#Formula1 Pirelli #BritishGP 2021 Preview – #F1
Formula 1 Pirelli British Grand Prix 2020 Race Start, Silverstone Circuit, Silverstone, Towchester, United Kingdom. Image credit to Reuters. Emirates Formula 1 70th Anniversary Grand Prix Preview. 2021 British GP Preview, British Grand Prix Preview.
The 2021 British GP Preview is here! – After Max Verstappen claimed a dominant victory at the Austrian GP to extend his championship lead to 32 points, round ten of the 2021 FIA Formula One World Championship returns to the fast and historic Silverstone Circuit this weekend for the Formula 1 Pirelli British Grand Prix 2021. This marks the 75th running of the British Grand Prix, the 72nd time as part of a World Championship event and the 56th time that the British Grand Prix has been held at Silverstone. Silverstone will also feature an all-new race weekend format featuring a 100km Qualifying Sprint Race to decide the grid for the Grand Prix.
2021 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 seven to his name.
Scuderia Ferrari are the most successful Constructor at the British Grand Prix with 16 victories.
2021 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 blistering pole position lap from last season’s British Grand Prix Qualifying session of a 1:24.303 in his Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport F1 W11 EQ Power+ at the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hk5YnZFyINo
2021 British GP Preview – The Last Five Winners
2020: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes AMG F1. 2019: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes AMG F1. 2018: Sebastian Vettel, Scuderia Ferrari. 2017: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes AMG F1. 2016: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes AMG F1.
2021 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 one of the hards.
2021 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).
2021 British GP Preview – Pitlane Speed Limits
Pitlane speeds will be 80km/h during practice, qualifying and the race.
ICYMI: Verstappen cruises to dominant Austrian GP victory
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen stormed to his fifth victory of the season at the Austrian GP ahead of Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas who was second and McLaren’s Lando Norris completing the top three.
The Dutchman’s advantage was so big, he had enough time to pit again and to clinch the bonus fastest lap point, whilst Bottas benefitted from being allowed by team-mate Lewis Hamilton in a Mercedes team order and Norris overtook his fellow British compatriot to claim the final podium place despite picking up a five-second time penalty from his early incident with Red Bull’s Sergio Perez.
When the 71-lap Austrian GP began, Norris got a slightly better run off the line, which forced Verstappen to swing across and cover the run to the first corner’s uphill right hander, where he held first place and pulled clear.
In the group behind, Hamilton battled Perez for third place at the turn four downhill right, shortly before the race was stabilised due to the deployment of the safety car from Alpine F1 Team’s Esteban Ocon who stopped with a broken right front on the run-down between turns three and four between Haas F1 Team’s Mick Schumacher and Alfa Romeo Racing’s Antonio Giovinazzi at the uphill tight third corner.
The race returned to green on lap four, where Verstappen was waiting until he was clear of the final corner before planting down the throttle allowing Perez to get a run-on Norris on the outside of turn one.
The Red Bull driver took to the run-off exiting the turn and fell back behind Norris, with the Mercedes pairing swarming as they sped down to turn three.
Perez went for the move around the outside Norris at turn four but was edged out wide and ended up into the gravel trap, which saw the Briton later hit with a five-second time penalty, as the Red Bull dropped to tenth, and Hamilton and Bottas went by.
Verstappen was 1.9 seconds clear at the end of the initial full tour and rapidly extended the gap to nearly ten seconds with a series of fastest laps in the low 1:09’s bracket, as Norris was under pressure from Hamilton until the 20th lap.
Hamilton closed in again after Norris at first kept him behind, despite McLaren’s concern that his pace in the mid 1:09’s was hurting his left-rear tyre, and the former used DRS assistance to overtake the McLaren on the run to turn four after initially attacking on the outside at turn three.
Verstappen continued to extend his lead to over 12 seconds by the time Hamilton came in for his stop on lap 31, where the Mercedes swapped the C4 medium compounds to the hards, which Red Bull did for Verstappen on the following tour.
After rejoining comfortably in-front, Verstappen continued to build his gap at the beginning of his second stint, which fastly became a solid advantage as Hamilton continued to struggle for grip due to sustaining damage to the left-rear aerodynamic surfaces on his F1 W12 EQ Performance racer, which Mercedes reported to Bottas was due to running over the final corner exit kerbs.
As Verstappen bolted to over 23 seconds clear out-front, Hamilton became under pressure from team-mate Bottas, who moved ahead of Norris when the McLaren driver served his five second timed-penalty when the duo pitted for hards the tour before Hamilton.
Mercedes initially told Bottas not to attack Hamilton as they reviewed the situation, but when it was 20 laps remaining, the Finn was given the order that he was free to race, with Norris only a second behind the Mercedes driver.
Then Mercedes opted to switch the order of it’s cars, with Hamilton allowing Bottas to get past on the inside of the third corner on the 52nd tour, whilst Norris closed in on the reigning world champion as Bottas moved clear.
Norris attacked Hamilton two laps later as he looked to the outside of the Mercedes into turn four but was fended off there before he darted ahead on the inside of the fast-sweeping left turn six to find his way back into the podium position, with Hamilton stopping for a second time at the end of that lap.
Red Bull brought Verstappen in for a final stop at the end of the 60th lap, as the Dutchman claimed the fastest lap on a 1:06.200 – having already held the honour even before his second pit-stop during a brief swapping of times with Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz and Hamilton just before coming in for a second set of the white side-walled C3 hards.
Norris hunted down Bottas to the line, but was two seconds behind, with Verstappen clinching the Austrian GP victory by 17.973 seconds, back-to-back wins at the Red Bull Ring and extending his World Driver’s Championship lead to 32 points.
Hamilton wound up fourth, in-front of Perez, who came home fifth, but ended the Grand Prix in sixth place due to a pair of five second timed-penalties for twice tangling with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc in similar situations, and on the initial occasion at the same spot, as his incident with McLaren’s Norris.
The second occurrence between Perez and Leclerc happened with the latter attempting to around the outside of the Red Bull at turn six before he was pushed into the gravel, after which Perez ran clear and passed McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo.
Perez tried to build enough of a gap to hold onto fifth place despite his added-on time to come, running very close to Hamilton by the end, but Sainz’ late surge after running a long initial stint on the harder compounds from tenth on the grid meant the Ferrari driver was within 10 seconds to claim fifth at the chequered flag.
Sainz was given the all-clear to pass team-mate Leclerc as the Monegasque-youngster failed in several attempts to pass Ricciardo’s MCL35M racer, with the Australian taking seventh place and Leclerc in eighth.
Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly crossed the line in ninth place, whilst Alpine F1 Team’s Fernando Alonso grabbed the final point on offer to deny George Russell and Williams their first championship point, with the Briton losing several places on lap one starting eighth.
Russell resisted the pressure from the Spaniard in a thrilling fight before the Alpine driver got passed with three tours remaining – using DRS assistance to get onto the inside of the FW43B after going deep defending at the third corner.
On the last lap, Russell’s 11th place was also under-threat from Alfa Romeo Racing’s Kimi Raikkonen and Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel, who was on a charge running a two-stop strategy.
When Russell and Raikkonen locked up at the fourth corner, Vettel brought his Mercedes-powered AMR21 racer alongside and ahead of his former Ferrari team-mate, who ran into the left-hand side of the German as Russell pulled clear.
Both Raikkonen and Vettel went off into the gravel trap behind turn five, where they retired from the race.
The second AlphaTauri of Yuki Tsunoda finished 12th and ahead of Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll who ended the Grand Prix 13th and the aforementioned Giovinazzi 14th.
The other Williams of Nicholas Latifi came 15th and in-front of the aforementioned Raikkonen and Vettel who were 16th and 17th on the classification as the Haas F1 Team pairing of Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin brought up the rear and two laps down from the lead.
2021 British GP Preview – The Situation
Max Verstappen returns to Silverstone on top of the World Driver’s Championship with 182 points and a 32-points lead over Lewis Hamilton who is second on 150 points while Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez is a further 78 points behind the Dutchman in third on 104 points.
Red Bull Racing comes to Great Britain on top of the World Constructor’s Championship with 286 points and a 44-point advantage over nearest rival Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team who are second on 242 points while McLaren Racing is third and are a further 145 points behind the Milton Keynes based-outfit on 141 points.
Click here for the 2020 Formula 1 World Driver’s (Top 10) and Constructors Championship Standings
How will Formula 1’s new Qualifying Sprint format work?
Sprint Qualifying will be a 100km race running for 25-30 minutes. It is designed to produce a short and fast-paced racing – with drivers pushing flat-out without pitting.
Points will be rewarded to the top three finishers, with three for the winner, two for second and one for third place. There will not be a podium ceremony, with that honour only for the top three in Sunday’s Grand Prix, however, the sprint race winner will receive a trophy in Parc Ferme, which is going to be presented in the same manner to the tyre the pole-sitter currently from Formula 1’s sole tyre supplier Pirelli after qualifying.
The finishing order for the sprint will set the grid for the Grand Prix, where the traditional format will remain unchanged.
The grid procedure will be more modest for Sprint Qualifying, with the media and guests allowed on the grid as is the case in non-coronavirus times for the Grand Prix, but moments such as the national anthem will only be unique for the race on Sunday.
The one-hour qualifying format, split into three sessions, will move to Friday to give track action some thrill and excitement.
The tyre rules will change for this session, with only the red side-walled softer rubber allowed. As a result of this, the teams are now free to start the Grand Prix on any tyre compound, rather than running on the tyres they qualified on in Q2.
There will only be two one-hour practice sessions during the race weekend.
The first will run on Friday, later in the day than usual as qualifying is pushed back further in the schedule.
Teams may use any two sets of their weekend allocation of 12. Which has been reduced by one set due to less running time over the three days, aside from the sets they need to keep for qualifying (five sets of the softs) and the Grand Prix (two sets, free choice).
The cars will enter Parc Ferme restrictions after the opening practice session, before being released for FP2, which will run on Saturday morning, where they will be able to use one set of tyres of their choice.
If FP1 or Qualifying is run in wet conditions, the teams would be given an extra set of intermediates, but then must return a used set of those before Sprint Qualifying.
If the Qualifying Sprint Race is wet, the teams must return a used set or intermediate rubber afterwards, to be replaced with a fresh set.
For safety reasons, teams can change brake friction material for a new identical set, that has been used in qualifying and sprint qualifying ahead of the race.
Allowances for cooling adjustments have been made for power-trains and gearboxes should be ambient temperature change significantly (a change of 10 degrees or more recorded by the sport’s governing body, the FIA’s appointed weather provider) whilst weight distribution may be altered.
If a front wing is damaged for Sprint Qualifying, for example, and the team has run out of the latest spec front wings, they can run a previous spec without being hit with a penalty. Recently, a change of spec, either for an older or new component, would have resulted in a penalty.
Between Qualifying and the Sprint Qualifying, teams are allowed to alter or change suspension elements – dampers and springs – or adjust camber, toe or ride height of suspension components defined in the Technical Regulations Article 10.3.
The Sprint Qualifying format will be running at three Grands Prix this year, with the other two set to be announced.
Monza is understood to be the next one announced with its layout to allow the new format a chance to shine.
If the format works, the idea is for it to be run at selected Grand Prix weekends in the future, rather than at every race on the calendar.
The Formula 1 Pirelli British Grand Prix 2021 weekend begins Friday July 16 with Free Practice 1 and Qualifying to decide the grid for the 100km Qualifying Sprint, followed by Free Practice 2 and the 100-kilometre Qualifying Sprint Race Saturday July 17 along with the 52 lap Race Sunday July 18.
