[Official] British Grand Prix 2023: Grand Prix Weekend Thread - Round 11 of 23

[Aysedasi]

She's becoming quite high profile as a presenter (deservedly), witness her appearance at Wimbledon.... Classy presenter as well as..... (well, I won't say what..... )

[Richard C]

I started watching it late, so I did find myself fast forwarding in a few places. But I found the start great. That Lando was able to grab the lead and hold it for a bit. I loved the tension at the end with Lando on the hard and those around him on softs. I was thinking just as Lando was calling out on the radio that the hards were not the right tire. I don't know if this was a brilliant move by McLaren as it seemed clear that once the softs went off Lando was able to pull away a bit and Lewis stopped attacking. Or where they just lucky because I think if Lewis had been able to pass him I don't know if Lando would have been able to retake the position easily. But overall, I credit Lando for not buckling under pressure while he was waiting on the hards to switch on.

As I mentioned in the drivers thread, fantastic drives by Lando, Oscar, Alex and Logan.

Richard

[VIVA GT]

Originally Posted by Sodemo

When I used to go to the British GP 25+ years ago there was only about 4 races on the Sunday, it was quite poor compared to say a btcc weekend. I think it was something like;

F3000
Porsche Supercup
F1
Some kinda classic 1930s 1950s Grand Prix race

That was it.

Sorry, not trying to play British GP Top Trumps with you but when I started going on the late 70's early 80's in addition to the air displays and on-track displays there was usually a Formula 3 race in the morning, some sort of celebrity race in the Racings School cars would be held around lunch time, the the Grand Prix, after which there would the BTCC race and finally a race for historics.
Plus on the preceeding days there were (I think) practice sessions (and qualifying) for all of the support races, timed and un-timed practice for the F1 cars and (I'm sure) an un-timed warm up for the F1 cars on race day morning.
This was why we used to camp from around Wednesday and not leave until the day after the race!

[TrapezeArtist]

Originally Posted by Richard Casto

I started watching it late, so I did find myself fast forwarding in a few places. But I found the start great. That Lando was able to grab the lead and hold it for a bit. I loved the tension at the end with Lando on the hard and those around him on softs. I was thinking just as Lando was calling out on the radio that the hards were not the right tire. I don't know if this was a brilliant move by McLaren as it seemed clear that once the softs went off Lando was able to pull away a bit and Lewis stopped attacking. Or where they just lucky because I think if Lewis had been able to pass him I don't know if Lando would have been able to retake the position easily. But overall, I credit Lando for not buckling under pressure while he was waiting on the hards to switch on.

Andreas Stella explained on Channel 4 the reasoning for the use of hards. The team on the pitwall have more information and more thinking time than the drivers so it's not unreasonable for them to occasionally go against the driver's wishes (exception: Ferrari!). I do agree that the chosen tyre demanded a lot of Lando to make it work, but he rose to the occasion. On the other hand, if all the top three had been on used softs, it's likely they would have all held position anyway.

[S griffin]

Great race. Silverstone once again delivers. Why it keeps getting criticism IDK. It may not be the best circuit in this country, but it's certainly a lot better than quite a few other circuits on the F1 calendar. And it always packs a big crowd, unlike others

Yet another win for Max, but at least he wasn't able to get away. So good to see McLaren up there on pace. Norris, what a start he made. Shame he couldn't keep the Red Bull behind, but that was great defending against the Merc for 2nd. Just a shame Max aced the restart, that could have been interesting with Lando on his heels. Also what a drive by Piastri, finally getting to show what he can do

Checo made a great recovery after his qualifying disaster, but questions will still be raised after this. Russell really did well to make the softs last as long as they did. Great drive as ever by Albon, shows he's come a long way since leaving Red Bull. Ferrari once again show they have a long way to go to get back up there. Meanwhile Aston seem to have lost pace these last few races, Alonso no longer being Max and Red Bull's closest challengers

All in all a great GP and shows there's no substitute for watching a race live on the telly, exciting or otherwise. Also so nice not to have the controversy we had in the last GP. But we do need Red Bull to be beaten soon. We had a bit of hope of it happening yesterday, but it just seems any chinks in their armour aren't enough

[chillibowl]

Originally Posted by TrapezeArtist

...On the other hand, if all the top three had been on used softs, it's likely they would have all held position anyway.

thats a fair point.

to drill down on that a bit more, could it also be fair to say that Merc, Russell even more so than Ham, lost time and track position due to their slower pit stops relative to Mclaren?

Russell i believe pitted one lap earlier (during the VSC/SC) than Piastri and was a 1.5s slower in that stop! and Ham who benefited more from the SC timing then Russell did but still also had a 1s slower stop relative to Norris.

dont quote me on that as i was a bit distracted at the time...yelling at Mclaren through my TV for fitting the hards when in reality (and my hindsight) it turned out they had their stops well covered!

[peebee2]

Originally Posted by S griffin

Meanwhile Aston seem to have lost pace these last few races, Alonso no longer being Max and Red Bull's closest challengers.

Reality is when starting with effectively the previous RB iteration, they were quick while everyone else was fine tuning their package. Now everyone else has done that, they're lagging compared to before.

There was some ballsy talk about the upgrade for the next races though., so we shall have to see.

[Richard C]

Originally Posted by TrapezeArtist

Andreas Stella explained on Channel 4 the reasoning for the use of hards. The team on the pitwall have more information and more thinking time than the drivers so it's not unreasonable for them to occasionally go against the driver's wishes (exception: Ferrari!). I do agree that the chosen tyre demanded a lot of Lando to make it work, but he rose to the occasion. On the other hand, if all the top three had been on used softs, it's likely they would have all held position anyway.

Thanks. This motorsports.com article had good details...

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/m...rris/10494037/

Sounds like the initial call for hards under VSC was the right call, but softs would have been the right call for full SC. Due to the timing of when he was coming in and the switch from VSC to SC didn't give them enough time to switch in the pits from hard to soft. And trying to switch on the fly would have resulted in a slow stop.

It all worked out in the end.

Richard

[Alan52]

Originally Posted by TrapezeArtist

Andreas Stella explained on Channel 4 the reasoning for the use of hards. The team on the pitwall have more information and more thinking time than the drivers so it's not unreasonable for them to occasionally go against the driver's wishes (exception: Ferrari!). I do agree that the chosen tyre demanded a lot of Lando to make it work, but he rose to the occasion. On the other hand, if all the top three had been on used softs, it's likely they would have all held position anyway.

The McLaren’s seemed to be able to turn on their hards a lot quicker than other cars.Compare Leclerc behind Stroll after his switch with how Piastri went after his.The brains trust would have been pretty confident of this.
Madness to let drivers dictate strategy.Unless they have all lap time and sector data on a screen in their car and the time to read and analyse it.