2022 Formula One British Grand Prix

British Grand Prix 2022 Ferrari Formula One.jpg
Silverstone is the site of the tenth race on the 2022 F1 calendar, with Red Bull and Max Verstappen looking dominant and two British drivers for Mercedes feeling optimistic.

A late safety car last time out in Canada looked to be the best hope for Max Verstappen's domination to be threatened, but even that wasn't enough to upset the reigning world champion.

Ferrari's Carlos Sainz was following Verstappen closely through the closing laps in Montreal, but Verstappen looked as poised as ever and held off the Ferrari threat. That battle seems like a microcosm of how the season is currently unfolding.

Verstappen now holds a 46-point lead over Ferrari's Charles Leclerc in the driver's championship. It's a commanding lead, but Leclerc will bring a power unit to Silverstone that is only one race old, so this will be a great opportunity to narrow the points gap.

A DNF from Sergio Perez of Red Bull at the Canadian GP helped narrow the constructor's gap, but Red Bull is still 76 points ahead of Ferrari.

Mercedes' two British drivers will be hoping to carry momentum from Canada into their home Grand Prix this weekend. Lewis Hamilton and George Russell took third and fourth last race, respectively. It has been a challenging year for the Mercedes team, who had won eight straight constructor's championships entering 2022, but have yet to find the pace of Red Bull and Ferrari.

Russell is having an outstanding year in his first full-time seat in a competitive car, and finds himself ahead of Sainz in the driver's standings. This is an impressive feat and is largely due to his consistency in placing in the top five in each race so far this season.

Further down the order, the tight battle between McLaren, Alpine and Alfa Romeo continues. Alpine and Alfa Romeo claimed the sixth through ninth finishes in Canada, while a botched pit stop for McLaren held drivers Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo back at a critical point in the race.

Entering the British Grand Prix, there are still lots of questions left unanswered that will shape the remainder of the season. Are Red Bull's reliability issues enough to threaten their driver's and constructor's leads? Will Leclerc's upgrade help him close the gap to Verstappen? Will Mercedes' strong showing at Canada carry forward to Silverstone?

Let us know your thoughts on these matters or anything else F1 related in the comments below.

Photo credits: Ferrari
About author
Mike Smith
I have been obsessed with sim racing and racing games since the 1980's. My first taste of live auto racing was in 1988, and I couldn't get enough ever since. Lead writer for RaceDepartment, and owner of SimRacing604 and its YouTube channel. Favourite sims include Assetto Corsa Competizione, Assetto Corsa, rFactor 2, Automobilista 2, DiRT Rally 2 - On Twitter as @simracing604

Comments

I'm a massive Lewis fan, but yeah - that was just racing...Perez was not purposely pushing Lewis off.

Unlike the Schmacher vs Verstappen battle where Max was driving like a complete douchbag...I wouldn't be surprised if he gets a 5 second penalty.
:laugh::laugh::laugh:
 
I'm a massive Lewis fan, but yeah - that was just racing...Perez was not purposely pushing Lewis off.
Perez cut the corner to overtake LeClerc, he's obliged to give that place back before he attempts to overtake any other driver. Since he hasn't done so it's a 2nd violation of the rules no matter the outcome of the attempt.
 
Ok dus wanneer wordt Perez bestraft omdat hij dat voor 100% moet zijn. Mogelijk twee keer.
dat is racing
I'm a massive Lewis fan, but yeah - that was just racing...Perez was not purposely pushing Lewis off.

Unlike the Schmacher vs Verstappen battle where Max was driving like a complete douchbag...I wouldn't be surprised if he gets a 5 second penalty.
then you should also punish Leclerc who breaks his wing at the start of the race by Perez...You as a Lewis fan, Lewis push Max into copse corner with no penalty Silverstone 2021. Max didn't do anything wrong
 
Last edited:
Perez cut the corner to overtake LeClerc, he's obliged to give that place back before he attempts to overtake any other driver. Since he hasn't done so it's a 2nd violation of the rules no matter the outcome of the attempt.

Ah sorry, didn't see that - I'll have to watch the replays...it was a chaotic final 10 laps :)
 
Premium
Great first win for Carlos congrats
Good comeback by Checo
Poor racecraft by Lewis in the end
Disappointing result for Charles (was it a strategic error from the team?)
Maximum damage control by Max
 
Also something noteworthy from the weekend. Seb running his 92 I believe williams on fully sustainable fuel. The sound of those retro cars always so visceral. I heard Button talking about it and I thought he made an interesting point. It was his opinion that F1 should in 2026 scrap the hybrid concept and focus on running ICE based off 100% clean fuels. Personally I love this idea as they would be able to shed somewhere north of 100kilo in weight and bring back the engines that we all know and love. Anyway I thought that was interesting and my two cents.
 
If both RED cars pitted, it would have been a double stack and certainly Sainz would have suffered and PROBABLY either Perez or Hamilton would have stayed out for track posistion. Ferrari's BIG error was not fixing LeClerc's wing as Red Bull did for Checa.(Checo?) LeC would have been behind, but the pace of the Ferrari would have put him near the front when the safety car came out.
 
So glad that Carlos got his first win!!!!! Sounds like a good race I'll be watching it later, saw a clip of the crash though.....as if the crash wasn't bad enough he got pinned in the car.....
 
If both RED cars pitted, it would have been a double stack and certainly Sainz would have suffered and PROBABLY either Perez or Hamilton would have stayed out for track posistion. Ferrari's BIG error was not fixing LeClerc's wing as Red Bull did for Checa.(Checo?) LeC would have been behind, but the pace of the Ferrari would have put him near the front when the safety car came out.
Given the clear pace Leclerc had, I was quite surprised as well they didn't replace his wing on his first stop with more than half the race left.
 
Also something noteworthy from the weekend. Seb running his 92 I believe williams on fully sustainable fuel. The sound of those retro cars always so visceral. I heard Button talking about it and I thought he made an interesting point. It was his opinion that F1 should in 2026 scrap the hybrid concept and focus on running ICE based off 100% clean fuels. Personally I love this idea as they would be able to shed somewhere north of 100kilo in weight and bring back the engines that we all know and love. Anyway I thought that was interesting and my two cents.
That was the smartest thing I heard in a very long time. If the goal is to be carbon-neutral by 2030 (a necessity) and it can be achieved with sustainable fuel, let's go! Bring back the V10s!
 
That was the smartest thing I heard in a very long time. If the goal is to be carbon-neutral by 2030 (a necessity) and it can be achieved with sustainable fuel, let's go! Bring back the V10s!
<wonders> was it the idea of sustainable fuel, or the sound of the V10 that was the smartest thing he heard? BTW...does sustainable fuel use food sources like corn? Just curious as folks will still have to eat if the air is clean.
 
I always try to question when people think and act in a way, and not the other. I have now two talking point now:

1- About 1st lap incident: Commentators, us (we) and even drivers (look at their faces) were freightened. I think the car recieved an impact the best way possible, I mean landed on the wall with its downside facing the wall it's hitting, so, the flexible wall, suspension and even the seat will dampen the imapct. Zho could've said "I am OK" on the radio and saved the drama, I think, instead of teasing, especially he turned out not to even be scratched. It makes me happy that he was ok and that modern F1 sport is so safe. Maybe I'm so wrong. Anyway, I'm looking forward to see the data about the accident. A point that is a little related, I also think drivers exaggerate the dangers when driving in the pitlane at 80 kmph and needing to panic-brake. I mean come on, this is a car that stops from 100 to 0 in a second or two. Consider me as a worst tier driver, but still, I have never been in a situation that I couldn't pull myself out of it successfully, even when I was "all-in". So in short: unsafe release is unprofessional and you should be penalize driver and crew, but I don't believe it's as dangerous as team radio's suggest.

2- About Albon: The commentators who (spoke my native language) mentioned UK drivers many times yesterday and today, NEVER REMEMBERED Alex Albon as British. His father is English and his mother is Thai. I wonder why people forget about him. Maybe people don't respect drivers who drive for slow teams?
 
All that Lewis needed was for the car to stop jumping around the track because he's back in form. Now hopefully Bernie Ecclestone, Jackie Stewart, Jacques Villeneuve and everyone else will shut up about him now.
 
Wow, great race!

Updates on driver conditions, to the best of my knowledge, is Zhou was eventually given the all clear during the race and Albon (caught up behind the initial incident) was taken to hospital for precautionary checks. If he hasn't been already fingers crossed he gets the all clear soon.

Edit: Chilling shot courtesy of the BBC site. Grateful no drivers or marshals/spectators were seriously hurt...

_125740071_britishgp.jpg


Really was a rollercoaster that one. I predicted that Sainz would struggle to keep the Red Bulls behind and Max and Carlos was doing his best to prove me right. I was ready to eat my words as he made good on the restart but then he ran wide.

Leclerc was the faster of the two early doors so seems a mistep they weren't swapped sooner; but totally understand why Carlos didn't want to give up the spot. Better viewing for the neutral, at least.

I decided to take a comfort break just as Verstappen ran into trouble with what was expected to be a puncture but turned out to be underfloor damage. Amazing demonstration of how reliant the new spec cars on the underfloor aero.

To RBs credit they've had a knack for a while of making strategy calls that maximise points when things go wrong. It could've of been a disaster for Max (decision to switch to Hards when he was still struggling seemed dicey!) and Perez found himself in the right spot to capitalise on the SC and drove a blinder to nab that 2nd place. Even if we can imagine Ferrari and RB being indentical on pace, it's that kind of race management that will win them the championship. Ferrari dropped the ball not pitting Leclerc so I imagine Charles is furious internally. He was at least diplomatic in the interviews I watched but it's another missed opportunity considering Max's woes. Contrast with how Max and RB closed that early season gap that had many writing off the season for RB. It feels cruel at this point to point out Ferrari being the creators of their own demise but they keep creating their own problems unfortunately.

With hindsight, considering they went on the hards in the end, Merc perhaps should of brought Hamilton in earlier to attempt an undercut. The car seems to still struggle switching on the tyres too (everyone struggled with the hards it seemed but the same happened to Merc with the softs). Still, two consecutive podiums and an impressive race pace means Merc have a real chance to influence the title race. I look forward to the struggle again when we hit a track with a bump or two!

Norris looked sharp but, like Alonso near the end race dash, lacked that extra pace in the car to be a sustained threat.

With that I am chuffed for Carlos. OK, he needed that SC and the pit call to get it done but fair play he didn't rollover when his team seemed to be using him as a buffer. You have to imagine Sainz must of had a niggling doubt in the back of his mind there was a risk that the best oppurtunities of his career were slipping through his fingers. The risk of denting inter-team relations must be worth it for this day that he'll never forget.

Besides the crash at the start, really enjoyed the race. Plenty of twists and on track action and we didn't even need to rely on playing our rain card.
 
Last edited:
All that Lewis needed was for the car to stop jumping around the track because he's back in form. Now hopefully Bernie Ecclestone, Jackie Stewart, Jacques Villeneuve and everyone else will shut up about him now.
There was OBVIOUSLY something wrong with Sir Lewis today. 1st. Praised his tires several times. 2nd. Battled LeClerc at Copse and didn't wreck him. I do hope he's not suffering the after effects of the constant bouncing.(which his team seems to have finally solved) Well done sir....Sir Lewis.
 
There was OBVIOUSLY something wrong with Sir Lewis today. 1st. Praised his tires several times. 2nd. Battled LeClerc at Copse and didn't wreck him. I do hope he's not suffering the after effects of the constant bouncing.(which his team seems to have finally solved) Well done sir....Sir Lewis.

OK I'll bite :laugh:

He managed to battle Charles last year too. If you recall it was for the lead of the race.

Nice effort though, Dave.
 
All that Lewis needed was for the car to stop jumping around the track because he's back in form. Now hopefully Bernie Ecclestone, Jackie Stewart, Jacques Villeneuve and everyone else will shut up about him now.
Somewhat, though he needs to keep doing what he did today.

I think a lot of the problems were/are setup related (compared to the other driver), and experimentation to try and find the best balance is certainly not an easy task.
The other podiums by merc this year were more as a result of DNFs, but this one was deserved on merit.
Will see how the next races go, but it was a big improvement at this track.

Unfortunately though, a slightly disappointing performance by McLaren today. Not a bad effort though.
 
Last edited:

Latest News

Article information

Author
Mike Smith
Article read time
2 min read
Views
23,002
Comments
180
Last update

What's needed for simracing in 2024?

  • More games, period

  • Better graphics/visuals

  • Advanced physics and handling

  • More cars and tracks

  • AI improvements

  • AI engineering

  • Cross-platform play

  • New game Modes

  • Other, post your idea


Results are only viewable after voting.
Back
Top