Photo Credit: Autosport.com
The Silverstone Formula Grand Prix in the UK this weekend could provide for some exciting racing, however, some teams and drivers are now looking into the abyss of irrelevance for this season. Red Bull has a clear lead in the constructors championship on 304 point versus Ferrari on 228. Max Verstappen on 175 points is nearly two races in points ahead of his teammate, Sergio Perez, and Charles Leclerc in the Ferarri.
The only shining light for Mercedes is George Russell on 111 points whereas Lewis Hamilton on 77 points looks very ordinary so far this year. Mercedes are reportedly bringing upgrades this week but it remains to be seen if they have a positive effect. The upgrades so far have helped since the start of the season but it doesn’t look like they will get anywhere compared to the dominance they have shown over the turbo hybrid era. Lewis Hamilton is clearly a very good racing driver but the question now is would have the number of championships he has without Mercedes being streets ahead of the competition up until 2021.
With Ferarri having two apparent engine failures in Canada they may have to take engine components for this race weekend which will give them grid penalties as they have already exceeded their limit for the year.
Fourth in the championship is McLaren who, despite appearing to have less porpoising and bouncing issues than other teams, are showing very little. Improved results in the last couple of races may indicate there is more room for improvement than other teams. Daniel Riccardo is on a precipice and without continuing to show up in the points may be having more races behind him than ahead of him. Lando Norris is driving well and if both drivers can continue their current form the team will stay ahead of Alpine and the vastly improved Alfa Romeo.
The other big improver for the year is Haas with the returning Kevin Magnussen getting all their point for the year it begs the question when will Mick Schumacher get a point.
The weekend schedule for Silverstone in Australia (all time AET) is
Free Practice One: Friday – 9:30pm
Free Practice Two: Friday – 12:30am
Free Practice Three: Saturday – 8:45pm
Qualifying: Saturday – 11pm
Race: Coverage Begina at 10:30pm with lights out at midnight.