This last races has been some of the best of the year starting with Canada, today Lewis Hamilton wins the Formula 1 British Grand Prix in a great fashion, his last win was on 2021 its been almost three years without a win and having to get his 104 win after so long specially on his home this been the 9th time he wins his home Grand Prix.
At the start of the season when news came out that Hamilton was leaving Mercedes and move to Ferrari I personally got piss off the moment I read about it, the reason for this is because after James Allison came back to the team, the very same guy who design Mercedes F1 cars during most of the years Hamilton was dominating; Mercedes would start to bounce back and from their two main drivers Hamilton was the guy to put them back into the podium, but he has probably made his worst decision going to Ferrari a team that is no where to be seen during the last four race.
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Due to Formula 1 races been so early most of the time I never watch them life so last night I sat down and watch the Saturday Quali, it was a fairy tale with three British driver making the front row and Verstappen fourth. They all deserve been at the top, both Mercedes and Lando were very very fast so close to each other there was no doubt that one of them was going to win the race, if I had to choose my favorite was Hamilton from the three, he has the experience but most importantly he is the driver with the most wins on this circuit ever and the possibility of rain was very high putting Russell and Lando out of the picture. Unfortunately for Russell he had to retire the car due to some problems in the cooling system of the car and at least could not go to the end, in my opinion this weekend the second and third place could be any of the other three drivers from Russell, Lando and Piastri, they are all good drivers but none of them have the champion material yet, Russell in my opinion been the most smart but Hamilton and Verstappen will always be on a higher level when it comes down to take important decisions.
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If I have to pick the fastest car on the grid I have to say its the McLaren right now, their tire degradation is very low and the down force is amazing, Lando was dominating the slow sector of the track. This time there was no battle like on Austria between Lando and Max, there are several reasons for this been that the track DRS Zones have some wide and fast straights, Verstappen car had no pace after the floor change they had to do because of damage from Quali when he went very fast through the gravel. Verstappen knew there was nothing he could do to stop Lando, if you look at the shot above you can probably fit four cars on that track, Lando went by and move into third place.
McLaren Team, made themself look like fools today taking decisions as bad as Ferrari when the put Leclerc so early on inter medium tires and the track was so dry. With Lando first and Piastri second they took the very bad decision to only box Lando, sacrificing Piastri, destroying all the work he had done when they could box both as Mercedes did and if something went wrong with Piastri pitting then at least he could go out closer to the pack. Both Lando and McLaren pits where late to change to inter medium tires when the rain came down same way as they were late to go into dry tires when it partially stop raining and there was a dry lane, both Hamilton and Verstappen pit one lap before.
The Experience and Team work, both Mercedes and Red Bull have some of the best strategist on the pits and also two excellent drivers on track to let them know when was the right time to box and do tire change depending on track condition.
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With Russell retire of the race and having the perfect timing to go into interns, Hamilton increase his chances of wining the race, I'm sure he could feel it and in his mind he knew he had this race. Mercedes timing for medium tires when the rain stop was perfect too. Red Bull on the other hand I think took a gamble or they just evaluated how the car did on medium tires with the data collected and send Verstappen out with Hard Tires, I was skeptical about that decision but it really paid off, I thought he was going to have problems to warm up the tires due to track conditions but it seem that temperature was rising at the track so the moment he fire up it was game on. Lando stay out, wrong call, on top his pit stop was close to 5 seconds when usually is around half of that. Hamilton takes the lead, the track is getting hotter with 12 laps to go McLaren put on soft tires that are enough for that long depending on the track, sadly it didn't work out and Verstappen was able to catch Lando.
The past four race have been great, the first six places are so close to each other on Quali and Race, this are great times for Formula 1. This race proof some of my theories how James Allison has done a great job with the car and next year could only get better bringing the battle to McLaren because yes there is no doubt they are the fastest car on the track but for everyone who is saying that Red Bull is over look at how the car was flying the moment Verstappen got better grip when they put on the hard tires. I'm not an expert two say what is probably wrong with the car but what I can tell is that its a balance problem, there is something that is not according to Verstappen driving style because he could not turn the car for the most part of the race until the last stint, I have no doubt that he could win this championship too, what a banger of a race.
