British GP - A day of race preparation and testing
Silverstone, 9 July
At this event, the English weather is usually a topic for discussion, or more accurately jokes, but today’s track action was held in temperatures nudging the 30 Celsius mark, with more of the same forecast for the rest of the British Grand Prix weekend, which marks the mid-point of the season. A total of 92 laps for the two F10s, split equally between Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa in the first three hours of free practice for Sunday’s British Grand Prix. In the afternoon session, Fernando was second fastest splitting the two Red Bulls of Mark Webber who topped the time sheet and Sebastian Vettel, third. Felipe ended the day in fourth place ahead of the Mercedes duo of Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher. Looking at the form so far this season, one might have expected the McLarens to be in this lead group, but today, the English team’s two world champions, ended up in eighth and thirteenth places with Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button respectively. That will have disappointed their home fans, who packed the grandstands in what looked like the biggest Friday crowd of the season so far.
The famous Silverstone circuit has been modified several times in its long history and the latest version marks the biggest changes for many years: originally made with two wheels in mind, as the English track staged the British MotoGP for the first time this year and today, it got a mixed reception from the drivers: even within our own team there is no clear decision, as Fernando found it interesting, while Felipe felt it added nothing to the spectacle and would probably not promote more overtaking. Maybe there will be a verdict at the end of Sunday’s race. One aspect that is not in doubt is that the new section is quite bumpy, which is another factor to deal with, not just for the drivers, but also for the engineers, as they strive to find the right set-up for the new layout. Because of the unfortunate outcome of the European Grand Prix for the Scuderia a fortnight ago, it is easy to forget that updates introduced in Valencia had brought an increase in performance and so, it should not be too surprising that here at Silverstone, where even more aerodynamic updates have been introduced, the F10 looks competitive, even if the inevitable Red Bulls still seem to have the edge in pure performance terms.
At this event, the English weather is usually a topic for discussion, or more accurately jokes, but today’s track action was held in temperatures nudging the 30 Celsius mark, with more of the same forecast for the rest of the British Grand Prix weekend, which marks the mid-point of the season. A total of 92 laps for the two F10s, split equally between Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa in the first three hours of free practice for Sunday’s British Grand Prix. In the afternoon session, Fernando was second fastest splitting the two Red Bulls of Mark Webber who topped the time sheet and Sebastian Vettel, third. Felipe ended the day in fourth place ahead of the Mercedes duo of Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher. Looking at the form so far this season, one might have expected the McLarens to be in this lead group, but today, the English team’s two world champions, ended up in eighth and thirteenth places with Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button respectively. That will have disappointed their home fans, who packed the grandstands in what looked like the biggest Friday crowd of the season so far.
The famous Silverstone circuit has been modified several times in its long history and the latest version marks the biggest changes for many years: originally made with two wheels in mind, as the English track staged the British MotoGP for the first time this year and today, it got a mixed reception from the drivers: even within our own team there is no clear decision, as Fernando found it interesting, while Felipe felt it added nothing to the spectacle and would probably not promote more overtaking. Maybe there will be a verdict at the end of Sunday’s race. One aspect that is not in doubt is that the new section is quite bumpy, which is another factor to deal with, not just for the drivers, but also for the engineers, as they strive to find the right set-up for the new layout. Because of the unfortunate outcome of the European Grand Prix for the Scuderia a fortnight ago, it is easy to forget that updates introduced in Valencia had brought an increase in performance and so, it should not be too surprising that here at Silverstone, where even more aerodynamic updates have been introduced, the F10 looks competitive, even if the inevitable Red Bulls still seem to have the edge in pure performance terms.
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