Luke’s Weekend Take – Silverstone GP 2023

At Ferrari this weekend they also brought some new upgrades, they weren’t classed as new as they were registered in a previous GP, but they were never put on the car so essentially, we can all agree they are new. Ferrari after winning the Silverstone last time out were keeping up the pace as they were putting in some fast times in practice despite the electrical issues on Charles Leclerc car in FP2 where the Monegasque didn’t get any running due to an electrical issue, however this didn’t seem to hamper Leclerc as in FP3 he topped the timing charts and in Qualifying we see both Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz in the top 5 behind Max and the 2 McLaren’s.

Despite my high expectations both Mercedes and Aston Martin weren’t as competitive so far this weekend as I would have liked. With both teams bringing new parts, it seems that they are still not competitive enough to take the fight to the Red Bull and now have to fight with Ferrari and Mclaren as well. I hope that on Sunday’s race we see them climb higher up the grid when racing.

With qualifying on Saturday, we start with a damp track, but all teams opted to go out straight on the slicks. This meant that it was fairly tricky to navigate at the start of the session, so much so that we see Lewis Hamilton had a heart-stopping moment when he spun at Stowe, but his skilful recovery prevented any major consequences for the British driver. In the pits we also see an unsafe release from Alpha Tauri as Nyck De Vries was released onto the Mclaren of Oscar Piastri. De Vries was heard on the radio having a go at his team and to be more careful with releasing him out of the pits. Stewards noted this incident and investigated it after the session, but no action was taken against the Alpha Tauri Driver.

With 3 minutes left of Q1 we see the Haas of Kevin Magnussen having to stop at the side of the track as he lost power unable to go anywhere. This incident brought out the Red Flag for the first time this weekend sending all cars back to the pits as it started drizzling a bit again. When it was time for everyone to come back out for the final push lap, we see Max Verstappen hit the pit wall coming out of the garage as his Red Bull understeered and broke his front wing, this however did not knock the Dutchman’s confidence as he made it out of Q1 with ease. Magnussen wasn’t the only Ferrari powered car who had power issues as after the last flying laps in Q1 the Alfa Romeo of Valtteri Bottas also stopped even though he had made it out of Q1 with his time. Later however Bottas was disqualified from Qualifying as the FIA were unable to extract 1 litre of fuel from his car so he will be starting at the back of the grid.

In Q1 we see the departure of Sergio Perez, Yuki Tsunoda, Zhou Guanyu, Nyck De Vries and Kevin Magnussen, however all these drivers will start a spot forward due to the disqualification of Bottas. In Q2 it was a more straightforward session as we just see no incidents but a lot of fastest laps being traded, and all eyes were on Norris as he kept trading laps with Verstappen. In Q2 the bottom 5 were Nico Hulkenberg, Lance Stroll, Esteban Ocon, Logan Sargeant and Valtteri Bottas.

In Q3 it was all about the top 10 and who can get the fastest lap to start on pole come race day on Sunday. On the last flying laps I can assure you that like me, everyone was at the edge of their seats as we see Lando Norris take provisional pole and with Max finishing his lap after Norris we were all hoping Max didn’t have the pace especially when the middle sector flashed yellow for Verstappen we all started to believe more and more. It wasn’t meant to be though as Max managed to pull off an amazing Sector in sector 3 and finished 2 tenths above Norris in P1. Top 10 was formed by Max Verstappen, Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri, Charles Leclerc, Carlos Sainz, George Russell, Lewis Hamilton, Alex Albon and Pierre Gasly.

In the last 3 years we had 3 different drivers win the GP. Will we have a 4^th new driver on the top step this Sunday or will the Red Bull of Max Verstappen prevail as the superior car, and it will be business as usual for the Dutchman. We will see later today what this race unfolds. Personally, even though I support Charles Leclerc will be hoping to see Lando Norris or Lewis Hamilton on the top step this weekend. Who do you want to see on the top step?