2021 British Grand Prix: Post Race Analysis

[SS454]

It was going to take some drama to bring some unexpected entertainment to the British Grand Prix, and in this case, unfortunately it happened. The Sprint Qualifying Race, which I wrote my displeasure's about already, told us that tire wear (blistering) was going to be a problem, and as predicted teams decided on Medium - Hard tire strategy, and we also knew it was going to be a tire preservation race. It would have been very exciting to see how drivers would have managed being on the soft tires, as well as different tire strategies down the grid. But that wasn't going to be since the Sprint Qualifying Race told us the story a day early. Nevertheless, there was still quite a bit of action and a few surprises in the actual race.

Mercedes back to form? I would say yes. Silverstone is a strong track for Mercedes, they brought upgrades, so it was expected they would be good, and I would say they had the fastest package all weekend. Their low downforce decision was the right call and they were incredibly fast on the straights. Bottas for whatever reason could not get a start good and that really compromised his race, but he didn't seem to have any pace regardless. It was the right call by Mercedes to let Lewis go by. Lewis Hamilton, did he cause the wreck, and did he deserve the penalty. I would say the incident with Max was actually pretty close to being a racing incident, but it does have to be deemed Lewis' fault as there are several things to account. Lewis did get along side of Max, but was never actually ahead, so it absolutely was not Lewis' corner. He stuck his car right to the inside wall and pushed into the corner without backing out, and critically his car was nearly a full car widths off the apex which is the key factor. Max took as aggressive of a line possible through the corner, but left more than enough room for a car on the inside. Lewis's angle at the apex, and the speed he was carrying given his decision to not back out meant he was never going to hold his car to the bottom, and was likely going to hit Verstappen no matter what. Factoring that Copse is one of the fastest corners on the calendar, it can be extremely dangerous for two cars to go through side by side, and a car diving to the inside must be absolutely certain they are as tight as possible and will not wash out into the car on the outside. Result was a very scary accident. Fortunately for Lewis, the race was rightfully Red Flagged, and he was able to repair any and all damages to the car and took a 10 second penalty which was basically a slap on the wrist. What I found very interesting, was Lewis and Mercedes had enormous pace and were incredibly fast on the straight against Verstappen who has proven to be fast all year, but on the second restart the Mercedes couldn't hang onto Leclerc in the Ferrari? It doesn't make sense. Then all race, Lewis complained about his tires, his lack of pace, that he couldn't get close, then after 45 laps of whining, his car becomes 2 seconds a lap faster and had no trouble catching, staying within DRS, and driving around the Ferrari with just 2 laps to go. Very strange and it's not the first time Mercedes have unleashed this phenomenal pace this season.

Ferrari has to be very please and it is incredible what Ferrari has done with their car. At the French GP, Ferrari was the worst for tire wear, and now today they were the best and it nearly earned them a victory. Of course Charles Leclerc had a brilliant drive. The Ferrari is still nearly 1 second slower than the Mercedes, so to come so close to a victory is extremely impressive. Such a shame for Sainz to have his pitstop trouble as he could have had a challenge for 4th.

McLaren were fast but had issues with tire blistering. Lando's long pitstop hurt his race and perhaps cost him a podium, though it is very hard to say given the tire problems they had. Ricciardo can be happy with a 5th place result.

Alpine really fought hard today and Alonso gave it 100% until the end and got the best result possible. Ocon we did not see much of, but obviously did everything he could to finish 9th.

Aston Martin I think could have had a better day. Stroll did a great job, he moved his car forward and into the points, he just got outclassed by Alonso in the end. Vettel however had the pace to probably finish ahead of Alonso, but as we have seen in the past, with close racing Vettel spins himself out and ruins his own race.

AlphaTauri had the unfortunate tire puncture with Gasly, otherwise he would have finished in the points. His misfortune was a benefit to Tsunoda who squeaked into the points once again.

Williams had George Russell fighting just out of the points once again. Even if he didn't have his penalty, I don't think points were very likely. As fast as he is over one lap, that pace never translate over the race. That probably is just a characteristic of the car, though I suspect Russell sets his car up for qualifying more than the race which keeps him in the spotlight. Latifi finished in 14th, 1 lap down, the same as Russell.

Alfa Romeo battled along and was around the 11-14 spots, just lacked a bit of pace. Aside from Kimi's spin from contact with Perez, the team performed well. Unfortunately the car wasn't good enough to really challenge for points.

Red Bull Racing had an abysmal day. Perez starts from the pitlane due his own mistake in the silly Sprint Qualifying Race. Because of the strange rule changes, the team was permitted to change the setup so they fitted Perez with a low downforce package to help him make passes. This seemed to work as he got up to 12th place quite quickly, but then seemed to stall out. I was surprised to see the early tire change and that Perez didn't really come back through the grid better. This suggests even if the race went well for them, Red Bull was likely going to struggle with blistering and overall were not as fast as the Mercedes. Max Verstappen had a very aggressive and impressive first few corners, but was a victim of two hard racers not giving an inch. 51G impact is quite alarming, and while it was reported he went to hospital for precautionary measures, he very well could have a concussion. If that happens, his season may be massively compromised. Let's wish the best for him.

Haas I don't think we even saw on the television. But hey, Mazapin finished ahead of Schumacher. I do not know why, if something happened, or if beat Mick on pace.

Driver of the Day: Charles Leclerc. The Ferrari really had no business being ahead of Mercedes, probably didn't have the outright pace of the McLarens, but keeping that pace and keeping the tires alive for that long and getting 2nd was incredible.

[20000rpm]

Always love reading your analysis..
Frankly, I was thinking Charles was conserving his tires and would start pushing once the gap came down to 5 seconds. But we were really bad with hard compounds as was also visible with Carlos unable to overtake Daniel despite pushing so hard.

[Rob]

Determination and pace. Charles’ first podium of the year, the 13th of his career, came after he led for nearly the entire race, starting from the opening lap, when he made the most of a collision between Verstappen and Hamilton, who had been ahead of him up until then. Charles’ pace was very good, especially in the first stint on the Medium tyres, managing a reasonable gap to Hamilton up until the pit stop. The situation changed once he switched to Hards, with Hamilton upping the pace and, with three laps to go, he managed to pass the Ferrari man. Charles was obviously disappointed that the victory had slipped from his grasp with just a few laps to go, but he can still take satisfaction from a truly great performance. That was also the opinion of the fans who made him their “Driver of the Day” with the on-line vote.

On a charge. Carlos drove a good race and for the second time in two days, he had a great climb up the order. The Spaniard also looked competitive on the Medium tyres, to the extent that he got ahead of Ricciardo by running a longer and faster first stint than the Australian. Unfortunately, a technical problem at the pit stop cost him a lot of time and he found himself once again behind the number 3 car. The Spaniard soon caught up to Ricciardo again, but lacked the top speed to get past, making for a frustrating final part of the race.

One more before the break. The Formula 1 World Championship resumes in a fortnight’s time on 1st August with the Hungarian Grand Prix at the Hungaroring, on the outskirts of Budapest.


Charles Leclerc #16

“We have to look at the positives in this type of situation, despite the disappointment of losing the win in the closing laps.
It was a challenging race for me. In the first stint, I had to make some changes on the steering wheel to manage the engine cuts I had. After that, I felt that we had it under control. I managed to pull away from the others and lead for the majority of the race. Unfortunately, Lewis was just more competitive on the Hards. I could feel his pace as he approached me and there was not much I could do.
On the upside, we were quicker than anyone else on the Mediums, which we did not expect. It was impressive. On the Hards, we had a little bit less of an advantage, but still showed a great pace. I am very proud of how we have been working. The team has done an incredible job and fully deserves this podium. They also deserve a win, so we will keep pushing to make it happen if we get the chance.”

Carlos Sainz #55

“Not the greatest race for me, but in general a very good result for the team and many positives to take away. Today our car was strong, the balance was good, and our work with the set-up is paying off.
Two good starts put me in a position to fight with Ricciardo, but passing the McLaren on track proved to be incredibly difficult. The dirty air through the corners meant I couldn’t get close enough and we were lacking a bit on the straights. Once he pitted, my pace in clean air was super strong and I managed to virtually overcut him before my stop. Unfortunately the pit stop was slow. The team has been great at pit stops all year and these things can happen. I tried my best to overtake the McLaren during the second stint but we faced the same problem and in the end we came home in P6.
A big congrats to Charles, who nearly managed to secure a win for the team! This race gives us a good feeling for Hungary and for the second part of the season. We keep pushing.”

Mattia Binotto
Team Principal

“This was a positive Grand Prix for us, not just because of the result, but mainly because of the progress the team has made. After the race in France the whole group reacted well. We know we are not yet at the point to be fighting for the top places on a regular basis, as there are two cars that are faster than ours. But it’s important that we are working in the right direction.
Charles drove a fantastic race, following on from excellent performances on Friday and Saturday. I can understand his disappointment because it hurts to lose a win in the closing moments of a race, but he should be pleased with what he achieved over these three days. Carlos drove a solid race. It was a shame that a technical problem with a wheel gun at the pit stop cost him at least one place. Now we are looking ahead to the next race in Hungary. It’s a very different type of track to this one and we will be looking to confirm the progress seen over the past few races.“

[Greig]

We had a great weekend at Silverstone even though the heat was a bit much What a great race by Ferrari and we could well have won it which would have been awesome, crowd was off course very happy with Lewis winning but Charles got a lot of applause for his drive. Shame about the slow stop for Carlos otherwise we could have been looking at possibly both on the podium.

Thought Lewis was to blame for the accident and 10s was a bit lenient but I am sure Max will get his revenge and he is no stranger to bashing cars off the track

[wisepie]

We had a great weekend at Silverstone even though the heat was a bit much What a great race by Ferrari and we could well have won it which would have been awesome, crowd was off course very happy with Lewis winning but Charles got a lot of applause for his drive. Shame about the slow stop for Carlos otherwise we could have been looking at possibly both on the podium.

Thought Lewis was to blame for the accident and 10s was a bit lenient but I am sure Max will get his revenge and he is no stranger to bashing cars off the track

Glad you had a great weekend roasting at Silverstone, and Charles deservedly got DOTD but I wonder what the reaction would have been if he'd won, that would have been such a pleasure to witness but any tifoso would probably have been subjected to some abuse! Can't have an Italian team winning two weekends in a row! But I'd have been ecstatic! And yes, HAM deserved a minimum 10sec stop and go penalty, IMO.

[ntukza]

Question. Is Silverstone a power track? I'm trying to put our performance there into perspective.

In any event, it's so pleasing to see how well we've turned our fortunes around in such a short time.

[20000rpm]

I don't think it's a power track.. more of aero track.

[patrese86]

I think it's a mix of both. You can take copse flat out but you still need the car under you, same with maggots and becketts down to the hangar straight.

[ntukza]

I don't think it's a power track.. more of aero track.

Okay, that would explain it, but still a very good performance. It's just unreal that we were pulling away from the Merc at some stage. Who would have thought we would have such a performance in 2021 on a fast track. Incredible!

[ntukza]

I think it's a mix of both. You can take copse flat out but you still need the car under you, same with maggots and becketts down to the hangar straight.

Alright yeah makes sense.

[20000rpm]

Okay, that would explain it, but still a very good performance. It's just unreal that we were pulling away from the Merc at some stage. Who would have thought we would have such a performance in 2021 on a fast track. Incredible!

Something that will help you understand more about our car.
https://scuderiafans.com/ferrari-nee...f21-true-pace/