Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz closes in on Max Verstappen at the end of opening practice session for the 2023 F1 British Grand Prix, but a closer look at the data shows the Red Bull driver In terms of racing there is little pressure to race speed.
In another Ferrari, electrical problems meant Charles Leclerc missed all of FP2, while the Aston Martin driver had some glitches on his machine that disrupted the afternoon session .
At Mercedes, the overall situation was tougher, which resulted in the home fans having less reason than usual to cheer Lewis Hamilton and George Russell. Thankfully, Silverstone was well attended and Williams had a surprisingly strong performance in both FP1 and FP2.
Here’s everything we know on Friday at the 2023 British Grand Prix.
Stories of the day
FP1 kicks off at 1230 local time – feels different compared to normal.
A race after the Austrian sprint, with the development race heating up behind Red Bull, a number of teams were experimenting with test events in the opening race, with the usual aim of finding baseline setup options. There is flow ie sufficient aerodynamic rake.
In a not-so-shocking twist, Red Bull leads here – with Verstappen leading by 1m 28.600s, with his team-mate Sergio Perez trailing 0.448 seconds. Fernando Alonso and Charles Leclerc finished fourth and fifth (0.668s and 0.680s behind respectively), but Alex Albon caused a stir, giving his Williams a welcome Third place – 0.489 seconds behind.
In the second race starting after 1600 points, it was business as usual in terms of how the teams applied themselves – no more testing, just an insight into the new stronger structure of the Pirelli tyres. Playing now.
Verstappen was unstoppable at Silverstone on Friday
Photo: Jake Grant / Motorsport Images
Again, as the times below show, Verstappen leads, but this time Sainz is right behind The pace of the Dutchman is 0.022 seconds behind.
It wasn’t a happy FP2 on the other side of the Ferrari garage as a short circuit forced Leclerc to miss the entire second hour of the race, delayed by five minutes due to track issues The previous Formula 2 qualifying session required a cleanup after several line breaks and crashes.
FP2 Overall Order
Location
driver team timegap
1
Verstappen Red Bull
1m28.078s
2 Sainz
Ferrari 1m28.100s +0.022s ) 3 Albon
Williams 1m28.296s
+0.218s
4 Stroll
Aston Martin
1m28.866s +0.788s 5 Hulkenberg Haas 1m28.880s
+0.802s
6 Gasly Alps 1 meter 28. 889s + 0.811s
7
Piastri McLaren 1m28.926s +0.848s
8
week Alfa Romeo 1m29.225s +1.147s 9 Russell
Mercedes 1m29.238s +1.160s 10
Kokada
Alpha Taurus 1m29.483s
+1.405s
Williams was indeed filled with joy in the pits as Albon backed up his FP1 result with another third in FP2 In the end, Logan Sargeant pushed the second specially painted FW45 into fifth place behind Perez. The team feels like it has regained the high-speed prowess it showed in Canada, but despite this, its high ranking surprised even the blue team players.
All the usual warnings about fuel load and engine mode application, we can see By the start of the silverstone weekend pictures, it looks very good for Red Bull, not so good for Ferrari, although it only has one lap speed
The rest of the 2023 front-runners find themselves in quite a conflict in FP2.
Aston Martin’s two-driver soft tire qualifying sim was interrupted by car problems – Fernando Alonso pitted for AMR22 rim issue, while Lance Stroll needed his left fender mirror fixed due to a loose fit.
Stroll ended up as Aston’s top driver, finishing sixth, but his long race late in FP2 was complicated by another car kicking One of the stones hit one of his fingers and caused him considerable pain.
Mercedes ended FP2 with two British drivers dropping out of the top ten. Like another British driver, Lando Norris, in 14th place – although at least the London-born Albon revived something in his race for the hometown audience. Williams built by Grove.
Albon played well in both games on Friday and finished tied with teammate Logan Sargent for 5th
Photo: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images
Black Arrows drivers respond to 30°C heat in FP2 Regret that they continue to struggle under these conditions. Hamilton also had to abandon the first lap of his qualifying sim after struggling to get his car to the apex of the first stage.
The new tires present new challenges, but Red Bull looks strong
Considering the team is trialling the new tires, running more than usual In a long-term data collection exercise late in FP2. Haas even covered nearly half the Grand Prix distance, with Nico Hulkenberg battling hard on the hard courts.
With all the usual caveats about fuel load and engine mode application, we could see the start of the Silverstone weekend pictures, which looks very good for Red Bull, not for Ferrari Great, despite only one lap of pace, Mercedes feels it has a car that can contend for the podium, but it’s going to be hard to get into the top 10 right now.
Pirelli believes that all three composites have the potential to be viable race options this weekend, with many The team decided to spend a long time evaluating soft materials in FP2.
As shown above, Red Bull has a considerable lead on this tire compared to its usually closest pursuer. That suggests it’s running on a standardized fuel load and lets drivers manage their speed based on what they know their tires are doing on other tracks, rather than pumping more like other teams.
Aston will be very encouraged by its performance on the soft tyre. The same goes for Mercedes – although its average gap to Red Bull is as high as 0.838 seconds. That’s because Hamilton’s results in that race were very consistent and have actually improved in his last few Tour races, with the seven-time world champion feeling his balance has improved as the tires wear down .
Mercedes also believes its front wing updates have brought improvements to the race, but the wind and tire factors at play today overshadow that.
Mercedes fitted new front wing but Hamilton and Russell on F Both underperformed Riday, neither top 10
Photo: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images
On the former, there was a healthy crosswind blowing through the car as it turned through the Loop, Laffield, Stowe and Club. This poses quite a challenge, except for Stowe, who has his own downforce requirements, as low-speed corners are not an area where GIG cars do well.
This means all drivers are struggling with the extra rear side slide, which has a knock-on effect on tire preservation. In addition, FP2 also had to deal with higher track temperatures. That means trying to keep the front tires in perfect temperature balance, and the driver losing grip on the front axle if things go wrong.
Ferrari’s long-distance performance on the soft tyres, which lags behind its typical rivals, is back to being Red Bull’s closest challenger on the medium tyres – although the gap is so wide that it is doubtful Significant Fuel Load Difference Exists
Medium Tire Average
Location
Team
lock up
Average
1
Red Bull
1m33.016s 7 laps
2
Ferrari
1m33.976s 6 circles 3
Aston Martin
1m34.416s
13 laps
4 Alpine
1m34.556s
11 circles
5
Mercedes 1m34.619s 6 turns 6 Williams 1m34.666s 15 laps
7
Haas
1m35 .049s 8 circles
8 Alpha Romeo 1m35 .167s 10 laps
n/a – Mai Karen and AlphaTauri
Ferrari in medium Performance on the road is very important to us for the rest of the weekend if the soft tires do not end up being part of the race strategy.
For that matter, two races should be expected, and it appears Ferrari may already be considering spreading its tactics across the car – provided Leclerc’s electronic problems are resolved for the remainder of the weekend. has been solved. Compared to Red Bull and Leclerc’s set, Sainz has a new set of hard tires, while the four drivers’ new medium tires are the opposite.
Ferrari has recently developed a strong race strategy, but its qualifying penalty has made the news for Ferrari – because of their poor performance. That would coincide with changes in temperature or rainfall (thinking more of Spain and Canada than Austria), which is what FP3 is predicting, and possibly tomorrow’s qualifying session at Silverstone.
Leclerc had no sparks in second practice as electrical problems forced him out Training
Photography: James Sutton / Motorsport Images
They say so :
Max Verstappen :
“It was a really good day for us. I think the track was slippery at first, but I also think it was due to the fact that we were driving on the tyres. Of course, it’s the same for everyone. But it makes it harder to drive at low speeds. But I think overall the car is doing really well. We’re very happy with the performance of the — — played really well in both races and we were able to do what we had planned. The long runs looked good too. So, very positive.
Carlos Sainz: “We need to keep working on tire management and the pace of the game. That should be our main focus tomorrow, because today we can see that in one lap we are doing well. Overall, we are very happy with today, but of course there is still some work to do. ”
Fernando Alonso: “It was very windy today, which made the race tricky, but the car felt good. We’ve tested a few things in both tests and there’s a lot more to analyze tonight. The weather looks like it could change tomorrow, let’s see what we face. ”
Lewis Hamilton: “Honestly, it didn’t feel particularly good. But it definitely feels worse for others because they don’t go as fast or maybe have more degrees. For whatever reason, the last part of my run started to feel more stable. It could be the wind, or it could be the balance, or maybe I’m used to the balance. The song is really trying to weigh the whole process and make compromises here and there. The balance has such fine edges and such a large balance window. It goes back and forth and it’s never just here that you can drive it. It’s like one end of the spectrum to the other, from braking to cornering, to the middle, to the exit of each corner. So it was a good fight. “
