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The possible rain can shake up everything, though! It will be a very unpredictable weekend 😬🔥

📊 BRITISH GP - FP2 LONG RUNS

Most drivers used the Medium

🟦VER: quickest;
🟧NOR: incredibly consistent (likely driving to a target laptime);
🟥HAM: started his long run with the quickest lap, but his pace dropped worryingly;
🟩RUS: longest stint (12 push laps; 23 laps on his tyres by the end!)

Quali analyses will be delayed by a few hours 😬🌊

BRITISH GP - QUALIFYING

“Aerodynamically, a skinny rear wing shouldn't allow you to corner as quickly, but VER doesn't know it, so he does it anyway!”

🟦Verstappen's and 🟧Piastri's laps were just 1 tenth apart, yet they couldn't be more different than this!

VER opted for a very skinny (for Silverstone) rear wing, gaining significantly over all the straights.

His achievement, however, was losing little or no time in the fast corners! Notice how he's still very competitive in Maggots and Becketts (T10-12).

He had to lift into Copse (T9), though: his entry speed was higher than PIA's (less drag) and his grip limits lower (less downforce).

He had no other choice but to obey the laws of physics!

BRITISH GP RACE PACE

🟧McL dominated, and it wasn’t even close: the 2nd best car (🟩Sauber/HUL and 🟥Ferrari/HAM were matched) was over 1s/lap slower!

ALB’s pace (13th quickest) was closer to HUL/HAM’s than HUL/HAM’s was to NOR’s!

🟦VER’s skinny rear wing paid dividends in quali, but hurt him in the wet.

🟩Sauber scored more points (15) than any other team after McLaren! They are now 6th in the WCC, and HUL is 9th in the WDC (and has over half ANT’s points).

BRITISH GP - 📊 START ANALYSIS

Those on the front row (🟦VER, 🟧PIA) were the first to reach 200km/h. Still, PIA was slightly quicker to 100km/h, gaining a few meters (but not enough to attack).

Worst start by ANT and SAI (needed 0.4s more than PIA to reach 100km/h, and 0.6s more to 200).

BRITISH GP - 🟦VER vs 🟧PIA RACE START

PIA was smoother on the throttle (increased it sooner, but also more progressively).

VER, instead, had to lift a bit around 50% throttle as he has some wheelspin (notice the spike in RPM just before that!).

He still reached 200km/h when PIA did, but lost a bit of time before that.

BRITISH GP - RACE | TOP SPEED PER LAP

How strong can a tow be? What about 26km/h ON TOP of DRS?!?😳

BEA had the 4th lowest top speed in quali (no tows): ‘just’ 320km/h.

Instead, he reached 346km/h while overtaking, although compared to quali:
- ERS deployment had to be managed more 🪫;
- Track conditions were worse.

Teams’ points after 12 races: comparison with last year 👀

2024
🥇🔵RBR 373
🥈🔴Ferrari 302
🥉🟠McL 295
4️⃣⚫️Mercedes 221

2025
🥇🟠McL 460 (+165✅)
🥈🔴Ferrari 222 (-80❌)
🥉⚫️Mercedes 210 (-11✖️)
4️⃣🔵RBR 172 (-201❌❌)

- RBR went from 1st to 4th in WCC. They lost over half of their points!
- McL gained 165 points in just 12 races;
- Clear decline for Ferrari;
- Almost no change for Mercedes;
- Overall, the top 4 teams lost points (who went to midfielders).

McL has more points than Ferrari and Mercedes COMBINED! 🤯

Finally: the telemetry of the near-miss that led to PIA's penalty! (Lap 21) 👀

🟠 PIA braked very intensely: around 2g sustained braking. Specifically, the low-speed braking was extreme: he reached ~2.4g at around 126km/h (low speed ➡️little downforce) and in the wet, which is close to the maximum braking effort the car can sustain under those conditions (and possibly he exceeded the grip limits briefly). He braked almost as strong as he could.

🔵 VER had to brake intensely to avoid him, and did so for longer (he nearly stopped: 32km/h).

PIA also did something similar (208km/h to 50km/h in 160m) 4 laps before, when VER was farther back. In my opinion, what he did on both laps was dangerous (very intense braking with little visibility), but the danger only showed up on Lap 21 as VER was closer.

What do you think? Was the penalty fair or too harsh?

🤔

Made via @JMP_software

2025 QUALI PERFORMANCE (Gap to fastest lap)

[Each quali is a dot ⚪️]

In Silverstone (Purple dot 🟣):
- 🟦 RBR got pole;
- 🟩 Aston (ALO) and ⬜️Haas (BEA) were closer to the fastest lap than in any other quali session (but BEA had a 10-place drop);
- 🟧 McL had their 2nd worst session (yet still 2-3 and 0.1s off pole)!
- 🟥 Ferrari had their 2nd-best showing.

TEAMS QUALI TIER LIST
(Based on average quali gap)

S-Tier: McL (almost always on pole, and when they don't, it's by a tiny margin)

B-Tier: Red Bull, Mercedes, Ferrari (Can fight for poles, but only if everything goes their way). Average quali gap: TENFOLD McL's!

D-Tier: Williams, RBs, Alpine, Aston. Can fight with the previous 3 on occasion, but not for pole. Very track-dependent order

E-Tier: Haas, Sauber. Often fight with the previous 4, but are the slowest on average

Aston and Sauber have improved massively (recent performance is 'top of midfield')

Made via @JMP_software

I've correlated each F1 team's average quali gap with their WCC points - and some results were surprising! 👀

🔵 RBR (VER) was the 2nd best car in quali on average. Yet, they are just 4th in the WCC due to the 'lack' of a second driver.

🟢 Sauber and 🟣 Alpine are opposites: Sauber was slowest in quali on average, yet it is 6th in the WCC (Spain-package working, good race pace, maximising chances). Alpine, instead, was 6th quickest in quali, but it's dead last in the WCC! (Need to improve race pace and capitalise more).

🔴 Ferrari has more points than Mercedes despite being slower in quali.

Try to predict the final WCC standings, and check out my page (@FDataAnalysis) for more content like this!

Made via @JMP_software

In 2025, McLaren and Ferrari both updated their front suspensions, but Ferrari radically changed their layout from Push-Rod to Pull-Rod: McL went from quickest to dominating, while Ferrari lost most of its pace after fighting for the 2024 F1 WCC.

More info in this thread 👇

Kinematically, push/pull-rod are equivalent: the wheel can displace in the same way with both configurations (meaning that, as the car goes over a bump or the tyre load changes due to load transfer, the wheel changes its camber, toe, etc., in the same way)

But here's the catch:
- Constrains (aero, clearance, mechanical stress) might prevent designing a pull-rod that behaves like the previous push-rod;
- Compliance (carbon fiber is very stiff, but it still deforms!) can change that further;
- The impact on airflow is significant, and sometimes unpredictable.

Changing the upper-wishbone angle, like both teams did, has mostly predictable mechanical effects (e.g. on the anti-dive and local stresses) and a more complex impact on the airflow.

Changing the suspension layout (Push➡️Pull-rod) has a much greater (and unpredictable!) effect!

When the car was revealed, I lauded Ferrari's audacity in changing such a crucial design aspect in the last year of regulations, despite getting close to the noscript in the previous year.

The gamble hasn't paid off, though...

Check out my profile for other technical discussions!
🛠🏎