07-07-2025
Red Bull punished for small-team mentality
Once again the British Grand Prix at Silverstone produced a thrilling race thanks in part to plenty of traditional British summer weather throughout the afternoon. In the end it was another McLaren one-two finish, but it was certainly not without its jeopardy with numerous crashes and cars running off, causing several safety Cars and virtual safety cars.
On a day like Sunday it is incredibly difficult for the teams to get it right. That is because the conditions were changeable, which meant at times the intermediates were the correct tyres and at other times it was slicks. When the rain comes and goes as it did, it is a nightmare for the strategists. To get the best from the race you want to be the first to make the right call on tyres, but by doing it before anyone else you are inevitably taking a gamble.
Strategy is king in the rain
Strategy is a living thing in Formula One, particularly in the wet. Silverstone is a difficult track because it is so large. It could be raining heavily in one sector but largely dry in another. You have to balance what might be quickest with what is the biggest risk. There will be plenty of strategists with fried brains after that race.
Some teams and drivers got it right, others failed. I was surprised at some of the choices of the top teams on Sunday, who appeared to take too much risk and throw away good positions. In a race like this, you can almost split the field in two. If you are in the bottom half of the grid – or in a quick car but out of position – you want to take gambles because you might pull a result out of it that could bag you a disproportionate amount of points. That is what Sauber managed with Nico Hulkenberg, taking 15 points home for third – that accounts for more than a third of the team's total points in 2025.
Verstappen paid for team's gamble
Red Bull had Max Verstappen on pole but the race quickly got away from him. The skinny, low-downforce rear wing that he ran on Saturday helped him to beat the McLarens in qualifying but was the cause of his downfall in the damp on Sunday. You could see how the car was getting away from him, with numerous slides and one big spin on the race restart. You do not see that often from Verstappen.
I think Red Bull made an error in setting up Verstappen's car like this – it was too bold a decision. They would have known that the weather was unpredictable for the race but they were too focused on taking pole position and hoping they could sort it out from there.
LAP 21/22
Max Verstappen spins at the restart! 😵
He drops from P2 to P9 ⬇️ #F1 #BritishGP
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 6, 2025
This meant that to get the balance on the car right in the wet, they would have had to take off downforce from the front wing. This would have in turn given him even less overall downforce, which is not what you want in slippery conditions. He paid the price and faded in the race, finishing fifth.
This is all a bit small team-ish from Red Bull and naive, in my view. Verstappen is still fighting the McLarens for the championship, though his hopes are diminishing. For a team that have won four drivers' and two constructors' titles in the last four seasons, it was a bit of an oddball decision. McLaren, on the other hand, focused on the race rather than qualifying and reaped the rewards. A team like Red Bull should go into the weekend with the best set-up for the race and look at the bigger picture. They did not. Just because they do not have the best car any more does not mean they should be making decisions like this.
Red Bull not the only giants to fall
Mercedes, too, made some strange choices. The strangest was bringing George Russell in at the end of the formation lap to switch to slick tyres, in particular the hard slicks rather than the mediums or softs. Every team seemed to think that it was going to rain 10 or so laps into the race so Mercedes were taking a big risk. It ended up putting them on the back foot as, inevitably, Russell had to switch to intermediates when the rain returned. He never got back into contention.
If Russell had started towards the back of the grid you could understand it more. He started fourth though and was in contention at the start, alongside the McLarens, Red Bull and Ferraris. In any case, the soft slick should have been the choice, not the hards. The soft gives you more grip in the wet and the dry and is quicker to get up to temperature than the hard tyre. The extra wear that it would suffer in damp, cold conditions is negligible, relative to the hard or medium. I think Mercedes were looking for the miracle from lap one, but by the end of the 12th lap a miracle is exactly what they needed.
McLaren were in contention in a wet/dry race last year but made some odd strategy calls that cost them victory. They managed to bring it home again this year (though their car has a bigger advantage, especially in the wet because of how it treats its tyres) but they were not immune from questionable decisions, either.
Given the size of their advantage towards the end of the race, it was a risk to pit both Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris when they did on laps 43 and 44. They had no real competition from behind – Hulkenberg was nearly a minute adrift in third on lap 43 – and the track was still quite tricky, as Piastri showed by going off once he went on to the slicks. They could have just taken a lap or even two more to see the lap times of those behind them, react when they needed to and reduced their chances of crashing out. They won so they will not worry about that too much on Monday, but I think they took too much of a risk.
The sides who got it right
I'd also give two teams further down the grid, Aston Martin and Sauber, a firm pat on the back for their strategies. Hulkenberg did not take any gambles, drove a fairly uneventful and straightforward race in tough conditions and from 19th he took home his first career podium. Lance Stroll, who seems to thrive in the wet, was in contention for that podium until late on but still managed to bring home a decent haul of points for his team. It was an excellent example of what is possible by making the right decisions at the right time and not trying to be heroes.
