After starting out in Marseille, France before hopping 1145.2km to Spielberg in Austria, Formula One comes home to complete its first ever triple header with 2018 British Grand Prix.
Like Austria, Mercedes have dominated around Silverstone in hybrid era, with Lewis Hamilton winning for past four years. Can anyone stop the Brit and his Silver Arrow like they did last time out?
Plus there are plenty of other talking points for this weekend as the championship hots up ahead of summer break.
Track Guide
Circuit: Silverstone Circuit
Laps: 52
Race Distance: 306.332km
Tyre Compounds: Hard, Medium and Soft
Hamilton’s Super Six?
Embed from Getty ImagesLewis Hamilton currently shares five British Grand Prix victories alongside compatriot, Jim Clark and Alain Prost. Now can he make it a super six of home victories to become the sole record holder for most race wins at British Grand Prix?
Having won around Silverstone in literally every weather condition possible (excluding snow), this weekend shouldn’t faze Hamilton but current British heatwave will be a tough test with temperatures expected to be around 30 degrees and sunny all weekend.
That will make life tougher with Pirelli set to bring the hard, medium and soft tyres this weekend.
Whilst we know how the latter two compounds work, this will be the first weekend where we see the new hard compound being raced.
Pirelli have described the hard tyre as a race tyre that is durable but takes a while to warm up so getting them up to temperature could well be key to Hamilton’s hopes of a sixth British Grand Prix win overall and fifth on the bounce.
Can Silverstone offer Williams any home comforts?
For Williams, they will be hoping that their home race will offer them some home comforts in what has been a difficult season so far.
In the hybrid era however, Silverstone has been a track where the team has performed well despite last year being unfairly compromised by a wet start to qualifying, which is an area that Williams has notably struggled in since 2014.
Luckily, no rain is forecast for this weekend and although admitting that it will be “difficult”, Sergey Sirotkin is confident of striving “on a challenge” as he aims to impress at the team’s home race.
Sirotkin is however the only driver yet to score points and with Martini departing as the team’s main sponsor at end of season, this is a key race for Williams’ future as they seek points and possibly attract interest for potential sponsors to succeed Martini for next season.
Uncertain Saturday
With England qualifying for World Cup Quarter Finals where they will meet Marcus Ericsson’s Sweden, that raises questions surrounding F1’s Saturday schedule as fans could be forced to choose between end of Q3 and the big match.
Silverstone dropped a hint after England saw off Colombia that they will be showing the match at 3pm on Saturday, therefore indicating schedule change for F1.
That tweet has since been deleted but with Formula Two (F2) also keen to avoid any clashes, Qualifying could very well prove interesting if moved to a slot, which wouldn’t be representative for race data wise as FIA tries to keep everyone happy.
As for F2, they have three fantastic British drivers in action with all three linked to the junior programme of F1 teams.
Add in the fact that the title fight at minute is between two of those Brits, George Russell of Mercedes and McLaren’s Lando Norris then F2 deserves a decent audience for what could be a blockbuster weekend for the championship battle.
Either way, Saturday’s schedule is far from certain at time of publication but should be a cracker if we see some changes to avoid the England match affecting car performances.
Missed any of the first six race weekends and want to get up to date? Click on any of the hyperlinks below to go and check out my round up of the weekend/s.
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