Silverstone,
17
July
2021
|
19:12
Europe/Amsterdam

2021 British Grand Prix - Saturday

POSSIBLE RACE STRATEGIES

The strategy for the 52-lap British Grand Prix is slightly more straightforward than usual because of the sprint qualifying, which has led to different tyre rules. One of them is that drivers are no longer obliged to start on the tyres with which they set their fastest Q2 Friday qualifying times: instead there is an entirely free choice, which means that all the drivers can simply follow the theoretically quickest strategy.
That’s going to be a one-stopper: starting on the P Zero Yellow medium C2 tyres and then moving onto the P Zero White hard C1 until the end. An alternative strategy is to start on the P Zero Red soft and then switch to the hard earlier – but starting on the medium offers more flexibility in terms of pit stop timing and requires less tyre management. With more freedom in the tyre choice, the opposite could come into play too: starting on a harder tyre before switching to a softer compound.
What's certain is that a two-stop is definitely slower, but the best option in this scenario would be to use two sets of soft C3s and one set of C2 mediums.

FOCUS ON

  • The very first sprint qualifying race in Formula 1 history was won by Red Bull driver Max Verstappen from second on the grid, using medium C2 tyres from start to finish. As a result, he claims pole for the British Grand Prix tomorrow and scores an extra three championship points.
  • Nearly all the drivers used the medium tyre throughout the 17-lap race, run over half an hour with no pit stops. Only four drivers selected the soft: Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes), Kimi Raikkonen (Alfa Romeo) and both Alpine drivers.
  • Ambient temperatures were 28 degrees centigrade at the start of the race with track temperatures of 46 degrees.
  • The drivers had a final chance to prepare for sprint qualifying during FP2 at midday. With the cars under parc fermé conditions, the teams concentrated on longer runs in preparation for tomorrow’s race. Verstappen went fastest on the medium compound – likely to be the favoured starting tyre for the British Grand Prix tomorrow.

FORMULA 2 – RACE 1 AND RACE 2

Both 21-lap Formula 2 sprint races were characterised by multiple safety cars, which helped to reduce tyre wear and degradation. Silverstone is the first race this year where the P Zero White hard and P Zero Yellow medium are nominated: the two hardest tyres in the F2 range, which are also the two tyres that have been redesigned for 2021. All the drivers started the opening race on the hard tyre and continued on it until the end, with the exception of four drivers who switched to the medium under the third safety car. The race was won by Prema’s Robert Shwartzman, who led every lap after a great start from fourth place. The second race in the afternoon was also run on hard tyres from start to finish, with MP Motorsport’s Richard Verschoor winning from reverse grid pole. The hard tyre offered good grip and proved well-suited to the high-energy demands of Silverstone, with many of the fastest laps coming right at the end of the races.

MARIO ISOLA – HEAD OF F1 AND CAR RACING

“Today was a chance to try something different with the first sprint qualifying, and although it was a short race, we already saw some different tactics on the grid with four drivers going against the trend and selecting the soft tyre – including Bottas who started and finished third. Keeping the soft tyre alive in a race where the drivers pushed at maximum from start to finish in warm conditions was clearly a challenge, but Fernando Alonso made up six places from his start position initially on the softs, before eventually finishing with a four-place gain. The medium C2 coped well with the rapid corners and heavy loads of Silverstone, which is why we expect it to be the most popular choice to start the race tomorrow. Temperatures are forecasted to be even higher for the grand prix, so tyre management will be a factor, as we also saw today during sprint qualifying where there was some blistering as the teams pushed to the limit.”

FREE PRACTICE 2 – TOP 3 TIMES
DRIVER TIME COMPOUND
Verstappen 1m29.902s MEDIUM C2 USED
Leclerc 1m30.277s MEDIUM C2 USED
Sainz 1m30.507s SOFT C3 USED
BEST TIME BY COMPOUND SO FAR
COMPOUND DRIVER TIME
HARD C1 Ocon 1m29.603s
MEDIUM C2 Verstappen 1m27.745s
SOFT C3 Hamilton 1m26.023s
SPRINT QUALIFYING COMPOUNDS
DRIVER COMPOUND
Hamilton MEDIUM C2 NEW
Bottas SOFT C3 USED
Verstappen MEDIUM C2 NEW
Pérez MEDIUM C2 NEW
Ricciardo MEDIUM C2 NEW
Norris MEDIUM C2 NEW
Vettel MEDIUM C2 USED
Stroll MEDIUM C2 USED
Alonso SOFT C3 NEW
Ocon SOFT C3 NEW
Leclerc MEDIUM C2 NEW
Sainz MEDIUM C2 NEW
Tsunoda MEDIUM C2 NEW
Gasly MEDIUM C2 NEW
Raikkonen SOFT C3 NEW
Giovinazzi MEDIUM C2 NEW
Mazepin MEDIUM C2 NEW
Schumacher MEDIUM C2 NEW
Russell MEDIUM C2 NEW
Latifi MEDIUM C2 NEW