What is interesting is that in modern times a good Silverstone race is not guaranteed as the high speed track layout used to practically guarantee the highest downforce and therefore the fastest cars were very difficult to catch and pass. This scenario may indeed have come to pass had Max Verstappen not been unlucky to run over a piece of AlphaTauri bodywork after passing Carlos Sainz after blowing pole with a bad final sector. This was a bigger factor than the lifting of the yellow flag after Charles Leclerc’s short spin… Once again, the Red Bull pack looked like the class of the field before fate intervened, but Ferrari pulled through and came away with the win, though not without making some very bad weather and denying Leclerc an almost certain victory , that it had worked flawlessly. to see. The Scuderia’s safety car impenetrable call for the then race leader set up exciting battles at the flag, which confirmed that this year’s rule changes are working as intended in Formula 1, along with tire developments from Pirelli. But there were many more takeaways from the 10th race of the season, which we present here. Ferrari were tied because of race strategy and team orders Photo: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

  1. Ferrari has yet to improve in one key area (AK) While Carlos Sainz scored a popular victory – he was applauded in the post-race press conference by the assembled journalists, where he spoke as eloquently and thoughtfully as ever – Ferrari’s triumph came with a cloud darker than those that had sprinkled Silverstone with rain 20 minutes before the first start. This is due to the team order saga the Scuderia found itself embroiled in when Verstappen had dropped out of contention. Leclerc, despite a damaged front wing, was averaging 0.3 seconds faster than Sainz at this stage of the race and wanted to be allowed through. Ferrari’s choice to wait before pitting Sainz helped Lewis Hamilton close and then, with Mercedes in the lead, the red team again opted to give Sainz the chance to pick up his pace with Leclerc running well back in the his hard Read also: To his credit, Sainz let Leclerc pass when ordered to and showed his typical good sense to recommend setting up a DRS train to try and hold off the late closing Hamilton. Although the recent safety car made most of this case, Leclerc being even further ahead by the time Esteban Ocon retired may have meant the next intra-squad saga involving Ferrari never happened… Ferrari opted to pit Sainz over race leader Leclerc, giving the Spaniard the advantage Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images
  2. Ferrari’s explanation of Leclerc’s safety car strategy is confusing (AK) When race director Niels Wittich called for safety car intervention with Ocon stopped in the National Pits approaching the Copse straight, Leclerc was at Stowe. But engineer Xavier Marcos said his safety car window was “closed”. Sainz, however, pitted from over four seconds behind – as did Hamilton and most of the others further back. Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto – who was caught chatting to Leclerc immediately after the Monegasque driver had climbed out of his car after the race, which Binotto said was a message “just to stay calm, because the way he was driving was fantastic” – gave the following explanation as to why Leclerc was left out of his tough 14 laps. “Our two cars,” he claimed, “They were too close to both stop. We were the only ones out there with the two cars fighting for the good positions. The other teams only got one car, so it was definitely a lot easier. In our case, we [had] the two cars and we thought there wasn’t enough of a gap for both of them to stop because the second one would have lost time in the pitstop and dropped back onto the track. “Why we decided to stop [only] Carlos [was] because Charles had track position – he was in the lead, so he would remain the race leader. [And] because his tires were fresher. He had six or seven laps less laps [compared] to Carlos in better condition. And Carlos, stopping and being second, would have protected at least in the first two corners, where we knew starting hard, it would be a bit more difficult. “That was the reason we decided [what we did]. Then we were hoping for more degradation on the softs to give Charles maybe a difficult three or four laps initially, but then recover later. But the soft didn’t degrade as hoped. “If we had stopped, maybe the others would have stayed out, and [Leclerc] he would have been maybe fourth on the softs with other cars in front of him. Would he have regained the seats? I’m not sure.” Binotto’s explanation can be summarized as follows: Ferrari wanted Sainz to drop back on the restart and protect Leclerc with his fresh softs, giving the leader room to warm his hards back to their optimal working range and then to move away again when the softs in the rear cars had lost their edge. But apart from Sainz refusing to do as suggested, the softs didn’t degrade as expected. Perhaps the biggest mystery is why Ferrari didn’t think the 4.2 second gap between their cars on the safety car lap came out, with Hamilton nearly two seconds behind, was enough to stop the double stack when it clearly was. Read also: Perez was still able to go from the back of the pack to second on a bad day for Red Bull Photo: Steve Etherington / Motorsport Images
  3. Red Bull are still the fastest team even on a bad day (MK) Sticking to the Silverstone overtimes, Mercedes still have a way to climb before they are level with Red Bull. His fastest lap from the weekend was some 0.509 off the next best Ferrari. Even if circumstances played against the RB18 prop to end their six-game winning streak, this was an off day, but it was by no means a step back. In Azerbaijan, Max Verstappen called on his team to give him more one-lap speed. Pole followed in Canada and the car was quite capable again at Silverstone. Verstappen’s failure to top qualifying was not, as the defending champion claimed, just the result of Charles Leclerc spinning to cause a yellow flag. Verstappen was up in the incident but could have topped the timing screens had he not messed up in his final sector. On Sunday, at the red-flag restart, he had ditched his softs for mediums to keep Carlos Sainz from trailing enough at Abbey. But then the defending champion sat in Ferrari’s top six to pressure the Spaniard into a mistake on Becketts that appeared to hand Verstappen the win. It was pure bad luck that Verstappen’s afternoon was undone by running over debris from the AlphaTauri crash to damage his bodywork and instinctively set up a pitstop to fix any potential puncture. The car was then far from optimal and Verstappen’s head dropped as he plied his trade in the lower reaches of the top 10. Sergio Perez, who had been weak in qualifying before Leclerc’s hit to force an additional early pitstop, recovered well to challenge Fernando Alonso before moving up to second after the safety car. Not only was the RB18 still the machine to beat, but as Ferrari stumbled, Red Bull only lost ground in the teams’ standings on their poor day by 13 points. Mercedes closed the gap on Ferrari and Red Bull at Silverstone Photo: Steve Etherington / Motorsport Images
  4. There’s more reason for cautious Mercedes to be optimistic (MK) Mercedes’ title ambitions were rekindled internally at the Spanish Grand Prix. George Russell stoically defended against Max Verstappen on his way to third, as Lewis Hamilton recovered from lap one contact to fifth. Toto Wolff reckoned that without the early tangle, Hamilton could have won. But as Autosport debunked, this was an overly positive turn. However, at Silverstone, Hamilton might have grabbed a remarkable ninth home win. While boosted by Verstappen’s damage, Perez’s early pitstop and Ferrari’s latest strategy error, the W13 was much improved. The smooth Silverstone tarmac came with a major Silver Arrows upgrade to reduce bounce and unlock more speed. The supertimes reflected this as Mercedes were not only the third-fastest manufacturer, having only qualified sixth in Canada, but were just 0.092 (as measured by the supertimes) clear of Ferrari. Hamilton’s average 10 fastest laps were second only to Carlos Sainz. The show marked a step forward. His opportunistic double pass through the Club sent fans into the summer stadium – another display of Hamilton finding an extra level at home – before he was run out of room by Sergio Perez. The W13 is a sensitive beast, so the new pace may not continue at every track, but there was at least more evidence presented last weekend for Mercedes to take solace from. Certainly compared to the false dawn of Barcelona. Although Wolff is much more cautious since the Spanish gains were only passing… He said: “We had moments in Barcelona where we saw a bit of light at the end of the tunnel. Then the next three circuits on the roads proved us wrong, so I don’t want to talk to us or be too optimistic at this stage.” Read also: Leclerc and Hamilton, along with Perez, engaged in an incredible battle in the closing stages Photo: James Sutton / Motorsport Images
  5. Leclerc has delivered the best passing move of the season so far (AK) Yes, this is a rather subjective entry. But before those who tend to froth with anger at perceived bias for or against certain drivers or nationalities, try to remember the fun in people with different opinions expressing how they see…