheever	Silk Cut Jaguar	Jaguar XJR-6
1987	Eddie Cheever   Raul Boesel	Silk Cut Jaguar	Jaguar XJR-8
1988	Eddie Cheever   Martin Brundle	Silk Cut Jaguar	Jaguar XJR-9
1989	No race
480 km distance
1990	Martin Brundle   Alain Ferté	Silk Cut Jaguar	Jaguar XJR-11
430 km distance
1991	Teo Fabi   Derek Warwick	Silk Cut Jaguar	Jaguar XJR-14
500 km distance
1992	Derek Warwick   Yannick Dalmas	Peugeot Talbot Sport	Peugeot 905 Evo 1B
1993 to 1999	No races
2000	JJ Lehto   Jörg Müller	BMW Motorsport	BMW V12 LMR
2001 to 2003	No races
1000 km distance
2004	Pierre Kaffer   Allan McNish	Audi Sport UK Team Veloqx	Audi R8
2005†	Allan McNish   Stéphane Ortelli	Audi PlayStation Team Oreca	Audi R8
2006	No race
2007	Marc Gené   Nicolas Minassian	Team Peugeot Total	Peugeot 908 HDi FAP
2008	Allan McNish   Rinaldo Capello	Audi Sport Team Joest	Audi R10 TDI
2009	Olivier Panis   Nicolas Lapierre	Team Oreca Matmut AIM	Oreca 01-AIM
2010	Nicolas Minassian   Anthony Davidson	Team Peugeot Total	Peugeot 908 HDi FAP
6 Hour distance
2011	Sébastien Bourdais   Simon Pagenaud	Peugeot Sport Total	Peugeot 908
2012	Benoît Tréluyer   André Lotterer   Marcel Fässler	Audi Sport Team Joest	Audi R18 e-tron quattro
2013	Tom Kristensen   Allan McNish   Loïc Duval	Audi Sport Team Joest	Audi R18 e-tron quattro
2014	Anthony Davidson   Nicolas Lapierre   Sébastien Buemi	Toyota Racing	Toyota TS040 Hybrid
2015	André Lotterer   Benoît Tréluyer   Marcel Fässler	Audi Sport Team Joest	Audi R18 e-tron quattro
2016	Marc Lieb   Neel Jani   Romain Dumas	Porsche Team	Porsche 919 Hybrid
2017	Anthony Davidson   Kazuki Nakajima   Sébastien Buemi	Toyota Gazoo Racing	Toyota TS050 Hybrid
2018	Mathias Beche   Thomas Laurent   Gustavo Menezes	Rebellion Racing	Rebellion R13-Gibson
4 Hour distance
2019	José María López   Kamui Kobayashi   Mike Conway	Toyota Gazoo Racing	Toyota TS050 Hybrid
2020 to 2024	No races

† - Race went under a 6-hour time limit. Only 776 km of the 1000 km scheduled were covered.

• Le Mans Series - 2007 1000 km of Silverstone