How A Late Night Study Session Salvaged Silverstone

From a ‘difficult’ Friday to a ‘huge’ podium on Sunday, our British Grand Prix result was hard-won. Here’s the story of our weekend.

“It looked like we had a race car that that could fight for a podium, with a qualifying car that would struggle to threaten the top-10. Clearly, we’ve got lots of work to do.”

So read Andrew Shovlin’s summation of Friday’s running at Silverstone. It was an inauspicious start to the weekend, with our drivers languishing in P12 and P15 on the FP2 time sheet. Underneath the headline times, we knew we had decent long run pace that would prove useful on Sunday. Race pace is difficult to fake after all. Saturday was looking much more difficult though.

It’s a situation we’ve found ourselves in on several occasions so far this year. The W14 has proved a tricky car to get on top of quickly, with time and effort needed to hone it. “It’s a tough car to drive and it continues to be so,” was Lewis’ synopsis after FP2. Not great when it comes to being able to push the car to its very limit on one lap at the end of Q3.

The day’s struggles meant we would be burning the midnight oil to find improvements. Before the fans had even packed up their camping chairs, work was well underway. “We’ve got some investigations ongoing, but we’d like to check through more data to test our theories; we’ve also got Mick in the simulator overnight which will be a big help,” concluded Shov.

Heading into the paddock on Saturday morning, the Team was armed with clear ideas to evaluate during FP3. The dual threat of the engineers combined with the work of our Reserve Driver and the simulator team proved effective, just as it had in Barcelona. P5 for Lewis in that final hour of practice confirming some clear gains. Qualifying was anything but straightforward though. Bands of rain sweeping through the former airfield made for challenging strategy calls, but we navigated our way through to Q3. Ultimately, P6 and P7 was disappointing but the order was tight, less than two-and-a-half tenths separating Lando Norris in second from Lewis in seventh.

Post-session, Toto commented: “We were more competitive than we thought we might be in terms of lap time, and the gap to the front-row is small. That is not an excuse though and P6 and P7 are the positions we are in.” George shared a similar sentiment: “My last lap in Q3 was strong, but it was frustrating to see how close we were to being a couple of positions further forward. I was a little bit disappointed not to achieve this but we’re in a decent place for tomorrow.” And what about the efforts following Friday’s difficulties? “The Team did a good job of improving the car overnight and I’m excited to see what we can do in the Grand Prix,” he added.

Sunday at the British Grand Prix then. One of the red-letter days on the motorsport calendar. The grandstands, grass verges, and any other possible vantage point were packed hours before lights out. Once the race got underway, we battled hard. Strong race pace coupled with some spectacular passes put us in position to fight for the podium. A Safety Car at an opportune moment provided Lewis the opportunity to cement P3 and battle for more. George lost out slightly having started on the soft tyre but still ran in a solid P5. Whilst we were looking forward at the restart, despite some brave efforts, those are the positions we would secure at the flag.

After securing his 14^th British Grand Prix podium, Lewis said: “For us to get on the podium is huge. It has been an up-and-down season and we’ve still got a lot of work to do with our car. We’ve got strengths with it, particularly our long run. As soon as we can improve the rear end we will be on our way. We just need to hold on to the good bits and add a few others.”

Toto added: “P3 and P5 is OK, but no more than solid. I see the positives from this weekend though. Whilst podiums are good, it is more important to see that the car has potential, and our eyes are on closing the gap to the very front.”

Despite losing out under the Safety Car, George could also see those positives. “Sometimes it goes for you, sometimes against you. Ultimately though, it didn’t change a huge amount for my race, and we can take the positives that for the Team, it is good points in the Constructors’ Championship.”

Having on Friday identified a car that could fight for a podium come race day, Shov added: “We’ve got a good platform to build on. We know the areas that we need to improve, but the field is so tight. Where we are racing, a couple of tenths can be the difference between a podium and the back end of the points. We know we need to continuing improving and everyone in Brackley and Brixworth is working hard to do just that.”

Another rollercoaster of a weekend then and we’re sure, for you as fans too. A closing word – well, we will leave that to Lewis.

The support from the fans has been incredible and it gets better each and every year. I don’t know how that is possible as it’s the pinnacle! The energy that everyone brings is phenomenal. Once again, Silverstone put on an amazing show.

Lewis Hamilton