Mika Hakkinen: 2023 British Grand Prix Preview

Mika’s Tip

Silverstone is quick, flowing and suits cars which have good power, grip and aerodynamic efficiency, making it an ideal opportunity for World Championship leader Max Verstappen to continue on his winning ways. What will be interesting is to see how the close battle behind Red Bull works out – three teams are podium hopefuls, at Aston Martin, Mercedes and Ferrari, but I will throw in an outside bet. Lando Norris, fresh from a strong 4th in Austria, will be pushing to go even better in the upgraded McLaren, and team mate Oscar Piastri will be aiming to join him.

Mika’s Memories

It’s easy to forget how much testing we used to do in F1, and Silverstone was one of the circuits where we spent days working through car and tyre developments when I drove for McLaren. It’s such a quick circuit, with almost 80% of the lap spent at full throttle, so it really is flat out!

There are a number of really good corners that show just how much downforce a modern F1 car has – I am thinking about corners such as Copse (Turn 9) and Stowe (Turn 15), but also the Maggots-Becketts complex (Turns 11/12) where the cars are pulling 5G lateral force, among the highest we see during the season.

Sharing some photo's from Mika's win #OTD for the British GP🇬🇧🏆 pic.twitter.com/rc2e80q4JP

— Filippos McLaren (@F1lippos) July 15, 2022

I won the British Grand Prix in my last season in F1, had two pole positions during my World Championship-winning seasons, and finished on the podium 5 times. I particularly remember some really good fights with Michael Schumacher. The year I won, 2001, Michael started from pole position but I put him under pressure, he made a mistake at Copse and I took the lead. Silverstone is a very satisfying track to win at, particularly as it is the ‘home’ race for seven of the teams, so it was special to win there because of fantastic support I always had from the women and men working for my McLaren team.

Championship Form

Sergio Perez had a better weekend in Austria, making Red Bull the first team to score a 1-2 in a Sprint Race, while he was also on the podium in the Grand Prix despite having to recover from being knocked out in Q2 as a result of exceeding track limits. He feels much happier after a strong weekend and I expect him and Max to be very strong at Silverstone.

Ferrari has made some good progress in recent races, both in terms of race pace and strategy, with Charles Leclerc 2nd in the Grand Prix and Carlos Sainz 3rd in the Sprint Race in Austria.

After finishing 5th on Saturday and Sunday Fernando Alonso is really determined to return to his podium finishes at a circuit which is literally beside the front door of Aston Martin’s impressive new factory. Team owner Lawrence Stroll has invested heavily, and anyone visiting Silverstone this weekend will be able to see the extent of his ambitions with the new factory and wind tunnel directly opposed the main entrance. It’s fantastic to see this level of commitment.

Lance Stroll had a better weekend in Austria, finished 4th in the Sprint Race and scoring points in the Grand Prix. With only 3 points separating them from Mercedes in the battle for 2nd place in the World Championship for Constructors, it is really important both drivers keep scoring consistently. It’s Fernando and Lance against Lewis and George!

Mercedes had a tough weekend in Austria, a poor result by their standards and a disappointing one considering the improvement in performance we have seen since their Monaco upgrades. One of the problems is that the fight between the teams is so close. In Austria last weekend all 20 cars were covered by just 0.858 seconds in the first part of qualifying.

This means that any upgrade which works can really benefit you. We are in the middle of a series of team upgrades and developments and, with McLaren making a good step, their British driver Lando Norris is really hoping for a big result at home in Silverstone.