Welcome to the discussion post for the 2023 British Grand Prix practice sessions.
Last weekend the race thread was created by one of our users and that went down really well, so I see no reason to not do that from now on.
Given the amount of comments during practice, we may as well keep them all together for now.
Please, if you don’t see a post for Qualifying and the Race, feel free to make it. I’ll keep an eye out and pin them if they’re made. We’re still working on bots!
What is going on with williams?
To quote the greatest video game ever made:
“High speed, low drag.”
I was bitterly disappointed that this video game did not show up as the top result and indeed at all when searched it alongside this quote then stupid me realised it wasn’t from Starcraft😅
High-speed circuits suit them and apparently silverstone in particular
Hopefully enough voodoo to see them in the points
Thanks a lot. I think this is a good approach with a combined training and separate quali and race threads for now. And hopefully the community and the amount of comments per session keeps growing.
Yeah grouping practice together is fine. Quali and Race deserve a nice seperate discussion.
Yeah, last race the unified thread was hurting me. This is perfect.
Charles and not being able to run in a practice session. Name a more iconic duo. It’s frustrating to see…
What’s the reason for him not running? I just tuned in 5 minutes ago.
I don’t know the specifics but they said he had an electrical issue.
The FP2 highlights video called it “an electrical problem”.
@running_squirrel @itsmikeyd it’s getting painful to see
Both Williams faster than both Red Bulls
Williams dominance could bore fans
I’m ready to be bored!
Take a look at tomorrow’s weather for Silverstone… 😬
What is it? Tomorrow is supposed to be dry in the Netherlands but I’m not sure what’s on the other side of the canal.
There is a chance of rain and thunderstorm throughout the day.
🍿🍿🍿
Mercs are nowhere. :(
I think they can improve a bit until tomorrow, but for now it looks light a nightmare weekend for Merc
last week was also a pretty horrible weekend for them.
This new baseline isn’t too hot eh?
What the heck is going on with them.
How do the mercs do in the wet? I wonder if they’d be better off compared to the rest of the field, especially in sector 3, if it’s a wet quali.
Wow, Albon is looking promising!
The track seems to suit the Williams. Albon contniues where he left off and even SAR is running well.
DeBris for De Vries.
Ferrari, Williams and Jordan in the top 3? What is this, 1997? 😄
Many cars all queued up right at the start, plenty of aero measuring devices attached.
Only thing that could be better was me actually being there!
Is Silverstone a good track for GA? I’d love to go one day and wander around if there are a few places with decent views you can get to.
Yes! I went years ago now and on Friday you could also sit in the grandstands.
Sadly there are fewer spots now to sit and watch the race for GA, so I’d recommend scouting where you’d like to watch the race from on Friday, and getting there very early doors on Sunday.
My predictions for the race:
1.VER 2. RUS 3. HAM
Good performance: Piastri in the points
Bad performance: Stroll out of the points
Piastri is having a decent season, don’t you think? He’s limited by the McLaren being a bad car, but he’s not a million miles from Norris in the same car. Hopefully people are noticing that and he can move on in a few years.
Yeah, there’s clearly potential there.
He’s avoided the constant errors that you often see from rookie or 2nd season drivers (Yuki, Mick Schu and de Vries being the recent examples). Think he’s only had one (?) major crash this season which was in the wet in Canada.
From what we’ve seen in F1 so far he deserves a shot in a faster car one day.
I think we can all agree that Max is going to be P1 if there is no crash or technical failure. Sorry, but P2 and P3 seems a bit like through the lens of a Merc or UK fan.
Yeah, it was a bit bold. In the predictor that I do I went Ver, Per, Ham.
It was expected that Mercedes would be better this weekend due to the high speed nature of the track. I still think Russell will be around 3/4/5.
Where Perez finishes mainly depends on his qualifying. He can relax a bit and accept qualifying 2/3/4 or push like crazy for pole with the massive risk of being out in q2.
Would like to see the long run pace analysis.
The Mercs will struggle to get through Q2. They looked awful on every lap, both long and qualy runs.
So I get that more durable tires are bad for performance, but why are they getting worse long before tirewear should cause that?
I’m not sure of the context of the question, but on a green track like Silverstone currently is, the lack of grip can cause the wheels to slip which generates surface temperature which can cause the tyre to overheat and thus be at a suboptimal temperature and pressure, meaning reduced grip.
Context is that drivers are reporting that the track doesn’t seem to be rubbering in like they’re expecting with the changes that supposed to have happend to the tires during fp1 now. Maybe it’s just a matter of not being rubbered in enough, I guess?
What changes are these? I wasn’t aware there was a change to the tyre compound?
They introduced a new compound for slicks that was originally planned for next year. The cornering speeds this year are faster than their projections so they brought it forward.
I completely missed that, thanks for sharing.
Only heard it from the commenters and as I’m only having it on in the background while I’m working, I could be very wrong.
But I understood that they’re making the tires more rigid so that they’re more durable because they expect Silverstone to put a lot of stress on the tires. I first thought it was specifically for the tire test, but I seemed to have understood that this was why drivers were complaining about grip.
Why is it green? Has there not been enough racing prior to this f1 race to bring it in? Or is it the weather that’s washing it clean?
They’re the general reasons for a green track, so probably a combination of the two.
That slo-mo shot of the McLaren tire change was majestic.