British GP 2022
At Silverstone, fate was kind to Ferrari and punished Red Bull. In the race without incident, Red Bull probably would have won. And that on a Ferrari track. That’s exactly what worries Ferrari.
So far, most of what could have gone wrong has gone wrong at Ferrari. Engine damage, strategy mistakes, excessive tire wear. The gods of racing at Silverstone were fans of Ferrari. Carlos Sainz won despite being only the fifth fastest man on the track. And Charles Leclerc finished fourth despite damage to the front wing and wrong strategy. it could have been worse.
This time everything went wrong at Red Bull. A piece of debris robbed Max Verstappen 60 points of downforce from the 13th lap. And Sergio Perez was already in the pits on the 5th lap as his front wing was damaged. Then, in 33 laps, the Mexican held the eventual winner by 12.3 seconds. There is an indication that Red Bull had a faster car at Silverstone.
It took Red Bull a day to balance its cars for the new aero package. Since then Ferrari has come under pressure. Red Bull got its time back on the straights. Silverstone doesn’t have that many. This should worry Ferrari. Silverstone really is their territory. By all estimates, Leclerc would have had trouble against Verstappen if both were in intact cars.
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Carlos Sainz won his first Formula 1 race at Silverstone, despite Ferrari being slower than Red Bull.
Alpine challenges McLaren
Red Bull and Ferrari may soon face a new rival. Mercedes has further narrowed the gap to the top. Although Silverstone is the ideal playground for the Silver Arrows, the sharp corners have shown that Mercedes is getting better and better at handling its bouncing problem. Only Red Bull rocked less. The Hungarian GP is now Mercedes’ flagship race. If the next upgrade is in the works there, you’ll want to compete regularly for victory after summer break.
In the fight for fourth place, it looks like a duel between Alpine and McLaren at the moment. Alpine continues to make massive upgrades. McLaren kept his feet steady. Any further upgrades could put the team in conflict with the cost limit. One may want to wait and see how much and how much the inflation surcharge is. Things got better for McLaren at Silverstone. But a month ago you would have gone far ahead of Alpine on this path. Now there was a tie. Bad news for McLaren: the Alpine A522 can now do all-track layout.
If you want to attack Alpine and McLaren then the Alfa Sauber gives a lot of retirement. Clear round hurt. It was almost lucky that Alpine and McLaren scored points with only one car each. In addition, soon there may be danger from behind. Aston Martin and Williams still need some time to figure out their upgrades. And Haas still has a big expansion stage ahead of him for the Hungarian GP.
Power Ranking British GP 2022
Here is a brief rundown of the power rankings for the race at Silverstone. As always, you can find a detailed form check of all ten teams in the slideshow.
- redbull (1)
- Ferrari (2)
- Mercedes (3)
- Alpine (4)
- McLaren (7)
- Alpha Clean (5)
- Has (8)
- Aston Martin (6)
- Alpha Tauri (9)
- William (10)
*after Canadian GP position in parentheses
