2023 British Grand Prix: Sunday Tyre Analysis

Mediaon July 10, 2023

2023 British Grand Prix: Sunday Tyre Analysis – Another win for Max Verstappen, the reigning world champion now clearly the dominant force, along with his Red Bull Racing car, in 2023. This was Max’s second win at the Silverstone circuit, following on from the Formula 1 70th Anniversary Grand Prix held here in 2020.

He was never really troubled, even if he was surprised at the speed of Lando Norris’ start in the McLaren from the spot alongside him on the grid. Once back in front, the Dutchman had a trouble-free time of it, even after the restart on lap 39, as the race had been neutralised while Kevin Magnussen’s Haas was removed from the side of the track.

Much to the delight of most of the 480,000 strong crowd – a record for this track, Verstappen was joined on the podium by two British drivers, the aforementioned Norris and Lewis Hamilton, the Mercedes driver having been the main beneficiary of the appearance of the Safety Car.

Red Bull’s win puts the team equal with McLaren for the most consecutive race wins (11.) The last time a driver for the Austro-British team did not win a race dates back to George Russell’s victory in the Brazilian Grand Prix last year.

One-stop was the most common strategy, but the Soft proved far more popular than our earlier predictions. The only cars not to run the C3 were the two Ferraris and two McLarens.

The most used compound during the Grand Prix was the C2, which ran 485 laps, 50% of the total completed. The C3 was second (337 laps, 34.74%), followed by the C1 (148, 15.26%).

Russell’s 28 laps was the longest stint on the Soft, while for the Medium, Verstappen, Hamilton, Norris and Alonso did 33 and Bottas ran 32 on the Hard.

The fastest laps for each compound were all set on tyres that had done ten or more laps. For the C1, the best time (1.30.543) was set by Norris on lap 43 with a set of tyres that was 10 laps old. Russell was quickest with the C2 (1.31.124) on lap 13 of his second stint, while the fastest race lap fell to Verstappen in 1.30.275 on C3 on lap 11 of his second stint. It should also be noted that after pit stops for Russell and Verstappen, the race was neutralised for five laps.

Mario Isola – Pirelli Motorsport Director

“First of all, well done to the amazing crowd at Silverstone: 480,000 is an impressive record, a sign of the incredible popularity Formula 1 is experiencing right now.

“From a tyre point of view, this weekend delivered interesting answers. The introduction of the new construction went according to plan and initial analysis of the data is in line with our expectations. The feeling that all three compounds could be used in the race was confirmed this afternoon. Certainly, the considerably cooler temperatures when compared to Friday allowed for the Soft to be pushed harder for longer. But apart from that, the fact that all three compounds were valid choices meant the teams could choose the tyre combination that best suited their cars.

“Finally, a word about degradation, which was lower than expected for all three compounds, even though this track is one of the toughest on tyres. It meant the teams were able to extend their stints without any significant drop off in performance.”