#F1 @Lenovo #BritishGP 2022 Preview. #Formula1 #BritishGrandPrix
Formula 1 Pirelli British Grand Prix 2021 Race Start, Silverstone Circuit, Silverstone, Towcester, Northamptonshire, Buckinghamshire, Great Britain, Untied Kingdom. Image credit to F1. 2022 British GP Preview, British Grand Prix Preview, F1 British GP Preview, British GP Preview.
2022 British GP Preview – After Max Verstappen fended off Carlos Sainz to win at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve and extend his World Driver’s Championship points lead, round ten of the 2022 FIA Formula One World Championship returns to the fast and historic Silverstone Circuit this weekend for the Formula 1 Lenovo British Grand Prix 2022. This marks the 76th running of the British Grand Prix, the 73rd time as part of a World Championship event and the 57th time that the British Grand Prix has been held at Silverstone.
2022 British GP Preview – A look at the Silverstone Circuit
Silverstone Circuit is a permanent racing circuit in England next to the Northamptonshire Villages of Silverstone and Whittlebury. The circuit sits on the Northamptonshire and Buckinghamshire border, with the current main circuit entry on the Buckinghamshire side. The Northamptonshire towns of Towcester, Brackley and Buckinghamshire town of Buckingham are close by, and the nearest large towns are Northampton and Milton Keynes.
Silverstone is the current home of the British Grand Prix, which it first hosted in 1948. The 1950 British Grand Prix at Silverstone was the first race in the newly created Formula One World Championship. The race rotated between Silverstone, Aintree and Brands Hatch from 1955 to 1986, but relocated permanently to Silverstone in 1987.
The circuit is built on the site of a World War II Royal Air Force bomber station, RAF Silverstone which opened in 1943. The airfield’s three runways in classic WWII triangle format lie within the outline of the current track.
Giuseppe Farina was the inaugural winner of the British Grand Prix which was the first round of the championship in 1950 when the Formula One World Championship was formed and was also the first driver to win the inaugural Formula One World Championship with Alfa Romeo.
The circuit layout has changed many times throughout its history on the Formula One calendar with the current front straight featuring the Silverstone Wing pit building which is located in between Club and Abbey Corner has been used since 2011. The current front straight was also used in 2010 while the Silverstone Wing building was being built but the front straight was located at the old pit straight in between Luffield, Woodcote and Copse corner.
The current Arena Grand Prix Circuit layout currently being used runs in a clockwise direction and is 5.891km (3.661mi) in length and has 18 corners.
Race distance is 306.198km (190.163 mi) with 52 laps in total.
Max Verstappen holds the fastest lap record of the current circuit layout set last at last year’s event with a 1:27.097 in his Red Bull Racing-Honda RB16.
Seven-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton has the most British Grand Prix victories with eight to his name.
Scuderia Ferrari are the most successful Constructor at the British Grand Prix with 16 victories.
2022 British GP Preview – A lap of the Silverstone Circuit
The start of the track begins between Club and Abbey corner. Almost flat out, the right-hander of Abbey leads immediately into the left-hander of Farm before cars heavily brake into the second gear, right-handed turn 3 Village corner. The even slower left-hander of The Loop comes immediately after, and leads into the flat-out left-hander of Aintree, before cars head down the first DRS zone of the Wellington Straight, designed in 2010 to promote overtaking. Turn 6, the left hander of Brooklands, is taken by drivers in second gear and leads immediately into Luffield, another second gear curve; a right-hand hairpin. The right-handed kink of Woodcote leads cars down the old pit straight, before the difficult sixth gear right hand Copse corner, with a minimum speed of 281 kph in the dry for Formula One cars.
Then, the equally tricky complex of Maggotts, Becketts and Chapel – a left-right-left-right-left complex with a minimum speed of 209 kph, leads cars down the Hangar Straight with the fifth gear right-hander of Stowe lurking at the end. The fifteenth turn of the track, Stowe, has a minimum speed of 201 kph and precedes a short straight, named Vale, which leads cars downhill towards the Club complex. Heavy braking is required for the left-hander of turn 16, and understeer can be an issue for the next right-handers of turns 17 and 18, as cars tentatively accelerate round to the start-finish straight. You can watch Lewis Hamilton’s pole position lap from last season’s British Grand Prix Qualifying session of a 1:26.134 in his Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport F1 W12 E Performance at the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_2aJhmpInY
2022 British GP Preview – The Last Five Winners
2021: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes AMG F1. 2020: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes AMG F1. 2019: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes AMG F1. 2018: Sebastian Vettel, Scuderia Ferrari. 2017: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes AMG F1.
2022 British GP Preview – Tyres
Pirelli will be bringing with them to Silverstone, the white side-walled C1 Hard tyres along with the yellow-branded C2 Medium compounds and the red-marked C3 Soft rubber as well as the Intermediate (green) and Wet (blue) compounds to the event in case of rain.
All drivers will have the same allocation of tyres, eight sets of the softs, three of the mediums and two of the hards.
2022 British GP Preview – DRS Zones
There will be two DRS Zones at Silverstone. The first detection point is 25 metres before turn three (Village) with the activation point 30 metres after turn five (Aintree) on the Wellington Straight. The second detection point is at turn 11 (Maggots) with the activation point 55 metres after the exit turn 14 (Chapel).
2022 British GP Preview – Pit-lane Speed Limits
Pit-lane speeds will be 80km/h during practice, qualifying and the race.
ICYMI: Verstappen fends-off Sainz to clinch Canadian GP victory
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen withstood intense pressure from Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz to take victory at the Canadian GP following a late safety car interruption with Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton taking third.
The race already had two disruptions from virtual safety cars, which put Verstappen and Sainz on different two-stopper v one stop strategies for the Ferrari ahead of the final phase, before the safety car brought them altogether and set-up a straight battle for the win on the same Pirelli C3 white side-walled compounds, with the Spaniard on the younger tyre.
Behind, Alpine’s Fernando Alonso who started on the front row became a seventh-placed finish for the Spaniard, behind Mercedes duo Hamilton and George Russell, whilst Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc recovered from the back-of-the-pack to finish fifth.
When the 70 lap Canadian GP began, pole-sitter Verstappen made a comfortable get away into turn one, eliminating Alonso’s desire to pass the Dutchman.
Sainz followed his fellow Spanish-compatriot through the opening corners whilst Hamilton’s front-left tapped Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen’s right-side front wing end-plate when the VF-22 attacked the outside of the Silver Arrow into turn three, which broke part of it and left it hanging off.
As Verstappen started to build his lead, which was at one second at the end of the first tour, Sainz took until the end of the third lap to pass Alonso – using DRS assistance to get by the A522 racer on the approach to the final turns.
Verstappen gained a few tenths per tour over Sainz during the early proceedings, where the Ferrari driver struggled with graining on his front-left tyre, but the Spaniard was starting to reverse this trend when the initial stint was disrupted by the deployment of the virtual safety car on the ninth tour.
Just after Magnussen was instructed to pit to change his front wing by the sport’s governing body, the FIA, Red Bull’s Sergio Perez peeled off mid-pack with what was a suspected engine failure, which meant the Mexican stopped in the run-off area behind turn nine and the run-down to the hairpin late in the tour.
Whilst one of it’s cars were being cleared under the virtual safety car, Red Bull immediately pitted Verstappen to put on the harder tyres to take advantage of the reduced time stop with the Grand Prix stabilised, as Sainz and Alonso remained out on track whilst Hamilton also came in.
Sainz lead for the next stage of the race after it went green at the end of the tenth lap, with Verstappen then eating into what was a 6.4 second gap for the Ferrari over the former leader, who rapidly caught and overtook Alonso for second place – getting passed with an easy DRS overtake down the back straight.
The race status remained unchanged until the 20th lap, when the virtual safety car was deployed again for Haas F1 Team’s Mick Schumacher, who had dropped back from sixth-place on the first lap, as the German pulled off with a mechanical failure at the same spot as Perez had done earlier.
This time Sainz stopped to put on the harder rubber, emerging just as the virtual safety car ended at the beginning of the 21st tour and just in-front of the already-pitted Hamilton, then leading him back up behind Alonso, who again remained out despite the cheap pit-stop on offer.
Like during the early proceedings, Sainz got by Alonso once again with DRS assistance on the rundown to the final corners on the 22nd lap, which left the Spaniard 9.4 seconds behind Verstappen, whilst Hamilton soon followed the Ferrari driver past Alonso to run in a distant third place behind the leading duo.
Sainz used his fresher harder tyres to his advantage to slowly eat into Verstappen’s gap over the next phase of the Grand Prix, but it was still holding at comfortably above eight seconds with 30 tours completed and even as Verstappen reported over the radio that his harder compounds were starting to lose grip.
By the beginning of lap 40, Sainz had been taking bigger chunks out of Verstappen’s lead meaning the gap was shrinking to just over six seconds and so Red Bull decided to bring the race leader in a second time – again putting on a set of harder rubber on lap 43.
Verstappen was annoyed to come out behind Hamilton but flew by the Mercedes with DRS assistance the next time down the back-straight, with the latter then immediately pitting for the second time also.
Sainz then enjoyed a comfortable 10.8 second lead with 25 tours remaining, but Verstappen quickly pushed to bring the gap down to 7.7 seconds at the end of lap 49.
But the race complexion completely changed when AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda crashed after making his second pit-stop and went straight into the turn two barriers at the pit-lane exit.
Ferrari brought Sainz in and was able to put on a fresh set of harder compounds and emerged just behind Verstappen, which set up a 14-lap dash to the flag once the race returned to green at the beginning of the 56th tour after the AlphaTauri AT03 racer was cleared.
Sainz could not put a move on Verstappen at the restart after the race leader had waited until the final few turns before shooting back into top speed, with the Dutchman pulling out a 0.8 second gap over the Ferrari driver on the initial tour back at racing speed.
But Sainz charged hard to stay in DRS range when the system was re-activated two tours after the restart and was able to keep Verstappen under intense pressure.
Tour-after-tour Ferrari used his DRS to close in on the long back and main-straights, but Verstappen was able to remain in-front thanks to his brilliant traction out of the hairpin and last chicane.
Twice Sainz got the gap to 0.3 seconds and within Verstappen’s rear wing, also twice moving towards the inside line for the final chicane in an attempt to put the Red Bull driver off, but Verstappen did not budge.
Sainz locked-up at the hairpin on the final tour meaning, Verstappen was able to cross the line to take the Canadian GP victory by 0.993 seconds, increasing his Driver’s Championship points lead to 46 over Red Bull team-mate Perez.
Hamilton completed the top three having been quickly dropped by the leaders after the safety car restart.
Russell gained under the virtual safety car and was closing in on Mercedes team-mate Hamilton before the leading F1 W13 stopped after Verstappen shot by, after which Russell was also given a second pit-stop and ran behind his team-mate to the flag, with neither pitting under the safety car.
Leclerc’s had a frustrating race as he struggled with rear-tyre grip whilst making his way through the field from 19th on the grid.
The Monegasque driver made steady progress through the lower places but was not making the push through the field he was expecting and was then frustrated for a long time behind Alpine’s Esteban Ocon during the middle stage of the Grand Prix.
By this time, Alonso had finally pitted and was hurling back towards the Ferrari, which started on the alternate strategy using the hards for the start and had likewise not come in during the two virtual safety car deployments.
When Leclerc stopped on lap 41, a slow-stop meant he emerged behind a train of cars – Alfa’s Zhou Gunayu, Tsunoda and McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo – that were following the yet-to-pit Aston Martin of Lance Stroll.
He took a few tours to clear them, with Leclerc passing Stroll before Tsunoda’s crash and he was another driver to not come in during the safety car.
This meant he was behind Ocon and Alonso at the restart – the latter still stuck behind his team-mate due to what Alpine had described a “straight-line speed issue” following his pit-stop.
Despite having older tyres (Ocon and Alonso did stop for the same C4 yellow-marked mediums Leclerc was already running), Leclerc made his way passed the duo with two moves at the hairpin to take fifth – although his overtake on Ocon came after he had got a move into the chicane wrong and had to let his rival by a short while beforehand.
Alonso suggested to his team that Ocon should let him passed before the finish but wound up behind his Alpine team-mate in seventh place.
Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN’s Valtteri Bottas came home in eighth place and was the second-highest one stopping finisher (behind Leclerc), with team-mate Zhou in the second C42 racer ending the race in ninth place
Home-town hero Stroll claimed the final points place for Aston Martin following a late DRS overtake on McLaren’s Ricciardo, who lost time with a lengthy pit-stop during the second virtual safety car period.
The other Aston Martin AMR22 entry Sebastian Vettel finished the Canadian GP outside the top ten in 12th place and in-front of Williams Racing’s Alexander Albon who was 13th and AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly who took 14th.
McLaren’s Lando Norris also lost a heap of time due to the Woking-based squad’s double-stack pit-stop, with the Briton also hit with a five-second time penalty for speeding in the pit-lane.
Norris eventually settled for 15th and ahead of Williams Racing’s Nicholas Latifi and Haas F1 Team’s Magnussen, who ended the race at the rear.
2022 British GP Preview – The Situation
Max Verstappen returns to Silverstone on top of the World Driver’s Championship with 175 points and a 46-points lead over Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez who is second on 129 points whilst Charles Leclerc is a further 49 points behind the Dutchman in third on 126 points.
Formula 1 returns home to the historic Silverstone this weekend for the British Grand Prix, which is set to provide quite a spectacle with an in-form Verstappen, and home favourites Sir Lewis Hamilton and George Russell, and a full-on crowd hitting the famous circuit for more drama.
Verstappen holds a comfortable 46-point gap in his championship lead, after making huge strides in his title-defence, although Red Bull are claiming Ferrari are still the quickest car on the grid and also fear the pace of the Mercedes.
The Dutchman returns to the scene of what was a hugely chaotic moment in last season’s championship fight – with Verstappen being sent into the barriers from a Hamilton crash in July 2021 – but he arrives for this weekend’s British GP in a great mood, and in solid form.
Verstappen has won six out of nine Grands Prix this year and two of his defeat’s came via mechanical failures from Red Bull.
With Leclerc and Ferrari suffering from their own reliability problems in recent weeks, Verstappen clinched victory in both the Azerbaijan and Canadian Grands Prix to open up a solid title lead, with team-mate Perez his closest rival.
Whilst Ferrari remain optimistic with their new engine and challenged Verstappen in Montreal, his form makes the Dutchman the favourite for the British Grand Prix, and the 2022 title.
Verstappen has never won a British GP – only claiming a victory at Silverstone in Formula 1’s 70th Anniversary Grand Prix amid a 2020 double-header – but the Dutchman looks well set to take it out this weekend. Will he be stopped?
Red Bull have won all of the last seven Grands Prix, but were rapid to highlight Ferrari’s speed after Montreal, with Team Principal Christian Horner claiming the “high-speed” Silverstone would swing Ferrari’s way and that the previous circuits favoured the Milton Keynes based-outfit.
Notable Horner also gave Mercedes praise after an encouraging weekend last time out.
“Mercedes’ pace in the race was competitive,” Horner explained to Sky Sports F1. “With a smooth circuit [at Silverstone], they could be a factor.”
Mercedes looked more competitive in the race than they were in qualifying, when it looked like the Silver Arrows maybe following up their poor showing in Monaco and Azerbaijan with another.
But they came home with Russell third and Hamilton fourth and appeared to have solved their porpoising issues by lowering their F1 W13 racers to the floor – which should be even more helpful at the less bumpier Silverstone.
“If we are able to run the car low then we can be competitive,” Toto Wolff said to Sky Sports F1. “But after [the Spanish GP] we were cheering that we were back in the championship fight… so let’s see.”
Indeed, the Silver Arrows may be much closer to rivals Ferrari and Red Bull this weekend at Silverstone, but they still have a lot of ground to make up with their pace and in the title fight – as Mercedes are 116 points behind Red Bull whilst Russell and Hamilton are both 64 and 98 points respectively off World Driver’s Championship-leader Verstappen.
Renewed hope is just what the Brackley/Brixworth based-squad, and Hamilton needed in a disappointing campaign so far. F1’s statistically most successful driver returns to his favourite place this weekend – even though a record-breaking ninth victory at Silverstone may be a long shot.
Hamilton and Russell, who has been in inspired form in his first season at Mercedes, aren’t the only home favourites this weekend in Great Britain, as Lando Norris is also looking to impress for McLaren.
Oracle Red Bull Racing comes to Great Britain on top of the World Constructor’s Championship with 304 points and a 76-point advantage over nearest rival Scuderia Ferrari who are second on 228 points whilst Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team is third and are a further 116 points behind the Milton Keynes based-outfit on 188 points.
Click here for the 2022 Formula 1 World Driver’s (Top 10) and Constructors Championship Standings
The Formula 1 Lenovo British Grand Prix 2022 weekend begins Friday July 1 with Free Practice 1 and 2, followed by Free Practice 3 and Qualifying Saturday July 2 along with the 52 lap Race Sunday July 3.
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