It's British Grand Prix time again and with the UK experiencing an unexpectedly pleasant period of sunshine the Formula One season is also hotting up too. McLaren are fighting back, while Red Bull have had a small mid season wobble. Who will be victorious at Silverstone?
For 2010 the Northamptonshire track has undergone a massive facelift, the largest in 20 years, to produce a track that's even faster and demanding then ever before and may even challenge Monza for highest average speed.
The first section from Copse through to Club remain largely unchanged - it's still the balls out speed test that's been in place since 1991. However, the Abbey chicane is now a fast right hander that leads into the new sweeping left of Farm Curve into a tight complex of Village Corner, The Loop and Aintree Corner. This complex seems as though it may throw up some overtaking opportunities especially in the wet. Following the new complex is the Wellington Straight that blasts down and rejoins the existing track at Brooklands which is now much shallower and faster.
What's good to see is that, unlike the redesign of the Hockenheimring, Silverstone still seems to have retained it's essence and spirit of a high-speed, challenging race track.
As is normal there is much breast beating for the Brits entering their home Grand Prix - this year the hype and fuss is well deserved. Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button have a large upgrade to their MP4-25 which should give them confidence. With two 1-2 finishes and a 2-3 finish in the last three races Martin Whitmarsh's team are displaying their usual mid season out-development of all the other squads and must start the race as favourites.
Red Bull's RB6 has season long been the best car on fast, flowing tracks which Silverstone, if it wasn't before, certainly is now. Fresh from a win in Valencia, Sebastien Vettel will be looking to repeat his success from last year when he lead his team mate, Mark Webber, home for a Red Bull 1-2 finish. The Australian very quickly recovered from his huge crash last time out in Valencia and needs a good result to get him right back in the championship mix.
If we look at the stats we see that all the main championship challengers have won two races each. Fernando Alonso won the lone race for Ferrari in Bahrain - is the Spaniard a serious contender for the title in 2010? He needs to start winning soon or he'll get left way behind. That was why he was so incensed over his poor result in Valencia, he knew his hopes of a third championship were drifting away an a weekend where he had a decent car underneath him. Felipe Massa is seemingly having a poor season and is now 60 points adrift of the championship top spot - was 2008 his big chance to win the title and he fluffed it?
A surprise announcement for Silverstone is that Bruno Senna has been replaced by Sakon Yamamoto in the Hispania Racing Team. I presume that means that Karun Chandhok has more money to give to HRT than Senna and Yamamoto has found some extra cash form somewhere. Although the team don't need the hassle of switching drivers at the moment what they do need is more cash to get the car further up the grid and maybe Sakon is their unlikely saviour?
author: Simon White
published: 08/07
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Subject: Re: British GP - Preview -
Posted By: MolaHamilton
at 12/07/2010 17:10
Hurry up and update the scores!
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