Britain Race Reaction
Image: McLaren F1 Media
This year’s British Grand Prix was as chaotic as ever. With so many teams swapping positions in the constructor’s championship, this race marked a turning point in the season, setting the scene for the rest of the season.
With the summer break fast approaching, let’s have a look at the key moments in a thrilling British Grand Prix.
Mighty McLaren
At the start of the season, it was like deja vu for McLaren as the team suffered a lacklustre opening race in Bahrain, suffering reliability issues.
The start of the 2023 Formula One season marks Lando Norris’ worst start to a season, further highlighting McLaren’s lack of progress. It’s not just Lando that had it rough - the entire team has been going through an administrative uprooting, with many high-profile F1 paddock personnel leaving and joining the Woking-based team.
In his first year as team principal, Andrea Stella, who’s been at McLaren for over 20 years, reassured fans that although the road ahead looked bumpy, it would eventually get better.
“Oscar’s performance is just outstanding. If you think he is a rookie and right away, even in practice, he was immediately quick and in some corners a good reference for Lando himself,” said Stella.
It seems that the changes to term personnel at McLaren will come into effect from 2025, just when Lando Norris’ contact with the team will be up for renewal.
Whether the Brit stays with the team is yet to be seen, but his recent performance at Austria and now in Silverstone might give the 24-year-old a reason to stay.
With Norris and Oscar Piastri qualifying second and third respectively, it seemed that McLaren made a huge leap in progressing up the grid, all thanks to new upgrades for both cars, having only been run on Norris’ car in Austria.
The sold-out crowd at Silverstone had something to cheer about as Norris took the lead from Max Verstappen at the start into Turn 1, with Piastri briefly pressuring the Red Bull too.
Eventually, the formidable Red Bull flew past the McLaren of Norris and retook the lead. After this moment, it looked like Verstappen’s lead wouldn’t be threatened again.
Both McLaren cars stuck together, with Piastri holding position behind his teammate. The cars seemed to drop the once superior Ferrari of Charles Leclerc in P4, almost confirming a double podium for McLaren.
An engine failure for Kevin Magnussen meant that the virtual safety car (VSC) came into effect and then the full-course safety car (SC) was brought out, forcing the teams to rethink tyre strategy.
Unfortunately, Piastri was unlucky in the safety car proceedings and lost a position to Lewis Hamilton, demoting the Aussie to P4.
With Hamilton in P3, Norris’ second-place finish was under threat. To make matters even worse, the McLarens pitted for hard-compound tyres and Hamilton pitted for softs, leaving the McLaren drivers vulnerable to attacks from cars behind.
Surprisingly, the McLaren of Norris, powered by a Mercedes power unit, kept Hamilton at bay, firing up his tyres just in time for the safety car restart. Norris went wheel-to-wheel with the seven-time world champion, eventually beating Hamilton to the line, separated by just three seconds.
Although Piastri missed out on his debut podium, it looks likely that a similar opportunity will present itself very soon. On a more positive note, Norris’ result gave McLaren its first home podium since 2010, when Lewis Hamilton also finished second that day.
Are McLaren finally back? It’s too early to say with so many more races to go. What’s certain is that McLaren has officially joined a fight for P2 in the constructors championship, with Mercedes currently leading the way.
What year is it?
Scrambling at the back of the grid for the last few seasons, Williams’ performance at Silverstone was a much-needed morale boost.
In all three practice sessions, at least one Williams car featured in the top three. Although this pace seemed to disappear in Qualifying with Albon starting in P8 and Sargeant in P14, the Oxford locals put on a great show in the race.
Arguably one of the best-performing drivers this season so far, Alexander Albon drove a brilliant race, eventually finishing ahead of both Ferrari cars - nobody would have predicted that before the race.
Albon’s rookie teammate Logan Sargeant was within touching distance of the points, just missing out in P11. Despite Albon finding one position higher in the Canadian Grand Prix, the Thai driver rated his British Grand Prix performance above Canada.
The points haul also means that Williams had leapfrogged Alfa Romeo and Haas in the constructors’ championship, placing joint-seventh with Haas.
“I’m super-happy, I feel like that’s three weekends on the bounce now where we’ve had solid pace – [so let’s] keep it going.”
The future for Williams, with ex-Mercedes strategy director James Vowles at the helm, it’s finally looking up for the British team.
Max reigns supreme
Verstappen’s 43rd career win might’ve not been his most impressive but it marked an important milestone for his championship campaign, leaving him 99 points clear of second-place Sergio Perez.
Speaking of Perez, he believes he has the support of the entire Red Bull team, following rumours of him being replaced. After a dismal performance in qualifying, the Mexican drove a good race to finish in sixth, behind both Mercedes and McLaren cars, and more importantly, his teammate.
Verstappen displayed his talent yet again after reporting high winds across the track, offsetting the handling of his Red Bull, despite the Dutchman leading quite comfortably.
Even though Verstappen won, this race saw the pace of many teams get closer to that of Red Bull, hinting that the gap between Red Bull and the rest of the grid is decreasing.
This win marked Red Bull’s record-equalling eleventh win in a row, mirroring McLaren’s dominance in 1988, with Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost.
Verstappen also joins a prestigious list including Alberto Ascari, Michael Schumacher, Nico Rosberg, and Sebastian Vettel, as the 25-year-old achieved his sixth win in a row.
A disappointing performance
Despite earlier success, Aston Martin seemed to fall down the order this race. Fernando Alonso’s storming pace in the opening few races has faded, leaving the team more than 20 points behind Mercedes in the constructor’s championship.
Alonso had a lacklustre race, finishing just seven-tenths ahead of Alexander Albon, highlighting Aston Martin’s decline in pace. It seems as if most of the grid made successful improvements on their cars and, for some reason, Aston Martin’s upgrades haven’t worked the way they were intended to.
Ferrari’s woes continued yet again with Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz caught out by the safety car, relegating the Ferrari pair to P9 and P10. Although Leclerc got really close to Albon in P8, the British Grand Prix was a weekend to forget for the Scuderia.
Let’s not forget that it was one year ago at this very race that Carlos Sainz took his maiden victory, with Charles Leclerc taking another win the following race. As it stands, Leclerc’s win in Austria remains the Prancing Horse’s most recent victory, with no clear answer on how to resolve Ferrari’s plight.
Other key takeaways
Mercedes did well to stay in contention for a podium, despite the Works team being beaten by its customer. Hamilton and Russell had solid pace and drove well, although Russell did get unlucky with the safety car, dropping down the order. Mercedes look in good form to maintain P2 in the constructors’ championship, ahead of Aston Martin.
The biggest losers of this race were Alpha Tauri and Haas. Nico Hülkenberg put in a decent lap to qualify P11 but slipped down the order to P13. Kevin Magnussen had a terrible weekend at Silverstone, suffering mechanical issues on Saturday and Sunday, leaving the Haas team pointless yet again.
Alpha Tauri simply lacked the pace over the entire weekend, with both cars knocked out in Q1 and coming home in P16 and P17.
In his final Formula One race for a while, Nyck De Vries came home last, summarising his dismal stint with the Faenza team.
De Vries will be replaced by eight-time Grand Prix winner Daniel Ricciardo as of the next race in Hungary. This comes after failure to deliver strong performances compared to a much more dialled-in Yuki Tsunoda.
Overall, this year’s British Grand Prix was one to remember for many reasons. With a refreshed Daniel Ricciardo, McLaren on the rise, and a resurgent Williams, there’s so much to look forward to next time out in Hungary.
Final race results
1st - Max Verstappen (NED)
2nd - Lando Norris (GBR)
3rd - Lewis Hamilton (GBR)
4th - Oscar Piastri (AUS)
5th - George Russell (GBR)
6th - Sergio Perez (MEX)
7th - Fernando Alonso (ESP)
8th - Alexander Albon (THA)
9th - Charles Leclerc (MCO)
10th - Carlos Sainz (ESP)
11th - Logan Sargeant (USA)
12th - Valtteri Bottas (FIN)
13th - Nico Hülkenberg (GER)
14th - Lance Stroll (CAN)
15th - Zhou Guanyu (CHN)
16th - Yuki Tsunoda (JPN)
17th - Nyck de Vries (NED)
DNF - Pierre Gasly (FRA)
DNF - Esteban Ocon (FRA)
DNF - Kevin Magnussen (DNK)
