2023 British Grand Prix Recap
Lando Norris Credit: PA/David Davies
Max Verstappen
Lando Norris +3.798
Lewis Hamilton +6.783
Oscar Piastri +7.776
George Russell +11.206
Sergio Perez +12.882
Fernando Alonso +17.193
Alex Albon +17.878
Charles Leclerc +18.689
Carlos Sainz +19.448
Logan Sargeant +23.632
Valtteri Bottas +25.830
Nico Hulkenberg +26.663
Lance Stroll +27.483
Zhou Guanyu +29.820
Yuki Tsunoda +31.225
Nyck De Vries +33.128
Pierre Gasly DNF
Kevin Magnussen DNF
Esteban Ocon DNF
Credit: AP/ Luca Bruno
I missed last week’s recap at the Austrian Gran Prix because, well it was July 4th here in the US. So mini recap that Verstappen dominated the Austrian Grand Prix and was so far ahead in the race that he pit with one lap to go, so he could get new tires and go for the fastest lap. Charles Leclerc and Sergio Perez rounded out the podium in Austria.
So onto the British Grand Prix at Silverstone. Once again in qualifying we had a little bit of rain and a wet track, which is at least three races in a row now that rain has been a factor in qualifying. And for the 5th time in a row now, Sergio Perez failed to get into the 3rd round of qualifying. This weekend Perez wasn’t even able to get out of the first round and qualified 16th. This is truly an astonishing statistic. Perez is in the best car on the grid in the Red Bull and yet continuously fails to qualify top 10, which should be a given. In the same time frame, Verstappen has qualified on the pole in those five races. If Perez isn’t careful, he’s going to get fired midseason. It may sound crazy for a guy who is 2nd in points but considering he’s nearly 100 pts behind his teammate and Daniel Ricciardo is waiting in the reserves, it definitely wouldn’t be that big of a shock that this point.
Onto the race, it was McLaren with great qualifying results, which would have them starting 2nd and 3rd behind Verstappen. Which two races ago would’ve seemed like an impossibility but McLaren brought upgrades to Austria and Lando Norris finished 4th, then they brought more upgrades to this weekend and looked stellar once again in practice and qualifying. At the start of the race both McLaren cars got fantastic jumps and Norris took the early lead. Piastri actually had the best start of all but with him starting 3rd, he wasn’t able to maneuver his away around either car. Lando kept the lead for the first five laps of the race and then Verstappen got back around him for the lead. The majority of the early part of the race was Verstappen in the lead followed by both McLaren’s in Norris and Piastri. Despite the advantage the Red Bull has shown in most all races this season, the Red Bull never pulled too far away from the McLarens. I want to say before the safety car, the gap to second was around 8 seconds give or take.
Which then brings us to the safety car which was the major turning point in the race. On lap 34, Kevin Magnussen’s engine caught of fire and the care came to a halt on track. The interesting part about this caution was that it was right during pit stops. Both of the Ferraris had already stopped and George Russell who spent the majority of the race in 4th and 5th to that point had also stopped. When Magnussen’s car first stopped on track a virtual safety car came out which most of the drivers started to pit. Then a lap later a full safety car came out and the remaining drivers that needed to pit did. This benefitted nobody more than Lewis Hamilton who spent the majority of the race running 7th, jumped way up to 3rd place behind Norris due to the quick pit stop under a full safety car. Very unfortunate for Oscar Piastri and the McLaren team as they looked to have a double podium locked up and now Lando Norris was going to have to fight for his life to hold onto a 2nd place finish.
During the pit stops, McLaren decided to go with the hard tires while Mercedes decided to put soft tires on Hamilton’s car. When the green flag dropped, Hamilton was all over Norris and had multiple attempts at the pass but just couldn’t get it done. It was some phenomenal defending by Lando Norris to hold off Hamilton and after a couple laps, his hard tires finally got up to temperature and he was able to pull ahead of Hamilton.
In the end, Max Verstappen was able to bring home his 2nd career British Grand Prix win and his 6th win in a row on the season. Verstappen has now won 8 out of 10 races this season. Lando Norris was able to bring home 2nd place which ties his career high finish and Lewis Hamilton brought home 3rd place for his 14th career podium at the British Grand Prix.
3 Star Drivers of the Day
3rd Star - Oscar Piastri
Piastri may have started 3rd and finished 4th but I still think he’s worthy of a driver of the day spot. Like I mentioned earlier he actually got the best start out of the top 3 to start the race but the inside was covered and he got boxed in and wasn’t able to go for the lead. He put some pressure on Verstappen in the first couple of laps and nearly pulled off a pass. Piastri also had a podium finish in the bag until a late virtual safety car turned full safety car allowed Hamilton to jump him in the restart order.
2nd Star - Max Verstappen
All weekend long, the Red Bull car never seemed quite as dominant as it has at other races this season. In practice and qualifying, other cars seemed to be just as quick yet Verstappen each and every time would put in the fastest lap just in the nick of time. Verstappen only fault all race long was getting passed by Lando Norris on the start but after reeling Norris back in, Verstappen cruised to a 6th consecutive win. Again though, what makes it an impressive performance by Verstappen is that margin to McLaren was not that big.
1st Star - Lando Norris
Prior to Austria, McLaren had not ran a lap in the top 5 of any race. Yet here we are just a week later and they now have a 4th place finish in Austria, thanks to Norris, and a 2nd and 4th place finish here in Britain. Norris even led some lap at the start of this race but by far the more impressive driving by Norris was his ability to hang with the Red Bull car and his battle with Lewis Hamilton with about 15 laps remaining. I thought for sure after the safety car that Hamilton would get by Norris for 2nd when Hamilton had soft tires and Norris was on hard tires but Norris defended like crazy in the first couple laps after the restart until he finally found some grip in the tires and was able to pull out of DRS range. Phenomenal drive by Norris and just think, we were one Red Bull car issue away from a McLaren win and a Lando Norris first career win.
Other Notes:
Aston Martin are very clearly going in the wrong direction. At the start of the season it seemed a matter of when not if Fernando Alonso and Aston Martin brought home a win. Alonso and Aston Martin seemed to be the closest rival to Red Bull with Alonso picking up a podium with either a 2nd or 3rd place each race. But now since his 2nd in Canada 3 weeks ago, Alonso has now struggled for a 5th and 7th place finish in back to back weeks. While other teams’ upgrades seem to be working, the Aston Martin upgrades seem to be slowing the car. It’s starting to look like Aston Martin peaked at the beginning of the season.
Lewis Hamilton completely lucked his way into a podium today. I’m pretty sure he made 1 pass all day and that was on Fernando Alonso for 7th after Hamilton dropped back a place on the start. But hey, you need luck along the way in an F1 season. Here’s the question I want to ask, will Lewis Hamilton finish the season in 2nd place in the points standings? I mean think about, he’s currently in 4th place and only 16 pts behind Alonso, which it seems Mercedes are starting to produce better cars that Aston Martin. Then you have Sergio Perez 35 pts clear of Hamilton and while Hamilton would never catch him, there’s a chance Sergio Perez gets canned midway through this season. It might be crazy but it’s not out of the realm of possibility that he somehow manages a 2nd place finish on the season once it is all said and done.
Are Ferrari this unlucky or are they just this bad? I mean every race for how many years now they seem to just continuously make the worst calls. Today they decide to try and undercut George Russell by pitting Charles Leclerc on lap 17. Leclerc only had 17 laps on medium tires and they decide to pit. Meanwhile George Russell, who was one of the few to start on soft tires ran about 30 laps before ever pitting. Russell was able to go onto mediums for the remainder of the race and a few other cars that had started on mediums like Verstappen and Hamilton, went onto soft to finish the race. Essentially just do the exact opposite of Ferrari and you’ll guarantee yourself a top finish.
Standings
Max Verstappen 255 pts
Sergio Perez 156 pts
Fernando Alonso 137 pts
Lewis Hamilton 121 pts
Carlos Sainz 83 pts
George Russell 82 pts
Charles Leclerc 74 pts
Lance Stroll 44 pts
Lando Norris 42 pts
Esteban Ocon 31 pts