Evaluation: Issues we realized from the British Grand Prix

Final Sunday’s British Grand Prix noticed Max Verstappen accumulate his eighth victory of the season, however two British drivers Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton delighted the house crowd with shock podium finishes. F1Technical’s senior author Balázs Szabó displays on the British Grand Prix.

Dominance – Pink Bull secured their tenth win of the season and their eleventh consecutive victory which noticed them obtain McLaren all-time report of 11 consecutive F1 wins. It was the 102nd F1 triumph for Pink Bull Racing, their 249th podium end, 91st quickest lap whereas the qualifying session noticed them safe their ninetieth pole place.

Profitable weekend – Following a tough Austrian Grand Prix, Mercedes strengthened their place within the Constructors’ Championship by securing a 3rd and fifth-place end with Lewis Hamilton and George Russell respectively.

The German outfit occupies second place within the standings and at the moment are 22 factors away from Aston Martin with Ferrari an additional 14 factors behind.

Sudden success – McLaren had not accomplished a single lap inside the highest 5 this season till final weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix, they usually might additional cement their improved tempo with their heavily-updated automotive.

The staff was embedded in a battle with Alpine for P5 within the Constructors’ Championship, and with each Alpine drivers having retired within the race, McLaren might overtake the Anglo-French outfit and now lie 12 factors forward of them.

Tyres – As for the efficiency of the completely different compounds, every of them confirmed nice sturdiness with no important drop off.

Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas racked up the very best variety of laps on the onerous compound with the Finn finishing a 32-lap stint on the white-walled tyres. McLaren’s Lando Norris set the quickest lap on this compound on Lap 43 with a time of 1m30.543s as he was desirous to cling on to P2, defending his place from seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton.

On the yellow-banded medium, the longest stint was a 33-lap run with 4 drivers – Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso, Lando Norris and Max Verstappen – having achieved this extraordinarily lengthy stint. The quickest lap was recorded by George Russell, who went on to submit a 1m31.124s on the thirteenth lap of his second stint.

The longest stint on the C3 compound belonged to Russell, who prolonged his opening stint till Lap 28, displaying nice consistency on the softest out there compound. The Briton was additionally in a position to decide up his tempo when Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc pitted for brand spanking new tyres early on which gave the Mercedes driver free air. Race winner Verstappen set the quickest lap on the C3 compound with a 1m30.275s on Lap 42 which turned the quickest lap of the race.

Aero effectivity – Williams had been anticipated to go nicely round Silverstone on condition that their 2023 F1 automotive has excelled on high-speed tracks. Alex Albon didn’t fail to ship and his eighth-place end was the most effective consequence for Williams in a house race since 2015. Having collected a complete of 11 factors thus far, the Grove-based squad is now seventh within the Constructors’ Championship tied with Haas, however their higher outcomes elevate them above their American rival.

Driver of the day – Following a tough begin to the season, Lando Norris secured a fourth-place end on the Austrian Grand Prix earlier than grabbing his first podium end of the 12 months on the British Grand Prix. Having made a soar on Max Verstappen off the road, he led the primary 4 laps of the race, however he couldn’t retain that lead over the Pink Bull.

Nonetheless, his first podium at Silverstone was nonetheless sufficient for Norris to earn the title of Driver of the Day after receiving 45.5 per cent of the votes. Scoring 12.1 per cent of the votes, Lewis Hamilton completed in P2 forward of McLaren’s Australian driver Oscar Piastri (10.8 per cent).

Quickest lap – Max Verstappen achieved the eighth hat-trick weekend of his profession (win/pole/quickest lap) on the British Grand Prix. The Pink Bull Racing driver set his personal greatest lap time on Lap 42 on Pirelli’s delicate compound with a time of 1m30.275s which turned the quickest lap of the race.

Confirming McLaren’s resurgence at Silverstone, Lando Norris set the second quickest lap solely two tenths of a second adrift of Verstappen’s benchmark. Much more spectacular was the truth that the Briton achieved this on Pirelli’s Onerous compound against Verstappen’s Comfortable tyres.

Leaving it late so far as the quickest occasions had been involved, Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg and Alfa Romeo racer Valtteri Bottas set their greatest lap occasions on the final lap of the 52-lap race, however Tsunoda, de Vries, Leclerc, Sainz additionally achieved their quickest lap within the dying minutes of the grand prix, demonstrating the sturdiness of Pirelli’s tyres across the in any other case extraordinarily demanding Silverstone observe.

Reprimand for the house hero – Lewis Hamilton left it additionally late within the Thursday FIA press convention. The stewards launched an investigation into the matter, however concluded that Hamilton’s late attendance was right down to his busy schedule in his house race, and handed out solely a reprimand to Mercedes.

Pit lane – McLaren was not solely fast on observe, however they displayed nice off observe efficiency as nicely. The mechanics of the Woking-based outfit serviced Norris’ automotive in 2.23s beneath immense stress in the course of the Security Automobile interval.

Following two races wherein they lastly demonstrated encouraging race tempo, Ferrari endured a dip in efficiency in Silverstone. Nonetheless, the Scuderia was fast within the pit lane as they swapped tyres on Charles Leclerc’s automotive inside 2.32s and required solely 2.41s to vary tyres on Carlos Sainz’s automotive.

After 10 rounds within the 2023 F1 season, Pink Bull discover atop of the DHL Quickest Pit Cease Award with Ferrari occupying the second spot. McLaren made a soar to P3 with their spectacular efficiency in Silverstone.

Disqualification – Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas was disqualified from the qualifying session after his staff was unable to offer a 1.0 litre pattern of gas. Though the stewards heared from the staff consultant, they discovered no mitigating circumstances and determined to disqualify the Finn driver.

The final time a driver was disqualified was Sebastian Vettel, who misplaced second-place end on the 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix after his former staff Aston Martin might solely present a 0.7 litre pattern of gas following the Budapest race.

High-quality – The rain-hit qualifying session prompted drivers and groups to combat for the right observe place. In these tense circumstances, stewards handed AlphaTauri a €5,000 fantastic for an unsafe launch as Nyck de Vries was despatched into the trail of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri.

Curfew – F1 groups have some very strict guidelines on once they’re allowed to work on the automotive over a race weekend. Operational personnel are at the moment topic to 3 curfews on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday evenings, however they’ve two jokers in the course of the 12 months which permits them to work on a automotive in case of an emergency scenario.

After detecting electrical points on Charles Leclerc’s automotive which prevented him from any operating in FP2, Ferrari mechanics had been compelled to remain within the storage in the course of the restricted interval to arrange the Monegasque’s automotive for Free Observe 3. This was Ferrari’s first particular person exceptions in the course of the 2023 F1 season.