British GP Preview
Things to watch out for the upcoming Silverstone GP
Special liveries for a special weekend
Williams has their one-off livery for this weekend, a beautiful white Union Jack on the engine covers. The livery, signifying the team’s 800th F1 Grand Prix, calls to the team’s roots.
McLaren’s Chrome livery makes a comeback, as the team from Surrey celebrates 60 years of establishment. The livery that once defined an era of domination and success, finds its way onto the MCL60, and hopefully brings forth some of their previous competitiveness, especially after the performance we saw last time around in Austria, courtesy of their new upgrades.
Aston Martin has an update to their livery as previous F1 sponsor Valvoline makes its way back onto the British Team’s car.
A familiar face returns
Former F1 driver and current Redbull reserve driver, Daniel Ricciardo gains a chance to prove himself again, as Redbull appoints Ricciardo to lead the team during a Pirelli Tyre test at the track which is to be held on Monday-Wednesday after the race.
Redbull Team Principal Horner was full of praise for Ricciardo’s efforts on the simulator ahead of his first on-track test in the team’s RB19 at Silverstone.
“When he first arrived after Abu Dhabi last year, it was a little bit of a shock because we didn’t really recognise him from the driver that had left us a few years earlier,” Horner reiterated when asked by The Race whether he was starting to look more like the Ricciardo Red Bull knew.”
“But he seems to have re-found his mojo, he’s been working hard on the simulator, he’s now extremely competitive in what he’s doing in the virtual world. So whether that crosses over into the real world, we’ll see, albeit at a tyre test, we’ll get the impression as to the level that he’s performing at. But certainly you can see that there is a spring coming back in his step.”
Teams to watch out for this weekend:
Following the last round in Austria, the questions arise whether Ferrari are back on track to challenge for victories and whether an opportunity will let them command this weekend would show up, as it has been no surprise that Max Verstappen, current Driver's championship leader, has been struggling at this track for the last couple of years, finishing 7th last year after starting 2nd, and DNF’ed in 2021. His last win here was in 2020, winning the 70th anniversary GP on a messy 2020 calendar. Ferrari aims to prove if they have truly recovered from their struggles with their car as Silverstone presents an opportunity for them to showcase their potential.
Mercedes on the other hand seemed to struggle with their car in Austria last time around, with Hamilton stating on multiple occasions that the car was unreasonably slow. However, considering they have recently changed concepts by losing the “Zeropod” and shifting back to normal bulkier sidepod designs as seen on other cars on the grid, they have missed out on an entire season’s worth of development. It would still be wrong to count them out of the podium around their home track, as they continue to bring upgrades to their car in the form of a new front wing.
Another team not to be counted out of the podium is Aston Martin, and even though they had been slow in Austria, there is no reason to believe that a team that has been on the podium on multiple occasions this season would suddenly drop out of contention. In fact, Silverstone may even suit their car’s driving style, with both medium-speed corners and fast-flowing sections of track that are of the Aston Martin car’s liking.
A surprise that sprung up during the 2 Free practice sessions on Friday was the Williams racing team who finish P3 and P5 at the 2nd practice session, where Alexander Albon set a time slower than the fastest driver of the session Max Verstappen who set a 1:28.078 second time and Williams’ second driver Logan Sargeant set a time +0.688 to finish P5. It will be interesting to see if they are able to perform at this pace for a consistent level during the race.
What’s the weather going to be like?
The forecast suggests a Wet Saturday and Sunday with a 94% chance of rain on Saturday between 12 pm -3 pm Local time, time and a 56% chance of rain on Sunday after 2 pm local time.
Fans can look forward to a wet quali with changing conditions that usually throw in the element of surprise to the starting grid, as Max Verstappen dominates the last many races with Redbull having won 20/21 races, a feat previously only achieved by the pair of Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg.
Brad Pitt and the shooting of Movie Apex
The big talk of the weekend is Brad Pitt and his upcoming movie “Apex”, for which the production crew has got their very own F1(ish) car. To know more about it, read our very own article on the topic.
Detailed Schedule of the F1 Action
The British Grand Prix will be a normal weekend unlike 2021 where it was a Sprint weekend. Here’s the Full Schedule:
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