Formula 1, training analysis Silverstone: lesson for Mercedes

Is Williams really that good at Silverstone?

Albon set his best lap at Silverstone in the same minute as Verstappen. Team-mate Logan Sargeant was 0.47 seconds behind Albon, but the US rookie has been struggling with tire management in qualifying trim all year. So that’s not unusual either, and there was enough time for P5 behind Sergio Perez anyway. Red Bulls Motorsport boss Dr. Helmut Marko dismisses the Williams times: “Let’s see how much petrol he had. The engine power was definitely turned up to the max.”

Albon disagrees: “We weren’t messing around with strange things, it was a normal day for us.” The critical issue is the updates. A major conversion was introduced in Canada, Albon also received a new front wing at Silverstone on Friday. “At least in the simulator it’s more effective in high-speed corners,” Albon notes.

That’s what Williams is all about. They built an efficient car there, but in its original form it didn’t handle high-speed corners well. The updates should fix that. The team remained cautious, but progress was not really verified in Canada and Austria. Silverstone is the first test on a real high-speed circuit.

Perhaps the team just got everything right in one lap. The wind is a big factor at Silverstone and not everyone takes it easy. Also, from FP1 Williams put a big focus on the absolute qualifying performance. Possibly more than others. In the long run, Albon dropped to midfield. Although he rode hard here, the top medium and soft – but the hard benchmark was Lando Norris, and he was four tenths faster in the long run average.

Is Mercedes really that bad at Silverstone?

In return, the racing trim is the only hope for Mercedes. Going by these tables alone, everything seems fine. The connection to Red Bull was maintained, albeit with an asterisk: Russell in particular first drove medium, then he switched to soft. Verstappen drove the other way around, so he had even more fuel in the tank during the soft long run.

But what good is the race pace if the car is already struggling with the Q3 climb? Actually, the W14 is supposed to like fast corners, but like in Austria, the drivers can’t get the balance right. On qualifying laps they don’t feel a jump when going from medium to soft. It is believed that the heat is causing problems again. The W14 was recently not receptive to high temperatures.

In the famous high-speed passage Maggots-Becketts-Chapel, the gap in the qualifying trim is growing instead of falling. Inconsistent driving behavior in the slow passages fills the list of problems. “Regardless of what we do with the setup, the car remains difficult to drive,” complains Lewis Hamilton.

A simulator night shift has to fix it here. The direct World Championship opponents at Aston Martin aren’t doing any better, even if you don’t generally take it easy there in high-speed corners. But the time loss is also continuous for Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll when it comes to qualifying pace. Like Mercedes, Aston Martin is back at the front in racing trim.

Ferrari fights for pole – Red bull for victory

Alonso promised after the second training session that they still had something up their sleeve. It will be important for Aston Martin and Mercedes not to get completely lost in qualifying, behind troublemakers like Albon or Nico Hulkenberg, who are extremely strong on one lap but can hardly keep the same pace in the race. The main opponent in the race is Ferrari.

The Scuderia is preparing once again to at least challenge Red Bull for pole. The world champions are still struggling a bit with the new Pirelli construction introduced at Silverstone: what is the best way to prepare the tires for the qualifying lap?