F1 2022 British GP: Silverstone

Horner and the gearbox alarm: “The k.o. by Perez “

Until the appointment with the last GP in Canada, Red Bull could count on two drivers close to each other at the top of the world championship standings, with Max Verstappen ahead of Sergio Perez by a few points. A gap that had narrowed not only as a result of the technical problems that penalized Leclerc’s Ferrari in Spain and Azerbaijan, but also and above all due to the victory won by the Mexican in the prestigious Monaco Grand Prix thanks to an excellent strategy adopted by part of the Red Bull wall.

Now, however, the distance between the two drivers of the team leading the constructors’ championship has increased to reach a range of 46 points. The main reason for this gap is mainly due to the nightmare weekend experienced by Perez in Montreal, where the number 11 had hit the barriers during qualifying. As if that were not enough, in the early stages of the race, ‘Checo’ had to raise the white flag due to a gearbox failure, which excluded him from any comeback attempt.

A retirement that, despite Verstappen’s success in Canada, has generated strong sporting anxieties for Red Bull team principal Christian Horner, especially now that F1 is preparing to take to the track at Silverstone for the tenth race of the season:

“Obviously it is always a concern – admitted the British manager a few days before the home race, his and partially the team’s – we must understand and learn from what Checo’s problem was, and then react accordingly. However, it is always worrying when a car breaks down in an inexplicable way and you spend the rest of the race hoping that the same does not happen to its twin ”.

Sergio Perez stressed that the gearbox used in Canada had reached the last race of his natural life, without being able to complete it. The management of penalties to be spent on the starting grid in the remaining 13 races scheduled will be an important issue both in terms of power units and broadcasts. It is very difficult for some drivers to finish the championship without retreats, also because running with the risk of hitting a zero is a decidedly worse scenario than facing a comeback with a certain technical superiority over most of the cars on the grid.

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COMPOUNDS NOMINATED FOR F1 2022 British GP – Silverstone

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THE TYRES ON TRACK

• Along with Suzuka in Japan and Spa in Belgium, Silverstone places the highest energy demands on tyres all year, which is why the hardest tyres in the range have been nominated: C1 as the P Zero White hard, C2 as the P Zero Yellow medium, and C3 as the P Zero Red soft. This is the third time that this combination has been nominated all year.
• Ultra-rapid and high-energy corners such as the Maggotts and Becketts complex aren’t the only challenge that Silverstone has to offer: the weather can be extremely variable, from bright sunshine to heavy rain.
• Last year’s race was won with two tyre changes: one of them taking place under an early red flag period following the collision between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen. Nearly all the drivers completed two stints on the medium plus a final one on the hard. This year, the compounds and structures are completely different, and there’s no sprint qualifying either – which was a factor in the strategy last year.

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Mario Isola:

“The British Grand Prix was where the new show car for the 2022 season was displayed last year, to highlight the future direction of the sport that we have embarked on from this season. The latest aerodynamic regulations are designed to allow drivers to follow each other more closely for longer to give more chance of overtaking, as we saw in Canada, while the tyres are designed to provide less overheating, more stability, and increased driveability within a wider working window. All these aspects will be tested this weekend, on one of the most challenging tracks for tyres of the year.”

RACE START TIME SCHEDULE – F1 BRITISH GP (UTC+1)

Friday 1st July:

• Free Practice 1         14:00-15:00
• Free prectise 2         17:00-18:00

Saturday 2nd July:

• Free Practisice 3      13:00-14:00
• Qualifying                 16:00-17:00

Sunday 3rd July:

• Race                           16:00-18:00

READ: DOWNFORCE AND GROUND EFFECT EXPLAINED