F1's perfect storm at Silverstone

Formula 1 has been battered and bruised recently by a barrage of criticism of 'the show'.

But last Sunday's British Grand Prix was a timely reminder to F1's detractors that, while there is certainly room for tweaks to be made to the rules, there is still much to commend.

The Silverstone podium had a familiar feel, with Lewis Hamilton, Nico Rosberg and Sebastian Vettel the top three, but their route to those positions was far from straightforward and provided a great storyline that created the best race of the season.

After Hamilton and Rosberg locked out the front row, and with cool conditions expected for Sunday, there was a feeling within the paddock that the race would be something of a one-stop damp squib.

It proved to be anything but. A friend, who has followed Formula 1 for decades, said to me after the race that this was the first time all year he had watched a grand prix from start to finish. It's exactly the kind of race people want to see.

It had a bit of everything, with drama from the start, courtesy of Williams drivers Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas's stunning getaways.

Then there was the collision between Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo and Lotus's Romain Grosjean, which triggered a midfield bumper-car session.

Williams got the jump off the line, setting up a four-driver fight for the lead © LAT

Then there was the question of how Williams would react to finding itself in the lead, and whether Hamilton and Rosberg could fight back past.

When the rain came in the closing stages it provided another twist, with misery for Williams. Its car lacks downforce and therefore suffers more in the wet than some, but that meant glory for Vettel as he secured an unexpected podium, having spent much of the race circulating in the lower end of the points.

The weather also increased the emphasis on drivers' decision-making skills. Both Hamilton and Vettel were able to gain an advantage by reading the conditions well and reacting accordingly, deciding to pit for intermediates as the rain intensified.

The weather obviously played a big part in Silverstone being a better spectacle, but when it was dry this was the first time in 2015 that four cars had battled for the lead, with Williams giving Mercedes its first genuine challenge since Vettel and Ferrari outfoxed the Brackley-based team to win the Malaysian Grand Prix nearly four months ago.

A combination of track characteristics over the recent races and consistent car development has enabled Williams to take the fight to Mercedes.

There were also intriguing stories all the way down the field. Toro Rosso showed promise early in the weekend, and Max Verstappen went as far as to say his team had the second-best car in terms of race pace after Friday practice - and the stats backed him up, at that point.

Force India hopes to topple Red Bull with its long-awaited B-spec VJM08 © LAT

Force India delivered its much-anticipated B-spec car, which enabled it to rise up the pecking order and score a double-points finish at a track on which the team was nowhere last year.

The Silverstone-based team's pursuit of the better-funded Red Bull outfit will provide an intriguing side-story to what is a developing title battle between the two Mercedes drivers, with Williams showing the teeth for the fight and Ferrari capable of joining the mix, too.

With many teams hoping Hungary will play to their strengths, plus iconic venues in Belgium and Italy approaching, the next sequence of grands prix offers the potential for great racing. So there is plenty to get excited about.

The other boost the world championship received was the record, 140,000 sell-out attendance Silverstone achieved for Sunday's race, bringing the weekend's total to 335,000. Rival sports, let alone other race promoters, could only dream of such figures.

And that race-day figure is all the more impressive considering the cheapest ticket available is the second most expensive on the Formula 1 calendar at £155, when special offers are not taken into consideration.

It also followed an Austrian Grand Prix at which attendance fell 40 per cent this year, races in Malaysia and China which had swathes of empty seats while the erstwhile next race in Germany was axed from the calendar when neither the Nurburgring nor Hockenheim could afford to host it without a subsidy.

The record Silverstone crowd was treated to an entertaining race © XPB

It proves that Formula 1 remains hugely popular in Great Britain, and follows impressive turnouts in Australia, Monaco and Canada so far this season.

It also proves that while it remains important to bring F1 to new markets, its chiefs must not, at any cost, forget the countries that support it in huge numbers every year.

"Crisis called off?" said Mercedes chief Toto Wolff with a wry smile after the race.

"Sometimes these things happen at the right moment. It was just such great crowds out there and a race with all the ingredients necessary to make it an exciting race.

"I don't share we are always glass half empty because we create races like Montreal, which was full, and Melbourne was full. Then Austria was pretty good when you consider it is a tiny place, and there were 55,000 on a Sunday. The TV audiences are up at the last few races in some of the major countries."

Red Bull boss Christian Horner added: "We had a great crowd at Silverstone. It is good we put on a good race for the crowd and that's what we have to strive for: putting on good races and making the cars a real challenge to drive. That is what is being focused on for the future, which is the right approach."

Of course, to expect every race to provide the drama of Silverstone is naive. But there is no reason why there shouldn't be more thrillers.

A return to ground effect aerodynamics is among the 2017 proposals © LAT

That's why if tweaks are required they are small ones, and some of the Strategy Group's ideas - such as adjustments to the weekend format and a push for faster cars - are in that register. There should also be a greater emphasis on getting the locations right with track characteristics critical to a successful race weekend.

Wolff added: "We need to take each other by the ear and ask 'how can we make it better?' All the time, we have to convince the critics this is a great sport and we did some of that at Silverstone."

British Grand Prix winner Hamilton praised the quality of the race saying: "Sometimes, it's a bit of an indication for us not to throw our toys out of the pram and say everything's wrong. We are not too far off the mark, hopefully, and I hope that we have more races like this."

If Formula 1's bosses build on the success of Silverstone, and focus on finessing the sport rather than making wholesale changes, then maybe the naysayers will stop complaining - or at least turn the volume down - and talk of a crisis will quietly drop off the agenda.

Because ultimately, Formula 1 in its current form is still pretty damn good.