Formula 1’s Triple Header came to a conclusion at a sun-soaked Silverstone as Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari delivered a ‘hammer blow’ – their words – to Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes. Motorsport Week presents its round-up from the British Grand Prix.
It’s Coming Home… Or not
The 100,000 or so spectators who flocked to Silverstone on Saturday witnessed a stunning Hamilton pole lap followed an England World Cup victory that secured an unexpected Semi-Final berth, all while basking in the ongoing heatwave. An additional 40,000 were present on Sunday, with an array of banners and flags leaving observers in no doubt as to who was the favourite. Hamilton had been unbeaten at Silverstone in four years, a run that likely would have stretched back to 2013 without an ill-timed puncture, but his time in the lead of the race extended to barely a second. At least, the time it took for Vettel to negate Hamilton’s eight-metre positional advantage when the lights went out and the pole-sitting W09 bogged down amid a dollop of wheelspin. The lead was already lost, and so was second when Valtteri Bottas placed his car for the inside line at Abbey. Hamilton’s line was compromised but he still held third – until Kimi Raikkonen locked up, clobbered the side of Hamilton’s car, pitching the Briton into a spin.
Four-time champs on a charge
Hamilton re-joined in 18th position, ahead only of Sergio Perez – who perilously spun in front of the pit-exiting Williams drivers – and Brendon Hartley, shortly to cap a miserable weekend with an early mechanically-induced retirement. Hamilton, fuelled by anger and a sizeable pace advantage, carved his way through the lower midfield order and impressively returned to the top six after just 10 laps. Vettel, meanwhile, executed the first stint of the race in archetypal Vettel fashion: hammer out an advantage. A first lap advantage of 1.9s swelled to 3.4s next time around, followed by 4.0, 4.5, 5.1, peaking around the six-second mark. Vettel struggled more than Bottas as the Softs gradually expired and the duo stopped on laps 20 and 21 respectively, Bottas freed back into second by his yet-to-pit team-mate. Vettel still held the advantage but Bottas was urged to push by Mercedes and apply the pressure. He did. Vettel’s post-stop lead of 4.4s over Bottas was halved, and decreasing further, setting up the prospect of a duel to the flag between the two fastest Formula 1 cars in history at a ferociously fast venue. Only it didn't quite pan out that way.
Swede dreams aren’t made of these
Marcus Ericsson’s media session on Saturday was timed for 16:50 – straight after Sweden’s World Cup defeat by England – and he was in little mood to entertain football thoughts, and was again frustrated at his inability to extract the maximum from Sauber’s C37 in qualifying trim. It has been an ongoing theme throughout 2018. Ericsson had made gains in race trim and was chasing Perez when he tried to eke out his DRS usage for as long as possible into Abbey. Only the bumpy nature of Silverstone meant his finger slipped, he did not disengage DRS, and the resultant lack of rear downforce heading into an eighth-gear right-hander had only one consequence. Ericsson spun on corner entry, skated across the gravel and speared into the barriers. The size of the accident and the location of the stricken Sauber meant a Safety Car, virtual or real, was a guarantee, opening up new strategy options.
To stop, or not to stop?
That was the question. Ericsson’s accident came on lap 32 of 52, shortly after Daniel Ricciardo had made a second stop for fresh Soft tyres. Red Bull felt a one-stop strategy was marginal, due to the high-speed nature of the circuit and higher-than-usual temperatures, and split approaches for its drivers, but the appearance of the Safety Car meant Max Verstappen, along with both Ferrari drivers, opted for a new set of Softs. Mercedes informed its drivers to adopt the opposite tactic to the Ferrari drivers, which meant staying out, in order to gain track position. It was not a failure to react, unlike in Austria a week beforehand, as Bottas gained the lead, and Hamilton moved from fifth to third, the latter’s Mediums only seven laps older than the Softs taken on by his opponents. “We would have done the opposite because I think both strategies had a realistic [chance], it was a 50-50 I guess,” said Toto Wolff. “We want to be aggressive.” Hamilton also backed the call. “That was an opportunity for me to get up into third. I think it was the right decision. If I’d followed them in I would have come out behind them, we’d have equal tyres and I would have struggled to get by them.”
Silver, red, silver, red
Bottas put up a stern defence at the restart and was given a breather when Carlos Sainz Jr. and Romain Grosjean brought their middling weekends to a close by colliding at Copse. The next restart was cleaner and Bottas preserved his advantage into Brooklands and through Luffield, leaving Vettel a little stumped as to how to get past. The instant advantage of his Soft tyres would only last for a limited period of time, especially considering how closely he was trying to follow Bottas, though the Mercedes driver was also struggling on his increasingly second-hand Mediums. On lap 47 Bottas got a little wiggle through the exit of Aintree and the DRS-powered Vettel swept out of the slipstream under braking for Brooklands at the last possible moment to capture the inside line, leaving Bottas with no chance to counter. “Obviously I was able to surprise him so I think he thought that I won’t dare [go on] the inside and the braking zone was coming quite fast,” explained Vettel. “I thought ‘OK, I have to go for it’, because I was obviously also struggling… the longer I spent behind him, struggling with my tyres as they got hotter, and losing that advantage that I had a little bit. I felt great when I was side by side and wasn’t sure if I would make the corner but I did, so it was great.” Bottas conceded he “didn’t quite expect” Vettel’s ambitious challenge, as his previously superb defence was shattered. It was a move worthy of winning any motor-race, let alone one as prestigious as the British Grand Prix, and ensured Ferrari broke Mercedes’ five-year control of the event. It did not get unnoticed that their post-race press release was entitled a ‘hammer blow’.
Second place, ashen face
Hamilton also overhauled the ailing Bottas and refused to give up the fight against Vettel, in spite of running older Mediums, as he also kept a resurgent Raikkonen at bay, the Finn having profited from Verstappen’s woes and Bottas’ worn rubber. Hamilton was understandably distraught at his failure to win – even though he had executed a superb recovery, showing rapid pace throughout – feeling as if he had let down his fans. Hamilton also failed to conduct the customary parc ferme interview post-race, later explaining that he had been exhausted by his effort and required time in which to re-group. Hamilton’s was eventually interviewed on the podium and his comment regarding Ferrari’s “interesting tactics” led to a barrage of further questions by the British press pack, with Hamilton referring to Vettel’s clash with Bottas in France: “All I’ll say there’s now two races the Ferraris have taken out one of the Mercedes. A five-second penalty and a 10-second penalty doesn’t feel… It is a lot of points Valtteri and I have lost in those incidents. Obviously it’s a racing incident and I can’t see behind me. We need to position ourselves better so we’re not exposed to the red cars because who knows where they are going to be.” The Ferrari drivers predictably brushed off Hamilton’s comments and on Monday morning he took to social media to accept Raikkonen’s apology, in turn drawing a line under the previous day’s shenanigans.
Red Bull blunted
Red Bull used to thrive at Silverstone as its aerodynamic prowess was perfectly suited to the high-downforce nature of the circuit. But not in 2018. The increase in downforce throughout the field has made several corners in effect a full-throttle section, meaning Silverstone has become more of a power-limited venue than an aero-limited one. And it hurt Red Bull. “If you look at the rear wings on the cars we’re running Spa levels of downforce,” said team boss Christian Horner. “I think in qualifying every single corner we were quicker than Sebastian but we just lose time down the straights.” Verstappen brilliantly battled with Raikkonen for fourth but a brake-by-wire failure that damaged the clutch ended his race, while Ricciardo was subdued throughout, relieved to reach the finale of the triple header. “We were just hugely exposed in both defence and attack,” said Horner. “You could see at the restart with Kimi, it was a bit like Mexico 2015 that the amount of additional power, and then at the second restart he had a moment at Stowe, at the restart still all over Max in Turns 2, 3. So and unfortunately for Daniel he just couldn’t attack Valtteri whilst having a superior tyre and grip and performance, even with the DRS open we were still dropping back.”
Midfield maestros
Five different teams filled the provisional race classification from positions six to 10 while one not present should have been. Nico Hulkenberg profited from an outstanding first lap to rise up to sixth place, where he eventually classified, to ensure Renault edged clear in the battle for fourth. It was difficult to envisage what more he could have done on a weekend where the R.S.18 was not necessarily the standout mid-grid package. Esteban Ocon again held the upper hand in the Force India battle and took seventh, while Fernando Alonso again demonstrated that McLaren’s uncompetitive car is at least a slightly better proposition on a Sunday than it is on a Saturday. Alonso felt he could have battled Ocon had he not been edged into the Luffield gravel by Kevin Magnussen late on. Alonso labelled the FIA’s decision not to sanction Magnussen as “soft”, though in reality it was six of one, half a dozen of the other. Magnussen at least added more points to Haas’ tally – which could not be said for Grosjean, who had also damaged his team-mate’s floor with their Turn 3 clash – while Pierre Gasly did well to round out the top 10 until the stewards deemed that his argy-bargy with Perez was too much. Gasly, having missed vital practice running through his own FP2 issues and Toro Rosso’s understandable caution in FP3 amid Brendon Hartley’s crash, was furious with the decision and called on stewards to reduce the number of “bullshit penalties”. The team that should have been comfortably inside the top 10 was Sauber, with Charles Leclerc on course for seventh, and potentially sixth, until a mistake at the pit stop meant his right-rear tyre was not firmly affixed. The erudite Leclerc was not angry, accepting that errors can happen, particularly in light of the manner in which Sauber has improved the speed of its stops this year.
In the mire
Stoffel Vandoorne endured a sixth straight race without a point, is now 40-8 down on Alonso, and is 10-0 down in qualifying, with the gap between the pair nine-tenths in Q1. These are troubled times for Vandoorne, who suspected an as-yet-unidentified handling fault was to blame for his woes. Vandoorne is very straight-faced, very McLaren, and his junior record shows that he is capable – but he has to dig himself out of this current rut, and show a little passion along the way. Brendon Hartley has also been struggling and was off the pace on Friday, though the rest of the weekend was consigned to the scrapheap in the wake of his dramatic suspension failure on Saturday morning. He missed qualifying, Toro Rosso repaired the car, but another gremlin struck on the warm-up lap and by then the fat lady was in full voice. Over at Williams its season was called “heart-breaking” and “soul-destroying” by Deputy Team Principal Claire, and that was before Saturday and Sunday. A new-spec rear wing caused rear-end aero stalls when the DRS reattached, leaving Lance Stroll and Sergey Sirotkin with an even less predictable FW41 – quite the achievement. Stroll and Sirotkin both spun off in qualifying, with the Canadian’s beached car delaying the session, much to the chagrin of England supporters! The wings were changed for the race, meaning both drivers started from the pit lane, from where little progress was made, a sorry scene coming three years after its drivers surged into a 1-2 position off the line. Sirotkin has not spent one single racing lap inside the top 10 this season. Not one.
The extraordinary and the extraordinary
George Russell continued to stake his claim to a 2019 Formula 1 seat with a masterful weekend at Silverstone. Russell took his third straight Formula 2 pole and took back-to-back second places, his Feature Race compromised by a pit lane delay, his Sprint Race another display of his racecraft. His lead over Lando Norris is now 37 with just five rounds remaining – though the McLaren protégé also impressed on Sunday, having disappointed on Saturday. Norris rose from 10th to third via a sequence of outstanding overtaking manoeuvres, giving the home supporters a glimpse of what Formula 1’s future may hold. Elsewhere, the simmering civil war between Trident team-mates Arjun Maini and Santino Ferrucci exploded in astonishing fashion. Ferrucci, one of the series’ more outspoken participants, collided with Maini in the race before nudging the Indian on the slow-down lap, a move Trident confirmed was pre-meditated, and which he was also alleged to have done previously in the weekend. Ferrucci failed to meet the stewards when summoned and was also noted to have driven from the support paddock (ie, the old paddock) to the pit lane while holding a mobile phone. The two-round suspension he earned was enough of a bombshell – and that was before the statement Trident issued in support of Maini. There have been multiple rumours and allegations made, while Ferrucci has issued a grovelling – and at times bizarre (and doubtful) – apology. It has also emerged that Ferrucci wanted the ‘Make America Great Again’ slogan – associated with Donald Trump since his 2016 Presidential campaign – put on his car, a move that was understandably rejected by Formula 2 officials. “The fact that this letter is circulating on social media seems to me like a clumsy attempt to take the attention away from the principal problem that is, Santino’s and his father’s behaviour on and outside the track in these last weekends,” confirmed a Trident official. This one is not yet done.
Super Silverstone
Silverstone has received criticism over the years but the 2018 event was surely an example of sport at its finest. 140,500 people attended Sunday’s race, giving four-day attendance figures of 340,000, while the atmosphere was undoubtedly enhanced by the fine weather Britain is currently enjoying, not to mention World Cup fever. The event was well managed, staff were friendly, and there was little in the way of delays getting into or out of the venue. The British Grand Prix is one of the best sporting events in the world – let’s hope it continues, at Silverstone, after 2019.