Formula 1 Pirelli British Grand Prix 2021 Preview

This weekend sees the return of Formula One following a one week break due to the sport doing a triple header at the French, Styrian and Austrian GPs where Red Bull’s Max Verstappen managed to win all three races, stretching his lead in this year’s Driver’s Championship to 32 points ahead of Mercedes’ seven-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton.

Last season’s two British GPs at Silverstone saw plenty of drama as in the initial one there were three tyre blowouts which lead to Valtteri Bottas dropping back from second place to 11th with just three laps to go, which gave Verstappen a chance to pit to guarantee the safety of his tyres, before Hamilton had a tyre blowout down the hangar straight and managed to crawl over the line to win, having his lead cut from 30 seconds to six in dramatic fashion.

Meanwhile, the second of the two GPs at Silverstone last season was named as the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix, of which qualifying saw the grid start as Bottas, Hamilton, Nico Hulkenberg in the Racing Point (now Aston Martin) and Verstappen in that order, but the German was passed immediately at the first corner by the Red Bull man who charged his way past both of the Mercedes in the pits and out on track due to tyre wear issues for the German constructor.

Qualifying for this weekend’s race at Silverstone will have a different format, as this will take place on Friday night at 6 PM rather than its usual conventional day of Saturday. This is due to the introduction of Sprint Qualifying, meaning that this session will decide the order of the grid for Saturday’s all-new event.

So far this season as mentioned above, Verstappen has been in sensational form so far this season, hence for his deserved lead in the World Driver’s Championship, but there are expected to be a series of upgrades for Mercedes GP coming into this weekend to help them be more competitive following two difficult weekends at the Red Bull Ring where they couldn’t get close to the Dutch driver.

Verstappen’s win last year at Silverstone was actually Red Bull’s first since 2012 when Mark Webber won for the Austrian team. But we fully expect to see a re-vitalised Hamilton who will be desperate to please in front of his home crowd in Northamptonshire.

Prediction: Pole Position: Lewis Hamilton. 2. Max Verstappen. 3. Valtteri Bottas. 4. Sergio Perez.

The British GP will host the first-ever Sprint Qualifying session this weekend which is essentially a 100km race to decide the grid order of Sunday’s race. Only the top three drivers will score World Championship points, with first being awarded three points, whilst second and third will be given two and one points.

F1’s new format for this race could shake things up significantly on race day, as no pit stops are required, meaning that if there is any contact, crashes or retirements, then the race on Sunday could be severely hampered for any driver involved due to having a poor starting grid. We also saw at the end of the Azerbaijan GP how entertaining a small sprint race can be as we saw Sebastien Vettel and Pierre Gasly fill up the remainder of the podium behind Sergio Perez, following a tyre blowout for Verstappen causing the restart in the final few laps, whilst Hamilton’s mistake flicking the brake switch saw him finish outside of the points.

Inevitably the race prediction does become much harder due to the unpredictability of a sprint race, but we do expect to see Red Bull and Mercedes going at it against each other once again this weekend.

What has been noticeable is the superb race pace that the Red Bull has, meaning that if Hamilton was to gain pace this weekend, then Verstappen could potentially pull his grid position back in sprint qualifying, the same could go for Perez who has typically struggled in qualifying this season bar a 2nd on the grid at Imola, potentially giving himself a better chance to go head-to-head with the likes of Bottas who is usually consistently in or around the podium places of a Saturday.

Mercedes have been put under pressure many times since 2013, but this is perhaps their biggest test yet, as this is the first time in eight years that they haven’t won for four races in a row in the turbo-hybrid era of F1. This has seen the gap between Verstappen and Hamilton grow to 32 points which is six more than a race win with a bonus point for the fastest lap, meaning that after nine rounds of the championship, it is becoming a now or never territory for the seven-time world champion to start winning.

Perez will be hoping to have a much better and cleaner race weekend than he did at Austria last time out having been forced off the track by Lando Norris, before seemingly retaliating by doing the same to Charles LeClerc twice later on in the race, resulting in the Mexican finishing in sixth place.

Prediction: 1. Hamilton. 2. Verstappen. 3. Perez. 4. Bottas.

As well as Hamilton, the likes of Norris and George Russell will be racing at their home GP’s and will be as desperate as ever to impress over the course of the weekend.

Norris still remains as the only driver to have scored points in every single race so far this season following his impressive podium at Austria ahead of fellow Brit Hamilton, seeing him currently sit as the fourth-highest points scorer this season on 101 from nine races, nine more than the likes of Bottas and just three behind Perez.

Williams driver Russell is yet to score points for his current team since joining the sport in 2019, although this is mainly down to bad luck more than anything else, especially considering the fact that a mechanical problem halted his progress when he was comfortably in eighth place at the Styrian GP after around 30 laps just three weeks ago. Having finished 11th last time out in Austria due to being overtaken by Fernando Alonso in the latter stages of the race, the Mercedes contracted driver will be determined to put on a show for his home GP.

Both of the Ferrari drivers in Charles LeClerc and Carlos Sainz will be coming to Britain with a positive mindset, having finished in eighth and fifth last time out in Austria, moving them further clear in sixth and seventh in the driver’s standings ahead of McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo who is yet to set the world alight since joining his new team from Renault.

Finally, Fernando Alonso will be hoping to score points for what would be the fifth time in a row, having fought back from 14th on the grid to finish 10th in Austria last time out following an incident with Sebastien Vettel in qualifying two which significantly impeded the two-time world champion’s lap.