The home crowd favourites seeking F1 British GP glory

For those either enfeebled by the post-Glastonbury blues, or those wanting to indulge in their own soundtrack of growling V6 turbo-hybrids, the British Grand Prix is set to deliver its yearly festival atmosphere to another sell-out crowd. Expect the aroma of burning fuel to coalesce with the umami wafts of smoke from the myriad barbecues peppered around the circuit’s vast campsites, as thousands of disciples make the pilgrimage to Northamptonshire to soak up the Great British summer.

It’s a great time to be a Formula 1 fan. The championship’s continuing surge of popularity escalates to stratospheric heights, and the home support for the Brits on the grid will be just as rambunctious as it ever was. The 2023 edition of the F1 championship race has been one-way traffic, with Max Verstappen tapping into a new vein of dominance this season after steamrollering his way to a second title in 2022. While the title appears off the table, each of the three drivers racing under the Union Flag arrive on home shores under improving fortunes.

Mercedes’ extensive upgrades to address the problems faced by its W14 appear to have dulled some of its most egregious bugbears, but Lewis Hamilton and George Russell continue with machinery still some way off challenging Red Bull for victories this season. McLaren endured an even more difficult start to 2023 after making a late decision to move its MCL60 development in a different direction, but the fruits of the Woking squad’s labour are starting to become more visible, and Lando Norris seeks to maximise his points haul from his home race.

So, how will each of the home interests fare at this year’s British Grand Prix? We assess their strengths coming into the weekend, and what their seasons so far can tell us about their fortunes…

Lewis Hamilton

Age 38
Silverstone GP starts 17
Silverstone GP wins 8
2023 championship position 4th (106 points)

Hamilton has won the British GP a record eight times, most recently in 2021

Photo by: Jake Grant / Motorsport Images

"It’s right up there with all the best circuits, but it has the best layout.” As an eight-time winner of the British Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton’s love for Silverstone is clear. That it’s his home race, in front of passionate, knowledgeable and loyal fans, is always worth an extra tenth or two. But after his dramatic win here in 2021, the Mercedes driver has endured a frustrating start to Formula 1’s new ground effect era. That ethereal home boost will be the help he needs behind the wheel of a W14 in 2023… 

That car, returned to the black paint scheme Hamilton used in his 2020 and 2021 Silverstone wins to save weight, isn’t as bad as its predecessor. This year, Mercedes has not had to solve the major porpoising dramas of 2022, which didn’t really occur on Silverstone’s smooth, flowing layout in any case. But the team with which Hamilton is conducting another contract extension has had plenty of technical work to complete so far in 2023. 

Even if there’s no repeat this time of his previous Silverstone glory or such drama [as in 2019], it’s certain that Hamilton will be relishing racing on his home circuit

Having realised how far off Red Bull’s leading pace it was in pre-season testing and the opening round in Bahrain, Mercedes is now four GPs into operating with the W14 running more traditional sidepods, as part of a major update to its upper aerodynamic surfaces introduced in Monaco in May but only really assessed in the subsequent races in Spain and Canada.

A second, “larger” upgrade package will be introduced this weekend, according to team boss Toto Wolff. “In truth, it doesn’t feel a huge difference to the beginning of the year,” Hamilton says of the W14’s changes. “There are some elements which do feel different. With the upgrade, it’s just having a little more downforce. It’s definitely not the car, characteristic-wise, that’s going to be able to beat the Red Bull just yet.” 

The W14 has been on average 0.623% slower than Red Bull through the opening eight rounds of the season – using the supertimes calculation where the fastest lap of each team from a race weekend is expressed as a percentage. Max Verstappen’s car advantage and dominant form mean it’s rather unlikely that Hamilton will add to his seven Silverstone poles and record victory tally. But qualifying rain and a late safety car period did shake the pack up here a year ago – circumstances in which the vastly experienced seven-time world champion and his operationally nimble Mercedes squad would be expected to seize any chance. 

Can the Mercedes driver add another win to his tally?

Photo by: Charles Coates / Motorsport Images

Hamilton may have been slightly pessimistic in his assessment of Mercedes’ form after following Verstappen and Fernando Alonso home in Canada, but it was the feeling that he and his squad took from the Barcelona race two weeks earlier that matters more concerning Silverstone. Here, Hamilton headed team-mate George Russell behind Verstappen, with the pair particularly satisfied with how their race pace compared to Aston Martin and Ferrari. Lower temperatures in the Spanish GP had helped Mercedes, but the Barcelona track’s series of fast corners, smooth surface and higher tyre load all played to the W14’s strengths, with its added downforce and new suspension.  

All these factors are present at Silverstone too, which raises the prospect of both Hamilton and Russell being in serious contention for further podium places, if not leading the fight for them. “We’ve all been buzzing [after Spain],” says Hamilton. “Back at the factory the team has a new energy and kind of feels like we’ve got a North Star. We know where we’re going; we know how to get there.” 

While Verstappen may appear to have things sewn up on paper, there are additional considerations that will heighten the sense of possibility for Hamilton and Mercedes this weekend. The first is that Silverstone represents the first truly high-speed course on the 2023 F1 schedule, and it lacks the bumps that unsettle the W14. It’s also the type of circuit where Sergio Perez’s pace difference to Verstappen is often particularly exposed, which means there may be daylight between the Red Bull drivers for the chasers to exploit. 

The second factor is more important, and concerns the tyres the teams will be using this weekend. These are now a strong construction, which was initially expected to come in for 2024 before Pirelli clocked that the cars were already hitting speeds targeted for the end of 2023. Red Bull has form on occasionally getting things wrong on tyres – that was a major factor in Mercedes’ most recent win, Russell’s 2022 Brazilian triumph – and Hamilton is a master of making the rubber work best. Even with one tyre burst, as was the case at Silverstone three years ago. 

But even if there’s no repeat this time of his previous Silverstone glory or such drama, it’s certain that Hamilton will be relishing racing on his home circuit. “It’s just such a great race track for us all,” he says. “It’s one that all the drivers look forward to because we have great races there. That’s actual real overtaking, and you have crazy high-speed corners.”

George Russell

Age 25
Silverstone GP starts 5
Best Silverstone GP finish 12th
2023 championship position 7th (72 points)

Mercedes driver Russell has yet to finish in the points at Silverstone

Photo by: Steve Etherington / Motorsport Images

You really do expect Formula 1 drivers to be enjoying themselves, living life at 200mph, travelling the world, being adored. But that’s not always obvious – not for hyper-competitive athletes often frustrated with media and sponsor engagements taking them away from what they truly love: racing. 

But in George Russell in 2023, there is a clear sense of a driver thriving, even amid recent tough moments. His second season at Mercedes currently features a respectable 4-5 team-mate head-to-head qualifying record against F1 legend Lewis Hamilton, plus another podium appearance coming after a brilliant drive in Spain.  

"I feel in a very comfortable place in a personal regard and I think that does translate into performance" George Russell

Without his engine failure in Australia, which followed Russell sensationally blasting past polesitter Max Verstappen before he lost out with unfortunate red flag pitstop timing, he’d be much closer to Hamilton (they’re so far fourth and seventh in the drivers’ standings on 106 and 72 points respectively).

And his Canada crash is the only real blot on Russell’s season after his Barcelona qualifying clash with Hamilton was brushed off as the result of unfortunate communication problems from Mercedes itself. Russell has also been struggling to reach the confidence levels he had at the beginning of the season in qualifying of late – saying in Austria he’d “taken a step backwards compared to the rest of the field” – but he’s vowed to hit back at his home race this weekend. 

“Probably the happiest period I’ve had in my life, to be honest,” Russell sums up. “I’m settled with my home life [Russell moved to Monaco late last year], I’m settled with the team around me, with my engineers. I feel in a very comfortable place in a personal regard. And I think that does translate into performance. I think it has been a really strong start to the season.” 

Part of the reason for Russell’s flourish in 2023 stems from the season being smoother – on multiple fronts – for Mercedes. The team’s W14 package may still not be anywhere close to being a match for Red Bull’s class-leading RB19, but it hasn’t suffered the porpoising issues that plagued Mercedes’ 2022 season with the W13.

Russell's British GP last year only lasted a few hundred yards after a crash with Zhou

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

Hamilton has led the line in terms of results – he chased Verstappen home in Australia and Spain after Mercedes had been as shocked as Ferrari by Aston Martin’s progress up the grid during the early rounds. But both he and Russell have been buoyed by the improvements to the W14 that arrived a few weeks ago in Monaco. 

The car still isn’t at its best riding bumps, something the Red Bull does very well with its anti-dive-boosting suspension arrangement. But that issue should be negated this weekend by Silverstone’s smooth surface. Mercedes also seemingly can’t yet match Aston on traction or braking stability, but the W14 generally takes care of its tyres better than the Ferrari SF-23 – another area where Hamilton still has a slight edge over Russell, judging by their typical end-of-stint speeds. 

But developing a Mercedes car was a key element Russell was keen to assist with following his move from Williams for 2022. Now that the team no longer has to work on addressing regular ride issues, the 25-year-old is able to feel the full might of its engineering corps on more typical car development tasks. “I’m really enjoying the technical aspect of working on the car,” he explains. “There’s a lot of little details on the Mercedes – more than I’ve been used to in the past – that, if you get it in the right window you can really find a lot of lap time.  

“So, that is quite rewarding, that when you put the work in with the engineers, with the simulator, you see that reward on track. And I think I felt like at least that has been a contributing factor to having some good personal performances this year. Just managing to maximise everything. Whereas this time last year, throughout all of last year, we had the porpoising, which was just such a challenging problem. And we didn’t really know how to solve it. Now, it’s been more of a normal race car, with normal limitations that you have to try and engineer around.” 

Russell’s 2022 British GP was over before it ever really got going thanks to the dramatic crash involving Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu. That incident led to Silverstone removing the gravel trap at Abbey corner, where Zhou ended up trapped between a tyre barrier and the debris fence, for this year’s event. But, encouraged by Mercedes’ showing last month in Spain, Russell is quietly hopeful that he and Hamilton will once again be able to put on a positive show for their home fans.

“Silverstone has been a strong circuit for the team historically,” Russell concludes. “We were strong there last year. But obviously with the additional energy we’ve all got [from the Silverstone spectators] – Lewis and I have got a lot of experience at Silverstone as well – hopefully that comes to the fore.”

Lando Norris

Age 23
Silverstone GP starts 5
Best Silverstone GP finish 4th
2023 championship position 10th (24 points)

McLaren's Norris just missed out on a home podium in 2021

Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images

The Bristol flyer has needed to exercise much in the way of patience so far in 2023. McLaren understood that, while its MCL60 chassis was in development in the latter half of last season, there were serious deficiencies in its current philosophy that needed a change of course. Norris, who had got agonisingly close to his first F1 win in 2021, instead had to sit tight for another year while McLaren plotted a new course in its bid to remain semi-competitive in the short term.

Rather than succumb to the frustration, Norris has diligently gone about his business and mucked in with trying to help the team turn the tide with its troubled machinery. His fourth place in Austria became his headline result having soared above an ultra-competitive midfield, as fast-tracked upgrades offered a surge in competitiveness at the Red Bull Ring.

"There’s some very good parts of the track for us and then some much trickier, weaker parts of the track” Lando Norris

Fine races in Spain and Canada did not earn points as Norris came off worse in a lap one scratch against Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes at Barcelona and he received a five-second penalty for “unsportsmanlike conduct” having apparently slowed too much under the virtual safety car in Montreal. Regardless, Norris claimed Canada as his “best race of the year” so far.

While McLaren continues to ring the changes on its 2023 car, as part of a three-race back-to-back overhaul across the Austrian, British and Hungarian GP weekends, team principal Andrea Stella reckons that “pretty much every single aerodynamic part” will change. This, plus its technical reshuffle to bring David Sanchez and Rob Marshall on board, should stand the team in good stead if it can get the formula right.

Norris’s immediate thoughts are on getting a good result at home. Many drivers have played down the positives of racing at home over the years, but Norris doesn’t entirely subscribe to the “just another race” mentality. “It gives you a big energy boost; it feels like it has even more meaning and you feel like you want to do the home fans proud,” he reckons. “It just puts a smile on your face, as soon as you come into the track, and you start to see people in your shirts and in British flags.

Norris had his best result of the 2023 season at the previous round in Austria

Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images

Because of that, you just feel happier and have more energy. That’s what makes it so special.” How McLaren performs at Silverstone will depend on whether it can switch its new upgrades on and cover off some of the key weaknesses inherent in the MCL60; while strong in high-speed corners, which the former RAF airfield has in spades, the car struggles in the lower-speed turns and its top speed has been a persistent problem at circuits such as Baku.

Of the Silverstone circuit, and how it might highlight his own machinery’s strengths and weaknesses, Norris points out: “It’s very high speed, so [you need to be] confident in the high-speed corners. You have people who are very good in slow-speed corners or very good technically, but then struggle a bit more in the high speed.

“In Maggotts-Becketts, the long straight into Stowe, there’s Copse as well, it’s just about commitment. Commitment is one of the biggest things, in every category, if it’s GTs or F3, F2; the high-speed nature makes it so special. And it’s also, I would say, the trickiest part.

“We’re actually pretty competitive in very high-speed corners. From that side of it, those parts of the track are very good for us. But certain corners, like Brooklands and Luffield is, let’s say, our worst definition of corner. And long straights, we’re very poor in. Maybe by the time we get there, some things will change and maybe we’re a bit more competitive. But there’s some very good parts of the track for us and then some much trickier, weaker parts of the track.”

The McLaren driver isn’t going to be a frontrunner overnight but, if the work at Woking is able to bear fruit, he will be one of many in the hunt for a strong haul of points. But the cut-off between leaving a circuit with points or with nothing is ever more precarious in 2023, and McLaren must ensure that its own steps forward far exceed the trajectory of its immediate rivals.

In Norris, McLaren has the driver to make things happen if the car is strong enough, and he has his own pedigree at the circuit to show it. In MSA Formula and the old F3 European Championship, Norris won at Silverstone, and has finished on the podium there in everything he’s raced… except F1.
How he’ll wish that this weekend will yield the opportunity to extend his rostrum-visiting exploits at his home race. But he might need to rely on something out of the ordinary to make that happen.

Who will win the British GP this weekend?