Silverstone is at the heart of Britain’s motor racing industry. Eight of Formula One’s eleven teams are based within a short drive of the track, along with 4,500 other businesses servicing all forms of motorsport employing over 40,000 people.
Britain’s round of the world championship has enjoyed home success for the last two years running. another triumph for Lewis Hamilton on Sunday could be a double success as he is poised to take the lead in the drivers’ championship.
Mercedes
The internal war within Mercedes will still be raging into the British Grand Prix weekend, possibly with ramifications for the battle at the front. If the two drivers find themselves anywhere close together in the dying moments on Sunday, there will be a lot of gritted teeth on the pit wall.
Will the Mercedes management finally be forced to employ team orders?
Williams
Williams showed so much promise at Silverstone in 2015, leading the field for the first stint of the race until the Mercedes of Hamilton was able to undercut them.
A row over the enforcement of team orders, preventing Valterri Bottas from attacking Felipe Massa possibly would have cost them victory in a dry race. Mercedes should think about this before they go a similar route.
Ferrari
To the surprise of few, the official verdict from Pirelli on Sebastian Vettel’s race-ending tyre explosion in Austria was “debris”. The lack of any prior indication the failure was about to happen will be a concern for all, particularly after the spate of tyre blow-outs at this track three years ago.
When his car has gone the distance, Vettel has usually finished on the podium this year, and he will be eager for nothing less this weekend.
Red Bull
Having achieved their best finish to date in Austria, around a track that usually does not suit the Red Bull chassis and power unit combination, the team can afford to be optimistic ahead of this weekend’s race at Silverstone.
The RB12’s superb cornering will serve it well at this venue, and the comparatively short straights should minimise the disadvantage of its power unit.
Force India
Nico Hulkenberg’s front row effort promised much in Austria yet the team came away with nothing. Being based opposite the Silverstone gates, Force India will be hoping for a repeat of last year’s double points finish.
Team principal Vijay Mallya is due to make his first appearance at a race weekend this year while his prior business activities remain a focus of interest for the Indian courts.
Renault
The Formula One team will be glancing across at their double championship winning Formula E squad with a twinge of jealousy, there is a real desire in the team to return to winning ways. At present they will be lucky to score points with their current package.
Toro Rosso
Reliability issues have masked some reasonable performances from the Toro Rosso team, with a double DNF last time out. If they can make the finish in Silverstone they should be knocking on the door of the points.
The only factor that could hold them back is the ageing Ferrari 2015 power unit, which will only lose ground as the other manufacturers continue to develop.
Sauber
As they are the only team yet to score a point in 2016, Sauber need to turn their fortunes on track around soon. Missing next week’s test can’t help matters, though the team have indicated they are making progress with their financial problems. They will have Ferrari’s new power unit too.
McLaren
Jenson Button has admitted that a podium finish at Silverstone is on his “to-do” list. But despite his fantastic performance in Austria this will be a difficult dream to realise this year, though this track should be one of the more competitive venues for McLaren.
Manor
A stunning run by Pascal Wehrlein to a single point in Austria shows that Manor are a “serious team” and will be keen to build some momentum for the rest of their season
The high-speed Silverstone circuit will not play to their strengths and are likely to struggle, especially through the downforce-reliant Maggotts-Becketts complex.
Haas
Returning to a more traditional circuit will benefit the Haas team and Romain Grosjean expects to use lessons learned from Barcelona testing to have a good baseline setup from the beginning.
There will be no aerodynamic updates for Haas this weekend, but a Ferrari power unit update (which the works team introduced in will help them on this high speed track.
2016 driver form
| Driver | Grid average | Race average | Race best | Race worst | Classified |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lewis Hamilton | 5.56 | 2.75 | 1 | 7 | 8/9 |
| Nico Rosberg | 2.11 | 2.63 | 1 | 7 | 8/9 |
| Sebastian Vettel | 4.67 | 2.67 | 2 | 4 | 6/8 |
| Kimi Raikkonen | 4.89 | 3.57 | 2 | 6 | 7/9 |
| Felipe Massa | 9.11 | 9.00 | 5 | 20 | 8/9 |
| Valtteri Bottas | 7.56 | 7.33 | 3 | 12 | 9/9 |
| Daniel Ricciardo | 3.89 | 5.33 | 2 | 11 | 9/9 |
| Daniil Kvyat | 12.33 | 9.40 | 3 | 15 | 5/9 |
| Nico Hulkenberg | 9.22 | 11.29 | 6 | 19 | 7/9 |
| Sergio Perez | 10.00 | 9.89 | 3 | 17 | 9/9 |
| Kevin Magnussen | 18.00 | 13.25 | 7 | 17 | 8/9 |
| Jolyon Palmer | 17.78 | 14.33 | 11 | 22 | 6/8 |
| Max Verstappen | 9.00 | 5.57 | 1 | 10 | 7/9 |
| Carlos Sainz Jnr | 11.56 | 8.71 | 6 | 12 | 7/9 |
| Marcus Ericsson | 18.22 | 14.43 | 12 | 17 | 7/9 |
| Felipe Nasr | 18.67 | 15.25 | 12 | 20 | 8/9 |
| Fernando Alonso | 11.50 | 10.40 | 5 | 18 | 5/8 |
| Jenson Button | 12.11 | 10.29 | 6 | 14 | 7/9 |
| Pascal Wehrlein | 18.33 | 15.25 | 10 | 18 | 8/9 |
| Rio Haryanto | 19.89 | 17.57 | 15 | 21 | 7/9 |
| Romain Grosjean | 13.78 | 10.63 | 5 | 19 | 8/9 |
| Esteban Gutierrez | 14.78 | 13.29 | 11 | 17 | 7/9 |
| Stoffel Vandoorne | 12.00 | 10.00 | 10 | 10 | 1/1 |
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Over to you
Who do you think will be the team to beat in the British Grand Prix? Have your say below.
And don’t forget to enter your predictions for this weekend’s race. You can edit your predictions until the start of qualifying:
2016 British Grand Prix
- 2016 British Grand Prix team radio transcript
- Second Driver of the Weekend win for Verstappen
- Wet race at Silverstone leaves many cold
- 2016 British Grand Prix Predictions Championship results
- Top ten pictures from the 2016 British Grand Prix
Faulty
7th July 2016, 13:40
When did Ferrari introduce it’s PU upgrade?
That seems to be missing from the Haas paragraph.
IJW (@)
7th July 2016, 14:58
Wasn’t it Canada?
Blazz
7th July 2016, 13:59
I think one way to solve the Merc issues is to have two separate strategy guys. Lewis has long been an advocate for this- and if, when Hamilton and Button were team mates, they raced under the same Merc policy I don’t think we would have had a closer battle than we did because they would just have mirroed each other and with Hamilton almost always in front of Button in qualy I think they would have just finished in formation (in my opinion). Which is what happens more often than not when the Mercs are running 1-2. I know I’m a Lewis fan and I might be accused of bias, but I think it was quite telling how Lewis was not even remotely warm to the chief strategist in the cooldown room and on the podium. In my eyes he clearly doesn’t believe he can do the job on his own. I think it would be interesting if we could see a comparison on how teams with two strategy guys compete vs a team with one. Or is it just Merc who are the exception?
WillOfTheSupremo
7th July 2016, 15:39
What happened to Mallya anyway? Was he in jail/under supervision from India?
Didn’t he owned way too much money about in Monaco (when Perez scored his 1st podium this year)? Is he clear now? Or at least “clear”?