The 2022 British Grand Prix may have started with horrific scenes, but it certainly ended with the best racing period so far this season, and in the eyes of many, the best in years.
What is interesting is that in the modern era a good Silverstone race is not guaranteed, as the layout of the high-speed track was used to ensure virtually the highest aerodynamic force and therefore the most cars. rapids were very difficult to catch and pass. This scenario could have occurred if Max Verstappen had not been unlucky when he ran over a piece of AlphaTauri’s bodywork once he had overtaken Carlos Sainz after throwing the pole with a poor final sector. It was a more important factor than raising the yellow flag after Charles Leclerc’s brief turn …
Once again, the Red Bull package looked like the class of the field before fate intervened, but Ferrari struggled and came out with the win, though not without very bad weather and denying Leclerc an almost certain victory that he had worked brilliantly. be watching. The call from the Scuderia’s impenetrable safety car to the race leader at the time set the exciting battles to the flag, which confirmed that the rule changes for this year work as intended by Formula 1, along with Pirelli tire developments.
But there were many more conclusions from the tenth race of the season, which we present here.
Ferrari was tied by the race strategy and team orders
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
1. Ferrari has not yet improved in a key area (AK)
As Carlos Sainz won a popular victory – he was applauded at the post-race press conference by the gathered journalists, where he spoke as eloquently and thoughtfully as ever – Ferrari’s triumph came with a darker cloud than those who they had sprayed Silverstone with rain 20. minutes before the first start.
This was due to the team saga of orders in which the Scuderia found itself entangled once Verstappen had abandoned the dispute. Leclerc, despite the damaged front wing, was turning an average of 0.3 seconds faster than Sainz in this phase of the race and wanted to be allowed to pass. Ferrari’s choice to wait before facing Sainz helped Lewis Hamilton get closer and then, when Mercedes was in the lead, the red team again opted to give Sainz a chance of increasing his pace with Leclerc running again close to his hard.
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To his credit, Sainz let Leclerc through when he was ordered and showed his typical concept to recommend setting up a DRS train to try to keep the Hamilton lock behind late. Although the missing safety car made most of this debatable, Leclerc being even more advanced when Esteban Ocon retired could have meant that the next saga within the team in which Ferrari was never involved it happened…
Ferrari chose to face Sainz the leader of the Leclerc race, giving the Spanish driver an advantage
Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images
2. Ferrari’s explanation of Leclerc’s safety car strategy is puzzling (AK)
When race director Niels Wittich called for the intervention of the security car with Ocon stopped on the National Pits straight approaching Copse, Leclerc was in Stowe. But engineer Xavier Marcos declared the window of his security car “closed”. Sainz, however, faced off for more than four seconds, as did Hamilton and most of the others further back.
Ferrari team boss Mattia Binotto, who was caught talking to Leclerc immediately after the Monegasque driver got out of his car after the race, which Binotto said was a message “simply to keep calm, because his way of driving was fantastic ”- gave the following explanation as to why Leclerc was left out of his 14 hard laps.
“Our two cars,” he said, “were too close to stop them both. We were the only ones out there with the two cars fighting for good positions. The other teams only had one car, so it certainly went be much easier.In our case, we [had] the two cars and we thought there wasn’t enough space to stop them both, because the second one would have wasted time at the pit stop and would have fallen back on the track.
“Why we decided to stop [only] Carles [was] because Charles had the track position: he was leading, so he would have continued as the leader of the race. [And] because their tires were cooler. He had six or seven laps less [compared] to Carlos in better shape. And Carlos, by stopping and being second, would have protected at least in the first couple of corners where we knew that starting with the fort, would have been a little harder.
“It simply came to our notice then [what we did]. At the time, we expected more tire degradation to smooth, to give Charles maybe three or four difficult laps initially, but then recover later. But the soft did not degrade as we expected.
“If we had stopped, maybe the others would have stayed out, and [Leclerc] maybe he would have been fourth with soft tires with other cars ahead of him. Would he have regained the positions? I’m not sure.”
Binotto’s explanation can be summed up as follows: Ferrari wanted Sainz to retire on reboot and protect Leclerc with his soft frescoes, with the leader given space to warm his hards to his optimal working range and then move away from new once the soft ones in the cars. behind he had lost his advantage. But in addition to Sainz refusing to do what had been suggested, the soft ones did not degrade as expected.
Perhaps the biggest mystery is why Ferrari didn’t think the 4.2-second distance between its cars around the back of the safety car, with Hamilton nearly two seconds behind, was enough for a double-stack stop when it was obvious.
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Perez was still able to go from behind to second on a bad day for Red Bull
Photo by: Steve Etherington / Motorsport Images
3. Red Bull is still the fastest team even on a bad day (MK)
Continuing with Silverstone’s super times, Mercedes still has a long way to go before being matched with Red Bull. His fastest lap of the weekend was about 0.509 ahead of the next best Ferrari. Although circumstances played against the RB18 double to end the streak of six straight wins, this was a day of rest but by no means a step backwards.
In Azerbaijan, Max Verstappen asked his team to give him more speed in one lap. Pole continued on to Canada and the car was again able to do so at Silverstone. That Verstappen did not achieve the classification was not, as the reigning champion claimed, only the result of Charles Leclerc who turned to provoke a yellow flag. Verstappen had risen in the incident, but he could still have topped the timing screens if he hadn’t mistaken his final sector.
On Sunday, at the restart of the red flag, he had abandoned his soft media tires for not dragging Carlos Sainz completely to Abbey. But then the reigning champion sat down at six from Ferrari to pressure the Spaniard to make a mistake on Becketts who seemed to give the victory to Verstappen.
It was pure bad luck that Verstappen’s afternoon got rid of running over wreckage from the AlphaTauri collision to damage its bodywork and instinctively create a pit stop to fix any possible punctures. By then, the car was far from its optimum and Verstappen dropped his head as he exercised his craft in the lower stretches of the top 10.
Sergio Pérez, who had shown little brilliance in the standings before his blow with Leclerc to force an additional early pit stop, bounced back well to roll the dice with Fernando Alonso before rising to second place after the safety car. The RB18 was not only the machine to beat, but when Ferrari stumbled, Red Bull only lost ground in the team standings on its bad day by 13 points.
Mercedes narrowed the gap with Ferrari and Red Bull at Silverstone
Photo by: Steve Etherington / Motorsport Images
4. There are more reasons for a prudent Mercedes to be optimistic (MK)
Mercedes’ title ambitions were revived internally at the Spanish Grand Prix. George Russell stoically defended against Max Verstappen on his way to third place, while Lewis Hamilton bounced back from first-round contact to fifth place. Toto Wolff recounted that without the early mess, Hamilton could have won. But, as Autosport denied, it was too positive a twist.
However, at Silverstone, Hamilton could have secured a remarkable ninth home win. While bolstered by Verstappen’s damage, Pérez’s first pit stop and Ferrari’s last step in strategy error, the W13 improved a lot. Silverstone’s smooth asphalt was accompanied by a major Silver Arrows upgrade to reduce bounces and unlock more speed.
Super times reflected this, as Mercedes was not only the third fastest manufacturer, having ranked only sixth in Canada, but was only 0.092 (according to the super time metric) adrift of Ferrari. The average of Hamilton’s 10 fastest laps came in second only behind Carlos Sainz. The performance marked a step forward. His opportunistic double advance through the Club made the fans face the fever, another demonstration of Hamilton finding an additional level at home, before Sergio Pérez ran out of space.
The W13 is a sensitive beast, so the new pace may not continue on all tracks, but at least there was more evidence last weekend for Mercedes to take comfort. Definitely if you compare it to its false Barcelona dawn. Although Wolff is much more cautious about this after the Spanish gains were only temporary … He said: “We had moments in Barcelona when we saw some light at the end of the tunnel. Then the next three street circuits proved us wrong, so I don’t want to talk to us or be too optimistic at this stage. “
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Leclerc and Hamilton, along with Perez, took part in an incredible battle in the final stages.
Photo by: James Sutton / Motorsport Images
5. Leclerc has made the pass of the season so far (AK)
Yes, this is a rather subjective entry. But before those who are inclined to froth with anger at the perception of prejudice for or against certain drivers or nationalities, try to remember the fun of people with different opinions …