Formula One returned to Silverstone, branded as the ‘home of British motorsport’ it has certainly become one of THE ‘must attend’ Grand Prix on the Formula One race calendar. It has all the history of a venue that hosted the very first Formula One World Championship race in 1950 and the drivers unanimously love the track and racing there – because it allows them to. Its 5.891km layout combines long straights with iconic high-speed corners and where speeds of more than 300 kph have been recorded. However, this year, under Formula One's new 2026 power unit regulations, Silverstone presented an additional challenge. The circuit has relatively few heavy braking zones in which to harvest electrical energy, making it one of the most "energy-starved" tracks of the season. Drivers were going to have manage battery deployment and to lift off through sections that they would instinctively be taking flat out – a complete anathema to a Formula One driver’s DNA. For Aston Martin, Silverstone is the team's home event, with its state-of-the-art Aston Martin Racing Technology Campus located directly opposite the circuit. Over the weekend the team would host hundreds of guests, sponsors and fans all wanting the cars and drivers to return to the glory races of 2023. Earlier in the week though, Team Principal, Adrian Newey, put out a statement that the only major upgrade that will be coming soon will be in time for the Hungarian Grand Prix at the end of July. It is being referred to as the B-spec car and will comprise much more aerodynamic efficiency and significant weight reduction. The aim and belief is that these 2 factors will start to get the Aston Martins into the second round of Qualifying. Further chassis upgrades are expected over the summer break, in August, and these should be available in time for the Dutch Grand Prix. Honda, likewise, released an update, stating they were aiming to have a significant upgrade to the power unit in time for the Grand Prix in Zandvoort also. For this British Grand Prix therefore, no improvement was to be expected and the recent run of performance would continue and so it did.
Free Practice
Alonso and Stroll headed out promptly when the lights went green at the end of the pit lane for the sole 60-minute Free Practice session – this being a race weekend that would incorporate the Sprint race as well, both commencing their routines on the hard compound tyres. After their opening time setting laps Alonso briefly occupied P14 with Stroll in P17, although several drivers had yet to record representative lap times. As the remainder of the field got into their stride the Aston Martins inevitably slipped down the order and when just over 11 minutes of the session had elapsed Alonso and Stroll found themselves occupying the final two positions – P21 and P22 respectively. For the reasons explained above, the teams also used the session evaluating where drivers could most effectively lift off and harvest battery power without sacrificing excessive lap time. At the quarter hour point, Hadjar, Antonelli and Verstappen were setting the early pace at the front, with Alonso in P19, 3.9 seconds off the leader’s time, while Stroll was P21, 0.3 of a second slower than his teammate. Aston Martin continued working methodically through its programme but the underlying performance deficit remained evident. By the midpoint of the session both drivers had once again slipped to the foot of the timesheets, Alonso to P21and Stroll in P22. Shortly after, the drivers were switched to soft compound tyres and that showed some early improvement - Alonso climbing to 18th and Stroll 19th, on the lower-fuel qualifying simulations. However, as rival teams completed their own soft tyre runs, the Aston Martins drifted backwards once more. With 15 minutes remaining on the clock, Alonso was P19 and Stroll P20 after both switched onto medium compound tyres to complete longer race simulation runs. At the front, Hamilton headed Antonelli and Hadjar as the leading teams concentrated on preparing for Sprint Qualifying later in the afternoon. The closing minutes saw the majority of the field head back out for their final Qualifying simulations before the chequered flag came down. Despite Aston Martin's best efforts there was little change to the overall picture. Hamilton finished the session fastest ahead of Antonelli and Leclerc, while Alonso ended 20th and Stroll 22nd. Between them the Aston Martin drivers gathered 51 laps of data for the team, but the timing screens again underlined the scale of the challenge facing the AMR26 ahead of the remainder of the weekend.
Sprint Qualifying
When the opening 12 minute session of Sprint Qualifying commenced, there was no immediate rush by the majority of drivers to head on track, except for Bearman, who was the first driver to venture out before the remainder of the field gradually followed. Halfway through the round, Hamilton headed the timesheets, briefly displaced by Hadjar, while the Aston Martins remained in the garage waiting for the circuit to evolve before beginning their initial Qualifying runs, on mandatory medium tyres, hoping to secure a place in SQ2. However, Alonso could do no better than 21st, while Stroll recorded the slowest time, which was deleted anyway, for exceeding track limits. Both drivers put in one final attempt before the chequered flag but it was not enough to avoid elimination for both of them - Alonso ending the round in P21, approximately nine-tenths of a second slower than Bottas' Cadillac in P20, while Stroll remained rooted at the foot of the order in P22, a further tenth behind Alonso. For the fourth consecutive competitive qualifying session Aston Martin's involvement ended in the opening phase. At the front Hamilton topped SQ1, ahead of Leclerc and Hadjar, which Hamilton maintained in SQ2, finishing ahead of Antonelli and Leclerc to progress comfortably into the final shootout. The 8-minute SQ3 session unfolded very differently. With tyre preparation proving crucial around Silverstone, none of the remaining drivers hurried onto the circuit and, by the halfway point, not a single car had been out to record a lap time. Eventually the entire field emerged together, with 3 minutes left to go, leaving themselves one shot to put in their best lap to decide the Sprint grid. In front of an appreciative home crowd, Hamilton produced a superb final effort to snatch Sprint pole position ahead of Antonelli and Verstappen, prompting a huge celebration from the partisan fans in the grandstands. It marked another memorable Qualifying performance from the seven-time World Champion at the circuit where he has enjoyed more success than any other driver in Formula One history. For Aston Martin, however, as expected, the AMR26 lacked the pace to challenge even the lower midfield runners, leaving Alonso and Stroll facing a difficult Sprint race from the back of the grid.
Sprint Race
Unusually, for Silverstone, but pleasantly, the competitive action on Saturday got underway in very warm, dry conditions as the grid assembled for the 17-lap Sprint race. Both Aston Martins lined up on soft compound tyres, hoping the additional grip would allow Alonso and Stroll to make progress from the back of the grid before tyre degradation became a factor. Both drivers made clean, swift fast starts when the red lights went out and Alonso climbed to 18th and Stroll to 19th, while at the front Hamilton converted Sprint pole into an early lead ahead of Antonelli. However, Alonso's promising start was interrupted towards the end of the first lap when Pérez attempted an ambitious move on the Aston Martin and made contact, forcing Alonso to the back of the field, although Pérez came off worse from the incident - the Spaniard repassed Pérez on the following lap as the damaged Cadillac slipped backwards. At the front, Hamilton controlled the opening laps from Antonelli and Norris, while the Aston Martins settled into what became a lonely race at the rear of the field. By lap 5 Stroll had been repassed by the cars he’d nipped ahead of at the start and was down to P20 with Alonso behind him, both with little opportunity to challenge the cars ahead. The battle for race victory intensified just before half distance when Antonelli launched a successful move on Hamilton to take the lead, much to the disappointment of the British fans. On the next lap Alonso overtook his team-mate to move into 20th position, although neither Aston Martin would threaten the cars ahead. The Stewards then announced that Pérez would receive a10-second penalty for causing the collision with Alonso, vindicating the Spaniard's complaints over the team radio. The race order at the front and the back didn’t change and just before the finish Aston Martin brought Stroll into the pits to fit a set of medium tyres, seemingly to gather additional data ahead race Qualifying, rather than in search of a better finishing position. At the chequered flag Antonelli secured Sprint victory ahead of Hamilton and Norris, while Alonso finished in P20 and Stroll P21, as expected.
Qualifying
Attention then turned to Qualifying for Sunday's race, offering Aston Martin another opportunity to improve on its disappointing Sprint grid positions. As the lights turned green for Q1, Alonso and Stroll headed out in an effort to maximise track evolution and before the track became too crowded. Early in the round Russell suffered a huge lock-up and ran across the gravel at Luffield Corner, but he managed to keep the car going and returned to the track without any damage and continued on. With 8 minutes remaining Alonso was in P19 and Stroll in P20, although the timing screens fluctuated after one of Alonso's laps was deleted for exceeding track limits. As the minutes counted down the pressure intensified - Bortoleto had yet to set a representative lap, briefly offering Aston Martin hope of escaping the bottom two positions, but that quickly disappeared. When the chequered flag fell Stroll narrowly outqualified Alonso, by just 0.025 seconds, the Canadian securing P21 and Alonso P22, but the gap to Pérez's Cadillac in P20 was stark – 0.9 of a second. At the front, there was a new name topping the timesheets - Hadjar was P1, ahead of Lawson and Leclerc. There was a brief delay before Q2 got underway, as Colapinto had spun off in the final sector in Q1, requiring marshals to recover his car and clear gravel from the circuit. Once running resumed Antonelli, Leclerc and Hamilton were the top 3 leading drivers. The battle for pole position developed into another fascinating contest between Mercedes and Ferrari after some brinkmanship as to who would head out first. Antonelli headed Russell and Hamilton after the first runs before everyone prepared for one final attempt. Delivering when it mattered most, Antonelli produced another outstanding lap to secure pole position for the Grand Prix, his second of the weekend, with Leclerc taking P2 just ahead of Hamilton in the other Ferrari. As in the Sprint Qualifying, the AMR26 demonstrated it lacked the pace to compete with even the lower midfield, leaving Alonso and Stroll facing another recovery drive from the back of the grid and hoping strategy, reliability and changing conditions might present opportunities that outright speed would not.
Race
Sunday’s race would get underway before a capacity crowd of 175,000 basking in glorious sunshine. But Aston Martin would experience a couple of early setbacks before the lights had even gone out. Although Stroll had outqualified Alonso on Saturday, a 10-place grid penalty had been applied to Stroll by the Stewards for fitting a new battery to the Canadian's AMR26, which relegated him to P22 and promoted Alonso to P21. Both Aston Martins would start the 52-lap race on medium compound tyres, a strategy adopted by all the drivers, except Bottas. However, during the formation lap Alonso's AMR26 suddenly came to a halt on track and although he got it moving again, he had to take to the pit lane for precautionary checks before taking the start of the race from the pit lane. When the red lights went out the fast-starting Ferraris immediately overtook Antonelli, much to the delight of the home crowd. Further back, Bearman experienced a tough start to his home race, the Haas driver going off track at Brooklands along with Albon after being tapped into a spin by the Williams driver, which allowed Stroll to gain a position. Piastri also suffered front-wing damage after making contact with Lawson and was forced to pit at the end of lap two for a replacement nose cone. The resulting reshuffle elevated Alonso to P20, two places behind Stroll in P18. On the following lap Hulkenberg moved past the Canadian before the field settled into its stride. Shortly afterwards, the Stewards announced that Hamilton would have to serve a 5-second penalty for moving before the start lights had been extinguished. Meanwhile, Alonso gradually began closing the gap to his team-mate as Aston Martin's attention turned to its own intra team battle. At the front, on lap 11, Antonelli had overtaken Hamilton to secure P2 and was now behind Leclerc, while Stroll occupied P19 and Alonso P20. However, Piastri had recovered from his early pit stop and was chasing the Aston Martin pair and he caught and passed both the green machines on lap 16. Stroll then made his first pit stop on lap 18 and took on a set of hard tyres, which allowed Alonso to move up a place and 2 laps later Alonso came into the pits and did the same, managing to come out ahead of Stroll. Then, on lap 22, Race Control deployed the Virtual Safety Car (VSC) after an umbrella had blown onto the track from the spectator banking. Once the article had been safely recovered, racing resumed with little impact on the overall order. At the half distance point Antonelli inherited the lead after Leclerc made a pit stop for fresh tyres, while Norris ran in P3. The Aston Martins however, remained rooted towards the rear of the field, Alonso in P20 and Stroll P21. The second half of the race was dominated by the leadership battle. Russell and Hamilton fought intensely for position and on lap 36 Antonelli pitted from the lead and Leclerc inherited it – Antonelli coming out 7.5 seconds behind Leclerc. The young Italian began setting fastest laps as he reduced the gap to Leclerc, only for another VSC to interrupt proceedings when Hulkenberg's Audi stopped off track. Hulkenberg's retirement promoted Alonso to P19 and Stroll to P20 and then the racing resumed, but not before the Stewards announced that Stroll was under investigation for exceeding track limits. Antonelli's challenge then unravelled dramatically - the Mercedes driver reported that he could no longer turn the car properly and came into the pits for a replacement nose assembly. Although he rejoined in 6th place the repairs failed to cure the underlying problem and he was forced into another unscheduled stop a few laps later. To compound his difficulties, Antonelli had to serve a 5-second penalty while he was stopped, after repeated track limits infringements, resulting from his lack of steering problems. He came out in 10th position, while the top 3 positions were now held by Leclerc, Hamilton and Verstappen and there were only 7 laps of the race remaining. Before the race would end there was one final twist when Verstappen uncharacteristically slid into the gravel on lap 48 and his Red Bull became beached in it, which required the full Safety Car. Leclerc and Hamilton both took the opportunity to make late pit stops, as did the two Aston Martins and they took on soft tyres for what was thought would be a sprint to the finish. Although Leclerc came back out still in the lead, Hamilton rejoined behind Russell, who hadn’t pitted. The cars circulated round behind the Safety Car and on the penultimate lap it was announced that the Safety Car would be ending and that 1 lap of racing would be possible. However, the Safety Car stayed out much to the frustration of the sell-out Silverstone crowd. The reason being, as was explained later, that the back marker cars had to unlap themselves and one lap must be completed following the unlapping procedure. That didn't happen when the 'safety car in this lap' message was displayed which the FIA stated was displayed “erroneously due to a software error". Therefore, the race finished a couple of corners after the Safety Car had peeled off back into the pit lane allowing Leclerc to secure victory ahead of Russell and Hamilton, while Aston Martin completed their home Grand Prix with Alonso crossing the finish line in P18 and Stroll P19. After the race it emerged that Stroll had exceeded track limits six times in total which incurred a trio of penalties. The standard penalty for a sixth track limits infringement during the race is a further 5 second time penalty and the Stewards imposed that penalty. In the end, it was all irrelevant as Stroll was the last of the cars that were running.
Reaction and Comment
Despite avoiding the retirements that had blighted recent races, the AMR26 again lacked the pace to challenge the midfield, leaving the Silverstone-based team still floundering at the back of the grid. Pedro de la Rose reiterated a couple of times during the Grand Prix weekend what Adrian Newey had stated earlier in the week, that with the upgrade package due in time for the race in Budapest at the end of July it should allow the AMR26 to ‘unlock its full potential’. After the race Alonso’s verdict was very brief, "We are all working well together and hopefully we see some improvements in the second half of the year." Stroll tried to provide a reason for his track limits transgressions, "We have the information we need and understand where we need to improve, so these weekends are just a case of being patient and waiting for the upgrades to come. We had a lot of understeer during the race and a very unpredictable car, so it's hard with track limits. I'm always trying to give it everything I can and hopefully things get better soon." We have one more race with this specification car, in Belgium in 2 weeks’ time, so I can only hope that will be the last where I have to report that we finished last. There was one consolation during this Grand Prix weekend – Alonso crossed the finish line first in his Lego kart during the Driver’s Parade!