There was a month off between the Canadian and British GPs and so there were a lot of changes to the entry list at Silverstone. The only change on the driver front was the arrival at RAM Automotive of Kenny Acheson. More significant was the first appearance on the Honda turbocharged engine in the back of a Spirit, driven by Stefan Johansson. The McLaren team had been testing the new TAG turbo engine at Weissach but it was still not ready to race. The big news for British fans was the arrival of a pair of new Gerard Ducarouge-designed Lotus 94Ts for Elio de Angelis and Nigel Mansell. Mansell had been struggling all season in an old Cosworth-engined 92 while de Angelis had monopolized the Renault-powered 93T. Ferrari had two new 126 C3s on hand for René Arnoux and Patrick Tambay while both Brabham, Alfa Romeo and Toleman had B versions of their cars. Osella had two new Alfa Romeo V12-powered FA1E chassis for Corrado Fabi and Piercarlo Ghinzani.

Qualifying resulted in a Ferrari 1-2 with Arnoux ahead of Tambay while Alain Prost was third and de Angelis fourth. Then came the two Brabham-BMWs with Riccardo Patrese outqualifying Nelson Piquet. Eddie Cheever (Renault) and Manfred Winkelhock (ATS-BMW) shared the fourth row and the top 10 was completed by Andrea de Cesaris and Mauro Baldi in their Alfas. Keke Rosberg was the first non-turbo but he was 12th. Johansson did a promising job with 13th on the grid.

At the start the two Ferraris stormed away and in the course of the first lap it was Tambay who emerged ahead of Arnoux ahead of Prost, Patrese, Cheever and de Angelis. Piquet made swift progress early on while de Angelis disappeared with a blown engine to be followed by Cheever and Johansson. On lap nine Patrese was also gone and that meant that fifth place behind Tambay, Arnoux, Prost and Piquet had been inherited by de Cesaris with Winkelhock sixth. Prost was on the move and overtook Arnoux on lap 14. Five laps later Piquet also passed the Ferrari while on lap 20 Prost went into the lead. Tambay dropped back to Piquet and eventually lost second place on lap 31. During the pit stops nothing changed at the front but Mansell made a late stop and was fifth and closing on the Ferraris in the last part of the race. He overtook Arnoux on lap 48 but could do nothing about Tambay. Prost duly won by 20secs with Piquet second, Tambay third and Mansell fourth. Arnoux was fifth and Niki Lauda (McLaren) sixth.