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01Britain Expects
Oh, to be in England in the summertime goes oft-quoted line, and while in terms of the general prevailing conditions of an English summer that it might seem like reaching, when it comes to Formula 1, nothing could be truer.
Come rain, hail or blazing sunshine, Silverstone is a mighty place to go racing. One of the sport’s last, great, old-school temples of speed, the old airfield features some of the most evocative corner and complex names in all of motorsport. Fearsome Copse, the epic, high-speed changes of direction through Maggotts, Becketts and Chapel, the flat out 335km/h blast of the Hangar Straight and the following 210km/h sweep through Stowe, Silverstone piles one iconic section after another until you end up with a monumental, majestic track that really shows what an F1 car can do.
However, the power-hungry nature of Silverstone – almost 80% of the lap is at full throttle – means it’s not an easy one to boss. And that’s borne out by our results here. For much of the early hybrid era we were down on power and thus out of contention for wins here. But when we’ve had the juice, in our first golden era and then latterly with Honda on board, the results have come. We had back-to-back 1-2 finishes in 2009 and 2010, another win in 2012 with Mark Webber, and most recently a pair of wins for Max – at the 2020 Anniversary Grand Prix, and a British Grand Prix victory in 2023. So, what can we expect this time round?
02Max & Yuki After The Race
I don’t really know what happened as I tried to go on the throttle, but we recovered it as much as we could to get to P5.Max Verstappen“Today wasn’t great. We didn’t think it was going to be so wet today; the weather forecast overnight changed and it was not in our favour, so it was really difficult with the rear wing that we had today. Every time we were low on downforce and couldn’t balance it out in the high and low speed, with the tools that we had. Of course, I had the spin and we lost a lot of positions at the restart. I don’t really know what happened as I tried to go on the throttle, but we recovered it as much as we could to get to P5. Even after that happened, I continued and the car had no pace which wasn’t great. From a positive side, we got our strategy right and did the right thing with the pit stop and staying on the inters. All the calls were correct but the inters just lacked a bit of pace. That is racing though, we will never be happy with fifth, but we move on to the next race. The race wasn’t that enjoyable for me but it was nice to see Nico get his first podium and I’m sure he will be celebrating tonight. Spa is next and my favourite on the calendar, so hopefully we will go a bit better there.” - Max Verstappen
I had good confidence in the rain so we need to look into why I couldn’t find the pace.Yuki Tsunoda “It was not easy out there at all today but somehow it was not really that messy a race for myself. I just struggled with the pace a lot and even in the dry I didn’t have great pace. The rain and the conditions were the main issue today and then I had massive deg on the tyres, as usual. The incident with Ollie was really tricky, the touch itself was very light and in those conditions, it can have massive consequences. I found him to say sorry immediately after the race. In terms of short runs, I have a couple of positives to take away from this weekend but on the long runs, somehow, I just deg like crazy. I had good confidence in the rain so we need to look into why I couldn’t find the pace. The downforce may have contributed but it’s much more than that, we were still slower than we should have been. The car should be different for Belgium, and we will go away and work hard in the time we have off until then.” - Yuki Tsunoda
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04Oracle Strategy Guide: Silverstone
05Challenges and Key Factors
Compound Switch – Silverstone is notoriously tough on tyres. The layout, with its long, high-speed sweeps and directional changes, puts a huge amount of lateral load through tyres (often in excess of 5Gs) and therefore rubber takes a battering. Given the layout, the front-left in particular comes in for particularly severe punishment, especially through Abbey, Woodcote, Copse, the Maggots-Becketts complex and Stowe. That normally pushes Pirelli to go hard and since the arrival of the current generation of F1 cars, we’ve had a C1-C3 compound range at Silverstone.
But no more. The Pirelli Motorsport Director last month revealed that the tyre manufacturer would go a step softer at Silverstone. “We need to be a bit more aggressive or find a way to encourage teams towards a two-stop strategy. We modified the selection for Silverstone — we’ll go one step softer with C2, C3, and C4.”
How teams approach tyre management and strategy could be one of this weekend’s key differentiators.
Strategy – So, what does strategy look like at Silverstone? Go back to the start of the current regulations and in 2022 Carlos Sainz won for Ferrari on a three-stop strategy, but with the race red-flagged on lap one and with almost everybody switching tyres for the restart, it was in reality a two-stop with the Spaniard using mediums until a lap-20 switch to Hard tyres and then final blast on Softs from lap 39 to the flag after a Safety Car prompted another round of stops. In 2023, Max won with a one-stop, starting on medium C2s before moving to used set of Softs on lap 33 and last year Lewis Hamilton won a rain-affected race on a two-stop plan, with the Briton starting on mediums before a lap 27 switch to intermediates and then used Softs on lap 38. It means that with the weather expected to be warm and mostly dry this weekend (except on Saturday when showers are expected) we’re looking at the possibility of a two-stop using a mix of mediums and softs or seeing whether a medium-hard one-stopper is in play. In 2023, Mercedes’ George Russell ran used C3 softs (this year’s medium) for 28 of the 52 laps, while the longest run on the C2 medium (this year’s hard tyre) was a 32-lap stint from Stake Sauber’s Valtteri Bottas.
Weather – It’s July in England, so it could either be 35˚C with blazing sunshine or 12˚C and lashing rain. So far, the forecast is for temperatures in the mid-20s and with broken sunshine for Friday and Sunday. There is a risk of showers on Saturday, however, and a wet qualifying could really shake up the grid.
Beyond that, around flat, open old Silverstone drivers really are at the mercy of the wind. The circuit can get pretty blustery and changes in wind direction occur frequently. That can have a significant effect on vehicle balance and change the car's behaviour.
06Watchlist
07Silverstone: Track Layout & Key Features
As we’ve already mentioned, Silverstone is a fantastic racetrack. With no real braking points until Turn 3, the lap opens with a long blast to Village, and that deceleration to 110km/h and the drop to third gear provides the first overtaking opportunity. The DRS detection zone is just before Village so it’s possible to close up here, follow through the Loop and if you get a good exit out of Aintree, out-drag a rival along the DRS zone on the Wellington Straight.
After that you’re into the more technical Brooklands and Luffield before dropping the throttle for the high-speed blast through Woodcote and spectacular Copse. Then it’s into the jaw-dropping changes of directions in Maggots-Becketts before you’re spat out onto the 330km/h Hangar Straight. That’s the second DRS zone and if you fancy being brave you can get a move done through high-speed, sixth gear Stowe. Following that you’re into the twists of Vale and Club and the run to the start-finish line.
