The 2024 Formula 1 season started as a bleak one-sided affair, like the year before it, but at the halfway stage there have now been six different Grand Prix winners across four different teams and with competition fierce last weekend at Silverstone, Mercedes, McLaren and Red Bull battled to be the best.
The changeable weather at Silverstone from dry to wet and back to dry again saw the Formula 1 pendulum swing between Mercedes, McLaren and Red Bull.
At lights out polesitter George Russell and his Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton strode away into a comfortable one-two lead, but as rain fell, Hamilton stole an advantage before the two McLarens of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri swept to the front.
Amid the rain, wet weather master Max Verstappen regressed in his Red Bull but the pendulum swung in his favour as the race drew to a close.
Hamilton too benefited when conditions dried in the final stint and he was able to reclaim the lead and pull away from Norris with a significant tyre advantage.
Verstappen had pace in hand on Norris and Hamilton in the closing stages, passing the former and finishing a whisker behind the eventual winner at the chequered flag.
“We were really controlling the pace at the beginning, and it was very encouraging,” said Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff.
“Then it started to rain, and you could see the massive performance at McLaren. They were simply in the sweet spot of the tyre.
“But we came back. And then under other conditions, I think we had it under control.”
Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner attributed fluctuating track temperatures to the constantly evolving pecking order at Silverstone, saying “It was a very weird race.
“I think if anybody can explain the pace of their car they would be doing very well because it seemed to move around.
“The Mercedes has always been strong in the cooler conditions, and they looked to have things pretty much in control.
“Then Lewis came alive as it started to rain, and then the McLaren really came alive and passed both of us. So, it was moving around depending on what was going on.
“In those conditions, you’d expect Max to then really come alive as well, but he was struggling at that point.
“Then, as the circuit started to dry out, the pace arrived back and we were at times six, seven-tenths a lap quicker than Lewis and Lando.
“I think it’s all about the tyre working at a certain point in time, a certain condition – whether it’s hot or cold.
“Different cars are working the tyres in different ways, and you saw an extremity of that as the circuit went from damp to wet and back to dry.”
There was wide consensus after Friday’s two practice sessions that McLaren had the fastest Formula 1 package at Silverstone, but a Mercedes front-row lockout disrupted that narrative.
McLaren team Principal Andrea Stella acknowledged that Sunday’s Grand Prix showed “it is not necessarily that [McLaren has] the fastest car.]
In conclusion, the answer to which team was fastest at the British GP is that it cannot be accurately defined.
Instead, the 2024 F1 season continues to dramatically evolve race by race with the pecking order on a knife edge and the notion of Verstappen being a nailed-on winner well and truly buried.
