How Russell’s surprise tyre choice shaped the British Grand Prix

Formula 1 teams went into the British Grand Prix with some doubt over what the best strategy might be due to uncertainty over how the tyres would perform.

Pirelli introduced a new tyre construction last weekend and teams hadn’t had a chance to evaluate it in track conditions which were as cool as they were by the time the grand prix started. Track temperatures dropped as the Silverstone skies clouded over shortly before the grand prix got underway.

Many expected the medium compound tyre would be the best option to start on. The soft compound wasn’t expected to last well, and the hard risked a slow first lap which can be penalised significantly at Silverstone.

“The C1 is a different compound, it’s one of the tyres they changed last year to this year,” explained Aston Martin’s performance director Tom McCullough before the race.

“Here there’s often racing all the way to nearly the end of the first lap. There’s a lot of opportunities to overtake. A harder tyre is going to make that [more difficult].

“There’s pros and cons: After the first lap, you definitely, probably don’t want to be on the softer tyres, but for the first lap they’re going to be better. So it’s a compromise.”

In 2022, George Russell started the race on the hard rubber, but got away slowly and was caught by Zhou Guanyu and Pierre Gasly, triggering a major crash. He deviated from the norm again last weekend by picking the soft tyre, which proved an inspired choice.

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Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said they realised the soft tyre’s potential on Friday, and chose to run it on the first of their cars on the grid. “We wanted to have an offset between the two drivers and the soft tyre provides a good getaway on the start, and was very resilient on Friday in the long runs.”

However the strength of its performance on Sunday was even better than Mercedes expected. “It was even more [resilient] on the race pace, so we were surprised to see how long it was going.”

Ferrari were in the dark over the compound’s performance as Charles Leclerc’s technical problem on Friday robbed them of the chance to properly evaluate the soft option. He had Russell in his mirrors from the start and had to defend hard to keep the soft-shod car behind him.

Seemingly expecting a two-stop race, Ferrari committed to an early pit stop for Leclerc in order to avoid Russell coming in first and ‘undercutting’ them. But team principal Frederic Vasseur admitted afterwards the call did not work out for their driver.

“We were fighting with Russell at this stage. We were scared with the deg[radation] at the end and we decided to pit early. But if I have to do it again, I won’t do it.”

While the majority of the frontrunners continued with their one-stop plans, Leclerc came in a second time during the race’s sole Safety Car period. Ferrari couldn’t buy a break, as after waiting until the second half of the race to bring Carlos Sainz Jnr in, the Safety Car appeared soon afterwards.

Those who hadn’t pitted until that point were rewarded, including the top two, but above all Lewis Hamilton who had been running seventh before Leclerc became the first of the front-runners to pit and was in third once the pit stops had played out.

Even Red Bull team principal Christian Horner admitted afterwards they didn’t expect to use the soft tyre, but Russell’s tactics changed their approach. “We’d originally expected it to be a medium-hard race, but because of the performance of Russell on the soft, it changed our strategy.”

That emboldened them to select the soft tyres for winner Max Verstappen‘s final run to the flag. “With the Safety Car with 15, 16 laps to go, we felt the soft tyre would give Max the best opportunity to break that DRS effect, which he used to great effect. I think already at the end of the first lap he was close to two seconds ahead. And then it was a question of managing the race thereafter.”

Lando Norris urged McLaren to consider the soft tyres, but they fitted him with hards. Perhaps they had more concerns over the performance of the softs on their car than others, but as Russell noted while he unsuccessfully tried to attack Oscar Piastri, the MCL60s looked especially good on the C1s.

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2023 British Grand Prix lap chart

The positions of each driver on every lap. Click name to highlight, right-click to reset. Toggle drivers using controls below:

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2023 British Grand Prix race chart

The gaps between each driver on every lap compared to the leader’s average lap time. Very large gaps omitted. Scroll to zoom, drag to pan and right-click to reset. Toggle drivers using controls below:

2023 British Grand Prix lap times

All the lap times by the drivers (in seconds, very slow laps excluded). Scroll to zoom, drag to pan and toggle drivers using the control below:

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2023 British Grand Prix fastest laps

Each driver’s fastest lap:

Rank	No.	Driver	Car	Lap time	Gap	Average speed (kph)	Lap no.
1	1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull-Honda RBPT	1’30.275		234.92	42
2	4	Lando Norris	McLaren-Mercedes	1’30.543	0.268	234.23	43
3	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1’30.545	0.270	234.22	43
4	81	Oscar Piastri	McLaren-Mercedes	1’30.850	0.575	233.44	41
5	11	Sergio Perez	Red Bull-Honda RBPT	1’30.914	0.639	233.27	51
6	63	George Russell	Mercedes	1’31.124	0.849	232.73	41
7	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	1’31.255	0.980	232.4	48
8	23	Alexander Albon	Williams-Mercedes	1’31.273	0.998	232.35	41
9	14	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin-Mercedes	1’31.338	1.063	232.19	48
10	55	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Ferrari	1’31.366	1.091	232.12	51
11	18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin-Mercedes	1’31.508	1.233	231.76	42
12	10	Pierre Gasly	Alpine-Renault	1’31.539	1.264	231.68	42
13	2	Logan Sargeant	Williams-Mercedes	1’31.699	1.424	231.27	42
14	24	Zhou Guanyu	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	1’31.769	1.494	231.1	48
15	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Haas-Ferrari	1’31.776	1.501	231.08	52
16	77	Valtteri Bottas	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	1’31.852	1.577	230.89	52
17	22	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri-Honda RBPT	1’32.084	1.809	230.31	48
18	21	Nyck de Vries	AlphaTauri-Honda RBPT	1’32.353	2.078	229.64	48
19	20	Kevin Magnussen	Haas-Ferrari	1’33.356	3.081	227.17	29
20	31	Esteban Ocon	Alpine-Renault	1’33.846	3.571	225.98	9

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2023 British Grand Prix tyre strategies

The tyre strategies for each driver:

2023 British Grand Prix pit stop times

How long each driver’s pit stops took:

Rank	No.	Driver	Team	Complete stop time (s)	Gap to best (s)	Stop no.	Lap no.
1	11	Sergio Perez	Red Bull	28.06		1	28
2	21	Nyck de Vries	AlphaTauri	28.242	0.182	1	27
3	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	28.244	0.184	1	18
4	22	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri	28.353	0.293	1	14
5	21	Nyck de Vries	AlphaTauri	28.413	0.353	2	32
6	4	Lando Norris	McLaren	28.438	0.378	1	33
7	10	Pierre Gasly	Alpine	28.458	0.398	1	31
8	18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	28.561	0.501	1	31
9	22	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri	28.603	0.543	2	32
10	81	Oscar Piastri	McLaren	28.655	0.595	1	29
11	14	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin	28.679	0.619	1	33
12	24	Zhou Guanyu	Alfa Romeo	28.709	0.649	2	33
13	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	28.805	0.745	2	32
14	2	Logan Sargeant	Williams	28.847	0.787	1	29
15	55	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Ferrari	28.869	0.809	1	26
16	1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	29.056	0.996	1	33
17	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	29.169	1.109	1	33
18	24	Zhou Guanyu	Alfa Romeo	29.177	1.117	1	24
19	63	George Russell	Mercedes	29.455	1.395	1	28
20	23	Alexander Albon	Williams	29.634	1.574	1	32
21	77	Valtteri Bottas	Alfa Romeo	29.662	1.602	1	32
22	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Haas	30.003	1.943	2	32
23	24	Zhou Guanyu	Alfa Romeo	34.374	6.314	3	36
24	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Haas	41.972	13.912	1	7

2023 British Grand Prix

• Norris is “growing” closer to the champion who inspired him to race
• Second supplier part failure ‘a frustrating issue we must solve’ – Alpine
• Albon ‘surprised’ to be quicker than Alonso at end of British GP
• Bottas admits Alfa Romeo ‘were expecting to be better than this’ in 2023
• McLaren now “finding performance quicker” after emulating Red Bull’s design

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