As the dark clouds hovered over the Silverstone circuit, the rain never came and this gave way to a terrific Formula 1 British Grand Prix. Carlos Sainz put his Ferrari on pole for the first time in his F1 career and he managed to convert that pole into his first F1 win of his career too.
It may sound like it was a simple thing but his win was anything but simple with Max Verstappen’s Red Bull making the pass, twice, for the lead and the Ferrari bumbling the strategy call between Carlos and his teammate Charles Leclerc. A Safety Car bunched the field up with Leclerc in the lead but on old tires. It was Carlos defying his team’s request to give Charles space that saw him immediately take the lead at the restart and march to his first win and only the second Spaniard to win and F1 race. He was followed home by Sergio Perez and Lewis Hamilton.
Win
A huge win for Carlos Sainz who takes his first F1 win of his career. Carlos had the pace all weekend and seemed to continue his performance from Canada. Despite the team moving him over for a quicker Leclerc early on and then asking him to back Hamilton up for the restart, Carlos took the race in his own hands, defied the team’s request and took the win.
Perhaps there is no doubt Carlos wasn’t focused on maximizing Leclerc’s points in the championship but most champions aren’t interested it that either. The team initially pushed Sainz for better pace as Leclerc was quicker but asking Sainz to back up Hamilton wasn’t in the cards for the Spaniard.
A big win for Red Bull’s Sergio Perez who had a damaged front wing on the first lap dropping him to the back of the grid but he put his head down and got a free pit stop during the Safety Car and as soon as I saw him slotted 4th for the restart, I reckoned it was going to be game on and it was. The Mexican immediately put pressure on Hamilton and made the pass as well as passed Leclerc to deliver a fantastic recovery drive to P2.
A big win for Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes who seemed to have begun their recovery back toward the front of the grid. If Mercedes were able to give Lewis a slightly improved car, the 7-time champ was going to over deliver for sure and he did! A great drive knocking on the door of a podium and even a possible win had the strategy worked out slightly differently. Even with out a win, the momentum is a great sign for both Lewis and Mercedes.
A big win for Fernando Alonso and Lando Norris for their 5th and 6th respectively. Both Alpine and McLaren were neck and neck this weekend fighting for best-of-the-rest and Fernando’s 5th place was a clear example that if the car is there, much like Lewis, Fernando will over deliver. I also enjoyed Fernando ribbing the stewards about Leclerc’s weaving. For Lando, he was there all day long and buoyed by an adoring British crowd, he raced hard for a terrific result for the home team.
A win for the HALO by protecting a young driver in the junior series as well as Alfa Romeo’s Zho Guanyu in his massive impact into the tire barrier and catch fencing. As much as I like the HALO and the injuries it clearly has prevented, I am still concerned about the time it takes for extrication in crashes where the car is upside down or up against a barrier like Zho’s was. I would like to see a continuing effort in the design and usage of the HALO to improve it in those situations.
A win for Haas and specifically Mick Schumacher who scored his first F1 points. The team needed a good result and a dual-points finish was a great result.
Fail
A fail for Red Bull and Max Verstappen who looked to have the race in hand but suffered from a damaged floor that amazingly and instantly hobbled his car’s performance. It was interesting to see just how much performance was lost with damage we couldn’t readily see on the underfloor. Apparently it was damage to one of the Venturi tunnels under the car.
A fail for Ferrari who failed to stack their car stops during the Safety Car in order to protect Charles and Carlos from an attacking Hamilton, or as it turns out Perez, and this left Charles out on worn Hard compound tires and a bit of a sitting duck for Sainz, Perez and Hamilton. The team lost so much time in Leclerc’s race that it is hard to see how the young Monegasque could be remotely happy. The reality is, Max wasn’t winning this race and this was the time for Leclerc to harvest big gains and the team denied him that.
WTH
A WTH moment for protestors who decided to storm the track at the start and try to disrupt the race. Thankfully it failed as the race was immediately red flagged giving the police ample time to arrest seven of them. The irresponsible nature of their efforts completely marginalized whatever cause they were promoting and perhaps it was fate that the race was red flagged so the stupid act was thwarted. You have. Point, make it. But like the Belgian grand prix from several years ago, putting fans, drivers, marshals and more at sever risk is irresponsible and base behavior.
The Pirelli Tire Story:
- The British Grand Prix was won by Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz from pole – but that only tells half the story. The race was restarted after a red flag on lap one, with all but two drivers (McLaren’s Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo) changing tyres.
- The timing of a safety car in the closing stages of the race was another pivotal moment. It came at just the right time for Red Bull’s Sergio Perez, who recovered to second place after a poor start, but disadvantaged Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who stayed out on well-used P Zero White hard tyres and slipped down to fourth. Leclerc was in the lead at the re-start, but was passed by Sainz, Perez, and Hamilton on new P Zero Red soft tyres in the closing stages.
- All three compounds played a key role, with hard, P Zero Yellow medium, and soft seen on the original starting grid. There were three different strategies used by the top four, contributing to some breath-taking battles all the way down the field.
- Among those duels was a fight that went down to the last corner for seventh place between Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Haas driver Mick Schumacher – with the latter scoring his first Formula 1 world championship points today.
Race Result:
| Pos | Name | Car | Laps | Laps Led | Total Time | Fastest Lap | Pitstops | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Carlos Sainz Jr. | Ferrari | 52 | 27 | 1h21m20.44s | 1m30.813s | 3 | 25 |
| 2 | Sergio Pérez | Red Bull | 52 | 0 | +3.779s | 1m30.937s | 3 | 18 |
| 3 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 52 | 8 | +6.225s | 1m30.51s | 3 | 16 |
| 4 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 52 | 13 | +-20m0s | 1m31.282s | 2 | 12 |
| 5 | Fernando Alonso | Alpine-Renault | 52 | 0 | +-20m0s | 1m31.609s | 3 | 10 |
| 6 | Lando Norris | McLaren-Mercedes | 52 | 0 | +-20m0s | 1m31.645s | 3 | 8 |
| 7 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 52 | 0 | +-20m0s | 1m32.354s | 4 | 6 |
| 8 | Mick Schumacher | Haas-Ferrari | 52 | 0 | +-20m0s | 1m32.109s | 3 | 4 |
| 9 | Sebastian Vettel | Aston Martin-Mercedes | 52 | 0 | +-20m0s | 1m32.471s | 3 | 2 |
| 10 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas-Ferrari | 52 | 0 | +-20m0-59s | 1m32.661s | 2 | 1 |
| 11 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin-Mercedes | 52 | 0 | +-20m0-59s | 1m32.379s | 3 | 0 |
| 12 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams-Mercedes | 52 | 0 | +-20m0-59s | 1m33.286s | 3 | 0 |
| 13 | Daniel Ricciardo | McLaren-Mercedes | 52 | 0 | +-20m0-59s | 1m32.644s | 4 | 0 |
| 14 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri-Red Bull | 52 | 0 | +-20m0-59s | 1m33.832s | 3 | 0 |
| Esteban Ocon | Alpine-Renault | 37 | 0 | DNF | 1m33.537s | 2 | 0 | |
| Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri-Red Bull | 25 | 0 | DNF | 1m34.614s | 3 | 0 | |
| Valtteri Bottas | Alfa Romeo-Ferrari | 19 | 0 | DNF | 1m35.103s | 2 | 0 | |
| George Russell | Mercedes | 0 | 0 | DNF | 0s | 0 | 0 | |
| Guanyu Zhou | Alfa Romeo-Ferrari | 0 | 0 | DNF | 0s | 0 | 0 | |
| Alex Albon | Williams-Mercedes | 0 | 0 | DNF | 0s | 0 | 0 |
I would give a WIN to Charles Leclerc who made the last 10 laps so dramatic. Yeah, Ferrari hosed him by leaving him out on worn hard tires but he also managed to keep a charging LH, riding on new Pirelli reds, either behind him or filled up his mirrors lap after lap. I thought it was brilliant example of his driving skill. At one point, there were 5 cars racing for second place! And add as a second WTH to Ferrari for NOT issuing team orders!
That’s a good shout. Charles drove his heart out for sure.
How many times have we seen Carlos save his own race from his team’s incompetence? One of the things I like about Carlos is, while Max being from racing royalty seems to make him a brat, Carlos has the confidence of the ruling class. He shouldn’t need to use his self assurance to defend himself from Ferrari’s engineers and strategists, but as Charles shows, listening to the team is a great way to step off a podium. I like these two drivers, but i’m starting to think Ferrari deserve themselves. The Italian team is simply not intelligent enough to compete… Read more »
Well, They are the only team to have been in F1 since it began and have led over 80,000 kilometers in F1 with numerous records and titles so I kind of think they do have the intelligence. Just need to sharpen their strategy group.
Good points, but that’s kind of like saying Sears Roebuck knows what it’s doing because it’s still sold more stuff than anyone else. Ferrari has accomplished precious little in what’s getting to be a long long time despite systemic favoritism in the sport’s structure I would suggest that along with the stats you list, they are likely also the team which has lost with the fastest car and driver more times than any other. They just screw up too much for the level the sport has reached, there was a time you could get away with it. You see Binotto… Read more »
Is it just me or does anyone else feel that once Verstappen was out of the way, this was the best F1 race the whole year! Gentlemen drivers, real passing, following, braking – great racing.
On the other hand, if Ghou had not pancaked bottom down on that cathment fence, the race could have been called.Head into that fence would have been dangerous.
I agree though i’d also add that whenever something happens that takes the engineers out of the picture and puts the focus on the drivers – rain, free pit stops then a sprint, whatever it is that takes all the ‘strategy’ out of play, you get great racing.
Anyone else notice the number of tires that appeared to roll in on themselves? Notably on Ocon’s. I’ve never seen this before. I thought these lower profile tires where going to be stiffer, yet as soon as these tires lose pressure they appear to collapse. Can anything be done to help these tires hold there bead?
Also, a WIN for the track safety and recovery teams. I still haven’t heard about Albon’s injurys but the medical crew continues to be the model for being planed and professional. That being said, I would still like to see a driver protection that is more easy to escape from. Just because the halo has been the right tool at the right time, it doesn’t make it the be all end all. We didn’t stop at the lap belt and armco.
FAIL: More strife from the race directors/timing and scoring rearranging the order under the red flag.
A great watch, huge crowd and excellent work by the marshalls.
I have been waiting a long time to see the type of racing that we saw those last ten laps. That was awesome! It’s a shame we don’t get to see that at every race.
How much did Grace geek about Albon’s helmet? Super cool!
WTF? : At the end of the race, when they rolled the results at the bottom of the screen on the F1TV feed, they showed Hass: Mag P9 Sch P11
~X8