British GP Free Practices: Albon and his Williams on fire!

On the difficult Silverstone track, Friday's free practice gave us, behind the all-conquering duo Verstappen - Red Bull, a welcome surprise, in the form of a Williams and an Alex Albon who were really on fire!

Before delving into the analysis of what happened on this first day of work on the English circuit, here are the final standings of FP1 and FP2:

So what do the laps covered in the usual 120 minutes of free practice teach us? To understand it, it's more interesting to focus merely on the second practice session, which also represents the logical evolution of what we saw in the morning, but in more truthful track conditions...

Leading group with Red Bull ahead of Ferrari and a surprising Williams

Analyzing the best laptimes set by each team, it can be seen that in a leading group limited to only 3 teams, it's once again the Red Bull that enjoys the highest potential of all.

“I think it was a good day for us, the tarmac was a bit slippery at the beginning, but I think it was also because we were running with very high tyre pressures. Of course it's the same for everyone, but it makes it a little more difficult in low-speed cornering. Overall the car performed well in both sessions: we completed our program and the long runs are also positive"

Max Verstappen

Still focusing on the qualifying simulation, Carlos Sainz's best laptime keeps him just 0.022 s shy of the World Champion, a sign that when the extra grip of the Soft tyres can make up for the chassis deficiencies of the vehicle, Ferrari is capable of pulling off good performances: it's a trend that has been going on now, even if on and off, since the beginning of this Championship.

Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images

Speaking of Ferrari, a downside of their Friday concerns the electrical issue that occurred on the #16 single-seater of Charles Leclerc: a problem that prevented the Monegasque from running any lap during the FP2 session, and which will take away some data and sensations in view of FP3 and qualifying on Saturday.

James Sutton / Motorsport Images

Behind Red Bull and Ferrari, whose competitiveness balance compared to the last Austrian GP is unchanged in terms of positions but closer in terms of gap, we surprisingly find the Williams of Albon (+0.218 s). As mentioned, this is certainly the biggest twist in terms of performance we've seen for some time... However, this third position (together with the fifth of his teammate Logan Sargeant, with a gap of +0.688s from the leader of the day) represents the continuation of the hard work of the Grove-based team, which began to pay off when the introduction of the first package of aerodynamic updates was brought forward to the Canadian GP.

Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

From that moment on, we witnessed a performance crescendo, which repays the commitment of a team that is now dealing with outdated infrastructures and a lack of equipment compared to their rivals. A round of applause also goes to the Team Principal James Vowles, who has entered perfectly into a role that was not his until last year: if Dorilton Capital continues to invest seriously in the project, Vowles' management could bring Williams to the level where we have seen them several times in history...

"I'd be lying to say I'm not surprised, even though we're not doing anything special at the moment... It's strange because, without sounding too pessimistic, I didn't feel so comfortable, but clearly for the others it must have been even worse. Besides that, it must be said that the upgrade package introduced is more useful for high-speed cornering than low-speed cornering, which were a trait of the tracks in Canada and Austria"

Alex Albon

Aston Martin in trouble or did them carry more fuel in the race simulation?

Talking about Aston Martin in relation to the free practice held at Silverstone necessarily means introducing the theme of race pace simulation, as the analysis of the home team revolves around this aspect (remember that the headquarters is only 5 minutes from the circuit!).

James Sutton / Motorsport Images

In fact, in qualifying trim we find Stroll in P6 with +0.788s and even Alonso in P10 with +1.056s... an Aston Martin AMR23 that's too bad to be true, although we know that their advantage often lies in the high-fuel performance. Precisely for this reason I looked with interest at the long runs of the two aforementioned drivers, to then compare the better of the two (who turned out to be Alonso) with the best driver of Red Bull, Ferrari, Mercedes, McLaren and Williams.

Analysis of the race simulation during the FP2 of the British GP

Analysis of the race simulation during the FP2 of the British GP

As can be seen from the graph above, the laptimes set by Fernando Alonso do not differ enormously from those of Max Verstappen (although it would be dishonest to say that the two had the same speed...); in addition to this, the AMR23 confirms itself as a single-seater capable of limiting the tyre degradation, and this can be a significant advantage on a challenging circuit like Silverstone.

Ferrari, McLaren and Williams did set similar laptimes, but the feeling is that - apart from Sainz - the fuel load they carried was lower, thus masking the difficulties they would certainly have endured with a heavier car.

The race pace available in the hands of Alonso and Stroll will probably not allow them to complete the race distance with one pit stop less than their rivals, but it will give both more flexibility on the compounds choice!

What happened to the Mercedes we admired in Spain and Canada?

The biggest mystery of the Friday at Silverstone concerns Mercedes: slow in qualifying trim, slow in race simulation, the W14 never allowed Hamiton and Russell to break into top 10 or just to be comfortable on track - nor in FP1, nor in FP2.

Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

Personally, I believe that even if the update package brought in Monaco has been helpful for the performance of the English-German team, the fact that the direct rivals reacted and later introduced equally substantial upgrades is putting the Mercedes Technical Department under pressure.

“Long runs don't look so bad. Sure, the pace with the Softs wasn't particularly good, but the weather was very windy, and if this feature makes Silverstone the best circuit in the world, today the track was changing a lot from one moment to the next... it's about the car, we're always struggling with the same problems: it's a difficult car to drive and it remains so, whatever we do with the setup..."

Lewis Hamilton

Lewis and George struggled all day with a car that offered them little grip, a detrimental situation in the corners that "introduce" the second sector: one would think that ahead of qualifying - and above all ahead of the race - the engineers directed by James Allison will have to increase the level of aerodynamic load determined after the simulator tests.

What to expect ahead of qualifying...

Although the weather forecasts don't rule out any chance of rain tomorrow, I think I can say that Max Verstappen starts as the favorite for pole position in any condition: his teammate Perez has been lapping about 3 tenths slower than him, and the other teams' drivers don't have enough pace too to worry him.

Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images

From this point of view, it will be important for Ferrari to lock out at least the second row ahead of a race that is expected to be close for the lowest steps of the podium... See you tomorrow for FP3 at 12.30 CET and for qualifying at 16.00 CET.

Categories

Reading time: minutes
Back to blog