130R at Suzuka in Japan<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\nWhen asked whether Silverstone\u2019s Copse (Turn 9), a high-speed right-hander, would be like 130R, P\u00e9rez replied: \u201cThe engine set-up, it becomes quite an important factor around your lap on where you decide to harvest energy.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Mexican driver thinks \u201cwe\u2019re going to be finding a case where probably going slower through the corner ultimately will be faster, like delaying the throttle application and doing that sort of game will be quite critical around here.\u201d<\/p>\n
It leaves the question of whether Silverstone will still be Silverstone. As Oscar Piastri pointed out, the track characteristics that make the cars\u2019 \u201cengines really struggle\u201d are also what make Silverstone \u201cso special.\u201d He\u2019s also driven it on the simulator, and while he \u201cdidn\u2019t quite have the same reaction\u201d as Verstappen, Piastri feels \u201cit\u2019s certainly not going to be better than it was last year.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of Silverstone\u2019s most iconic sections is S-curved corner sequence called Maggots and Becketts. In the era of ultra-high downforce cars that were used from 2017 to 2021, the cars were capable of pulling 5Gs through that section, making it a challenging thrill for the drivers.<\/p>\n
Hamilton said the \u201cbest part of the track\u201d started from Copse corner, through Maggots and Becketts, then turning right through Chapel and onto the Hangar Straight before another right-hander at Stowe (Turn 15). This year, that entire section will be different.<\/p>\n
\u201cNormally the engine\u2019s screaming as you\u2019re going into Copse and you\u2019re holding on for dear life as you go through there flat out,\u201d Hamilton explained. \u201cThis year, the engine will be coasting down, most likely we\u2019ll be downshifting from 8th to 7th (gear) whilst (at) full throttle, trying to keep the engine revs higher.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019ll be a long, long straight from (Turn) 9 to 10 with no deployment, basically. And then Maggotts and Becketts is not going to feel the same because I think you have to lift and coast or something through there for a period of time.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of the fiercest critics of the new cars has been Aston Martin\u2019s Alonso. He was especially downbeat about what these cars will be like around Silverstone and the next race at Spa in Belgium, another high-speed layout.<\/p>\n
\u201cSilverstone was probably the best of the circuits, suiting that car perfectly,\u201d Alonso said. \u201cI think this year is going to be very different and not fun to drive. The car, looking at the simulator lap and things like that, is going to be quite sad, I think for the drivers, but also for the spectators.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\n (Alex Bierens de Haan\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Asked specifically about Maggots and Becketts, Alonso made a plugging-in motion with his hand and quipped: \u201cCharging station!\u201d<\/p>\n
Haas driver Esteban Ocon said that while the start of the lap would be OK, drivers would begin to struggle after using a lot of battery power along the Wellington Straight, the first long straight of the lap.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter that, it gets really difficult,\u201d he explained. \u201cAfter Turn 9 you basically have no power. So it takes a while to get to Maggots, Becketts. Unfortunately you don\u2019t really have much of a challenge.\u201d He thought that Chapel, typically a tricky braking point in previous years, would now be \u201call flat out\u201d because drivers arrive at the corner so slowly.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not as rewarding and challenging as it was in previous years,\u201d Ocon said.<\/p>\n
Hamilton\u2019s Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc believed most of the drivers \u201cfeel probably a bit sad\u201d about the level of battery management required, with the extra commitment through high-speed corners that made a difference in the past no longer being so valuable.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese were tracks where actually the bravest ones in qualifying will make a difference,\u201d Leclerc said. \u201cBecause you get into the high-speed corners with quite a lot of power and need to play with the limits of the car at very high speed. Now the high-speed corners are more medium-speed corners, because we have a lot of (super) clipping.\u201d<\/p>\n
Not every driver was downbeat. Title contender George Russell, who has a shot at winning his home grand prix for the first time, was happy to play contrarian, even if he recognized the qualifying laps may no longer be as fast.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s 600,000 fans here (over the race weekend) who don\u2019t probably care so much about energy management,\u201d Russell said. \u201cAnd on the flip side, the tracks that are the most challenging for the energy, such as Melbourne and China, they have so far produced better racing than we\u2019ve seen in the past of those tracks.<\/p>\n
\u201cTracks that are energy starved, the racing will be better. It probably will be a bit more chaotic. So you can look at that as the positive.\u201d<\/p>\n
But that racing also comes with a big risk: People driving at different speeds, like what happened with Ollie Bearman\u2019s 50G crash during the Japanese Grand Prix<\/a> where the speed differential was 29 mph.<\/p>\nPiastri outlined a scenario where a driver may be half a second quicker on one straight and that much slower on the next straight. The speed differences in a straight-line can be staggering, and sometimes, they\u2019re a sitting duck.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The drivers can\u2019t do much about those speed differentials, Piastri said, because of a multitude of reasons, like being out of battery and being unable to deploy if they wanted to do so or the deployment happening \u201cwhen we wouldn\u2019t necessarily choose to.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think on TV, it looks much, much more simple than it is behind the wheel,\u201d the McLaren driver continued. \u201cSo\u2026I won\u2019t say any more. Some tracks it\u2019s a decent balance, other tracks it\u2019s a bit\u2026 well\u2026a reference to a certain video game, I don\u2019t need to say.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SILVERSTONE, UK \u2014 In order to keep in touch about pressing matters, Formula 1 drivers rely on a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":776666,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,12716,82],"class_list":["post-776665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-motorsports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/776665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=776665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/776665\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/776666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=776665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=776665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=776665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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