Grand Prix 2018 British Grand Prix Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

After trips to 4 continents & a sub continent Oceania, Middle East, Asia, Europe, North America in opening 8 races. whether its 4 in Europe & 1 in Asia or 3 in Europe & 2 in Asia depends where you classify Baku. We are home, & doesn't it feel nice, although everyone at the 11 teams will be delighted for the week off after the very draining im assuming 1st ever triple header & not only are we home but so are Formula 1 as everyone knows the 1st ever Formula 1 race took place in 1950 at this very circuit.

Definitely taking inspiration from cider_and_toast because i wouldnt dream of blatantly nicking ideas.;) LOL thought I might give a bit of history lesson as well. Silverstone does have 1 of the best circuits in the world but its layout was only stumbled upon by accident. because RAF Silverstone was opened in 1943 but in a classic world war 2 triangle layout which brought the perimiter roads. Also the 1st ever motorsport event to be held at the Silverstone airfield as it was then was a extremely low key event in 1947. & was organized by a guy called Maurice Geoghegan. he lived in nearby Silverstone village and was aware that the airfield was deserted had been for a while (of course world war had ended 2 years prior) so he & 11 other of his friends got to together & raced over the 2mile circuit, although his race was ended prematurely when a few sheep had wandered onto the airfield & Maurice hit 1 of the sheep, which killed the sheep & wrote the car off. in 1948 The Royal Automobile Club took a lease on the airfield, to set out a more formal racing circuit. they hired An ex-farmer,giving him just 2 months to turn the site from a wartime airfield & farm into a race track for the inaugural RAC International Grand Prix On the 2nd October 1948 an estimated 100,000 people flocked to see Luigi Villoresi beat a field of 22 in his Maserati. the 1st 2 races were organized & held on the World War 2 runways, with long straights separated by tight hairpin corners, the track only defined by Hay bales & ropes that also protected crops in the middle of the circuit. Then the royal automobile club decided to move racing to the perimeter track for 1950 & 1951 F1 races. 1950 1 of most known winners of an F1 grand prix. which even though it was widely known as the British GP Officially it was the 1950 Grand Prix d’Europe & it was significant occasion for another reason as King George VI & Queen Elizabeth (queen mum) were in attendance, which is still the only time a reigning monarch has attended a British motor race, then in 1951 BRDC took the lease from RAC who didnt want it & rest they say is history

The drivers are going to get a shock with this heatwave, because like Belgium all the drivers turn up here most years expecting cold & wet weather. but we have been experiencing temperatures in the high 20's for a few weeks & with the forecast it looks like it going to continue all next week as well. but im probally biased but this is 1 of highlights of the season up with Belgium & Monza. because such a great atmosphere with stands are packed from FP1 & full of fans with great British humour down the years. always some of the best celebrations because when Brit wins at Silverstone its on a par with a Ferrari win at Monza. But unfortunately this is the 50th & potentially penultimate British GP. very nearly the final in its traditional place in July, because Sean Bratches has all ready confirmed that it was the 1st choice for hosting the 1000th grand prix in April 2019. but then someone told him about Easter 2000 & he was put off for some reason haha but as i said this the penultimate British GP because of the Mexican standoff between Bernie's contract, Silverstone's owners & Liberty Media. after BRDC confirmed the rumours & triggered the break clause in their contract on day of the 2017 grand prix all because of unsustainable 5% fee escalator built into the deal by Bernie, after the Donington park fiasco. which means that what was a estimated cost of £12m - 2010, became £17m - 2017 17.9m - 2018 19m - 2019 ,& by 2026 if clause hadn't been invoked would've been in excess of 27m

thought i would give some historic Silverstone facts. that you may or may not know & I couldn't shoe horn in
  • sundays race will be 50th race on 14th different configuration
  • the priest that ran across the Silverstone track at Hangar Straight in 2003. ended up being jailed for 2 months
  • 1955 was the 1st time a british man won a the british gp
  • the startline has moved counties in 2011, as half the track is in Northamptonshire & half In Buckinghamshire
  • Silverstone Annually on Race day, annually becomes the busiest airport in Britain
Evolution_of_Silverstone_Grand_Prix_Circuit_1949_to_present.png
 
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Whatever the problem is with his neck, I know from the odd time I’be had a neck problem it’s been unbearable, I’d go so far as to say I have been unable to think about anything else. It also makes me incredibly irritable, all I ever wanted to do was lie down and not move.
So if Vettel is still suffering today, he has my full sympathy.
 
[QUOTE="Publius Cornelius Scipio, post: 336836, member: 5661"...] it will be interesting to see if he will be able to drive at his best for 52 long laps[/QUOTE]

He won’t have to, he only needs to be better than Hamilton ;)

Adrenalin is the best painkiller, if it hurts it’ll be after the race.
 
With the increased safety of modern F1 and the fitness level of Vettel. I don't think it will hinder him as badly compared to the 80 's and early 90's F1 cars where the driver's head was more exposed to the g forces. If it was a circuit like Interlagos then it might have been testing because that circuit is anti clockwise whereas most F1 circuits tend to be clockwise
 
the problem seems to be that silverstone resurfacing hadn't the effect that was hoped since all the drivers seem to agree that the surface is now worse than it used to be. I wish all of them well but if Vettel wasn't ok yesterday no matter how much adrenalin or how fit he is, he's going to suffer today, especially if the cause of his stiff neck is the poor track surface
 
I thoroughly enjoyed this race. 8 out 10. Raikkonen seems to be on pace too but that is most likely only down to the fact that his contract hasn't been renewed yet.
 
Great race, no rain necessary ;)

Brilliant victory for Vettel as far as I'm concerned. Kimi looked full on as well.
 
With the resurfacing of the track and the new regulations the race , its become a power circuit which Red Bull's once superior chassis is being nullified
 
It was a great race and I thought Hamilton was going to do a Mansell and steal it

Ferrari showed Mercedes how to think quickly on their feet by gambling with Vettel on tyres . In Mercedes defence they had to gamble with Bottas to bottle up Vettel in the hope that Hamilton was still able to come through
 
Bill Boddy I think in some ways yes but in that he got more points back up up to 2nd but I also think note given Ferrari were able to get new tyres and have the grip to go for the win

At the time Bottas was within striking distance of Vettel . Raikkonen was struggling behind Riccardo until he got clean air and probably would have had to deal with an aggressive Verstappen who he has found difficult to pass in the past so his destroyed were getting destroyed

Hamilton being fastest man the track looked good and was catching everyone at a rate of knots so he would have been there at the end

It would have been interesting to see if Hamilton had gotten past both Verstappen and Raikkonen, just what Ferrari would have done if Bottas was closing

Hamilton accuses Ferrari of dirty tricks unless Raikkonen was being amateurish
 
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Definitely the luck was on his side from the safety car, but equally if Raikkonen hadn't punted him off he could have been genuinely fighting for the win, so it's a bit of a toss up. I got the sense that Hamilton felt it was deliberate but IMO it just looked over adventurous on Kimi's part. I count myself as a Hamilton fan but I was disappointed in his sulking out of the Parc Ferme interviews, it was time to put his big boy pants on and he didn't. I thought something like this was likely when he didn't appear to respond to the team's congratulations on the radio but a) I hoped not and b) maybe they just didn't play his response. The season is far from over and Vettel's luck will come and go as with all drivers, so it's time to suck it up.
 
The Artist..... You can understand Hamilton's frustration given Kimi had a lot of room and still ended up punting Hamilton. Just imagine if it was Vettel who did it there would be serious uproar whether Ferrari are fighting dirty

Just glad we don;t have Jean Todt as Ferrari team principal kicking up all sorts of noises that everyone is ganging up against Ferrari

Mercedes have lost a lot of points through no fault of their own in 2 of the 3 races. They might still feel that if Seb got only a 5 second penalty then why did Kimi get 10 second penalty this time for pretty much the same incident so inconsistency there already. So the argument Seb did not punished enough in France is beginning to look significant

A bit of controversy is always good for F1
 
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Now seems a good time to suggest that if Hamilton had made a better start, even an adequate one, none of Ferrari's rampant and shameless skullduggery would have been possible.

Yes. In French and now were race incident.
But on the other hand, the unsuccessful start of Hamiton does not justify the punch of him with a red car.
And it would have been more fun if Raikkonen could earned more points for the race than Hamilton,
despite his incident against Hamilton.
It was like in French race when Vettel hit Bottas but finished higher than finnish driver.
 
I think Mercedes' statements are an attempt to take advantage of the situation
and protect his drivers.
Now the Ferrari's drivers will have to think a few times before going to the contact struggle:
two consecutive incident - it is an accident, and three - a pattern.
 
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