But Irvine and Coulthard - who will be chasing a hat-trick of home wins in Sunday’s race - both have doubts it will work.

‘‘I don’t understand why they are doing that,’’ said Jaguar Racing hopeful Irvine. ‘‘I don’t understand how it’s going to improve overtaking. It is a slow corner so I don’t think it is going to make any difference.

‘‘Where they need to alter the circuit for me is the Becketts section. That’s where you have got the Hangar Straight afterwards. That’s the corner that needs to be improved on.

‘‘You have got a couple of fast corners there and then you have got a slow one onto a much slower one. That’s where they need to work on, not the Club section which is a waste of time anyway.’’

Coulthard, whose racing adviser Martin Brundle thought up the idea of a banked curve, backed up his fellow Brit’s reservations.

‘‘I think it is a nice talking point to stimulate interest, but I don’t think it will make a lot of difference,’’ said the Scot.

‘‘I don’t know the banking but I don’t believe it is going to be as steep as Indianapolis. But the bottom line is, there is a quickest way through a corner and everyone will take the quickest way.’’

Coulthard will be looking to become the first Brit since Jim Clark to complete a hat-trick of British Grand Prix victories on Sunday as he bids to keep alive his slim title hopes.

The 30-year-old McLaren driver is 31 points adrift of Ferrari’s Michael Schumacher with just seven races left but any thoughts of receiving a home lift have been dismissed by Irvine.

‘‘If this home crowd boost exists it means you are underperforming in other races,’’ said Irvine. ‘‘I just don’t see how they can make any difference.

‘‘I would be very upset if every time I went to Silverstone that, because the crowd was cheering, I went quicker. You should be at that level everywhere.’’

Irvine believes Coulthard does not stand any chance of overhauling his former Ferrari team-mate anyway.

‘‘I haven’t seen David or anybody beating Michael since the start of the year,’’ he added.

‘‘The only thing that is going to beat Michael is a reliability issue and Ferrari don’t have reliability issues. Ross Brawn (technical director) sees to that.

‘‘The championship is over. David will keep trying, he is a trier you have got to give him that.

‘‘But at the end of the day he is just not quick enough to beat Michael unless McLaren give him a much better car and they haven’t done that this year.’’