2026 British GP Preview | Silverstone's Top Contenders for Victory

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Thank you for listening to the Late Breaking F1 podcast.

Make sure to check out new episodes every Wednesday and every Sunday.

Hello and a very warm welcome to the Late Breaking F1 podcast presented by Sam Sage

and me, Ben Hawking.

We've got another one.

Another one.

Yeah, but we're not in Bristol.

It's British GP though, isn't it?

It's British GP weekend, so it's why we're all a bit excited.

I mean, we're a bit excited because we're excited about the British GP every year,

but something slightly different this year.

Yeah, turns out we're going to be there, actually.

Are we really?

On the Sunday?

On the Sunday, that's right.

We've got tickets.

We're going to be there.

We're on a grand old time.

But I am a late breaking fan and I would love to meet the Late Breaking podcast.

How do I do that?

Sorry, I think you're impersonating my mother there.

We're going to be watching the GP on Sunday from Vale Grandstand.

So if you want to come and see us, Ben, we've got specific times and places and locations

coming up, but that's where we're going to be.

Yeah, from about 1.30 to 2.30, so just almost before the race starts, in between F2 and F1

if you are like us, very excited about the F2 action over the weekend.

Yeah, come and see us.

If you don't know where we are exactly and you're in the area, just give us a message

on Instagram or on Twitter or wherever you can find us and we'll let you know where we

are.

And of course, if you see us during the day outside of those, we're not those type of

celebrities where we will just shun you away.

We'd love to speak to you anyway.

We're so desperate for any kind of interaction that we'd like to be encouraging.

So if you don't really know us, you look at us a bit fangy.

We will call you over to gain a selfie.

Indeed.

So looking forward to meeting some of you around this weekend.

Let's get into it.

So, here's the line.

It sees us return to the place where it all started back in 1950.

That being Silverstone for the British GP.

An anticipated record breaking crowd is set to watch 52 laps of high speed action around

this ever popular track with numerous overtaking opportunities, including into turn six of

Brooklands and turn 15 of Stowe.

In recent years, weather has been an important factor in deciding the winner.

Rain was present last year and in 2024, but in a dramatic turn of events, it looks like

it's going to be warm and sunny all weekend.

Can you believe that?

We're going to get a wet race again.

No, I think it's done.

We've seen the last wet weather race in F1.

The last four years have seen four different winners from four different teams.

But last year, it was Lando Norris claiming a home Grand Prix for the first time.

His compatriot Lewis Hamilton, of course, is looking for a tenth, but a man still searching

for his first is George Russell.

And we're going to kick off our preview with him because following victory in Austria,

he's of course going to be hoping to back up that win.

Do you think he can do it?

Can he get that home GP win that he's yet to achieve?

It's definitely possible, isn't it?

I mean, the Mercedes is very, very good, but there's some changes that are very different

to Austria that take place at Silverstone.

The weather is whilst it's hot.

It's a different type of hot to Austria.

We haven't got the altitude that Austria has.

The track is a very different type of layout.

Of course, a lot more corgis, sweeping corgis going through Silverstone and I know that

they've reduced the megacool allowance here even further to what they normally would

have done coming from one track to the other.

So while we have got four straight zones, straight line zones, straight mollusks, the

answer I'm looking for, then you also have a reduction in battery use.

So the stretch that Mercedes have with their incredible battery should be as prominent

in theories where it was in Austria.

And that was why in qualifying before the yellow flag debacle that we had take place,

Antigone was so quick through the final two corgis because he was able to deploy more

battery at a higher level, essentially, over everyone else.

And that's when the Mercedes had the advantage.

So in theory, the field should be a lot closer together going to this British Grand Prix than

it was Austria.

Whilst it is possible, I do think the cars are starting more stats against George Ross

and then they will be at the previous weekend.

Sure.

I mean, the question itself, like, can he win?

Yeah, of course he could win.

He's literally just one.

He's in a quick car.

He's a quick driver.

Like, yeah, he can win.

We said that he doesn't have a win here.

He doesn't have a podium here yet.

In fact, he scored just 11 points at this track in his F1 career, which seems bizarre to say

for someone who's been at Mercedes for what is it, five seasons now.

But if you look back at some of his recent results, 2022, he had a first lap incident,

which kind of undersells what that was.

You'll remember, you'll remember.

Right, he won the biggest first lap incident we've seen for some time now.

Yeah, needless to say, he didn't go any further in that one.

2023, he was fifth, where Hamilton, his teammate, was on the podium.

He retired from the Grand Prix after getting a pole position in 2024.

And last year, he was tenth after a bit of a tyre strategy gamble going on to intermediate

tyres very early on, didn't pay off for him.

I think the results look a bit worse than what they actually are.

Again, 2024, he had that pole position and had a legitimate chance to win before.

Hamilton did win, of course.

So, you know, his teammate picked up the victory at that point.

Yeah, last year, I think he had pace as well.

No one on the strategy that he went to.

It didn't work out for any of them.

I think he might have been the only one to score points on that strategy.

So, even as far back as his Williams days, I was looking earlier at a lap that he did in 2021,

which was, it was a qualifying lap that was weirdly on the Friday,

because that was a sprint weekend and that's how the weekend was set up at that point.

And he's in the Williams in Q3, he qualified eighth.

And even at that point, like, he's pretty good.

So, I think whilst his results don't look particularly great around here,

might be slightly misleading.

Yeah, I agree.

He has been strong when he's been able to be strong here at Silverstone.

And so regularly, it's kind of not gone his way through things he can't control.

What is unfortunate for him is he very much has it in his control this season, I think.

And yet, the car doesn't seem to suit his style.

Kimi Antangeli has really come on the leaps and bounds,

and he's so much quicker than him so regularly.

And as we discussed in our Austria review,

it felt like whilst he was able to get pole, again,

somewhat with controversy involved,

because of others having problems,

he was able to kind of scamper away enough

that even though he's not having outright maximum pace,

meant that he was able to win that Grand Prix,

but only by the finest of markings.

The same thing happened in Australia.

So, I'm really curious to see if he can actually be the fastest man throughout the whole weekend.

Well, that qualifying pace is something I wanted to touch on,

because if you think about it, like, he's been there in qualifying all year.

He's got four pole positions.

And two of those, Australia and obviously last time out in Austria,

he's gone on to win those races as well.

And some of those pole margins have been very impressive.

The quarter of a second margin that he had last time out,

tough to judge as to what Antangeli would have done

without slowing down at the end of his lap.

But he had three attempts on him in Australia.

It was less than a tenth in Canada and Barcelona,

but Barcelona was back to Hamilton rather than it was to Antangeli.

So, it seems like in qualifying trim,

Russell is able to hook up a lap.

But as you kind of reference there,

it's whether he can carry it through to the race pace or not.

And can he either...

Can he overturn the pace deficit that he seems to have at the moment to Antangeli?

Or can he do what he did in Austria

and essentially scamper clear at the beginning

to the point where he can manage it for the rest of the Grand Prix?

Yeah, I think he'll come up against more challenges as well here.

I don't think it will be as clean-cut as what Austria provided.

Chassis is far more important here.

As we mentioned, battery is not as important here.

I think the likes of Ferrari will bounce back.

I expect them to be far more competent here.

And I think the same for McLaren as well.

So, the fight for Pold and the fight for the win,

I think it's going to be way more competitive,

not just between Russell and Antangeli and Lone Verstappen,

who let's face it, did a really good job in a much improved Red Bull.

Indeed.

Whilst Russell will be searching for his first British GP win,

and we've got multiple British drivers

who will be going for this victory,

should also mention, first and foremost on that,

Caitlin on Patreon actually mentioned something earlier today

that got my attention towards a social post that F1 made,

which is how poor the performances are,

or at least the results are, for home races this year.

Some of them make sense in the Carlos Sines and the Williams,

Alonso in the Aston Martin,

both at the Barcelona race didn't do very well,

but even Piastri not being able to start in Australia,

and another one that I can't immediately think of.

This is good. What race have we had?

Charlotte Clair, DNF at Monaco.

So, you've got two instances where drivers who will usually do very well,

maybe fighting for podiums, haven't done very well.

So, there seems to be a bit of a curse this weekend, almost.

Yeah, it's almost a pattern as well,

because on that social graphic that you're referencing,

I think it goes Piastri DNF, and then I think it's like a 15th place,

and then it's Charlotte Clair DNF,

it's like a 12th place, it's like a DNF.

So, one of these five drivers that we've got going to Silverstone,

one might hit the jackpot,

but there could be a multitude of DNFs coming our way.

The bookmakers, maybe unsurprisingly,

think that the championship leader, Kimmy Antonelli, is the favourite.

Do you agree with that?

No, I don't.

Ooh!

Yeah, I don't.

I think Austria has caused fake resurgence for how good the Mercedes is.

And whilst the engine we know is the battery is strong,

the engine is good as well, even with the Agio up-grade steel to come for them,

of course, that advantage they have over Red Bull.

I do think that a track that's more even, more rounded as a challenge,

we've seen this plays into other teams' hands as well.

They weren't distantly clear in the likes of Suzuki,

they weren't incredibly distant and actually lost in Barcelona.

Miami as well, they were only just ahead of Manuel Norris,

who was chasing down Kimmy Antonelli.

The gaps aren't big, and even when they did wing in both Canada

and, of course, in the most recent Grand Prix in Austria,

these are fine markings that they're playing with.

They're not massive, mohoussive wings that we were expecting,

like they had in the likes of Australia.

So, yeah, I'm sure he's got a really good chance of winning this.

I don't think he's the outright favourite, though.

I wouldn't say it's a two-to-one favourite.

That's going to make poll 123 a bit interesting later on in the show,

because I have to say, I think it's difficult to disagree with him

being the favourite here, just based on what we've seen so far.

Because Antonelli has been, he's been fast everywhere.

And I think that's maybe been the most impressive thing,

is the consistency of his pace at multiple different tracks.

Like, he's won five of eight so far,

but even the ones where he hasn't,

I can't recall an instance this year where I've gone,

ah, he just didn't have the pace today.

Like, there have been other reasons why he hasn't gone on to win,

but I don't really remember sitting here going,

ah, just the pace wasn't quite on it today.

It's seriously impressive.

There have been scruffier parts in race weekends

that I think have contributed to those, either podiums or not quite wins.

If you look at Australia, he had to overtake multiple cars after a poor start,

which was definitely a weakness earlier on in the year.

Barcelona, a bit of a similar story of having to,

I know it wouldn't have mattered anyway with the DNF,

but he needed to work to get by his teammate.

And even Austria, we mentioned,

the first third of that Grand Prix was a bit scruffy from his side.

I think his opponents right now, that includes Russell, the Ferraris, Red Bull,

they are all relying on that very much continuing,

and Antonelli keep finding these, whether it's track limits, poor starts,

scruffier opening legs of the race,

they need that to keep happening,

because right now the pace is absolutely there.

One thing I'm very fascinated to see this weekend, Sam,

is with it being a sprint race, and you know how much I love sprint races.

Biggest fan.

There's a reason we're going this weekend,

and we're not going for the sprint portion.

One thing I am fascinated to see is whether he can do a better job

with these sprints that he's done so far this year,

because he's finished third, fifth and sixth in the three sprints that we've had,

which is 13 points.

That's lower than his teammate Russell.

That's lower than Charles Leclerc.

That's lower than both McLaren.

So all three instances, he's actually gone on to win the main race,

but the sprint portions of weekends have been a bit tougher for him.

Yeah, I still think part of what he's learning as his journey

into becoming a proper full-time race winner, championship contender,

he's got the raw place on the track.

I still think he needs proper time in your FB1 to FB3 period

to really bed into the car and to actually allow for...

Which he won't have this week.

Which he won't have, of course.

He only gets one practice session, and we're straight into qualifying.

He has got that raw pace.

We know he does.

And I'm going to be really unfair here to Kimmy Yen-Tung and he's really unfair.

In the practice session that he was giving in Monza, he displays this behaviour.

He goes, guns out, full blazing,

wants to hit the track running purple sectors.

He throws it into the wall there,

and I still think in the same way now,

he does not take the time to prepare the car immediately.

And I think that's a weakness we've seen throughout the season so far.

Equally, so is running off the racetrack.

We've seen him multiple times picking up penalty warnings,

like a white flag.

Actual time penalties have come this way so far.

And Silverstone is no exception to that rule.

You can cut corns very easily at Silverstone.

In some places, you will be punished.

There is gravel on the outside of many corns.

There's grass to run off with, and eventually you'll hit a barrier,

and you go so quickly around Silverstone.

If you do make a mistake more often than not,

it can be quite catastrophic to your race.

It's not like one of those places where...

Let's take Cota, for example.

You just spin off at the Ss.

Well, you just tend to spin off at the Ss.

You gather the car back up and you carry on again.

There's a multitude of corns at Silverstone,

but if you do come off, you're either stuck or you're in a wall.

And if you're not, you are cutting the corns.

So I'm going to be fascinated to see with how he manages the raw pace,

the lack of preparation, and keeping it confined to the racetrack.

I'm not sure if this is one where you can go one-on-one equals two.

But in the Austrian preview,

we mentioned that he maybe he'll struggle in this race

because of his lack of race experience there last year.

His race ended just three corners into that one

by crashing into Max Verstappen.

And indeed, the first third of the race wasn't brilliant,

and he kind of needed to work his way into it.

Now, with Silverstone, he did more laps last year,

but it wasn't in these dry conditions.

Like, they were very tough conditions last year.

So again, I do wonder whether that might play into it or not.

He did do very well here in F2, though, I believe.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

And Silverstone is not one of these tracks

that these younger drivers need experience at.

Like, most...

He's raced here.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Let's move on to Red Bull and Max Verstappen.

Do you think there'll be as much of a threat here as they were in Austria?

Yeah, I do.

The upgrades that they brought created a whole new chassis package.

The air pod is completely redesigned on the side of the car.

And I do think that with that air intake system being changed,

the Cypher having a completely different profile,

it's much more angled down on the side of the car now.

Chassis, as I mentioned already, is really crucial here at Red Bull.

I have a Silverstone.

You go through so many fast-paced corners,

you know, the Maggots, Beckett's Complex,

Cops' Corner, Stowe, Woodcutt, Brookings.

These are all corners that you need to make sure

that you have great aerodynamic performance.

We know they have the engine speed, so that's not a problem.

And Bacchere, as I mentioned, not as crucial.

So if they can improve on the weight and the chassis side,

which seemingly they've done,

suddenly they look like they could be quite a competitive package.

So we know Max has done well before here.

We know even with tricky setups and bad weather,

he has really been competitive.

I think he's a big threat to look out for.

Optimistic Sage.

I'm trying my best.

Pesimistic Ben.

I'm doubtful.

Why do you think this? What's got your brain worrying?

Because whilst they do have the best IC right now,

and I know some people still scoff at that and don't think it's true,

I genuinely do think they do have the best ICE,

but that's not enough of a contributing factor

for it to look that way at the moment.

We know they've got a solid chassis.

We've seen that on a few occasions.

Monaco, again, is a good example of that,

one where nothing else really matters.

Verstappen puts it on the front row of the grid.

Don't really care what happened after that.

He at least showed in qualifying that they had the pace there.

So we can determine that the battery is where they're struggling most.

And this is where we're coming at a slightly different angle,

because even with the changes in the rules,

I actually think battery management will be really difficult this weekend.

I think it could be the toughest we've had since Melbourne.

And the reason I'd say that is whilst

Austria and Silverstone are maybe similar in terms of straights,

Austria is a little bit more heavy breaking zones, slower speed corners.

There's a lot of high speed, or at least intended to be high speed corners,

at Silverstone, particularly Maggots and Beckets.

But even like the Brooklands complex, like 678

like they're all they're all quite quick.

They aren't going to have as much opportunity,

I think, to recharge the battery as they would like.

Max was like the stop is coming.

Yeah, I'm going to read them out because he's maybe not overly optimistic on this.

He said, Silverstone, I love the track,

but I did a few laps on the simulator and I just started laughing.

It felt like a different track, to be honest.

You barely have any battery around the lap.

Here you have and here was Austria.

Here you have long straights and big breaking zones, so you can charge the battery.

There you have long straights, but in a fast corner, for example,

so you can't really charge the batteries.

And then the next straight, you don't have a lot to spend.

It's going to be a tough one.

Well, those comments did come before the management have changed

the megajoule recharge limit and that is to stop as much super clipping

through a lot of these straights and along the corner.

So, in theory, they are using the allowance of that adjustment rule

to make this better.

That doesn't mean it's going to be great.

And you're right, I do think this is going to be a very tricky race track

to keep that battery topped up when you need it.

And it'll be a second real test for the upgrades that they brought in

in Austria, no doubt, which was very encouraging.

And I do maintain that if we sort of replayed that Austrian GP, let's say, 10 times.

I think the Stappen wins at least a few of them.

Like, I think if he does, you know, if that issue doesn't happen in the qualifying

lap, he qualifies a bit higher, he gets a good start.

Like, all of these things could happen if you replayed them again.

So there was enough encouragement from Austria and we'll see if it carries over or not.

Let's take our first break on the other side, which chatting Lewis, Hamilton and Ferrari.

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Welcome back, everyone.

Lewis Hamilton has won the British GP a few times.

Just a couple.

I kid you not, that is literally word for word what I've written down.

To be exact, 2008, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2024.

And if you...

I'm going to run out of fingers, then.

If you're doing what Sam is doing, you are quickly running out of fingers,

because that makes nine going for number 10 this weekend.

No one's won nine races at a track, let alone apart from Lewis Hamilton.

So clearly no one's ever got to double figures.

Can he get it done?

If someone wins ten at a race track, I don't know if that ever gets beaten.

That might be one of those records that really does stand the test of time.

And was it seven was the most before that?

Would he call Michael Schumacher?

So I believe he's...

Hamilton has got eight at Hungary.

Yeah.

And then Schumacher has got eight Magny Core.

OK.

He did love Magny Core.

Can he get it done?

Yeah.

Yeah, I think I don't want to turn up the hope of him again.

You know, I'd ventilate the air con full of hope.

That's it.

Dial all the way to ten.

But I do think that this might be his last great chance of picking up ten.

We'll see what happens next season, of course.

But I think ten is on the cards for Lewis Hamilton.

The Ferrari is going to be much better here than it was.

No! You can't say that!

It is.

No!

They've had engine upgrades that are, I think, going to be better at effect here.

The battery is less important.

The tyre wear, I think, will be more beneficial to them here.

And the chassis is good.

I think it's far closer to Barcelona as a racetrack

than I do think it is to the likes of Austria.

Lewis Hamilton can win a tenth.

I hope you're happy.

This is all on you when it goes horribly wrong.

I'm going to be there.

I'm going to be there sobbing in the stands.

And I'm going to get everyone in our stand to turn around and go,

BOOM!

Your fault. Your fault.

To Lewis Hamilton's credit, most points in a season after eight races since 2021.

He is in a good run of form right now.

And, yeah, the record kind of speaks for itself, doesn't it?

Like nine wins, seven pole positions on top of that as well.

And I know I just read out the years that he'd won.

When we got to the hybrid era, obviously, started in 2014,

he only had one at that point.

It's not like this was one of those tracks that he won a lot at McLaren.

It's just that run that he went on from, was it, 2014 to 2021?

He won all but one of those.

It's insane.

It is insane.

He has more wings at Silverstone than half the grid do

across their entire career.

Does he have more wins at Silverstone than Shola Kler has in his career?

It's the same, isn't it?

So, yeah.

And now I don't need to depress myself further.

To be fair to him as well, even when he hasn't been winning in recent races here,

it's still been one of his best tracks.

So we know he didn't really suit the ground effect era.

If you look at the 2022 and 2023, he still had a podium here in both of those years.

And that was only one of three tracks that he could say that way.

He had a podium in both of those years.

And even last year, he had fourth place here, which you think for Hamilton standards

isn't much to shout about.

We didn't have any podiums anywhere.

Fourth was his tide best result of the year.

So even where he's been struggling a bit more, he still found a little bit at Silverstone.

And I'm not sure if there's one particular reason why.

I think it's a circuit that quite suits his driving style, I would say.

The sort of Jensen Buttern had a few words on this, I think, today or yesterday,

but about how Hamilton deals really well with changes of direction works very well at Silverstone.

Yeah, he likes to dance on the front of the car.

Right. And that works very well here.

Also, we quite frequently get some wet and mixed conditions, which Hamilton typically thrives in.

And also, there is something to be said about confidence and home support.

And I think some people would completely dismiss that, but we saw it as recently as Barcelona.

In terms of his engineer being able to encourage him on and as soon as Hamilton gets that confidence,

it does unlock something different in him.

And the Silverstone crowd, at least to some respect, I think does give him that.

So the crowd at Silverstone is mega.

You know, I gave a lot of praise last week to the Orange Army at Austria.

And I did the same when we get to Zandvoort, but I have to give credit to the crowd at the British GP.

They do go mental for a British winner.

And I think the same thing.

Manxwell famously said about the home advantage, the crowd advantage, giving you extra couple of tents.

I do think the same is shared here.

The issue will be, of course, the ad has got to split it five ways.

Very true. Very true.

I just don't know if we're going to see Barcelona levels of competitiveness

or Austria levels of competitiveness.

For Ferrari's sake, I very much hope it's the former.

The when Charles Leclerc in particular was running out of energy at the end of Straits, Austria,

that doesn't fill me with a lot of confidence.

But as you said, with these upgrades, and they'll have a bit more time to get them,

I know we've only got one practice session, but it's another week to get them embedded.

33 quite considerable straits here.

Maybe, maybe they get there.

Maybe we might see one of those comparisons, which we so frequently talk about with Spa,

where actually maybe in the middle sector might be Ferrari sector, for example,

Mercedes or Red Bull, for example, might dominate the first and third.

Due to the fact that you've got a lot more corners in that middle sector,

a lot more of the mid-speed corners, which are very chassis being official.

Whereas, of course, in the final sector, you've got the Hannah Straight, for example.

The first sector, of course, you've got the Sir Lewis Hamilton Straight, of course.

So, you know, that might open up a real difference in timing.

Yeah. Fred, I've already said a few comments, actually, after Austria, to basically say that

he didn't feel they had done a good enough job at collecting enough data in the practice sessions.

Does that give you any concern, again, given we've only got one this weekend?

Yeah, I mean, that's not ideal, is it?

It's kind of when you bring an upgrade to somewhere and you put it on the car, get data for it?

Get data for it. Come on.

Kind of feels like an obvious thing to do. What should we do with a new upgrade?

Should we ignore the data or get the data?

If we get some data, it's all right.

No. Get the data.

Learn how it's working and apply it. That will make changes.

And the fact that you're now coming to a racetrack, which is so pivotal to one of your drivers,

and I think the overall development of the car, because Silverstone really displays

weaknesses and strengths of the car very well, you've got one practice session.

If it doesn't go to plan, then you're in major, major trouble.

So, yeah, I'm really surprised that he came out of Austria going,

we didn't really get the data we wanted and we didn't really look collecting enough of it.

And now you're going into a really limited weekend for data collection.

Now, Sam, we like to talk liveries on this show.

And there are two, at least confirmed right now, two special liveries happening this weekend.

Now, one of them we're going to park for now because we're actually talking about that team

later in the show. So, we'll spread it out for people.

But we are going to talk about McLaren now.

They have introduced quite a radical one here. Is there any orange on the car?

There's no orange on the car whatsoever. For those who haven't seen it, they are replicating

their first ever livery, which is, Ben, I think it's the M2B.

I don't know. I will take your word for it.

I might be wrong, folks. But it's Bruce McLaren's first McLaren.

It's the white McLaren with what seemingly looks almost like a rounded arrow with a green stripe

down the centre of the car. The original, absolutely beautiful thing.

It's stunning. And I must admit, Bob, Ben, you like to jump in there.

I was going to say, the original.

Yes, stunning. The new one, good.

Oh, OK.

Yeah, I like it. There's a bit too much black down the side.

So, I would like to have just seen this all white.

I think Google are a little bit over involved with their little Gemini diamond all over it as well.

But I get it. Sponsors are sponsors are going to happen.

What has irked me quite a lot is that when the 1000th GP rolled around,

I specifically made the point of this is the livery they should have gone with to commemorate

the 1000th GP. And all their marketing for this car, they've gone back where it all began,

replicating the start. Why do you do that on your 1000th GP?

To be honest, though, at this point, this race could be race 996 and also race 1007.

Like, it's who knows.

It's like the Mayan calendar, where actually it turns out we're like 18 years before what we

thought we were because of leap years or something like that.

McLaren did that thing that happened like centuries ago where they just sort of cut

out two weeks of the calendar randomly.

Yes, was that the Romans that did that?

I don't remember. It happened before my time.

Maybe they just skipped the dark ages. There's rumors that that never happened as well.

Anyway, it's a good effort and I like it. And I pretty like it less because you haven't used it

for the 1000th GP.

Yeah. My opinion on it is I don't care because you do too many special liveries.

So stop doing that.

This week's bag is back.

In all seriousness, it's a fine livery. Looks good.

Just when you do too many of them, they have less impact each time.

McLaren are the worst culprits for this.

They really are.

There are some like, I don't mind some other teams that will literally only do one a season,

in which case I will give you all my time and attention.

And then McLaren will just be like, is our eighth of the year?

Yeah. The race suits are lush. Absolutely lovely.

I haven't seen those.

They're just they're almost quite west in their replication.

They're very white and they've got a really nice Bruce McLaren signature on the back of the top,

which is really lovely.

But you could do what Ferrari does a bit more like Lewis Hamilton has got a distinct

cap gloves and some overall imprints because it's his, of course, his home gone pretty.

I think they did the same for Charles Leclerc among the Co-Ace one.

The livery was the same.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's that's the oven.

Yeah.

The wall is coming.

What about their competitiveness?

No. Can can they, of course,

Landon Orris won this race last year for the first time.

That's where we got the Lando.

Lando.

Don't remind me of the worst ick of all time.

That chant that we all love so much.

Can they repeat as winners?

No, I don't think so.

Flat.

No.

Yeah. I really do think.

And whilst I think they might be closer to the front,

I would be really shocked if they could pull out a really top tier performance because,

unfortunately, we've talked about this before, where Mercedes are strong,

in theory, McLaren should be strong because they, of course, take the the battery in the power unit.

And then, of course, they also have a chassis which doesn't seem to outweigh what Mercedes

are able to produce.

So where Mercedes for sure McLaren seem to fall shorter and when Mercedes grow strong,

McLaren seem to also get stronger and there does seem to be some

pattern to how they perform.

I just can't see with the reduction in negligible recharge rate and allowance here

how McLaren are going to outshine the likes of a resurgence red bull and a healthy and happy Ferrari.

So whilst I think they'll be competitive, they do feel like the third or fourth pick for a victory here.

I found it really difficult to judge McLaren this season.

And not just going into this race, just the entire year it's been really difficult to judge them.

I saw some comments from Oscar Piatri and this was before Austria, I think, rather than after it.

And I think it actually sums up their season quite well.

And he just said, we don't really have any clear strengths, but we're not terribly bad anywhere either.

Yeah, that's kind of where they're at.

He identified, by the way, that that is a good and a bad thing in that

they don't really have a key strength, which means we can't go to a certain track and go,

well, McLaren will probably be strong there.

It's also on the good side of things that they're not trying to cover up this awful weakness.

And they just need to, you know, incrementally improve everything and it should get there.

It screams fifth and sixth.

It might do.

The biggest issue, I think, from their side has been just upgrades wise.

It hasn't worked for them in the same way that it's worked for Red Bull and Ferrari.

Like they brought an upgrade to Canada.

It was delayed because it wasn't quite working there.

They brought another, they were supposed to bring another upgrade in Austria,

specifically relating to the rear wing.

They abandoned that.

Whether we'll see it this weekend or not, I don't know, but they completely abandoned it.

They all rumoured to be bringing some upgrades.

Right, yeah.

But they were also rumoured to bring them last time out, which means that they're just,

even if they arrive and they work, they are sort of fighting a little bit.

They are behind at the moment.

And I think they are looking at Red Bull and Ferrari.

Again, this is something that I think Andrea Stella has said.

They're kind of just in this picking up the pieces position.

Well, he mentioned this about their upgrade structure as well, right?

He said how, you know, Ferrari are bringing every few grand prix,

they're bringing seven or eight major upgrades and they're changing the car.

McLaren's idea of this is we'll bring one or two at every race.

We'll do little incremental changes, which, theory, should be a good thing.

But they've got to work and they've got to be impactful.

And currently, they're not.

And they're starting to fall behind.

Do you think it's a fair comment from Lando Norris who said that

it feels like they're three months behind?

Yeah, I think that's perfectly fair.

And again, I do think that this is where you end up having reliance on another manufacturer

when you can't be the control of your own destiny.

Whilst there are severe loads to be had with this,

and we're seeing this, of course, with the likes of Aston Martin working with Honda,

Audi, of course, but on their own engine, the power unit is their let down.

When your main rival also is your engine provider and they've got it better than you,

your constantly a step behind and the advantage that McLaren need to produce,

which allowed them to wing in the ground effect era, was that their car, the chassis build,

was so good and they were so good on tire, where they had advantages elsewhere.

Because there are jackable trades and they're not a master of any,

they're struggling at every area, but they're also not terrible at every area.

That's because they are so far behind with the actual car build, not the engine build.

I do think they need something to allow them to catch up.

Yeah, I mean, shall I give McLaren one reason?

McLaren fans one reason maybe to be optimistic,

because there's going to be a lot of McLaren fans this weekend,

particularly in the London, Norris, Groundsdown.

Andrea Stella seems to think that the biggest weakness on the car right now is low speed corners.

There aren't many of them here.

It's what, three?

Yeah, you've got the section after turns one and two,

which is a little bit lower speed, I guess, but outside of that, there's not too much, right?

Yeah, club is kind of slow.

But yeah, maybe three, maybe four at a push.

Yeah, in which case, and I mean, Monaco, they struggled there.

So that backs that up.

Maybe they're a little bit stronger here as a result of that.

They were rubbish at Austria though.

Yeah, but again, Austria has some more lower speed corners, I think, versus Silverstone.

So maybe there's more reason to be optimistic here than a week ago.

Just a final point, Sam.

I know we've discussed this throughout, so there might not be too much to add here,

but in terms of this being a sprint weekend,

do you think any team or any driver will be particularly happy about that,

or particularly unhappy about that?

I mean, Max Verstappen is thriving in sprint weekends.

I know, he gets a lot of numbers go his way.

And some of that is because of the fact that the Red Bull was so dominant when sprint races

really came to fruition, and he's won a lot of them.

But he does seem to pick up the pieces very quickly on a race weekend.

We rarely do see Verstappen completely out of it after a practice session,

a qualifying session.

He's very competitive.

So I do think that if the early part of the weekend might go to someone,

Verstappen might be the kind of guy that could thrive.

Yeah, I think that's fair.

I kind of summed it up as I think Mercedes and Red Bull are a little bit more set with their car

right now.

So they're probably happier for this to be a sprint weekend.

And then maybe McLaren and Ferrari who are bringing up upgrades,

or maybe just brought upgrades and still bringing them in a little bit,

they maybe were hoping for or would have liked a bit more time than just one practice session

to put it all together.

But it would be very interesting indeed.

Shall we do some bold predictions?

I think someone should do a study of the fastest and slowest words that I say,

because I'm pretty sure bold predictions is the slowest two words that I say

because of I'm scrambling to find the button each time.

Yeah, it's quite noticeable.

Bold predictions.

It's actually 24 minutes of a one hour podcast.

Is you saying those two words?

I just like to build it up, you know, with the anticipation.

Because you can really push it together.

We're here for two hours, but you don't know that.

Not a great weekend for bold predictions in Austria.

Let's let's try and write that, Sam.

What have you got?

Okay, I'm going to be quite open on when this will happen.

So I'm talking either race or either sprint race or main Grand Prix.

But during the fight for the lead,

first place and second place will have contact and at least one car will DNF through the contact.

But for who, Chris Kamara?

We don't know.

I don't know.

Very interesting.

I had a similar one, of course, a few years ago.

New one ago, yeah, Spain.

But that was a bit more specific about who it would be.

But we're just saying either sprint race or main race,

there will be contact between first and second drivers.

There'll be race ending contact for one of those drivers, yeah.

What if they both retire?

I'm allowing it.

My bold prediction.

And this actually goes against what you're predicting a little bit here, Sam.

I think both Mercedes will be over 10 seconds clear of everyone else.

I swear, please don't let that happen.

Please say you've said it to drinks the whole while you've sacrificed the point.

No, I think that, I was going to say something I definitely can't say.

I think they will dominate.

Good.

That's a moment of silence there for the British Grand Prix.

Yeah.

What about, and we're not just doing poll 123 of course,

sprint poll, sprint win, poll 123

if you can remember those in that order, Sam.

Okay, sprint poll, George Russell, sprint wing, Max Verstappen,

pole position, Kimmy Antonelli, wing, Lewis Hamilton, second,

Charlotte Clair, third, Max Verstappen.

I mean, that's almost a bold prediction in itself that you've got a different driver

getting sprint poll, sprint win, poll and win, right?

That's four different drivers.

That's true.

In my prediction, I have obviously not confirmed this in my bold prediction,

assume that it will be the Mercedes drivers that are likely to come together

in their league of the main Grand Prix.

Man, yours is more exciting.

I should have gone first.

Sprint poll, George Russell, sprint win, George Russell, pole position, George Russell,

the win, Kimmy Antonelli, second place, George Russell, third place, Max Verstappen.

Oh yeah.

Woo hoo, bang.

I think they might be quite good and I don't mind being wrong.

Again, I don't mind if they win, but something exciting would be all right.

Yeah, if they win by a second, I'll take it.

Yeah.

Let's take our second break on the other side.

It's a racing bull's chat.

Everyone's favorite time of the week.

They're regular visitors to the show.

Yeah, yeah.

Welcome back, everyone.

We promised racing bull's chat and here we are because obviously they've got a bit of

discussion in our race review on Sunday about their double points finish, but there was a

little bit more to it than that.

An unseen teammate controversy unfolded as Harvard Limblad ignored team orders not to

attack Liam Lawson.

So after an earlier pit stop put Limblad behind Lawson, he briefly passed his teammate before

Lawson immediately retook the place.

Despite them being explicitly told to pole position,

Limblad overtook Lawson again at turn four the following lap.

Even after Lawson had been assured by his engineer, he wouldn't be attacked.

Lawson was left frustrated by the incident while Limblad later complied with a bit of a

firmer instruction to pole position during the final stint.

Any concerns here in terms of the harmony within the team?

No, I don't think so.

I got some really boring answer, but I do think so.

They hate each other, Sam.

This is going to be fireworks a weekend.

They're going to set each other's cars alight.

They're going to throw helmets at each other.

No, I don't think so.

I think this is growing pains for Limblad.

It's what I think this is.

I think this is becoming a bit of a teenager.

And I want to just test the boundaries a little bit and see what's happening.

And he found out and he's been told.

And I do think that he's still so early in his career that right now,

I don't see too many examples of where they are literally so close to one another that

racing boards are having to say, please pole position, please don't mark this up,

please don't take each other off, just get on with the Grand Prix.

And it was so specific as well with the fact that it was strategy dependent.

Lawson just come out the pit lane.

There's a lot going on to make it really, really specific.

Even Lawson, who was interviewed afterwards, I thought reacted in a really mature adult way,

where he said, we're going to review this internally.

We're going to have a chat about it.

But I'm sure he wasn't amazed by it.

Does he react that way a year ago?

No, I don't think he does.

That's the thing.

I think he's really grown.

And even in the end of race footage, Limblad is putting his hand up out of the car to apologize.

I don't know what he was doing.

I think you're right.

I think he's apologizing to Lawson.

That's what I think is happening.

And that tells me that they have respect for each other.

They understand the boundaries and I think Limblad's making a mistake.

I think he's been a bit advantageous.

He's tried to do something.

He's not gone to plan with the whole pit stop as Rastri involved.

And he's going, oh, sorry, sorry, my bad.

We'll move on.

So I actually think they've got themselves a really good little team here.

And there's a lot of room that's going around,

which I know we don't talk too often,

that Lawson might be booted out of this team by coming in the end of the season.

Because Solov is doing so well, of course, in Formula Two.

And he's almost been apparently promised a contract.

Right now, I think that would be a real sorry move for racing balls.

Because I think they've got themselves a really tidy,

tiny little pair at racing balls right now.

And if the form stays, I'll be really disappointed to see both of them change that order.

So assuming that you think that would be a mistake to replace Lawson with Solov,

does that mean, and we're not talking about what actually will happen,

but if you had some control over the Red Bull operation,

you think that Lawson should probably have the opportunity to have another chance at the senior

team. Otherwise, you don't keep him, right?

Like you only keep him if that's a thing.

I agree. Historically, when management is different at the overall racing ball family,

you have the likes of Hornger there, of course.

I do think that once you had to go in the top seat, you didn't get another go.

You know, the likes of Albin, Gatsby especially,

who turned it around so well at Alfa Tauri, the team at the time.

The performances that he put in were brilliant.

Multiple P4s, P5s, I think he had a podium there as well.

He was really strong and he needed that time to come along.

And he did, was never even giving a glimpse at that top seat ever again,

even when they were asking questions of who should fill this seat.

Never looked at it again.

That has changed. We see a whole new management lineup, a whole different

point of view for the Red Bull team now.

If Hager does slip below expectations, which I don't think he's doing right now,

but if he does, then I do think the likes of Lauren Neckis would consider

having the conversation of swapping.

I do think that would be more detrimental to Hager.

I don't think they swap back again, for example.

But Lawson got such a limited amount of time that, realistically,

he basically hasn't had a go in the top team.

I think that they consider it again.

Yeah, in a weird way, it might have actually helped Lawson that he did only get two races,

because if he'd got a full season, or even like three quarters of a season,

I think it would be incredibly unlikely he would get another opportunity.

And to be honest, I still think it's quite unlikely.

But I think there's more of a chat.

I don't think they'll hold those two races against him too much, because it was two races.

In terms of the team order stuff, it's unnecessary.

And I'm a little bit concerned, not massively, but it was just unnecessary.

I think we said this as part of power rankings on Monday, Sam.

Team orders need to be determined by the situation that you're in.

Russell and Antonelli have been allowed to fight pretty much all season long,

because they are fighting for wins.

They are both fighting for their first drivers' championship.

You can try and stop them.

You probably wouldn't get very far in doing so.

That makes sense.

Here, racing bulls are trying to chase down Alpine for fifth place in the championship,

and they're trying to get every point they can get,

and they're fighting over ninth and tenth, which are worth two and one point.

The initial strategy made a lot of sense to pit Limblad first,

to make sure he wasn't undercut by Gabriel Bortoletto.

Reversing that towards the end of the Grand Prix, I think it made a lot of sense as well.

I just think this is for two drivers and a team that are trying to get somewhere,

as in they're not where they want to be yet, why bother with this sort of thing?

I think, though, what you said about Solov might well be playing into this in Lawson and Limblad,

particularly Lawson, might be looking at this as a,

I've got to show what I can do at every single opportunity with Solov,

who's running up in the F2 championship at the moment, very much waiting in the wings.

I actually think that the best thing that could happen to Red Bull

would be for Solov to not win the F2 title this season and to get second place,

giving one more year to take a very good time and see how it goes.

Yeah, I kind of agree with you.

I know they've done Super Formula with a few drivers before, so Gadsley did that,

and then obviously entered F1. Was has done that and then didn't enter F1, so it is a bit of a mix.

Lawson's doing really well. I know that I've turned into a bit of a Lawson superfan in the last

couple of races, but he's scored in six of the last, of eight Grand Prix so far this season,

and four in a row. He is really being a much improved driver, and I want to make sure that

we see more of that, and we don't end up diminishing a driver who is really learned and changed.

There's such an expectation now in Formula One that you're coming at 18 years old,

you're incredible the moment you're in the sport, and you have no time to develop and grow.

And actually Lawson has done things how they should really be done. He came in as a replacement.

He was pretty rubbish when he first came in, but he was a great junior, and he's now started to show

the benefits of sticking around.

But how good was Antonelli last year?

He was okay, but he wasn't great.

Exactly. In the last three or four races, he starts to come good. And now look at him,

leading the championship. I know it's a different story. Lawson probably has a much

shunnerer ceiling than what Antonelli actually has, but for his career, that's okay.

And I think it would be a shame to cut that off early.

As it pertains to this weekend, Sam, I've got a belter of a stat for you when it comes to racing

balls. So I think it's pretty encouraging the consistency that they've had recently.

They've had double points at Monaco, of course, very low speeds and stuff.

A Barcelona, which is a bit of an all-rounder track. And then Austria, which relies a lot

more on the power unit. So I think that's really encouraging. They've had double points,

all three of those races in succession. And I went back and I've manually looked at this stat.

So if I've made an error, I really do apologize, but I don't think I have.

You have to go back, go back all the way through the racing balls era, all the way through the

Alcatel era, all the way through the Torrosso era. That is about 20 years of F1. That team has never

got three consecutive races where both drivers have scored points. Wow. First time ever.

That is a stud, man. If I've ever heard one. Just to put into context what they're doing now,

versus what their history's been like. And also, you wouldn't necessarily say that looking through

their history, this is the best car that seems ever had either. There were some really high moments of

the Alphatari, especially as I brought up where it was regularly very competitive. So they're

doing well. But often like 75% of the time, it would be very good in Gasly's hands. And then

on the off chance that Gasly wasn't doing very well, it would be Sonoda who's doing very well.

Point is they never had this consistency where they would have 7th and 8th in a Grand Prix or 9th

and 10th. They've got that at the moment. So where... So there's a lot of credit for Limblad as well.

Yeah. Yeah. He's only 8 Grand Prix in. I mean, again, I think we even made this point on the

review or power rankings that Limblad at the moment, apart from this sort of one particular

incident about team orders, nothing about what he's doing screams that he's a rookie.

If you'd have... You like to bring up this one, Ben. If you were to take away all the games,

and just showing the results across the season, I wouldn't be able to point to you a rookie on

that board. Yeah. Yeah. Let's move away from Racing Balls to Williams. Of course, a home

Grand Prix for them and a livery for them as well. Is that what we're calling it, is it?

Yeah. Okay. So that gives away at least a little bit what you think of this one.

Yeah. The current livery is crap anyway. And then they've come out and gone,

oh, we're embracing the British Grand Prix. Is the Union Jack on the car? And you...

Is the Union Jack on the show with us? Is it on the track with us? I think there's some tiny

flex of red and blue down the side of the nose. That is appalling. It is rubbish. It's not the one

they did a couple of years ago, which was really nice. It is crap. It's... What have they done?

What have they done? They haven't done anything. You don't announce it and make a big hoohah out of

things if you're not going to do anything. That's like saying, do you like my haircut, Ben? You're

going, what do you mean? I go, well, actually, the back of my head, I had slightly trimmed by a

centimetre. Do you love it? Oh, yeah. Yeah? Good stuff. Yeah, I love it. I don't know, because

it's barely changed. I mean, timing-wise, if Williams had timed this a little bit better,

we could have just done our question of the week is, where's the Union Jack? Because it's not on the car.

It's not on the car. Any hope for them outside of the livery? No.

No.

Oh. But... But... No, go back. James Vowles is promising some major changes between now and

sort of the end of summer. Great. I am worried for James Vowles' role at Williams at the moment.

It has got to that point where I think it's getting bad.

He was quite punchy about these comments. He said, I don't think many people will be

adding the performance that we're planning to towards that period. That's quite for a team

principle. Great. But you've fallen behind so much further than where you were four races ago.

So you're having to catch up again to make up the ground you've already lost.

Is it almost a, like, I'm staking my job on what's happening now?

Those are role-saving comments. And if they go wrong, I think he's, by the end of the

season, will be out of the job. Because that also could be so wrong. You've got Aston Martin,

who are staking their entire exchange of car, come hungry. Right? They're bringing a spec-2

version of their car. Hungry. You know that the likes of Audi are developing as much as they

can. We know that Alpine haven't brought a package for a while, so they'll do something too.

Realistically, the competition isn't going to get easier for Williams. They've got suddenly

leapfrog and multi-sugar teams around them. It needs to be brilliant and it needs to be very,

very soon. They desperately need an improvement, desperately need one, because the last couple

of races have been really tough for them. And at this point last year, they had 54 points.

They have 11 right now. I'm amazed they have 11. I am genuinely amazed they've got 11. I think it's

Carlos Sight's putting in Belters that's given them that. Yeah, yeah. Exactly. I was looking at

like Williams versus Audi, for example. We were quite, Williams are ahead in the championship

right now versus Audi. Audi have got so many, they've got 11 positions between 11th and 13th

this year. Yeah, they are the What If team. They've been so close. Whereas Williams have got a

couple of ninth place finishes here and there and then a load of nothing. Yeah. Balance has been a

big issue for them this year. We spoke about how when they were going around the corner,

is that the back wheel was coming almost off the track. They were losing that grip. Obviously,

three wheels versus four, much slower. And it means that they just can't feel comfortable going

through corners and watching Eagg at Silverstone and a lot of balance in the car. Yeah. Not sure

how they'll do. Should we do under pressure? Who or what have you got under pressure this week?

Well, we just spoke about them. It is Williams. I think they need to bring something. They need

to have a better weekend. They've got a lot. I really, really feel for the Williams fans.

It felt like, much like almost like along the SoFans, it felt like this was meant to be something.

And we've been Formula One fans for 30 years, 30 plus years. And we've gone back and we've watched

archived races. We've studied old championships. We've been through the glory days of Williams.

And it felt like they were in pain for so long, so many years, with that team that was once a good

team. They had paid drivers. They couldn't put something together. They were at the back of the

grid. And then James Vowles comes along and he speaks such brilliant truth. He seems so transparent.

They get two great drivers in. They get bought out by Dorrotton Capital. And yet they turn up at

this new season with a great Mercedes engine in the car and they are diabolical. So they need to

produce something and something soon. And the homegrown parade feels like a fitting place to do it.

My under pressure is Alpine. First non-score of the season at Austria.

Was it really completely non-score? First, wow, I didn't know that.

I think so. Yeah. Wow.

They were the definite fifth best team between China and Monaco, right? Last two? Not so much.

Like the result, again, at Barcelona was pretty good, but I'm not sure how much strategy and

a bit of luck with safety cars played into that. It definitely wasn't the case at Austria. So

I'm going to go with Alpine, which let's face it, this is basically a home race for them now,

given they're almost entirely based out of Endstone. They don't have the facility in France

anymore. No, yeah. I mean, it's the same as Mercedes, right? Like, yes, a German brand,

but everything comes out of the UK. Yes. Before we go to our last break, let's do F1 Fantasy.

Top three in the championship. Not a lot of change again. It's still

never Lewis Faith leading the way. Just a switch between who's second and third. So

feisty pancake is second. Lumly speed syndicate is third. In terms of the winners for the Austrian

GP, so those playing the limitless chip, 327 points for five different teams. They are

Butterdonkey, High on Copium, totally addicted to speed, no papaya rules, and rage against the regs.

Sorry, when you said that name, you didn't do it correctly. It's I'm totally addicted to speed.

But they think they must have run out of characters because they didn't have the wow,

wow at the end. Understandable. It's a lot to fit into one thing.

Right. But what about the four of Sam? Where are you at the moment?

I'm not doing well, Ben. Oh, yeah. The Moico thing and then Spain really caused me pain. It was

definitely Spain without the S and since then it's just gone worse and worse. I've now dropped to 532.

Leclerc really did me a dirty in Austria. Yeah, he didn't help me out much today.

No, and I had him on time too as well. It was just not a joyful time for me.

Good news is you are still ahead of Mr. Harry Eid in 718.

Is that good news or is it just news? Yeah, that's a fair point. But Harry has made the point

that that is 84 positions up on where he was last time out. So he's got us right where he wants us.

I'm looking over my shoulder at you, Harry Eid, just with a pair of binoculars in my hand.

And unbelievably, I think for the third consecutive race, we've got a change in leader.

And we've finally taken the lead, Ben. I have. Kirstie is in second on 427th,

which is a small drop, 35 spots from the previous week. I've managed to get to 340th up 81 spots.

Very nice. Still close between us, though. Don't rest in your laurels, my friend.

I will not. I tell you what, I'm considering the limitless chip this weekend.

Well, if I have anything to say about it, I'm going to steal your phone and throw it on the race track.

So you can't do anything. Okay. If I play the limitless chip, I will be doing so before we get to the track.

You bear that in mind. I'm not afraid to play dirty.

No, I'm very aware of that. By the way, if you're not already a member of the F1 Fantasy League,

over 3,400 of you playing, you can follow the link in the description.

I'm actually three away from 3,500. At least three of you can sign up. Come on.

You don't lose your points. You keep all your points. You just transfer in.

Yeah, only join if you're below the four of us, though. That's the rule.

Three of us. Harry's night. True. Yeah, you can be ahead of Harry. That's fun.

All right. Let's take our final break on the other side. We're going to give you our top three British Grand Prix.

Welcome back, everyone, to the final part of today's episode. Let's do a quick top three of our favorite British GP

over the years. Not really any conditions here. We can pick them for whatever reason we want to.

Could be one that we were there for, one that we weren't even alive for if we want to,

do whatever we want with these. So number three for you, Sam.

Yeah, I've kind of gone with either momentous moments or I've been completely biased. Basically,

it was that I've seen properly, either on the telly or whatever, and gone,

I really enjoyed that. That was great fun. The first one for me isn't one I was alive for.

Despite rumors that I'm a thousand years old. All right, Yoda.

From now on, watch. I do. This is 1987. So this is Mansell versus PK. This is Williams,

and it's absolutely fine. I've just given them absolute battering, but I'm going to compliment

them here. The car was rapid. 65 laps of a rather different profile, Silverstone at this point,

of course. And they had to make some changes the year before because they were just,

it was just ridiculous. It was chaos at the speeds they were hitting, but they were still going

phenomenal speeds here. PK takes pole position by seven tenths of a second. So it's a hundredth of

a second, which in 1987 is Mingaskew, and they are a full second clear of Ayrton Senga in the

lotusing third place. Prost is there as well, of course. So this line up is pretty mega. The fact

that Mansell has got the least overall in these four tells you just how quality this top four was.

Now, they go off the grid and process a sensational start. He jumps everyone. He's up to first, but

the Williams are so strong that PK overtakes him by half around the track and Mansell gets through

his well before the end of the lap. And then it just comes down to the two Williams guys. Now,

PK seems to have the edge and Mansell's car struggling. Now, struggling, I'm saying it's

got severe vibrations and it might fall apart. All they're doing at one point are 195 miles an hour

down certain parts of this revised Silverstone track. Now, remember, they're essentially in

bathtubs surrounded by fuel at this point in Formula One. It's terrifying. And it looks like

PK's got the legs. It's going further and further and further. And their rivals are starting to

fall to the wayside. The likes of Prost has a serious failure, means it's going to come to the

pit lane. Can't get back out of the pits. It does slowly become very obvious, and it's just the

two Williams cars. PK leads for 62 of the 65 laps. And then the story is often remembered,

this happens on the last lap where this momentous overtake takes place. It is close. It's close.

It's about two laps from the end. But Mansell, and you have to look enough, it might be one of

the greatest overtakes of all time. It is phenomenal the way that Mansell in full chat, full commitment,

bravery, almost stupidity on the level of bravery, absolutely sings one past PK. And at that point,

the final two laps, the two laps that matter in front of a British crowd on a bright sunny day,

are all Nigel Mansell. He takes the victory in 1987. He's got a lot of love on the show recently.

I think in Patreon, he got a big of love as well. You're right. Yeah, we did our top five

home race victories very recently on Patreon, and that made an appearance there as well.

Yeah, it's a really, really interesting Grand Prix. I don't think Mansell gets a lot of credit,

because he doesn't have the glitz and the glam of winning multi-time world champions

and stuff like that. But some of his Grand Prix are really special, and that overtake,

go and watch a highlight of it, it is wonderful. Number three for me, Harry Ead will be very proud

of me for this one. This is one that we reviewed on our historic race review series very recently,

2003. So, I mean, it's great because Yarno truly leads for a lap or two, which is fantastic. But

the real story of this race is there's a lunatic on the track. And no, the real story about this

race is Rubens Barrakello and Kimmy Reichenan, both very, very good on this day. Pit strategies vary

a little bit. Reichenan and Barrakello have to make some very effective overtakes in order to get up

to first and second. So, further back because of these pit strategies, you have the likes of

Schumacher and Alonso trying to recover after essentially double stacking in the pits. So,

seeing their progress back through the field is very interesting. And Rubens Barrakello,

this could be his finest day, overtakes Kimmy Reichenan to eventually claim the race win.

And these sorts of races around the early 2000s, firstly, there weren't many good ones at this

point. This very much breaks the mold. But secondly, when it comes to Ferrari, so many of them were

centred around the dominance of Michael Schumacher. But this was one occasion where Barrakello

absolutely proved his worth in F1. It's a great Grand Prix. I think F1 has extended highlights of

this on YouTube if you haven't watched it already. If you've got F1 TV, the full race is there as

well. Great one to watch. Number two on your list, Sam. This one is controversial because for the most

part of the Grand Prix, it's quite boring. And that's the year of 2020. This is not our 75th

anniversary Grand Prix. This is actually the British Grand Prix. It was Covid year, and of course,

we had a couple of double ups. For example, we had this steering Grand Prix. Or if you're Crofty,

the steering Grand Prix, which is awful. And of course, the Austrian Grand Prix. Now here, of course,

we had Silverstone, the British Grand Prix. Now, it was a dollar fair. This is Mercedes and Lewis

Hamilton arguably at the absolute peak of their power. Hamilton was a monster in 2020, and the

race was very much going that way. At one point, I think he is dominating the field. Second place to

Max Verstappen. I think he's got a 20-second gap to Max Verstappen. And then suddenly, things start

to go wrong from a couple of laps out. It's hot, and the tyres start to fail. First, it's Bottas,

as terms of one of those that are fighting right at the front. Of course, teammates at this point,

Hamilton and Bottas. And you hear over the radio to Hamilton, careful, tyres are failing.

Just get to the end. Fine, all good. And then it does this thing in Formula One, which now gives

me almost PTSD, that when you want someone to win at this point, I did want Lewis Hamilton to win the

Grand Prix. And suddenly, the camera cuts to the amount of no explainable reason. You go, oh no,

what haven't we heard? What's happening that means that something has gone wrong? Well,

Lewis Hamilton picks up a puncture on the final lap of the Grand Prix. And at this point, he is 18

seconds clear of Max Verstappen. And what makes this race, I think, so special is the way that

Bongo is counting down the gap to Max Verstappen throughout the whole lap. Max gets on the radio

to GP, of course. What's going on with Hamilton? GP comes on. Hamilton's got a puncture. Max

replies, can we get him? GP replies, if you get on with it, we can. And suddenly, this chasing

sees and Bongo is going 17 seconds to Max, 16 seconds to Max. And you can see Hamilton

wrestling with this wheel. And the corgis remember at Silverstone. I've got slow corgis, as we've

just mentioned. You need to carry speed through these corgis. And it's, you know, 12, 11, 10.

And he comes around that last corner and Bongo is going 55 seconds to Max. And Hamilton

crosses the line and he goes, is that the last lap? Is that the last lap? And Bongo is screaming.

That's it, mate. You dig it. That's a close call. Because you're front of the British

crowd with Hamilton taking that wing. Then, of course, that leads to his seventh world title.

It's just a moment. That last lap is a moment. And I do think you can forget the rest of the race

because I know that that moment happens. I just think it's one of the best single laps

in modern Formula One history. It was so dramatic. I'm not going too far away from you this time.

I'm just going to go back one the year to 2019. This was a rare one where Lewis Hamilton was not

on pole position. And in fact, his teammate was, again, still Valtteri Bottas. Really excellent

battle between the two of them early on throughout the first lap and then really into lap four, where

Lewis Hamilton is able to make a very good overtake on Bottas into Brooklands.

But where a lot of our criticism at the time for Valtteri Bottas came from maybe his lack of

decisiveness, lack of getting your elbows out when it came to wheel to wheel racing, here Bottas

places perfectly because he gets in the slipstream of Hamilton straight away and then re- overtakes

him at Copse. I thought this was one of Bottas' best moments at Mercedes. Outside of that, there's a

great battle going on behind one of my favorite battles in recent years between Max Verstappen

and Charles Leclerc, where Sebastian Vettel kind of sprinkled in there as well. But it's mainly

mainly Leclerc and Verstappen. And they are just fully as aggressive as he could possibly be against

one another at this point. Hamilton gets a little bit of good fortune. He manages to pit under the

safety car after Valtteri Bottas has already pit. Would have been quite interesting to see if Hamilton

could have taken the win anyway. But instead, he gets that good fortune and he is off. He actually

wins this race by 25 seconds in the end, just to prove his dominance and got the fastest lap at

the point where you needed the fastest lap for a bonus point on the final lap of the race.

And then that Leclerc Verstappen battle actually carries on until Verstappen gets clear of him,

only to then try and overtake Sebastian Vettel. Vettel actually goes into the back of Max Verstappen

causing them, I can't remember if they retired from this race or if it just knocked them back a bit,

but it was quite a dramatic incident. But yeah, 2019, I had a good time remembering this one,

because it was a very good race. It was at that period as well where we didn't get as much jumbling

of the order, as mentioned in my 2020 reference, it was still a Mercedes dominant time. So,

picking out one where there is a proper battle for at least a good part of the race is nice to

rehear. What is your favourite British GP? Boring. We've heard it before. I've spoken about it a

thousand times on this show. It's the 2008 British Grand Prix. Lewis Hamilton puts on a master class.

It is a dance in the rain where he starts in P4. There's mistakes from Ferrari with strategy.

Masa has a throttle issue. He spins five times. Hakey Kovalainen picks up pole position over

Masa. Hamilton, sorry, who starts P4, and this is as I mentioned. And yet, he still goes on to lap

every single driver other than the podium. And he's over a minute clear to everyone else.

It is single-handedly one of the best single driver performances, I think, of the 21st century.

The fact he's only in his second year in Formula One is another level as well.

He is a master in that 2008 Grand Prix. I think it still might be his best victory of his whole

career. It's possible, I think. And I just think that it's the beginning of what is a legendary

career that way. So I think it really is kind of the first big tick to say, I'm one of the greatest.

So for me, that really sits up there because it sounds like it should be boring with how big the

wing is. But it's so full of moments. Even Barrichello pulling out a podium, that absolute tractor of a

whole day at a time, deserves a lot of respect. But yeah, what a drive from Lewis in 2008.

Two completely different top threes. A rarity on this show. A rarity indeed. The most modern

race on either of our lists. 2024. Great pick, by the way. It was right on the edge of mine.

2024. The middle part of this season is actually one of my favourite points of F1 in the last decade

or so. Because there was this kind of like, maybe six-way stretch where everything kind of converged

and Red Bull, Ferrari, McLaren and Mercedes were all really close in terms of competitiveness.

And you didn't know going into a race weekend who was going to be the favourite. Here, it was Mercedes

that were very good early on. So George Russell, as we mentioned at the very beginning of the show,

got pole position at this race ahead of Lewis Hamilton. But we've got some damp conditions.

And Lewis Hamilton is able to overtake George Russell. Very good overtake as these conditions

start to come in. And then the McLaren start to get involved. They both overtake Max Verstappen,

who's a bit of a menace in this race. And then they're able to both overtake the Mercedes,

clearly just a little bit better, again, in these not quite intermediate conditions.

Until the point where they do need to stop for inters. Oscar Piazzari, bless him, he's done a

great job here. He's got within like half a second of Lando Norris. And they don't double stack. So

he has to go around another lap. And he's kind of out of contention as a result of this.

But Norris and the two Mercedes still very much fighting for this win. Lando Norris,

with a win sort of on the cusp, comes in a lap later to go back to softs. He and the team kind

of mess up the pit stop because he goes a bit long in his pit spots. Yeah. And then it's a four

and a half second pit stop. So not a very good one. Hamilton gets the undercut and goes on to

win the race. His first Grand Prix win in quite a while at that point.

And Lando Norris is actually overtaken by Max Verstappen, who's very good in the dry conditions

at the end of this Grand Prix. Again, just showing how the competitiveness was kind of back and

forth a little bit between these four teams. Ferrari, by the way, have a stinker in this race,

because of course they do. Yeah, I love this race. It won the LB award for race of the year,

back in 2024, and rightly so. This is a banger. It was a brilliant, brilliant Grand Prix. I think

it was Hamilton's first win in the Grand Effect era. Yeah, yeah. It was his first win since,

I want to say Saudi Arabia 2021. Yeah. It's a long time, through the guy who won every single

season of his career up until the end of 2021. Yeah. And then of course, the fight with McLaren

and the way they change your conditions just made the competitiveness so different. As you

mentioned Verstappen, and Mengis the whole way through as well. That was a great Grand Prix.

It was. Just one race, by the way, that very nearly got there for me and didn't make your list

either, 2022, which is maybe best known for the Frugos Hamilton. But it's a great race outside of

the... It is great. It is. The same as when Sainz picked up his, Megan Ferrari win as well. That

was another great race in 23. That was 22. That was that race. Sorry, yes. Yeah. Silverstone is one

of those that rarely lets you down. It really is a nine out of seven race cracking. A lot of great

races that didn't get mentioned. Let us know, by the way, if there's one that we didn't mention

that you think should have been in the conversation. Do we have time for a little bit of a... Oh,

I don't know. The greatest segment in all of podcasting, maybe. I suppose so. It's time for the...

I'll be a question of the... I'm slightly hungover and my voice is cracking.

It's still better than Harry's voice cracks on Sunday week.

Someone in the comments said, I can't count the amount of voice cracks in this episode.

We're all very hoarse and very hungover. I'm sorry.

You know, are you using your fingers to get to Lewis Hamilton's race victories early?

Yes.

Like if you're doing that on Sunday, forget about it.

Get a few mates in the room.

Get the octopuses out, lads.

Sorry, eight tentacles on those.

Fair point. Never mind.

Question of the week. We went for Cadillac have a plan to ensure both cars finish at Silverstone.

What is it?

I'm sorry. I know you're commenting on this one, but I've got to go to roll with this.

Only one car has a finish.

It's very good.

It's very clever.

Very clever.

I saw there were a couple of similar comments as well, but yeah, very, very well done to you.

So, there are four,

there are four,

Very good. Very clever.

I saw there were a couple of similar comments as well, but yeah, very, very well done to you.

And then quite a few comments similar to this from Michaela,

removing the floor and having Bottas and Perez foot race red flintstone style.

I'm not sure I want to hang on to where Cadillac train is either. They might fall apart quite quickly.

This one comes from Jacob, which I really enjoy because it's quite near and dear to us and Valtteri

Bottas new components made by a Scandinavian luggage brand.

My dad brought that up the other day. He finds it hilarious.

Thought you were going to say your dad bought one. Thanks, dad. Come on. Support in the show.

Cameron's gone with the tactic of start from the pit lane, but don't go until the last lap of the race.

I don't know why no one's ever thought of that before. No, I've never seen that one happen.

DJ spent a wing since they're going to have Terry Cruz carry the cars across the line, of course,

and he would be delighted to do it. He do his little chest pumps as he goes with the biggest

ring in the world. I love Terry Cruz, man. He's a great guy. JD has just put thoughts and prayers

because we know that works really well. I like this one because it's so relevant to what's

going on on that date, of course. And this one comes from Rosie, filled them with a special

American recipe made from the tea we dumped in the harbor and go fashion gun pockets to

properly celebrate America's 250th birthday. Happy birthday, America. Can we have our tea back?

What a sad little life, America. Give us our tea. What a sad little life, America. That doesn't seem

very... That's not a wise message for this podcast that our audience, I don't think. No, no. We definitely

love our American audience. Please don't go. Let's go to something lighter, which is the

standard Star Wars reference from Clayton. Annie, we serve Brigham to New Briggs at Nogo. Boom!

William's in big doo-doo this time. You hate Jar Jar. I hate Jar Jar Binks, and I hate whoever

this character is that talks to Jar Jar Binks as well. We in big doo-doo this time. That's his

at the Gungan. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Under the water, isn't it? The last one from me, I'm trying to find

the name, so I'm very sorry here, is... I can't find it. Sorry, but they said to just tie the cars

to the back of the Mercedes cars, because I haven't told them around. Honestly, not a bad idea.

Not a bad idea at all. Thank you to everyone who put your comments in on both Instagram

and OnX. We'll be back with another question of the week very soon. But... But? We're not quite done yet,

because... What's that I can hear? What is it? Look to the skies, folks, and you might just see the

outline of... Is that...? No, it can't be. It is! It's the Father Christmas of birthdays!

It's good to be back. I'll be back, mate. It's quite warm in my big beard. This isn't your time of year,

mate. Oh, I'm usually on holiday. Oh, where'd you go on holiday? Oh, Greenland. Do you have to

start every sentence with the Ho Ho Ho? No, it's... No, it's not me. No, no. I do it so I'm... It's on

brand, you see. I'm recognizable. Anyway, many birthdays for patriotic children. Ho ho ho, happy

birthday. Folks, if you are new here and you're thinking what on earth is going on...

Sam, what are you doing? Well, you know, I sit in the corner and he turns up. He's quite aggressive

getting on the mic, actually. If you are a top tier Patreon subscriber, and thank you to everyone

that is, and if you want to join Patreon, you get loads of benefits linked in the description. One of

those benefits which help support the show and bring much better content is that you get a birthday

shout-out on your birthday month. You just have to message us on Patreon. We note it down and you

get a shout-out. So, here are those lovely birthdays for June. Ho ho ho, Aliem, June 2nd,

happy birthday. Cecilia Keneally. That's a great name. That sounds like a sweet treat from a bakery.

June the 5th, happy birthday. Branding on June the 6th, happy birthday. Justin Geek and Cycle,

two names for you. June 9th, happy birthday. Thomas Trident, an explosive surname for you, sir.

Don't tell Corbyn.

Aaron Thomas, June 13th, happy birthday. Corrigo! That's such a great new and breaking

reference. Hang on, I'm going to think you'll get that. June 15th, happy birthday. I'm going to say

this wrong. Cloves, clays. June 16th, happy birthday. Andrew June 22nd, happy birthday.

This is hard to say. Zoe Gabriella Sol, daughter of Grond. June 22nd, happy

birthday. Matt June 25th, happy birthday. Kristy Moore, June 28th, happy birthday. Simon

Samle Plan, fans Savile, June 30th, happy birthday. And last but no means least, Andrew

Weber, June 30th, happy birthday. Thank you very much, Father Christmas of birthdays. If you can

go back in, you're covered in other play with plies for a little bit. What they get up to is not our

business, but you know. Whenever you do the Father Christmas of birthdays, I can just

abadge it like Rosie, like a few rubes away being like, what the...

There's not many things I regret doing on this show. That is such a physical effort to do that

character, but I do regret it. Good. We will keep it coming then. I think a very long episode.

We are done. But we've got a lot of episodes coming up this weekend.

We do. Loog's coming up. So, folks, if you want to hear it all, you want to get it first, maybe

you want to add free. You've got Patreon in the description below, and that's where we will, of

course, deliver our Spring Qualifying Review. So, that comes out on Friday after Spring Qualifying,

funny enough. And then you'll get an episode on Saturday, and that will include the Spring Race

and Qualifying. So, that's all wrapped up together. We're also doing that from a little bit of a live

location. So, you might hear some background noise going on there because we're at a fun event on

Saturday. And then Sunday we're rolling. Of course, you'll get your race review, which will be great.

If you remember, we're at the track. So, come and see us if you happen to be around, and we'll be

doing our review when we get back home after being at the race. And then Monday, for you lovely Patreon

subscribers, we do power rankings, where we go through every single driver's rating and what we

thought of their specific role, and you get involved as well. There's a sheet for you to fill out

where you can give your rating, and it gets added in to the conversation. We love hearing from you.

So, thanks for your support. Thanks for listening. Lots to do. Join the Discord if you want to get

it submission on the weekend as well, and we'll see you very, very soon. In the meantime, I've

been Samuel Saatch. And I've been Ben Hocking. And remember, keep breaking late.

Silverstone

Lewis Hamilton

George Russell

Kimi Antonelli

Max Verstappen

sprint race

ICE

ground effect era

McLaren M2B

Arvid Lindblad

Liam Lawson

undercut

James Vowles

Nigel Mansell

Rubens Barrichello

double stacking

slipstream

About this episode

Original notes