2026 British GP Sprint Qualifying Review

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Hello and a very warm welcome to the late breaking F1 podcast presented by Sam Sage and me Ben Hawking,

a sprint qualifying review for you today. British Grand Prix, of course, this weekend.

Very good start to the weekend if you're a fan of a certain British driver, Sam.

Yeah, we spoke about in our preview that the home heroes have not been going too well. And look,

we don't want to put a little jinx on something, but we still early in the weekend.

We still early, but as weekends go, if you're a kickstart on the right way, Sir Lewis Hamilton is

looking pretty tasty at the moment. Great F1. The questions were there. Can he convert it into

qualifying? And so far, it looks like he can. Yeah, a very close one in the end between himself

and the Mercedes of Kimmy Antonelli and very close actually throughout the rest of the top 10.

Plenty to discuss, of course, on this sprint quality review. Let's start out front with Lewis

Hamilton. Correct me if I'm wrong. A clean sweep of the weekend so far. He was fastest

in the one and only practice session, fastest in SQ1, fastest in SQ2. And then as soon as the

soft tires went on for SQ3, of course, first two parts of qualifying on the mediums,

same result. Lewis Hamilton fastest of anyone with a 128, 376, 0.011 ahead of Kimmy Antonelli.

Lewis Hamilton has nine wins here. He tends to go quite well at Silverstone. But as we know,

this Ferrari has been a bit up and down so far this year. It feels like they've got something

going here, though. Yeah, 22 years separate the front row of the grid off the track, but only 11

100ths of a second separate them on the track. And they are in a bit of a class of their own,

with three tenths being the next closest gap back to Max Verstappen and then Charlotte

Claire in fourth place. It looks like the juggling of the battery is where it is most

efficient on getting the car to be quick. And you almost need to spread it perfectly like some

chocolate spread over your toast in the morning. It needs to be equally layered, equally covered.

And you can't just deploy it all down a straight. You can't have it all down the hang of straight

or the start, finish straight. You've got to really judge when to deploy that. And that's

something we've seen Lewis Hamilton do really well over the last few Grand Prix. So now in

hindsight, it's no surprise that Lewis Hamilton has been able to find the extra couple of tents

over the likes of Verstappen, his teammate. I am so impressed so that Kimmy Antonelli,

who will seem to be a little rash, even though he has got that incredible raw pace,

is the guy so, so very close to him is so far away from Russell.

Hamilton just looks calm. He looks in control, even in the second lap of SQ2, where he's going

through Vale and Club at the end of the lap. And it did look a little bit wayward. It looked a

little bit oversteery. He still manages to claim the fastest lap time of the overall session.

It's just full Hamilton control. He is in such a rich vein of form, really impressive to watch.

He's really delivered three very competent sessions today and a brilliant FP1 as well.

He's a confidence driver, we keep saying it. And he wins at Barcelona. That increases his

confidence. He wins here plenty of times before at Silverstone. That increases his confidence.

And we heard it in the interview that he did with Naomi Schiff afterwards that he loves this place.

And why wouldn't he? The track record very much speaks for itself. Very impressive. And I think

from Lewis Hamilton's side, one thing that I've been quite consistent on over the years is that

whilst a lot of people focus understandably on his outright pace, he has been an unbelievably

quick driver for two decades in this sport. There isn't enough attention or focus paid to

how great he is in terms of managing a lap. This was one of those where we saw a lot of

track evolution. It was almost a thinking driver's lap. We had not only the battery to be aware of

throughout the entirety of the lap. And like you say, you needed to be careful about how you

deployed that because you didn't want her to run out for that final sector,

who was consistently very quick in the final sector, Lewis Hamilton. And exactly the same for

the tyres as well. It's not necessarily one of the highest egg tracks out there. And we do bring

the hardest compound tyres that we have available in the range. But we saw with relatively high

temperatures, not as high as Austria obviously, but relatively high temperatures that even on the

medium tyres and definitely on the soft tyres, there was a struggle to keep them alive for

those last few corners. How Hamilton managed sector three, I think is how he has won this

qualifying battle today. Because in the first couple of sectors, as Antonelli, he was very

impressive in his own right. Don't get me wrong. That's where he had the advantage.

Hamilton left enough in the back pocket to get it done in the final sector. I was thoroughly

impressed. I'm really curious to see how this will translate into the race pace tomorrow. If the

management will become even more important or if the outright speed that the Mercedes seems to have

in that first and second sector is going to end up overpowering Hamilton. And that means that the

gap will end up being too large for him to bear contending that final sector. It could be really

interesting the difference. It's going to be fascinating and you're right. It's a bit of a...

It's going to be evolving because as we saw, we only had one practice session.

Something that very much caught my eye was the speed difference that Ferrari had versus Mercedes

coming out of Chapel and then onto the Hangar Strait. Ferrari had a massive advantage there.

And whilst we know that Ferrari have upgraded their engine, so in theory could be a bit closer

to Mercedes in that regard, the difference between the two didn't make sense. The reason why is because

Ferrari were doing everything they can to ensure that that straight, they are almost 100% at full

throttle, Mercedes possibly looking to use their battery elsewhere. And that's going to keep going.

Like throughout the sprint, throughout the first, for actual qualifying tomorrow as well,

teams are going to keep learning and learning. And whoever manages to grasp these things quicker

than the others, they are going to be rewarded, I think. I think so. There's also something you need

to bear in mind, of course, is when you're leading the Grand Prix and you haven't got a driver one

second in front of you, you don't get overtake mode. So you don't get that slight increase

recharge. You don't get that slight increase deployment, which means that actually as a leader,

if you can't break the one second window behind you, you're at a disadvantage. The car in second

place has actually got a bigger time of it. And if anything else can maximize that and stay within

that one second window for a couple of laps, it does feel like the tires might turn. But I'm

fascinated to see if that Ferrari race pace does translate from the one lap pace. They clearly

have round here. Yeah. And of course, with that one practice session, we have a little bit of

race sim data, but not a lot of it. The likes of Ferrari did go on sort of five or six lap runs,

but that's not a lot. That will make up about one-tenth of the British GP on Sunday. So Ferrari

looked pretty good, by the way, in those limited runs. But whether that works out across a full

sprint or a full race, that remains to be seen. I do want to heap praise as well on Kimmy Antonelli

for that front-row start, because main reason being, if Hamilton's not in that session and it

applies for both of them to be fair, if the other one wasn't in the session, Antonelli has got pole

position by over three tenths. And we're here to say, what a lap. Like he has obliterated the

competition. It was very much a class of two, it felt. It was. They were in a league of their own

in comparison to everyone else. So it was interesting to see the form of certain drivers

pick up and drop throughout the three sessions. Landon Norris, of course, picks up damage early

on. They have to repair the car. And suddenly, he thinks she's in front of Piastri. Russell can't

ever seem to get the car underneath him and actually get the lap timing. Hadja faster than the

staffing in the early part of the session, and then the staffing comes good. And the clear is

almost just kind of there and there abouts the whole way through. But it is Hamilton and Antonelli,

as I mentioned, 22 years between them. And yet they are the two drivers that are sat one and two,

three tenths clear of four time world champion, Max Verstappen and multi time race winner,

Charlotte Clair, who seemingly can't get within a breath of the pair.

And I'm sure Antonelli at the moment isn't loving the resurgence of Ferrari again after a difficult

Austrian race and probably doesn't love how close Max Verstappen was to a potential race win in

Austria as well. But again, we keep talking about the buffer that he's been able to build up,

thanks to those was a five consecutive victories earlier in the season. The reason why you put

so much effort into doing that is that as soon as you get into a period like this where it's

still very good from Antonelli, it's still front row, where other teams maybe start to catch up,

you have a little bit to play with. And Antonelli will be very happy about that right now.

Great lap I fought from him as well. And it did feel like he had the legs on George Russell

throughout the entire session. You want to say anything else on sort of LeClaire and Russell?

So they'll start fourth and fifth, both of them about three to three and a half times back

of Lewis Hamilton. The gap is almost identical between those teammates and the teammates at

the front as well. Yeah, it's pretty much identical. George Russell seemed to be struggling.

There was one point that he needed to pull a lap out in Q2 to absolutely cement his place in the

top 10. Yeah, again, I put this in our discord, which you can join the links in the description.

It's disappointing that the state of Formula One right now is at a point where actually when

a top driver is struggling, you know that realistically the risk is still very, very low.

He was always really going to get through to that SQ3, which took away the sting of having a poor

lap. But it is also evidence that he was not on top of things. He was not able to bring the same

base at his very young teammate. And the fact that he's ending up in P5 in front of both the

McLaren's and of course in front of Hadjah, I actually think it's a bit of a let-off for George

Russell. I think he very easily could have been P7, P8. If Lawson did as well as he did in SQ2,

there's every chance that Lawson is further up. I mean, bearing in mind that Lawson is only two

cents behind George Russell right now. So the gap between Lawson and Russell is smaller than the gap

between Russell and his teammate. So it is pivotal. And we're seeing how important qualifying is,

you get that lapping. Russell seemingly got comfortable, but on the flip side of things,

the Clare just can't seem to get that last 10th out that we're so used to him delivering. I think

it's the cars. I'm starting to believe that it is the style of this current car design that we're

that just doesn't suit him. And right now, he's struggling. This could be six in a row that he

loses to a teammate for the first time ever in Formula One. And that's not something new in F1

in terms of a driver adjusting to a certain era better than someone else. Obviously,

Hamilton didn't suit the ground effect era we've just come out of. Sebastian Vettel did far better

in 2010 through 2013 when he won four straight world titles to 2014 when he lost to Daniel

Ricciardo, who was in his very first season with the team. It happens. And you're right, we might

just be in that area again with both La Clare and Russell. I know this is a bit of a repeated story

when it comes to George Russell at this point, but I don't know, we've got better than this,

but there was one run earlier in the session where there was eight tenths separating Antonelli and

Russell. And it was two tenths first sector, four tenths middle sector, two tenths final sector.

And that must be the most infuriating thing as a driver because you cannot point to a corner.

You can't point to a sector and say, that's where I need to improve. If I solve that,

I'm on the pace of my teammate. That is everywhere. That is the entire lap that he's losing out to

Antonelli. And that is far more difficult to crack. Yeah, eight tenths in a Formula One car is like a

lifetime. That is horrific between two teammates. And he's done well actually to pull the gap back

to three and a half tenths, but that's still a gulf in pace between the two of them. He will be

scratching his head and working out where he can go into qualifying tomorrow after the sprint race

to try and work out how he builds in another three tenths into his lap time. Unfortunately,

it does look a lot worse than it probably does on paper, where he's only three hundredths of a

second away from being third on the grid. And actually, whether it's three tenths, eight tenths,

one tenth, if he's only a position behind his teammate, come the race, it doesn't really matter.

But the issue is, he's got Leclerc in between him and may are two of the fiercest competitors you

can have on the grid right now. So I wouldn't want to have those two separating me. What about

Leclerc? Because again, this is another instance where Hamilton's had a considerable advantage

over him, at least by Charles Leclerc qualifying standards. I firmly believe that with Hamilton

and Leclerc all time, you have two of the top, let's say, 10 qualifiers of all time in that.

Charles Leclerc has been absolutely dominant over teammates when it comes to qualifying.

It's not going his way, right? This is his forte. It's not going his way.

Yeah, I think Charles Leclerc, you could make a case to say that he's the best

non-world championship-winning qualifier of all time. In terms of someone who has never won one

title, he is the best qualifier I've ever seen. And we know that car hasn't been good. We know the

Ferrari has been so poor. And actually, this might be the first time, maybe 2018, 2019, where

the Ferrari is consistently fighting for a front-row spot. Maybe that little glimmer in 2022,

where we ended up with Leclerc and the Wall in France. But it's been a while, and Leclerc has

had to endure that. And the moment it's come out the other side, and seemingly the Ferrari does have

the pace to challenge the Mercedes, a red ball consistently, it's Lewis Hamilton that's doing

it. Not Charles Leclerc. And we've already heard comments that they've had to change things like

the brakes set up, the way that the car is being set up for the car in terms of each track.

They're relying on Hamilton for feedback. We heard on the commentary, if you're watching

the Sky commentary, it was announced that the engineers started the weekend by asking Hamilton,

tell us how to set up the car. Leclerc is lacking this, and it's clear that Hamilton has unlocked

something. Not sure what it is, but something that Charles Leclerc just can't seem to grasp.

And that's the difference between a couple of attempts around a red track.

It is. And it's not like it was this way coming into the year either. Like Leclerc had the advantage

over Hamilton in Australia. It was close. Don't get me wrong, across the first maybe four races,

but Leclerc was, I think, a match for Hamilton. There wasn't much in it. Now, it very much seems

like Hamilton has found that extra gear that Leclerc, let's say, has yet to find.

What about Red Bull? So P3, P8, Max Verstappen, third, Hadjar, eighth. Probably sounds worse

than it is for Hadjar. I know there's five spots between them, but equally, that amounts to just

over a tenth of a second. And as you referenced earlier, for a lot of this session, Hadjar was

actually the leading Red Bull. Yeah, if he gains one tenth of a second, he's sitting P4. It's really,

really close between those top eight drivers right now. But I think Hadjar, and knowing Hadjar,

he will be livid at how that final session has turned out. He lives livid. He lives a livid

lifestyle. I think you saw it when he came over the line, actually. We're only wrong on board with

him very briefly, but you saw him shaking his head in the cockpit at how frustrating he was.

And rightly so, you were beating a four-time world champ in his team a lot of this session. And so,

to get to that final session, and so, yes, only be one tenth slower, but that one tenth is five

positions. That's devastating for a driver like Hadjar, who just needs it to go his way a little

bit here, a little bit there, especially when you've got Liam Lawson, only a tenth behind you in the

junior car inside that session. So, whilst it is tiny margins, those tiny margins have massive

knock-on effects in Formula One. But Red Bull, I think, could be happy. This is still, again,

they're beating McLaren with one of their cars comfortably, and they're right behind with the

other one. They've also beaten a Ferrari. They've also beaten a Mercedes. They are the best of the

rest. And I think Hadjar was capable of being there with Verstappen. Just couldn't put it together

on that final session. Yeah, looked pretty good in the middle sector, did both of the

Red Bulls. And yeah, this isn't the same level of competitors, I don't think, at least at this

point in the weekend, as what we had in Austria. But equally, it's still far better than a lot

of the other races we had earlier in the year. Quick money-making tip, folks. Play poker against

Isaac Hadjar. You would make millions. There is no hiding what he's feeling at any moment.

My man pulled a two and a three, and he is literally throwing shares across the floor.

And you're just like, what have you got, Isaac? Aces? No, you've got nothing.

Yeah, I think he was pretty good. And close to Verstappen throughout, and as referenced,

if you go back a year to when Yuki Sonoda was pairing Verstappen, or even in the later period

of Perez and Verstappen, Red Bull, what would they have done for a driver to be one and a half

tenths behind Verstappen? That's what we were saying for so long, was that's what they need.

They don't need someone to beat Verstappen. They just need someone who's there to pick up the pieces.

They need someone who is a tenth away, two tenths away. That's what Hadjar's done here. So,

it's not the end of the weekend. Obviously, we'll still have another qualifying attempt

tomorrow, and it'll have two races as well. But I don't think he can be overly disappointed with

how that's going. There are loads of racetracks that we will go to and have been to this season.

We're actually a tenth of a second. He'd be right behind Max Verstappen. He's just gone

lucky that they've all managed to squeeze into that one tenth gap.

Indeed. Let's take a quick break. On the other side, we'll get into some more qualifying chats.

Welcome back, everyone. We mentioned before the break how it looked like Hadjar was the

faster Red Bull driver for much of the session, and then right at the end, it's Verstappen who

leads the way. Similar-ish story at McLaren, really, because Oscar Piastri seemed to be

the far better McLaren driver through Q1 and Q2, and in fairness, it's still very close between

them. But right at the end, it's Norris who gets sick ahead of his teammate in seventh.

Again, it didn't look good for Lando Norris for much of the hour.

No, he looked shaky on the car. It looked like it was really twitchy through a lot of his

five-speed corners. He runs wide, I think, on Cop's corner and gives himself a little bit of

damage, which we saw the Marshal running off with, scampering off with. We'll see if he ever

makes its way back to the McLaren garage. I'm not sure it will. But I think Norris will be

delighted that, whilst he's not particularly far up that top ten grid, he is in front of his

teammate. Fair play to you, McLaren mechanics. You have managed to get that front wing off,

change whatever was going on with the braking system and the damage under that car, get it

rectified, and Lando Norris has rewarded you for your troubles by beating his teammate.

Not only is he beating his teammate, he's about a hundredth of a second behind George Russell,

and with that, he's only about 200th of a second behind Charlotte Clair. Whilst it didn't look good

for a lot of these sessions, McLaren aren't out of this just yet. It really is that close. If their

race pace is one or two percent better than what their qualifying pace is, then they, in theory,

could go on to beat the likes of Russell, the Clair, for stopping even. It's really that close

right now. So, Piatru will be gutted. Norris, I think, comes away very happy.

Yeah, again, that's how close it is. If you take out the top two here, Max Verstappen gets pole

position, and fifth place is under a tenth away from pole. That's how close this middle of the

top ten is. Yeah, Norris will obviously be happy to put it all together in Q3, despite that damage.

Piatru probably quite annoyed. We heard the stat that he hasn't beaten Norris in a

sprint qualifying session so far this year. Whilst I appreciate it, that's probably not

top of Piatru's mindset. Did we devastate it? Oh, not another sprint qualifying loss.

Any opportunity to get one over on your teammate is... It's how you measure it, isn't it? It's

how you measure it. Exactly. I don't know how McLaren will feel about this. They have brought

some upgrades this weekend. They've only had one, obviously, practice session to get them embedded,

so maybe that sets your expectations accordingly. But overall, at least in terms of

one small sample size, it kind of looks the same. It does. I think we also heard Zach Brown

begrudgingly talking about engine upgrades coming from Mercedes. He believes they're coming in spar,

but there's a risk they could come in hungry, which is another race that they'll be missing out on

that. If this Ferrari engine upgrade which got brought into Austria does come good, if it really

does deliver around Silverstone, they can start to find themselves really behind the curve when

it comes to upgrades. They've got to hope that these start to work for them and

thick and fast, because they've had a couple already that haven't gone the way they expected

them to. McLaren have had a lot of success with Mercedes, and I know today isn't the best forum

for a full chat on this, but 2026 is starting to become a case study of why they need to consider

their options. We've already heard a lot earlier in the year about battery issues and not really

being able to get under the hood of exactly what was going wrong because Mercedes are only

going to give them a certain amount of data and information. We're now getting to a point where

McLaren aren't getting things as quickly as they'd like to from Mercedes. I don't know whether they

will or won't stick with Mercedes long term. David least got to be having conversations,

though, at this point. Here's a little tidbit in what McLaren can do. McLaren have just released the

W1, which is the successor of the McLaren F1 and the McLaren P1. It's a road car, of course,

a supercar. When testing it around Margello, Lewis Hamilton in his Mercedes, in qualifying trim,

topped out 194 miles an hour down that street. While testing, the McLaren engine purpose built

by McLaren for the W1, it tops out 194 miles an hour down the same street, and that is purpose

built for a road car by McLaren. They can build an engine just whether they want to do it for a

Formula 1 car. Yes, but 6th and 7th is where they will start for the sprint race tomorrow.

As it's becoming a bit more normalized now, we're getting five teams through to the top 10.

It's McLaren, it's Mercedes, it's Ferrari, it's Red Bull, no surprises there.

Increasingly, it's becoming racing bulls as that 15th. Now, they do start 9th and 10th,

Lawson 9th, Limblad 10th, but as kind of already mentioned, Lawson wasn't that far away.

He's not that far away, but the difference that I want to point out is the canyon between him

and Limblad at the back of that top 10. Lawson is, I think, 0.55 behind the pole time of Lewis

Hamilton. Limblad is 0.99 behind the pole time of Lewis Hamilton, so that is over 4 tenths of a

second. Again, that's the gap between Lewis Hamilton and Isaac Hajar. That's 1st to 8th,

but Lawson's done that gap between 9th and 10th. Now, fair play to Limblad for getting into that

top 10. It shows that the cars there and both drivers are doing a stellar job at maximizing it,

but Lawson, right now, he's on a supreme vein of form. He's able to really, really extract

something excellent, and the fact that he's lining up right behind, he's, I guess, potential

successor or dethroned. You're afraid of it, but Hajar's sat in that car, and I'm sure Lawson's

got his eyes on it. Look, he's right behind him, and he's been brilliant again. When he pops up

in SQ2 straight into fourth place, I was immensely impressed with what he's able to do. Someone

like Gaston, he must be absolutely kicking himself, because I think he's only about a tenth away

from Limblad's time on the soft tyre, and Gaston's here on the medium, and yet there they are in

ninth, tenth, and eleventh. Fair play to both of them, but Lawson is really setting the pace right

now. Yeah, I think the racing balls found quite a bit less time versus their rivals, or if you

can call them their rivals, the top four teams, from going in the mediums to the softs. Limblad

basically sets the exact same time. He actually went marginally slower on the softs than he did

the mediums, but even Lawson only went about a tenth and a little bit quicker, whereas other

drivers were finding half a second maybe between the mediums and the softs. So that seems to be a

racing balls issue, but Lawson absolutely did have the measure of his teammate,

and I was having a look back at all three sessions, so you mentioned the Q3 split between them was

0.45. In Q2, it was a quarter of a second. In Q1, it was about six tenths, so it's not like it was

really close throughout the first two sessions, and then Q3 is where Lawson's pulled it out.

It was pretty consistent across all three, and it does speak to

what Lawson is able to do with that car at the moment, and that half a second off the poll time

is a really impressive achievement. I don't have, understandably, my notes of the Australian GP

qualifying start of the year. I'm pretty sure that is quicker than relative to what Ferrari

would have been to Mercedes at the beginning of the year. I think they could begin the top five.

Yeah, so it's looking pretty good for them at the moment. Again, we'll see how RacePace translates.

Just outside the top 10, we've got the Alpenes and the Aldi's covering 11th through 14th, so

it's essentially an Aldi sandwich here. You've got Gaz the 11th, Colopinto 14th,

with then Bortoletto and Hülkenberg 12th and 13th in the middle. It felt like maybe not quite the

pace of the racing balls, but easily enough to get clear of the other midfield back markers.

Well, yeah, for Gasly, sure, but for Colopinto, he's absolutely nowhere to be seen. He's five

tenths behind his teammate. The gaps between teammates are actually quite stark between a

lot of these. I think Aldi could be quite happy that the gap between their two teammates is less

than a tenth. That shows you that they're both really maximising the car, but Colopinto, again,

having a few really strong Grand Prix, really far off the pace of Gasly here, and I think he's

forksing it that Gasly hasn't been able to get into the top 10 because the damage will have

really been cemented there and then. It'd be fascinating to see how Gasly kicks on later on

the weekend, see if he can find more pace, or if Colopinto does the opposite and closes the gap,

and maybe it's just a bit of an early start to the weekend, and Gasly's more comfortable with

the car early on. But then the Williams teammates, the Haas teammates, the gaps between these teams

are like 456 tenths of a second. It's really quite odd to see two drivers so far apart

in the same machinery. Yeah, it is. I think Aldi may be not quite as quick here. It's still pretty

all right, but they're not quite as quick here as they have been at other tracks leading up to

this point. This isn't the weekend they get a double points finish, mate. I'm sorry, I haven't

predicted it. They're allowed to not get one this weekend. Oh, it'll happen now. Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, I mean, 12 from 13 puts them in the mix, at least if there are a few things that happen.

It's just where they belong, isn't it? It's just where they belong. Like, to P12 just through

as like Aldi's spot at this point. I might have said this stat midweek. Aldi have finished 11th,

12th for 13th, 11 times this year. Yes, you did say this. Yeah, I mean, the consistency is great,

but do that on the other side of the 10th. Yeah, you might actually get some points to that.

Yeah, fairly close, as we usually see from Bortoletto and Holkenberg. Not much to choose between

them. Holkenberg a bit quicker. Actually, Bortoletto a bit quicker in the first run of Q1.

Holkenberg quicker on the second run of Q1. Bortoletto quicker in Q2. It's just very close,

as always. That's what you want. It is. I'm starting to think maybe based on what's happened

since Barcelona, where Aldi did, I believe, introduce something of an upgrade. I'm not sure

it's been a brilliant one in that they've kind of, they haven't fallen back, but equally they haven't

really kicked on from it either. Alpine, again, they kind of don't seem quite as competitive as

they were in the first maybe five or six races of the year, but equally the race pace still

seems fairly okay. They might be able to make something of that. Maybe not in the sprint,

because, again, eight positions. That's all you get in terms of points.

Williams are quicker than Haas. Should we give him a celebration?

Well done, Williams. Good job. That's as exciting as I can get.

Yeah, but double Q2 appearance. The lowest of the Q2 appearances, too, by a good couple of

tenths to Carlo Pinto, but you're there. If that's what you want to see, I actually think the more

damning stat is the gap between Sightseeing Album. As I brought it up really lightly a minute ago,

I think it's a good four and a half tenths between the two. That's ridiculous. Between two very

seasoned drivers who are very comfortable in their team now, four and a half tenths Sightseeing over

Album. Something's going wrong, the Album side of the garage. You just cannot seem to outperform

Carlo Sightseeing at the moment. Well, he was the quicker of the two in Q1. He had

a few tenths on Sightseeing Q1, but then obviously in Q2, whereas a track evolution,

by the way, felt quite large today. He tanks. It was a lot. But Album basically didn't really

improve from Q1 to Q2. I think it was maybe a tenth of a second or so. Sightseeing improves by a full

one second. That's crazy. Again, wrong way around, Album. You want to be quicker in Q2 versus

in Q1. I guess, sure, if we're looking at minor improvements, good to see them making Q2 with

both cars, but this isn't what Williams won. No, I think they're begging for that Mercedes

engine upgrade, if I'm honest, because that feels like it might give them a little more oomph to

get past the likes of the Audi's if things are stagnant elsewhere. Union Jack looks good on the

car there, doesn't it? Could you see it? Yeah, I'm just assuming. I don't know. I didn't see it.

Yeah, it must be great. If you're at the track listening to this, I'm sure you love seeing it.

Is it in the room with us? No. Then we get to, as has been the case quite a few times this year,

we get a bit of a pattern of Cadillac, Aston Martin getting knocked out in Q1 sessions,

and that leaves two spots today occupied by both hash drivers.

I feel bad for Ollie Bearman. Yeah, dude's dunked six tenths on his teammate,

and it's not enough. It's got him one spot. He's still four tenths away from the Williams.

That's the worst bit, I think, is the gap is not big between the two. Yes, six tenths over Ocon.

Slowcon, as I call him. Slowcon. They don't have the budget. You're right, and they are struggling

to match the upgrades of the teams around them, and this has always been a complaint with Haas.

They are the plucky underdogs that can't match the cost cap. They can't spend to the cost cap.

They're the only ones who struggle. Even the likes of Cadillac, brand new in,

will spend to the cost cap, I'm sure. It's just a real shame when you've got one team that isn't

able to match the competitiveness of everyone else, and the cost cap gets brought in to make sure

we are competitive across the board, and they can't reach it, but six and a bit tenths between

team mates. I think that might be it for Asterbank. Sorry, mate. No, it's not very good at the moment,

is it? Paris was less than a tenth away from me. It was real close, and Bottas was right there as

well. There wasn't a great deal of difference between Paris and Bottas today. I guess with Aster

Martin as well, we are basically just waiting until Hungary now, aren't we, when they are supposedly

bringing this massive upgrade, but this whole weekend and Spa as well.

Pay attention to them if you want to, but it's not going to be worth your time, I don't think.

I know there were tire differences because of the soft tires for the top ten and the medium tires,

but between them, there is 4.7, 4.6 seconds between their fastest times,

between Hamilton's fastest time and Alonso's fastest time. That is ridiculous.

Yeah, so Stroll just about got into the 132s, and Hamilton's pole lap was a 128-3.

Again, Track Evolution would have helped them out a bit, probably wouldn't have got them that

many seconds. No, I mean, if you trust Lance Stroll though, he thinks that they could be fighting

for points come Hungary. You lost me if you trust Lance Stroll. That's understandable.

One sort of quick question here. I think this is something we are going to cover maybe later

on in the weekend, maybe after the weekend as well. There were maybe some concerns going into

this one about the battery and how it would look throughout what is a very high full throttle

sort of track like Silverstone on an average day. What were your first impressions of that?

If it was bad, I couldn't tell. I thought that the camera direction was solid.

I thought we weren't seemingly struggling too much when we're on board with the cars. You can't

really hear this awful super clipping that we did get used to hearing in Suzuka, in Shanghai.

It felt better than I expected it to be. I'm sure it could be better overall,

but it's hard to know what better looks like when you can't see better, but

not as bad as I thought. What about you? Yeah, I think it's a bit early to tell, but

the middle sector's not great. It's not quite what we had at the beginning of the year, definitely.

The lap times as well, pretty good. We're in the 128th in a new era of F1. Remember,

regardless of what we're doing with the battery, any time we enter a new era of F1,

you are going to slow down the cars. I think the lap times overall are looking fairly all right.

Driver of the session before we go. I too, in mind. One was Lewis Hamilton,

one was Liam Lawson. I think if Lawson beats Hadjari, it takes it, but I'm giving it to Lewis Hamilton.

I keep doing this recently. I'm going Lawson. I get it. Again, I know if he beats Hadjari,

it becomes even more convincing, but he is right there with all of those teams.

To be just over two-tempts away from Verstappen in third place, very good going,

but they were, I think, the two contenders here. Shout out to Ghazli as well for what he was able

to do in an Alpina. I don't think it was good enough to make the top 10, but I think he's

maximised that in 11th. Agreed. We're going to have a review tomorrow, of course, Sam. We've got

two sessions to review, both the sprint that will happen around midday UK time, and then, of course,

qualifying for the main Grand Prix a few hours after that. Yeah, folks, we put that into one

episode, so we can kind of split it down in the middle. If you think, well, where's that review

going? It's at the end of the day, so don't you worry. It'll come out there for you. Hopefully,

everyone at the track has a lovely time. We'll be there on Sunday, remember, and we'll be doing

a little meet-up just outside the Vale Grand Stand, where we're sitting on that Sunday. We'll

have to be saying, well, half past one then? Half past one through to half past two. If you see us

around at any other point that isn't within that hour, please say hello to us anyway, but we're

trying to do something a bit more organised. So, yeah, outside of the Vale Grand Stand in that hour.

Just shout out to us. I promise you, one of us were here, and we'll say hello. It'd be lovely to

see as many of you as possible. Can't wait to join and see it live on that Sunday, and apologies

if you're hearing background noise on the Saturday recording. We are partially at another event,

and that's why we can't be there on the Saturday as well. But can't wait. Join the Discord. Get

involved with the chat. Feel free to submission her as well on Sunday, and take drunk as well

for power rankings, where maybe Liam Lawson makes another surprise appearance near the top end,

which he has done, making a little habit of that. In the meantime, we'll see you in the next one,

I've been Samuel Sange. And I've been Ben Hawking, and remember, keep breaking late.

British Grand Prix Sprint Qualifying Review

Silverstone

track evolution

McLaren W1

Mclaren F1

Mclaren P1

About this episode

Original notes