McLaren Triumph in Silverstone

British Grand Prix - Post Race Special

The dust has settled, and we have another great F1 race to summarize. McLaren are back, and they are on everyone’s lips right now. Williams is looking surprisingly strong. Ferrari is struggling to find the pace, along with Mercedes and Aston Martin, while Red Bull (and mostly Max Verstappen) continue to play in a league of their own. This is the F1 Summary, bringing the latest news and reactions from the Silverstone Grand Prix.

Race Summary

• Max Verstappen won his 6th consecutive race win in Silverstone yesterday. The win means a staggering 11 race wins in a row for the Red Bull team, now matching the all time record of 11 consecutive race wins by McLaren back in 1988. The Dutchman was joined by two British drivers on the podium, with Lando Norris taking home second and Lewis Hamilton third. A late safety car, caused by Kevin Magnussen’s Haas breaking down with an engine failure mixed up the race in the end, resulting in some hard racing in the final laps. This came to benefit some drivers more than others, such as Lewis Hamilton and Alex Albon. See the top 10 result below:

Highlights from the race

• McLaren have come in swinging, and they mean business. In the last race in Austria, as reported by the F1 Summary, the McLaren had mounted an upgraded package on Lando Norris’s car, showing promising results. The eyes were on the chrome/orange colored cars this weekend to see if the improvement was temporary or here to stay, and boy did the McLarens show the way. Qualifying a strong 2nd and 3rd, behind only Max Verstappen, the McLarens were able to show strong pace throughout the entire race. Lando Norris even managed to get ahead of Max Verstappen in the start, and held him off for a few laps, before the straight line speed of the Red Bull, empowered by the DRS became too fast for him to handle. But even then, the McLaren drivers seemed to be able to hold 2nd and 3rd position and build a small gap to the rest of the field, and had there not the late safety car, there is a good chance that they would have been able to have both drivers on the podium. Nevertheless, they will be more than happy with the improvements they made, and will be looking forward to keep on the momentum at the next race in Hungary.

• Sergio Perez was able to race himself up into 6th position, passing both Carlos Sainz and Fernando Alonso in the final stages of the race, and thereby hanging on to his second place in the championship standings. The Mexican has been struggling with his qualifying lately, and this weekend was no different as a long wait at the pitlane exit resulted in his tires cooling down too much, consequently compromising his qualifying lap and ultimately landing him a 15th starting position. However, cold tires aside, as teammate Max Verstappen put it bluntly “With that [our] car you have to get into Q3”. As a Red Bull driver, the expectations are simply higher than what the Mexican is delivering right now and while the damage may be minimized for now, he will surely want to turn his season around sooner rather than later.

• Alex Albon managed to pilot his Williams into an impressive 8th place. The Williams had been looking fast all weekend (even to the point that they were surprised themselves), and the Thai driver managed to put it all together in the race. Getting a bit lucky by the safety car, he was able to pass Carlos Sainz in the final stages of the race, and was even challenging the Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso. But as he was attacked by Charles Leclerc from behind, he had to back off and focus on defending. Nevertheless, the team will be more than happy with the result that puts them up in 7th in the constructors championship.

• Pierre Gasly was racing for points, but had a rather misfortune end of his stint. The Frenchman was unfortunate with the timing of the safety car, and lost several positions as a result. Once the racing got going he managed to pass both Lance Stroll and Carlos Sainz, putting him back in the points again. However, he was ultimately taken out of the race by Lance Stroll, in a crash that Lance Stroll was later given a penalty for. The French driver was rather disheartened after the race, and will be looking to move on to the next race as quickly as possible.

• Ferrari had a rough weekend as well, finishing in the bottom of the points places. Apparently they knew that this would be a rough track for them, according to Charles Leclerc, as the high speed corners are not well suited for the SF-23. Combined with some strategical misfortunes during the race, they will be looking to move on and continue their quest for more pace.

Race Reactions:

• Lando Norris was (obviously) incredibly excited about his race weekend. After having been put on the hard tyre for the last laps of the race, the Briton had to fight off the repeated overtaking attempts by Lewis Hamilton behind. In the post race interview, he claimed that a slightly lower downforce setup saved him, as it provided him with just enough speed on the straight line to stay in front. However, with a close to perfect race in the bank, he was also quick to play down the upcoming races and claimed that if they could make it into the top 10 more often, he would be happy right now. Only time will tell where the McLaren driver’s place in the pecking order will be, going forward from here.

• Oskar Piastri bagged his best result ever in F1, with a 4th position. He stated that it was a “different feeling being disappointed with 4th place”, referring to the fact that although P4 would have been a massive result in the prior races, he had every chance to score a podium this time around. He will surely hope to get more chances during the rest of the season as eyes are now suddenly very much fixed on the sensational McLarens.

• George Russel was one of the first to compliment the speed of the McLarens and the driving of Oscar Piastri and called their pace “pretty damn impressive”. The Mercedes team has been fighting to find the pace all season, and will most likely hope to be able to be able to deliver a similar bump in their pace at some point themselves.

• Max Verstappen took a subtle dig at his teammate Sergio Perez in the post qualifying press conference, stating that while they are fighting for the constructor championship together, he “can do that on his own at the moment”. And while that could be seen as an unnecessary comment about a teammate, he is in fact not wrong. His 255 points would put him over 50 points ahead of the next best team right now, Mercedes at 203 points.

Standings:

F1 2023 Driver Standings

F1 2023 Constructor Standings

Picture of the week

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Best,

The F1 Summary