Will super-clipping at Silverstone ruin the British GP?
Motor Sport F1 Show with Mark Hughes · Jul 2, 2026
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Silverstone is a very energy hungry circuit so you are going to see the cars
running out of electrical energy quite early on the streets. You will see
super clipping, you will hear the deceleration part way down the street
the cars will be very energy-staffed and that will impact on the competitive
order but I think as long as it's configured in such a way that the cars
aren't running out of energy just at the breaking point and that's where it
that's where one car just sails by with an extra few hundred horsepower.
Well Mark, we've got a lot to get through from the Austrian Grand Prix and a lot to
talk about ahead of this British Grand Prix and I think that's where we should
start. I'm back in blighty and my familiar surroundings and you're away on
holidays so thanks very much for giving us some of your time.
Yes it's I left the UK with it 33 degrees and I've arrived in
New York with it in 33 degrees so yeah it just feels like I come from home.
I bet it does, does. So the British Grand Prix is this weekend as
you know drivers love it, fans love it, journalists love it but given what we've
seen and what happened at the start of the season what we saw a little bit of
happening in Austria is it going to be a bit of a disappointment do you think?
I don't think so. It is a very energy hungry circuit so you are going to see
the cars running out of energy electrical energy quite early on the
streets but I don't think I think as long as it's they've configured it in such
a way that where it lands is that the cars opposing cars aren't running out of
energy just at the breaking point and that's where it gets silly that's where
one car just sails by with an extra you know few hundred horsepower. If it's
happening further back a bit like we saw in Shanghai it doesn't have the same
effect and I think it'll be more like that so yes the cars will be
very energy-starved and that will impact on the competitive order which we could
talk about a bit later but I don't think there's no reason why it
definitely should impact negatively on the the coagular race and I think it
should still be quite good. And is that the the way you know you I suppose
qualify it that if they're all running out of energy at the same time at least
it's an equal equal fight this when things are happening disproportionately?
Yeah there's two things is that and there's the how much the drivers are
having to lift and coast and in qualifying and so you know the earlier
restrictions the restrictions that were put on energy usage earlier in the
season where they knocked them down a bit that that should help so we down to
seven megajoules in qualifying there's not you know it's basically long
straights and fast corners so there's not much recovery to be done from the
breaking a little bit into the you know the complex the village complex and
you know a little bit in the brooklands etc but that's about it so yeah it's
going to be a tricky one to work out the algorithms I think different cars are
going to have their algorithms in working in different ways according to the
strengths and weaknesses of each car and probably also according to who you
expect to be racing against where you're given how competitive you do
so but I think that you've still got the potential there for cars to be passing
and be passing and we're not just in an artificial way you might see a little
bit of yoyoing up the brookland straight with a then a retaliatory move of the
next straight on the way to cops perhaps but I mean we had that anyway even
before the the the battery formula came in just just through the effect the
slip streak so yeah it might you might see a more exaggerated version of that
but other than I think should should be okay okay that's that's promising
that's a good thing we'll talk about Austria like I say in just a bit but
staying with Silverstone Max Verstappen has said the drivers aren't
be able to charge their batteries as they're going around and you've kind of
just alluded to that as well so are we going to see lots of this this sudden
slowing are we going to see lots of super clipping happening as well as
they're going along or are they going to be less
um use just use less electrical energy I know you you've kind of alluded to a
little bit but is what max is saying likely to come to fruition
the so the the energy is defined by the FIA the energy pull up
that can be recovered is is defined but you're just spreading it more
thinly on a circuit like this because you're not able to recover as much
so um yeah you will you will see super clipping
you but from everyone um you will hear the decelerations sort of power way
down the straight and that's if you haven't seen these cars in action
before that'll take some getting used to because it'll sort of sound like it
used to sound when a driver was on an inlet or just keeping out the way
um when actually they're actually flat out
and you know or racing but so yeah what you're hearing
um might trick you a little bit if you if you've not seen these cars before
um but it's something you get used to it pretty quickly
um but yeah to hear a car decelerating even even if the driver's
still flat out is this sort of uh yeah it sort of mixes up the sensors a bit
and we know this is going to be a phenomenon that we are just going to
have to get used to for for the remainder of this season we'll see what
happens into next season with a few more of the adjustments going on and
beyond so it's kind of here and I guess if everyone's doing it then it's a
level playing field but what about the upgrades that have been brought what
about the results from what happened with the adduo so which teams look
best placed to come out on top at the British Grand Prix
well it's a power circuit and even if we're talking about the electric of power
that's derived from the internal combustion engine's power so basically
that's the stronger your internal combustion engine is that the stronger
you're going to be on a power circuit like solar system so it sounds good for
Mercedes it sounds good for Red Bull it sounds less good for Ferrari
I think Ferrari would be is probably struggling here I think they're going to
be running out of deployment very early because that's just the way their
engine's configured with a small turbo it's got a significant power deficit
which you know will probably even though the engine has been upgraded in Austria
it was a minor upgrade now I think I said at the time I think we wouldn't expect
to see much difference between the Barcelona in power unit and the one that
run in Austria just in terms of performance because they really
let it rip for the first time in Barcelona and that's where the biggest
step was rather than the small spec change that we saw in Austria
the next spec change we'll see will hopefully for Ferrari's sake
attend to the power deficit more seriously we expect that either Zanvole
and Monza with a different turbo and with that then you might see it
more efficient in how it how it can use the
capture use the electrical energy but for a power circuit like Silverstone
the competitive impact on Ferrari I think would be negative a bit like in Osburo
so essentially battery power and the way the battery is deployed the way the
driver is using that battery and the team is using that battery could be
one of the deciding factors this weekend
yeah it's not even so much the way the drive is using it it's just the how much
how much the energy they have to play with from the
internal combustion engine and the car's efficiency and it's dragging all those
things which plays into it but yes essentially it's a it's a power circuit
and even the corners will have in the last few years been flat out of the
interest to see if they still are with these this generation of car and they're
downforce but yeah in cornering mode I'd expect them to be flat out through you
know cops and in in the markets and in those places which are the car sees
just as a straight really even though that you know the car's changing direction
yeah so with high speed circuits like Silverstone is they've got a lot of
different layout permutations that they can put into place do you think
whilst the FIA is doing what it can to fix the issues that the FIA created with
what's going on with the regulations in Formula One do you think the circuits
could change their layouts to help maybe reduce the impact or is it a case of
someone like Silverstone saying look we're Silverstone this is historically the way
we are now with this layout and therefore we're not changing I think it if you thought
we were going to be with these cars indefinitely and they're always going to
be energy starved I think circuits I think Formula One would have to think about
getting circuits to reconfigure some of the this type of layout the energy staff
wants but I don't think it's worth doing that when the intention is to improve the cars to
reduce this problem with energy starvation so hopefully it'll be less bad in 27 and less
bad again in 28 and hopefully then we're in a Formula where this is not a problem at all
so no I don't think we should be reconfiguring because to do that to get it classified as a
an F1 appropriate circuit with the right runoffs and all those things it's it's you know it's not
the work of a moment and involves an awful lot of expense and it'd probably be a lot of people
upset that it wasn't traditional Silverstone so no I don't think we need to do that given that
we've indicated all the FIAs indicated that we're gonna we're gonna be changing this formula
with a significant short-term pain maybe that's the way to look at it quickly with a super clipping
earlier in the season we were seeing four-ish five seconds of super clipping happening around
those earlier circuits then it's been reduced to around two I think with Miami they were saying
it was around two into turn 17 that sort of area how much time are we likely to see super
clipping at Silverstone or is it impossible to say at this stage yeah I yeah I think you would
need to do a pretty thorough analysis to come up with it you know what the algorithms likely to say
it's it's improved a lot since early in the season since they reduced the the middle dual limits on
on each circuit I don't think it'll be anything like four or five seconds but yeah you will see
it it's gonna be there you can you're gonna see the cars so trying to harvest
energy even as they're flat out so yeah that's just inevitable around a layout such as this which
you know unlike Barcelona or Montreal or Monaco the recent races where there's plenty of time
there's plenty of areas on the track where you can recover energy when you decelerate
there's just there's only a couple of areas like that around a very long lap at Silverstone so
yeah it's inevitable you're gonna get that. Alando Norris won there last year en route to his
championship there's a lot of teams that have brought upgrades there's a lot of teams that have
made improvements over the course of the season are McLaren and is Alando Norris likely to be able
to repeat what happened last year? I think it's going to be a bit of a challenge to to get to
last year's level for him the car's just not as competitive relative to the others as that one
was but it's got a good strong power unit and it's good on the tyres and it's not that far away
from the front so it would only take a little bit of you know an unusual timing of something a safety
car or a bit of structure weather and you know it's not it's not impossible those sort of
things we've seen we've seen similar things before but just in a straightforward running
of the race it's not quite aero efficient enough to make as much use of the Mercedes power unit
as the the Mercedes car itself is. We often say that rain is a great leveller it can strip out
the the top end performance in some teams and bring the lower teams up into the four
can there be a conceivable scenario where high temperatures also do that because i'm not sure
what the temperature is going to be like this weekend in in Silverstone but i was in Belgium
as you know at the weekend doing the 24 hour and it was 42 degrees a couple of the cars were
registering 72 degree cockpit temperatures and they were saying the tyres were going out of the
window they couldn't get the cars in the window because the track temperature was too high so
that's a bit of a leveller as well if they're all struggling they're all sliding around on track
is there a scenario positive temperature negative temperature that would make it a leveller?
it would it would still if you've got the situation when the tyres are saturated
they're just they're too soft to be able to the the tread to to give anything to to bond with
the surface which what happened we saw a little bit in Miami the best cars are still the best cars
the ones with the downforce are still getting a little bit more from the tyres than the ones
with less downforce so it doesn't necessarily change the competitive orders between the cars but
it can have an impact on driving start quite a big impact on driving style more than usual
and we saw in Miami how Antonelli is very um you've had a very sympathetic style with what the
tyres were needing on that day just very smooth inputs beautifully coordinated whereas uh George
was having a bit more having to make a few more inputs and just to get the car to do what he wanted
through the corner so you might see something like that not just between those two but but
you open down the grid between you might see a bigger difference between teammates than there's
no in those in those conditions yeah it was making me wonder because I was looking at
McLaren McLaren and Mercedes we know have the same power unit so is it purely down to
the chassis that's getting Mercedes the the extra performance yeah I think earlier in the season of
Boston it was also the fact that McLaren would couldn't understand the power unit as well as
Mercedes had um in terms of deployment tricks and how you how you best deployed the energy
over a lap um but I think they're pretty much on the pace with that now no I think the only
difference now is just the the relative um performance of the chassis and in particular the
drag levels I think the McLaren's just a bit bit dragier than the Mercedes and also that
course impacts on your um energy usage it's it's it's you you don't have as much electrical energy
left over to deploy because you've used a lot of the energy just to push the thing through the air
more than more than the the load right car interested to to know about the engines themselves
the power units themselves so let's just stay with Mercedes because easy example because there
are four teams on the grid that have the Mercedes power unit when Mercedes produced or created their
own power unit they're they worked in conjunction sure with their entire design team there so
does a works team have access to more engine modes are they getting an advantage because
they're the the the sharp end where it comes to developing all aspects of the car when does the
customer team get access to the power units and and how is it we see this this disparity between
teams that are using the same power unit there must be something in there that means I don't get it
as quickly or as early yeah they don't get it as quickly and a new when it's a new engine formula
which this is obviously no they don't see it until it's it's ready to be released and that's all
being checked then all the boxes ticked so yeah whereas the works team will have been working
with with them you know the performance at the HPP engineers right from the start
so yeah inevitably you you learn more about it if you if you're the works team and the
the customer teams will they'll still get the full details of the power units probably six or
seven months before the start of the season but that's not quite the same so but I don't
really think now it might have been case earlier in the season but we're only thinking now that
the performance differences are in in how they able to use the the power unit and and certainly
they they don't have the the works team doesn't have extra modes or anything like that the
regulations stick quite explicitly that customers must have exactly the same modes available to them
um so I think it's quite fair in that respect but
inevitably your first crack at it um if you've got it several months later than the works team
it's probably not going to be quite as good just at the chassis level I mean and how the systems
integrate and all those things so there's probably not going to have been time to optimize the the
integration of it as well and that might just be what we're looking at the first year you know
tyron's first attempt to everyone's first attempt at the of the customers at a completely different
power unit to that which had before do no make their learnings and then they'll make changes as
they as they move on through now to stay across all of the happenings all the stories in formula one
the simplest way is to go to the motorsport magazine website motorsportmagazine.com and
subscribe to the f1 newsletter it will go into your inbox and you'll stay across all the stories
as they happen there's another story mark about Max Verstappen great result for him
in Austria does one result change everything does that make him the most likely challenger to Mercedes
as we go forward through the season can one result keep him at red bull I think in terms of
how competitive the car was in Austria uh coinciding with a really big upgrade it's
second big upgrade of aerodynamic upgrade of the season I I think that's very very encouraging
and the hope is just as it was the hope with Ferrari boss with honor that it signals that
that they're going to be able to give Mercedes a hard time everywhere it might not be the case
as we saw with Ferrari in the last race but I yeah there's no there's no reason why it can't be
was a very very significant performance upgrade it took a while during the weekend to get it into
its sweet spark quite often is the case red bull um I'm sure if the simulation is quite as as good
as some of the others or whether it's just the case that it was so different that it had a different
sweet spot to the old car but whatever it took a while but once it was in it it was very quick
wasn't quite as quick as um well actually the interesting thing in the top three Russell
Verstappen and Antonelli was it was pretty much in the order of how how all their tires were in
that last thing so Antonelli was the quickest then Verstappen and then Russell um so yeah I think it
would get a better reading on exactly how they conquer it's over stunner's weekend so uh I
no I think in terms of competitiveness there's reason to be encouraged that the red bull can
can be there uh thereabouts for the rest of the season and in victory contention race victory
contention um in terms of whether that's enough to convince Max to stay there I don't know already
it it will certainly help and if the car continued to be uncompetitive the way it has been up till
now um I don't think he would stay there but if he can have a super strong end of the season
maybe maybe it'll be enough but not guaranteed at this stage certainly not on the evidence of
one race anymore the rumor mill and I don't know where this rumor mill is I've never seen it but
the rumor mill is in fine form at the moment because the stories about Max Verstappen leaving
red bull there's stories about Max Verstappen leaving Formula 1 entirely and there's stories
about Max Verstappen leaving red bull to go to Mercedes to replace George Russell if George
Russell doesn't contend for the championship but also Mark McLaren that's popped its head again I
know that we had that announced from recently McLaren saying they're very happy with their
driver lineup which they're bound to say but is there smoke without fire in these scenarios
I think until Max has decided whether or not you're staying at red bull it's it's all open
because any any you know top team if he's available and if there's an out for one of
their other drivers would be very very seriously thinking about that um you know depending on
the deal and what have you but I don't think that rumor is going to go away until Max decides
what he's doing I don't think he has yet so you know probably going to get more and more of this
through the summer. Blurry of activity when one move happens it's going to be an absolute
domino effect isn't it all through the grid I want to talk to you about your your column as well
because if you're not aware Mark Hughes releases a column every single week in Motorport Magazine.com
he's very very busy with what he writes and his MPH column is always a good read and it does talk
in this most recent one about what happened at Austria there were there were two talking points
were there many talking points but two talking points that Mark has focused on one technical
and one sporting well let's start them with this technical aspect so just just kind of reverse
for a little bit for us and just give us an idea of context this technical aspect from what you've
written in your column. Well Mercedes have put these extensions atop the on top of the diffuser
the in particular the little teardrop shape blisters which you may have seen they weren't
used to the car in Canada and what they did was create border seas which created a lower air
pressure behind the diffuser and when you create a lower air pressure the air through the diffuser
rushes to fill that vacuum and so you're getting the airflow speed to increase on the underfloor
and the faster the airflow flows the more downforce you're creating so it just boosted that
performance of the diffuser and therefore the floor it was similar to in principle but it looked
very different to what Ferrari had done in the basic configuration of its car by where it put
its differential that it was able to put some extra bodywork after the diffuser but like at the
same angle of the diffuser ramp it's not connected to the diffuser so it's legal it's not part of
the diffuser but the air sees it as a diffuser the air sees it as just one great big diffuser
similarly the air saw these things it's just the way the airflow saw the pressure it increased the
size of the diffuser effectively so the question you might ask been yeah but they were sitting on
top of the diffuser so surely unlike the Ferrari that where there was a gap this couldn't be legal
because it's outside the dimension box of the diffuser the the regulation is where you allow
for bodywork role defined by these regulation boxes and how they'd made it legal was they
hadn't mounted these things onto the diffuser even though they were sitting right there they were
mounted on these little metal legality scripts that went further back into the car and that's how
that the part of the top flap of the front wing where it was supposed to connect to the nose
that just put legality scripts connected to the nose so it was similar in principle to that
and so when a team wants to make a change like that it will typically inform the FIA that this
is what we want to do we believe it's legal on this basis here are the drawings she has everything
about it and the FIA either says yes or no they said yes and the cars ran with it you know since
Canada until Barcelona with with these exchanges and but Ferrari questioned it and said if that's
the basis of the legality we could start develop all sorts of investment things if we're using
the legality strips especially around the back of the car and you're going to probably destroy the
whole idea of having a nice friendly wake for it to make overtaking easier and all that the
intention the regulation so are you sure you want to do that knowing that their their their version
was completely legal you didn't need that justification for it and the FIA had a little
thing about it and said yeah yeah we agree with you Ferrari no Mercedes we don't want you to run
that any longer I'm Red Bull Red Bull had done something similar and they told Mercedes I'm
Red Bull no you can't run that from this race now Mercedes was sort of stricken the shoulder and says
it'll make a few hundreds of a second difference and on the evidence of what we saw in Austria
that looks to be about right doesn't it it does but I mean in your column you said and a quote
no stage was Mercedes feature illegal although it would be if you tried to fit it now is this
really the best way for the FIA to regulate the designs it sounds it sounds an odd way to go about
things but it's how you it's it's the only way you can really legislate around the competitive
impulse and ingenuity and resource of Formula One and that's that's part of its magic really so
yeah it's it's that's just that's that's just how it is you can't you can't have it because
you'll end up with a spec form and if you say it can only be like this you'll end up with everybody
with identical cars that somebody will not allow that but that's not what Formula One aims to be
but then you have teams with a cost cap a regulated cost cap that has spent certain
amounts of money on developing legal quotes on quotes legal um upgrades design changes to their
car only to fit them and be told oh no they're now illegal so what happens with the cost cap there
because that's a complete waste of money that they could have put into certain areas that
were going to be legal for a longer period of time they've derived some benefit from it they've
had a few races of benefit from it um but also that's just the the the upside offside risk
that you analyze when you you're going to do something like that where you're on what are the
chances of this getting taken off us how much is it going to cost us to develop it um and and
make it um shall we do it press the button yes press it or not you know that's just part of the
equation really so it's just part of the kitchen I guess it's a risk reward thing isn't it you know
that if you're really really pushing that that envelope as we say if you're pushing it and pushing
it and pushing it and you're really stretching those those regulations and at some point they're
somebody going to come back and slap you on the wrist and say okay you can't do that but
can they give us an idea of maybe how many of these these small to a degree innovations teams
are working on to shave off these these hundreds of thousands a second I think you're
going to see um more common um as as the formula matures because the um the low hanging fruit will
stop it you know dry out so um you're going to be looking for more and more marginal gains so things
like this um in fact the ferrari's wheel rims rear wheel rims in Barcelona all these things you're
going to start seeing more and more of as you know the performances converge um probably more
next year than this year as everybody will have reconfigured their cars based on the knowledge
of this year um and so the the smaller things are going to be making more of a difference
yeah absolutely now the other part of this article is talking about the the sporting
side of things and the sporting side of things as you were saying earlier on is how
George Russell interpreted the flag waving correctly interpreted the flag waving the yellow
flag waving and how Kimmy Antonelli didn't but also you talk about how Kimmy's performance
as well in another article how is he fantastic in in Austria so we've spoken about how George
Russell's experience could potentially be the key difference between he and Antonelli when it
comes out to deciding this championship as we mentioned one of those key things was how he
interpreted the flags and it did go some way to to helping him take that take that victory um
give us your thoughts on on that on the interpretation of the yellow flags and
how George worked it uh perfectly um
in terms of not only competitively in in terms of his advantage um
up to that point I think it was also in terms of um what is required to do uh under the regulations
is no question it was a dangerous situation and there should not have been cars going through
there anything like flat out but as he's cresting that hill on the approach to turn nine he has no
way of knowing what is there the only any driver so the only way they have the only guide they have
is what those yellow lights are telling them and those yellow lights were single which means you
know proceed with caution lift off but it'll not double yellows double yellows means abandon the
lap forget it you know that they weren't they weren't double yellows so the question then becomes
why weren't they double yellows why were there any singles and that's that's the question that
has has to be addressed to race control it was an inappropriate flag signal or light signal
it should definitely it was definitely a day a more dangerous situation than a single yellow but
Russell's got no way of not the only you can't say well there might mean double the they've put a
single the might mean double so just to be absolutely certain I'll just abandon the lap
well there's no racing driver on earth is going to do that the racing driver is going to look at the
signal and say right watch my computer okay single let's go so he lifts off he does what's
required and he sets bow now the point was then made that he can't have lifted off very much because
he was only 0.017 slower than he had been there on his previous qualifying lap but there's two
things about that first the regulation don't specify exactly how much you need to lift off just
you need to show evidence that you lifted off you went from a hundred percent throttle down to zero
throttle in the space where on these previous lap he was on route for much longer he dapped the brakes
so he did make a genuine lift the other thing is that the track was massively faster on the
second runs for everyone the track grip was ramping up so fast um it was almost like not
quite but in principles it's like comparing a dry lap to a wet lap so even though you may have had
yellows in and the the dry lap it's not difficult to still go a lot faster than you've gone on the
wet lap so it was a bit like that it was still possible even though you've lifted off for a yellow
to go significantly faster than you'd gone on the lower grip surface so to give an indication
of how much quicker it was Leclerc went 4 tenths quicker than his first effort Norris was 5 tenths
quicker Hadjar and Lorsmo book 7 tenths quicker so that's how the massive ramp up of grip so there's
that and also in lifting off he's harvested some energy so that as he gets past the yellows and
and nails it he's got more power than he had last time so all those things contribute to and the
the stewards are well aware of all these factors they're well aware of the the grip ramp up they're
well aware of the the situation with the harvesting so in effect I don't know this but in effect I
think they would be looking at themselves saying we should have put a double yellow there we can't
punish him for our mistake but which is what would have happened if you disallowed that lap
you were punishing Russell for you putting out the wrong flag and putting out the wrong flag
I mean that that is a concern and it's something that Formula 1 really needs to look at it won't
be the first time there's been mistakes should we say that have led to far far greater consequences
so the the process that the Formula 1 goes through how does that suddenly change the
race director how do they suddenly make sure that doesn't happen again in that instance because
like you say Max was off George Russell said he couldn't see Max he was so off the track he was so
away through the gravel but that is alarming if Max went off at that point in theory George Russell
would go off at exactly the same point of track yeah I think you know the the way of working just
changes just evolves we've got new systems come in you got new ways of working the the
responsibilities a lot of it has been taken away from the flag marshals a particular corner and
moved over to race control so yeah you're bound to encounter new situations that reveal
unintended consequences of changes so I think you just have to keep learning you just have to be
humble enough to think no we got that wrong how do we make sure we don't get that wrong
again I think it's just that I don't think there's any you know there's any sort of hard and fast
guarantees you can put in place it's just human human learning yeah yeah I think I have to agree
with that and I think Mark you know you can't you can slap people's wrists for getting things wrong
if they do it wrong twice first time is learning second time maybe not quite so so lenient I've
got a question here from Jim 84 and I'm going to put some audience questions to you in a slightly
different way but out of sequence maybe but Jim 84 has talked about this is George Russell moment
which you have answered but he says so how could George Russell set a poll up when he passed a
yellow flag which warns of danger of head which I know you've answered he said he lifted off
but it can't have been enough to avoid any hazards that might have been ahead of him now that's a
slightly different angle to to what we've been talking about there because he did lift off
but was it enough if there were a car in the middle of the track so what should we say um no
wouldn't have been but that would have been he would have arrived there too fast because the
wrong flag would be shown it's simple sight yeah yeah there you go the the nature of that
that sort of hazard that you're talking about where something's in the way of the track
but it's a red flag let alone a single yellow so yeah yeah so there you go Jim 84 have asked the
question thanks very much for getting in touch with us so yes he did lift enough but if there was
a car in the middle of the track there would have been all down to the wrong flags just quickly
staying with us to mark how would the race have played out if the correct flags the double
waved yellows had been implemented at the right time would it have left both ferraris on the
front row at that point what would have happened what would the outcome be if you could look into a
you know a distant a distant crystal ball or something yeah another what if scenario yeah
yeah uh so um the two ferraris are both in the then the second laps that got them in before that
incident so la claire was on pole hammock knows alongside him on the front row so it would have
been a ferrari front row we're assuming max still crashed he just so he had the double yellows
and yeah the mercs would have been on the second row with antonella ahead of russon so
i think the mercs pace advantage of a ferrari was so big in austria that it they would probably
both been past both ferraris in the first stint but even if they weren't they would have
certainly got round random around the pit stops and they had far better tire day again so they
could do no better strategy etc etc so i don't think it would have changed the outcome Mercedes
to ferrari but it might have mean i might have meant that we had a an antonella win rather than
a russon win maybe who knows but um yeah part of antonella's problem in the first stint where he
saw him keep going on the runoff and locking up was that um he hadn't got the brake disc temperatures
evened between the left and the right side on the front so the um the the one that was losing
temperature was too cold kept locking up and the more that happens the the the cooler gets and the
more overheated the other one gets and so yeah it it it's a it's a it is a hazard at that track
with a very short track but it's also a track that needs a lot of brake coolings whether the big
ducks to get a lot of cool air in so getting the brakes up the right temperature as you arrive at
the grid's not straightforward so that's another little area of experience we were talking about
earlier on um experience versus you know just raw talent that's just another little one of those
things to be put away in the back of his mind saying okay if i do that better next time because
i messed that up that lost me that victory um you know you could argue that it was he
mistaken the yellows for the double yellow that lost him he maybe lost it there but he also lost it
with um his brake preparation so yeah just those little things um but uh yeah in the what if scenario
yeah we could have had that we could have had a mountain alley wind rolling around so who knows
I saw a really nice clip of Toto Wolf talking with Kimmy Antonelli and Bono they were both sitting
down looking at the data and then Toto sort of standing over him he's got his hands on Kimmy's
shoulders just sort of resting them there and Kimmy's like I didn't see that I got it wrong
and Toto says okay it's all right next time you won't get it wrong and it was that reassuring
thing of saying you're right you're learning we all know you're learning and they put this down
to experience and next time you won't do the same thing so I think that's you know it's interesting
to see how it all plays out and as I say go and check out Mark's column the mph column at
motorsportmagazine.com to read all of that story the sporting side of things the technical side
of things it's really really worthwhile read now moving to a team we don't often talk about Mark
and this is Aldi uh Aldi have been given this engine upgrade as we know and they've immediately
implemented one but the team boss Matthew Bonotto has said we will not see immediate benefits from
the adduo but then it will be certainly beneficial for us what's he mean by this how can you have
an invisible upgrade that that will then become effective it'll be visible later how does that
how does that work I I can't get my head around that it's like uh I've that's like an impossible
drawing you know I can't get it it doesn't work I think he's trying to tell you the truth without
revealing what it is he's trying not to lie so basically they they add Kyle to two upgrades this
season and they've just made one of them but the second one a bit like with Ferrari is mom is a major
one and it probably involves a different sized turbo so I'm guessing from trying to read between
the lines of his cryptic comments that he said this upgrade was required so that we can exploit the
next one I think that's what he's talking about got you got you so the one we've made right now
is the precursor to the one you're going to see later where all the effects of the first one coming
to play I'm with you now why can't they just have said that that would be there you go
he tells you exactly what they're doing yeah that's not where you but you've just stripped that out
for us so there you go I've got a question for it I'm not sure you better answer this question this
is an audience question for you Mark as I said we always have lots of questions coming in thank
you very much for getting your questions to mark we really do appreciate it I've selected a few
that we've kind of peppered into this one but I've got three coming up for you now Mark this one
is linked to to Audi which is why it's here but I'm not sure you'll have an answer it says hi Mark
and Bryn points for including me in the question thanks very much and I'm sneaking in there Mark
watch out why did Wolf Zimmerman and Lars Schmidt leave Ferrari and accept Bellotto's offer if I'm
not mistaken Zimmerman had turned it down earlier what happened tension and mistrust surrounding
the ICE issues before the start of the season the choice of alloy FTM and the focus on aerodynamics
a strategy prioritizing reliability over performance and reliance on a geo there was talk
of dissatisfaction among the engineers regarding the memos Lewis was sending what's the truth this
is from Nikolov I'm not a truth diviner so but yes I've heard all of those rumors and there's
Zimmerman and his assistant Schmidt with Ferrari management by the direction they wanted to go with
the power unit those two guys had been instrumental in the previous Ferrari power unit very different
configuration to all the other engines around a very ingenious way of driving performance
again with a smaller turbo just like the current engine long inlet tracks fantastic acceleration
but maybe running out of puff a little bit of the higher higher ed which has impacted more
now that we we're into recovering the energy more so yeah one way that they've had of trying to
attack the demands of the whole car so the the cooling and how much aerodynamic performance
you're losing to radiators is to devise an engine which is happy running very hot and that's what
this engine is but at some point there's been a disagreement and Bernardo worked with these guys
Bernardo was their boss when he was team principal at Ferrari you'll know them very well he probably
recruited them in the first place so I think he's probably dived in there and thought great they're
not happier Ferrari can work for us I guess that's all that's happened but I don't know that and it's
not something that you know we probably won't know that for quite a way down the line when when
it's less sensitive probably and you can get people to talk a bit more openly about it well
Nicolov I'm sure that when Mark finds out some more juicy gossip and he can turn it into fact
it will be relayed to to the audience of Motorhawk magazine so Mark thank you very much yeah it's a
I mean it's a really good question isn't it better than mine now two more questions one is from Jerry
let's go to Jerry's question this is talking about the duo if ICE is used to determine who
receives update tokens surely they should be spent on the ICE Mercedes if they want to are being able
to use them on the electrical side where they are arguably the strongest doesn't make sense but hey
this is F1 yeah this is this wasn't the intention of the audio regulations I think they were trying
to get everybody even on the ICE as quickly as possible so the development would all concentrate
on the electrical side but as we know as we talked about here before the the expected outcome of the
analysis was different to the reality that played out and we have the red bullet judged as best
internal combustion engine then the Mercedes then are long way behind the Ferrari etc so
yeah the what happens now is that Mercedes although is entitled to an ICE upgrade
it's probably not going to make one a it didn't plan on its development
it didn't expect to be getting awarded an audio upgrade entitlement so its development program
wasn't planned around that but be tactically it's pretty smart because it just means that
Red Bull's advantages is frozen in for the rest of the season whereas if you put an upgrade on in
you became the best ICE as it was measured after then the next one I think is after Hungary then
Red Bull would get the audio adjustments entitlements so it's effectively saying well our engine is
pretty competitive we're quite happy with the level of competitiveness we don't want Red Bull
getting any better than they already are so let's just freeze them and we'll continue to develop
the electrical side and try actually the electrical things I think are for reliability but you know
you you can always argue a reliability is also a performance one because he can run it harder but
yeah I think that's all that's happening it's just it's an unintended consequence of the way
the audio regulations were written it's a race to the front by ironically racing to the back isn't
it it's just bizarre another question final questions from Gavin great question there from
Jerry thanks very much Gavin says Mark given that some tracks wear the rear tires more and
some tracks wear the front tires more is it hypothetically we like this is it hypothetically
possible to mix the components so the front and rear tires are different I appreciate this is
against the regulations but I'm curious what the effect would be on the car and what the drivers
would think yeah it's absolutely possible in fact it used to be commonplace and Carlos
Reitemann was notorious for being very very particular about which compounds he wanted on
each corner quite often this with four different compounds according to the which which side was
loaded no um yeah it was normal practice in the past before they're standardized and it it does
give you an extra tool an extra setup to a very useful one um but uh yeah it was imposed for
cost reasons to so that you don't have to take as many different tires all around the world
and that the you know that the weight of the all tires that you would need to
have that option everywhere um and that's yeah it's just part of the standardization from one
of the years but yeah absolutely would be possible and it indeed used to be
great questions Mark which is your favorite quick reminder Jim talking about George Russell
yellow flag lifting off we had uh we had Nicolov with his his question about
Wolf Zimmerman and Lars Schmidt we then had Jerry with his ICE tokens being spent on ICE
and we had Gavin just then with tire compounds where are you going
uh i give it to Nicolov i think it's just a really intriguing question even though i couldn't
answer it properly i i still think it was best question and um you tried to sort of get in on
that question i think a little bit didn't you my name is in it mark i'm using it yeah well
reflected Dory i guess no exactly i've taken up my entire career and nothing will change
mark thank you very much as always okay yeah thank you thank you all for the the questions
now don't forget you can get your questions into mark for the next episode leave them in
the comment section on the youtube video or go to mostportmagazine.com while you're on the youtube
video like subscribe to give it a thumbs up subscribe and also get those notifications so
you never miss an issue an episode whatever you want to call it talking about issues we have
our new issue available in the shops it covers Russell and Antonelli, Norris and
Piastri, Hamilton and Leclerc we'll be talking about these in the same breath as Formula One's
greatest teammates we count down the best F1 pairings in history in the brand new august
issue of motorsport, Prost and Senna, Fanger and Moss, Schumacher and Barrichello you have to
read it for the full list plus there's two iconic moments from racing history the wild
beginnings of Kanan 60 years ago plus Ford's World Cup winning Mondeo touring car
available in the shops or at motorsportmagazine.com that's it for now we'll see you next time
what is it this afternoon mark swirrenpool swirrenpool and cafe swirrenpool cafe
sangria yeah all those things you're eager to get off thanks so much i'm gonna hit stop
About this episode
F1 expert Mark Hughes tackles the unique technical challenges of the upcoming British Grand Prix at Silverstone. The circuit's fast, energy-hungry layout is set to trigger "super-clipping," forcing hybrid cars to harvest energy and decelerate mid-straight. Hughes explains how this energy starvation will shake up the competitive order, favoring Mercedes and Red Bull over a struggling Ferrari. The discussion also covers whether track layouts should adapt to modern hybrid powertrains and evaluates Lando Norris's chances of repeating his past success.
Original notes
The Formula 1 season has burst into life, with three different race winners in the past three grands prix, and a return to fast-paced racing rather than complaints about artificial overtakes and super-clipping.
But the controversy around electrical energy looks set to be back with a spark at Silverstone, where its series of fast, weeping cornrs offer little natural opportunity to generate power for the batteries.
This year's cars will run out of energy on the straights, says Mark Hughes, in the latest episode of the F1 Show, warning fans that the sound of a car decelerating on the straight while racing 'flat out' will mix up their senses.
What will it mean for the race itself, and the competitive order? Mark and presenter Bryn Lucas take a detailed look.
They also ask what hope for Lando Norris as he returns to the scene of a triumphant home victory in 2025, and discuss the latest rumours around Max Verstappen's future.
Plus, there's a look back to the controversies of last weekend, including George Russell's pole lap set under a yellow flag. and discussion on why the Mercedes factory team has such an advantage over customers with the same engine.
And Mark answers your questions on slowing for yellow flags, Ferrari personnel departures, and an intriguing tyre proposal.
Subscribe now for every weekly episode and tell us what you want to know from Mark. Send us a message on social media or find this podcast at https://go.motorsportmagazine.com/4eYzvqk and drop your questions in the comments. He'll answer a selection of the best every week.
Read Mark's column every Wednesday at https://go.motorsportmagazine.com/4eYzvqk
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Motor Sport F1 Show with Mark Hughes
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