Lando! Max Wins, McLaren Surges, Ferrari Fumbles - Silverstone 2023 Recap
Max Verstappen dominated again, but the best race of the year happened behind him.
McLaren had a statement weekend on their sixtieth trip to Silverstone. Lando Norris continued his resurgence and Oscar Piastri joined the fun with an upgrade of his own.
Lando qualified in P2 and leapt into the lead at the start of the race as the British fans roared. Oscar even managed to pull alongside Max Verstappen at the start, but settled into P3.
Max overtook Lando relatively easily on Lap 5 and built a comfortable lead from there.
McLaren showed their race pace is real as both drivers hung within a few seconds of Max and built a small gap to Charles Leclerc behind.
Engine failure for Kevin Magnussen’s Haas caused a late safety car, shaking up the standings and pulling Max back toward the rest of the field.
McLaren opted for Hard tyres at the restart. At first glance (to fans and Lando Norris), a car on Hards would have no chance defending against a car on Softs at a restart. But McLaren knew three things. First, their car heats up its tyres very quickly. Second, Mercedes only had used Softs remaining and performance would fall off toward the end of the race. And third, Lando Norris is a badass.
Lewis pressured Lando hard for multiple laps at the restart and even pulled alongside him on Lap 40, but Lando defended with expert precision at every corner and managed to hang on for a P2 finish (and the first McLaren podium at Silverstone since Lewis Hamilton in 2010).
Oscar Piastri lost his first podium to bad safety car timing, but hung with Lando all weekend and certainly looked the part of a future star.
Mercedes was not fast enough to challenge at the top but managed another solid team finish.
Hamilton overtook Alonso on Lap 7 and lucked out with safety car timing to manage a sneaky podium finish.
George Russell overtook Leclerc on Lap 31 and finished P5.
Aston Martin took a step back in pace relative to the other three teams battling for second this weekend.Â
Fernando Alonso qualified ahead of Hamilton but clearly lacked race pace as he was forced to defend throughout.
Ever since they were called Force India, this Aston Martin team has had a reputation for front loading their performance and not developing particularly well through the season.
That said, the Hungaroring should be a better match than Silverstone for AM’s strengths.
Ferrari once again had pace but lacked strategy. They might soon find themselves trading a fight for second with Mercedes for a fight for fifth with McLaren.
Leclerc qualified well in fourth, but failed to pit in time under the safety car and fell way down the grid for a P9 finish.Â
Carlos Sainz started fifth and was under pressure immediately from both Mercedes. He managed to hang around the top five until his team left him on Hard tyres at the restart.Â
Carlos made flailing attempts to defend as Sergio Perez, Fernando Alonso, Alex Albon (!), and his own teammate Leclerc all passed him pushing him down to a P10 finish.
Other Notes:
Alpine suffered a tough double DNF as Esteban Ocon retired early and Pierre Gasly broke his suspension in a scrap with Lance Stroll.
Williams looked strong all weekend as Alex Albon finished P8 and Logan Sargeant finished P11 for the best result of his young career.
I’m saving the subject line for next week’s prixview, but Danny Ricciardo is back! Red Bull has had enough of Nyck De Vries and is loaning the veteran Ricciardo to replace the struggling rookie at AlphaTauri.Â
Sports Illustrated reported last week that Ricciardo could take Checo’s seat at Red Bull next season if they can sign Alex Palou for the AlphaTauri seat. Palou is a 26 year old Spaniard currently tearing up Indy Car for Chip Ganassi Racing and serving as a reserve for McLaren.
