The battle on the track has spilled off it as the team bosses take aim. Lewis Hamilton and his Ferrari team threw away the script at Silverstone on Friday, adding an extra edge to what could develop into a fantastic battle with Mercedes over the rest of the season – one that has already led to a war of words between the respective team bosses.
After Hamilton’s emotional win in Spain, the subsequent race in Austria proved to be disappointing, with Ferrari losing out due to a power unit performance deficit of about 59 horsepower and then having a poor race with tire issues. For all the buzz around his local hero status and the prospect of a 10th British GP win, the reality at Silverstone this weekend was expected to be tough, given how important sheer horsepower is.
Hamilton was quick in the single FP1 session, but that isn’t always a reliable guide. He then sailed through each of the qualifying sessions in P1 to secure pole for Saturday’s sprint. Not only did he have a popular pole, ahead of Mercedes, but he also found that his home track was not as disappointing to drive with the 2026 cars as he and others had feared.
View Price on Amazon"I am so happy, so, so happy," he said. "It was like 'Oh, the track's not going to be the same,' because that's what we all thought. And the track's still phenomenal, the track still feels great, the engine drop-off is not anywhere near what we anticipated. And then on top of that, yesterday they were scaring me; they were like, 'We're going to be six-tenths off in a straight line to these guys.’ In the last race, we were four-tenths off in the straight line. But then today, all of a sudden, we're kind of there. And I was like, 'Is this real, are they going to turn up in quali?' And we were right there competing with them."
Once again, Hamilton paid tribute to his team: "I always want to bring it back to everyone back at the factory, because I can't say it enough, they're just pushing. Last year we were kind of stuck in a rut, not a lot we could do; now they're finding things, they're adding things to the car, and every single weekend we're bringing small little bits and adding performance to this car, and it felt awesome. Silverstone is the best track to drive."
Mercedes had to settle for second place on the sprint grid with the World Championship leader Kimi Antonelli, who was quick to give credit to Ferrari and Hamilton. "The car felt good," said the teenager. "Ferrari, they've done an incredible step forward, so definitely it's going to be very tough. Plus, Lewis is in a great form. But that's good. We like the challenge, and we'll try to make the best out of it. We will go for it, and we'll try to do our best. Of course, it's not going to be easy, but everything is on the table to do well."
Meanwhile, George Russell was left scratching his head, down in P5 behind Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc in the other Ferrari. "It's kind of story of the year, to be honest," he said. “Always on the back foot. Usually come Q3 I can generally make a step. Today, not quite the case. It was very close to P3, but still very much off the pace of Lewis and Kimi. So I need to try and understand why that is. It's a bit strange."
Russell made it clear that he couldn’t get his head around Hamilton’s pace at a track that should not have favored the SF-26. "Very surprised," he said. "They've been on the back foot with the power unit and energy management, and here they look the best at the moment. So that's been a real surprise. We've always known they've had a great chassis, but I think some things aren't quite making sense. If I were to have predicted, I'd have said Ferrari would be quick last week, and we would be quick this week. Obviously, Kimi did a great job, but still, Ferrari has had the upper hand all day."
Source: roadandtrack.com
