The English motor-racing scene suffers from a split personality just as the French one does, for whereas France alternates between Rouen and Reims for its National Grande Epreuve, England alternates between Silverstone and Aintree. This year it was the turn of the Northern circuit to hold the British Grand Prix and, for what it was worth, it was also given the title of the European Grand Prix. This is a rather pointless title which carries no significance with it and is given to one of the major grand prix races in the world championship each year by the FIA and allows the organisers to pretend that their event is the most important of the season. In actual fact all world championship events carry equal status.

It was rather remarkable that, after running in a full-length grands prix for the previous two weekends, the major teams were all ready on the first afternoon of practice at Aintree, which was on the Thursday before the race. The Vanwall team was the first to start practice on the rather damp track, and it had all three entries out, being driven by Moss, Brooks and Lewis-Evans, the No1 driver having recovered from his bout of sinus trouble, Brooks being fit again after his Le Mans accident, and the new boy, Lewis-Evans, fresh from his excellent drive at Reims, while the cars were well turned out, as always. The Maserati team comprised Fangio, Behra, Schell and Menditeguy, and all four were using six-cylinder cars, the 12-cylinder being left at Modena after its poor showing at Rouen and Reims. The Scuderia Ferrari had four Lancia/Ferrari cars out, driven by Collins, Hawthorn, Musso and Trintignant, and the BRM team had two, driven by Fairman and Leston.

As is a regular sight at GP meetings now, John Cooper had two of his Formula 2 cars running, fitted with Coventry-Climax twin-cam engines, and these were in the hands of Salvadori and Brabham. To complete the field for the first practice day there were the two privately-owned Maseratis of Gould and Gilby Engineering, the latter driven by Bueb.