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QUICK QUIZ QUESTION – Charles Leclerc’s victory at Silverstone was his first Grand Prix success since the 2024 United States Grand Prix. How many GP wins does he now have to his name? The answer is at the bottom of this newsletter.

The main headlines and stories from the Formula 1 paddock this week:

🏆 Congratulations to Charles Leclerc. Though most of the locals obviously wanted to see another British winner at Silverstone, he was a popular victor too and it was nice to see him feeling good behind the wheel again. And he was glad to be able to change the narrative around him which he felt was excessively negative in recent weeks – Samuel Coop, RacingNews365

🔴 Ferrari have now won two of the last three Grands Prix but Fred Vasseur was unwilling to get too carried away and asked people to stop speaking about Ferrari’s title chances in the context of each individual weekend’s result and performance – Alan Baldwin, Reuters

🤖 Leclerc’s lead was unchallenged because the race finished behind the safety car. Fans were confused and frustrated because the ‘safety car in this lap’ message was shown on the penultimate lap, only for it to stay out. The FIA explained that the procedure had been followed correctly, as the rules say the safety car has to stay out for an extra lap after telling lapped cars to unlap themselves, and that the ‘in this lap’ message had been shown because of a “software error” – Haydn Cobb, Motorsport.com

😅 Toto Wolff said he felt it was the right call, but pointed out in his post-race session with written journalists that he’d have rather this procedure had been correctly followed in Abu Dhabi back in 2021… – Laurence Edmondson, ESPN

❌ Ferrari pitted both their drivers in anticipation of a restart and that dropped Lewis Hamilton to third place behind George Russell. The seven-time world champion said he would not have followed the instruction to pit if he had known he would lose track position – Giles Richards, The Guardian

😡 There was a bit of needle between Vasseur and Wolff, the Frenchman irked by a comment his friend had made a week earlier when he suggested the Scuderia must soon run out of development money because of all their upgrades. Vasseur took that as an accusation of cheating – The Express

🪷 In response, Wolff said Vasseur is a “very emotional” person and denied any implication of cheating, insisting the Ferrari boss had got the wrong idea about his comments – Lewis Larkam, Crash

😮‍💨 Kimi Antonelli might have won the race had his wheel shield not broken at a time when he was catching leader Leclerc by more than a second per lap. Instead, he tumbled down the order as he pitted multiple times to try to resolve the issue and also copped a penalty, which dropped him out of the points once and for all, because of track limits violations. He felt afterwards that there must have been more damage than just the wheel shield, given how difficult it became for him to turn the car – Ronald Vording, Motorsport.com

🤷 Russell was exceedingly fortunate to finish second on a weekend where he was off the pace again and admitted he needs to up his game if he is to fight for the championship – Keith Collantine, RaceFans

🤬 That late safety car mentioned earlier was caused by Max Verstappen spinning off track and beaching his Red Bull in the gravel at Stowe, proceeding to shout “f**k this car” and several other expletives over the radio. He was angry that, for the second race weekend in a row, he had crashed because his rear wing had failed to properly close heading into a high-speed corner – Ben Waterworth, Speedcafe

🗣️ Team boss Laurent Mekies said Verstappen had every right to be angry and would not rule out the idea of Red Bull removing its version of the ‘macarena’ rear wing next time out at Spa-Francorchamps if its safety cannot be guaranteed – Jack Benyon, The Race

🙂 Team-mate Isack Hadjar had more pace than Verstappen at times over the weekend and seemed reasonably content with his fifth-placed finish, having seen improvement from the Sprint race 24 hours earlier – Formula1.com

😲 Those guessing that Verstappen might have had something to do with that “big news” discussed at the top of this email may end up being right in a way, as this report claims McLaren are “in the closing stages of a lengthy negotiation” with the Dutch driver’s camp to join – Thomas Maher, PlanetF1

🤔 McLaren CEO Zak Brown said at Silverstone that he doesn’t want to change his drivers and Oscar Piastri, the driver seemingly in the firing line, said he has no intention of leaving and that the team is “very happy with me” – Formula1.com

🤞 Like many other drivers, Piastri is also exasperated by the realities of racing with this engine formula and said there is too much of an “element of luck” which decides the outcome of overtake attempts – Jack Oliver Smith, Motorsport Week

🟠 Remember in 1998 when Michael Schumacher pitted on the final lap of the British GP to take the chequered flag and avoid serving a penalty while winning the race? Lando Norris wanted to do something similar on the final lap to skip the safety car queue and asked over the radio if it would be allowed. Sadly for him, that rule was tightened up after Schumi’s cheekiness and so he was told he couldn’t try it – Lewis Larkam, Crash

👍 Team principal Andrea Stella was happy with fourth place for his driver, though, calling it an “overachievement” considering the performance deficit they continue to have to Ferrari and Mercedes – Formula1.com

🔧 McLaren were running without the latest spec of Mercedes engines, Brown explaining that they had to get more life out of their current power units before switching to the upgraded ones. He said that could change as soon as by the next race in Belgium – Samson Ero, GPBlog

📖 Christian Horner appeared in the F1 paddock for the first time since he was axed by Red Bull a year ago, having also announced on Saturday that he will release a memoir later in the year. I imagine there will be an explosive story or two in there… – The Express

⏳ The FIA is set to confirm this week that the outcome of its first engine Additional Development and Upgrade Opportunities (ADUO) review will be made official, confirming Red Bull as the team with the best engines despite their protestations over the format of the test – Thomas Maher, PlanetF1

⛽ And finally for this section, FIA president Mohammed ben Sulayem said refuelling could return to F1 when the sport returns to simpler V8 engines in the future – Alan Baldwin, Reuters

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One of my favourite parts of the Silverstone weekend was being allowed behind the role to get a closer look at the LEGO minicars for the video below, featuring interviews with the lead designers on the project and also LEGO’s chief product and marketing officer Julia Goldin.

Here are the main stories around F1’s seven midfield teams this week:

BRITISH GP RESULT
Franco Colapinto – 9th
Pierre Gasly – 10th
Constructors’ championship – 5th (60 points)

🫤 Double points is a good result on paper, but Alpine lost ground again to midfield rivals Racing Bulls and ninth and 10th was seen as nothing more than “damage limitation” by Gasly and Colapinto on Sunday night – Formula1.com

🌽 All Alpine staff were fuelled for the weekend by produce from Jeremy Clarkson’s Diddly Squat Farm and Jezza showed up himself on the Sunday to see how they were getting on – The Express

👀 Renault CEO Francois Provost was also at Silverstone where he quite bluntly said the celebrity shareholders who part-own the team through Otro Capital’s 24 percent stage have brought “no value” at all to Alpine’s F1 project – Jon Noble, The Race

BRITISH GP RESULT
Fernando Alonso – 18th
Lance Stroll – 19th
Constructors’ championship – 10th (1 point)

💥 Stroll suffered with a lot of understeer throughout the Grand Prix and that contributed to him picking up three separate penalties for track limits violations – Lewis Larkam, Crash

🤔 Alonso was worried that he wouldn’t even start when his car shut down on the formation lap. He was able to get it going again and completed the Grand Prix, but neither he nor chief trackside officer Mike Krack could offer an explanation for his odd stoppage – Sam Cooper, PlanetF1

⚖️ Alonso also said at Silverstone that his future beyond the current season is not connected to how well Aston Martin’s upcoming upgrades perform, because “there are other factors I need to think about – Ben McCrum, SPORTBible

BRITISH GP RESULT
Gabriel Bortoleto – 8th
Nico Hulkenberg – DNF
Constructors’ championship – 9th (6 points)

🙌 Bortoleto felt Audi finally showed their “true pace” at Silverstone as his P8 finish secured the team’s first points since the opening day of the season – Formula1.com

👍 Hulkenberg remains pointless but Audi boss Mattia Binotto insists he is “very happy” with the job the veteran German is doing – GrandPrix.com

BRITISH GP RESULT
Sergio Perez – 14th
Valtteri Bottas – 16th
Constructors’ championship – 11th (0 points)

👏 Cadillac got back on track after a difficult weekend in Austria and saw both cars finish a Grand Prix for the first time since May. More than that, Perez in particular found himself able to race one or two midfield cars at times and there’s optimism that the newbies are getting closer to being competitive – Phillip Horton, Autoweek

🍔 Saturday at Silverstone was the Fourth of July and Cadillac celebrated in style with a paddock barbecue (some people called it a cookout, is there a difference, US-based readers?) at the end of the day’s track running. It was attended by hundreds and I can confirm the burgers were delicious!

🇺🇸 In Formula 2, Cadillac’s Colton Herta found things difficult again and has now scored just 20 points from 14 races this year, putting him 17th in the championship. The IndyCar race winner said he thinks there are far more similarities from his old series to F1 machinery than to F2, thought he admitted his season has not gone well so far – Jamie Woodhouse, PlanetF1

BRITISH GP RESULT
Oliver Bearman – 12th
Esteban Ocon – 13th
Constructors’ championship – 7th (21 points)

📉 Before even arriving at his home race, Bearman warned that Haas are being outdeveloped and it was on display again at Silverstone, where they were unable to push towards points – Owen Bellwood; Ronald Vording, Motorsport.com

😒 He is watching on with envy while friend and former F2 team-mate Kimi Antonelli wins races with Mercedes, and think it’s proof that he can do the same in a front-running car – Aine O Donnell, BBC Newsbeat

😓 Speaking to Haas contacts in the Silverstone paddock, I learned that Esteban Ocon and his camp have been particularly sensitive to speculation over his future in recent weeks, indicating that the Frenchman is concerned about his place in the F1 grid considering his underwhelming results this year.

BRITISH GP RESULT
Liam Lawson – 6th
Arvid Lindblad – 7th
Constructors’ championship – 6th (59 points)

💪 Lawson’s hot streak shows no sign of cooling down and he said after his latest strong result that there’s currently “no reason” why he cannot continue his excellent form into the summer break and beyond – Samuel Coop, RacingNews365

🔥 Lawson thinks his and Racing Bulls’ “very, very consistent” tyre management has been a key factor in their scintillating form over the last couple of months – Brandon Sutton, Total Motorsport

🗣️ Lindblad is also doing very well. Prior to the weekend he gave this Q&A interview which provides some nice insights into his character, including why he always felt more of a connection to Lewis Hamilton than any other driver when growing up – Harry Jarman, The Gentleman’s Journal

BRITISH GP RESULT
Carlos Sainz – 17th
Alex Albon – DNF
Constructors’ championship – 8th (11 points)

❌ Williams’ small upgrade didn’t have much of an impact on their fortunes at Silverstone. Albon’s day was done on lap one when he slammed into Oliver Bearman, only continuing to gather data in what was essentially a glorified test session. And Sainz was knocked down the final classification by a very rare ‘penalty lap’, given because he unlapped himself when he shouldn’t have during the late safety car period – Valentin Khorounzhiy, The Race

📆 I had a good chat with people down at Williams over the weekend and learned that a completely new chassis will be introduced at the Azerbaijan race in October. Team principal James Vowles confirmed that, as well as his plan for the team to be winning races in 2028 and fighting for the championship two years later, in this interview – Scott Hunt, PA (via The Independent)

🏎️ Williams, along with Mercedes, are testing for Pirelli at Silverstone this week. Sainz was in the car on Tuesday with Albon getting behind the wheel on Wednesday. But because it’s a tyre test, it’s not an opportunity for the team to test any of its planned upgrades – Jake Nichol, RacingNews365

QUICK QUIZ QUESTION ANSWER – Leclerc’s Silverstone win was his ninth Grand Prix victory for Ferrari and only his fourth since July 2022.

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✍ My name is Daniel Moxon and I’ve been an F1 fan since I was old enough to listen to my dad’s tales about Ayrton Senna and Damon Hill. I clearly caught the bug as I now work as the senior Formula 1 correspondent across Reach PLC’s titles including the Daily Mirror and Daily Express. I live in Merseyside, in the north west of England, with my fiancée Abby and our two-year-old daughter Eve, who likes to watch races while sat in her ride-along Mustang.