The Official 2016 British Grand Prix Thread **Spoilers**

[Dr Z]

Alright, it’s the British GP this weekend!

Date(s): Friday 08 July - Sunday 10 July 2016

UK Broadcast Timings (and local time)

All sessions are live on Channel 4 and Sky F1.

Session	Day	Sky F1	Channel 4	Session Start	Local Time
Practice 1	Fri	0945	0955	1000	1000
Practice 2	Fri	1345	1355	1400	1400
Practice 3	Sat	0945	0955	1000	1000
Qualifying	Sat	1200	1200	1300	1300
Race	Sun	1130	1200	1300	1300

Silverstone Circuit



Live timing for all sessions available here:

http://www.formula1.com/content/fom-website/en/f1-...

Info such as lap times, PU use, technical reports, stewards decisions etc for the weekend will appear here:

http://www.fia.com/events/fia-formula-one-world-ch...

Weather forecast:

https://weather.com/en-GB/weather/5day/l/UKXX1916:...

Day	Comment	High/Low (℃)	Chance of Rain
Fri	AM Showers	21/12	50%
Sat	AM Light Rain	23/15	40%
Sun	AM Showers	20/11	50%

The tyre choices requested by the teams:



Mandatory tyres for this race is a choice between Medium and Hard tyres.

2015 Qualifying

Pos.	Driver	Constructor	Q1	Q2	Q3
1	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:33.796	1:33.068	1:32.248
2	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:33.475	1:32.737	1:32.361
3	Felipe Massa	Williams-Mercedes	1:34.542	1:33.707	1:33.085
4	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Mercedes	1:34.171	1:33.020	1:33.149
5	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	1:33.426	1:33.911	1:33.379
6	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:33.562	1:33.641	1:33.547
7	Daniil Kvyat	Red Bull Racing-Renault	1:34.422	1:33.520	1:33.636
8	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Toro Rosso-Renault	1:34.641	1:34.071	1:33.649
9	Nico Hülkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	1:34.594	1:33.693	1:33.673
10	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing-Renault	1:34.272	1:33.749	1:33.943
11	Sergio Pérez	Force India-Mercedes	1:34.250	1:34.268	-
12	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Mercedes	1:34.646	1:34.430	-
13	Max Verstappen	Toro Rosso-Renault	1:34.819	1:34.502	-
14	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus-Mercedes	1:34.877	1:34.511	-
15	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber-Ferrari	1:34.643	1:34.868	-
16	Felipe Nasr	Sauber-Ferrari	1:34.888	-	-
17	Fernando Alonso	McLaren-Honda	1:34.959	-	-
18	Jenson Button	McLaren-Honda	1:35.207	-	-
19	Will Stevens	Marussia-Ferrari	1:37.364	-	-
20	Roberto Merhi	Marussia-Ferrari	1:39.377	-	-

2015 Race

Pos.	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid
1	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	52	1:31:27.729	1
2	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	52	+10.956	2
3	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	52	+25.443	6
4	Felipe Massa	Williams-Mercedes	52	+36.839	3
5	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Mercedes	52	+1:03.194	4
6	Daniil Kvyat	Red Bull Racing-Renault	52	+1:03.955	7
7	Nico Hülkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	52	+1:18.744	9
8	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	51	+1 Lap	5
9	Sergio Pérez	Force India-Mercedes	51	+1 Lap	11
10	Fernando Alonso	McLaren-Honda	51	+1 Lap	17
11	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber-Ferrari	51	+1 Lap	15
12	Roberto Merhi	Marussia-Ferrari	49	+3 Laps	20
13	Will Stevens	Marussia-Ferrari	49	+3 Laps	19
Ret	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Toro Rosso-Renault	31	Electrical	8
Ret	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing-Renault	21	Electrical	10
Ret	Max Verstappen	Toro Rosso-Renault	3	Spun off	13
Ret	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Mercedes	0	Collision	12
Ret	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus-Mercedes	0	Collision damage	14
Ret	Jenson Button	McLaren-Honda	0	Collision	18
DNS	Felipe Nasr	Sauber-Ferrari	0	Gearbox	16

---

First, if any of you are going, let us know and feel free to post pics. Last time a group of us tried to go was back in 2012 on the Saturday and the weather completely ruined our chances with the organisers telling us to not turn up. The forecast doesn’t look great for this weekend for those who are going, but the classic British weather will deliver a good weekend for us watching on TV, I’m sure!

A fast and flowing circuit again, which must be a pleasure to drive an F1 car in...or not if you’re on the Hard tyre which used to be slow and also degrade quickly when leant on from memory in Barcelona. It is no wonder that most teams (except FI) have decided to stock up on the Soft/Medium tyres. It will be interesting to see if any of the teams are evaluating the Hard tyre as a serious race tyre which might hold the key to some battles in the field.

Looking forward to the fights up and down the field, whilst I’m sure most of the media focus is on the Mercedes team. We might once again be very close to the lap record set in 2013 on the current circuit config and qualifying times may dip into the 1:29s if it was a dry session.

Edited by Dr Z on Thursday 7th July 16:00

[suffolk009]

Dare I suggest Rosberg and Hamilton collision at Copse, 1st lap...

[kybo]

suffolk009 said:

Dare I suggest Rosberg and Hamilton collision at Copse, 1st lap...

Crikey, that far into the 1st lap

I hope the McLaren resurgence continues and Button has another good weekend - would love to see him on the podium but that might be a step too far.

Mercedes and a Ferrari to occupy the podium is my prediction.

S

[Johnnybee]

I've prepared my stash of rotten fruit and eggs for a possible Rosberg podium finish

[Pints]

kybo said:

Would love to see him on the podium but that might be a step too far.

Pun intended?

[Derek Smith]

I see that LH and NR have and identical tyre choice, unlike at Austria. Is this because he's copying LH or perhaps imposed by the team, afraid of being accused of being partial again?

[MartG]

Derek Smith said:

I see that LH and NR have and identical tyre choice, unlike at Austria. Is this because he's copying LH or perhaps imposed by the team, afraid of being accused of being partial again?

Haas seem to be the only team where the two cars have different tyre choices

[deadslow]

kybo said:

I hope the McLaren resurgence continues and Button has another good weekend - would love to see him on the podium but that might be a step too far.



S

long overdue for a decent McLaren weekend

[FreiWild]

Derek Smith said:

I see that LH and NR have and identical tyre choice, unlike at Austria. Is this because he's copying LH or perhaps imposed by the team, afraid of being accused of being partial again?

Tyre choices were made a couple of weeks ago.

[lord summerisle]

kybo said:

suffolk009 said:

Dare I suggest Rosberg and Hamilton collision at Copse, 1st lap...

Crikey, that far into the 1st lap

Yeah, i was more thinking Village or into the Loop

[Mr_Thyroid]

FreiWild said:

Derek Smith said:

I see that LH and NR have and identical tyre choice, unlike at Austria. Is this because he's copying LH or perhaps imposed by the team, afraid of being accused of being partial again?

Tyre choices were made a couple of weeks ago.

Nearly 8 weeks ago actually.

[Sir Bagalot]

From the last GP thread regarding $ilv£r$ton£ prices

Eric Mc said:

wanacoop said:

Just back to the slow ticket sales for Silverstone.

I just checked the price of a ticket for the race day, and it's £185!

I don't consider that good value in the slightest. It's just too expensive, probably about £100 too expensive.

Why do they price it so high? Are there any other sports events that are similar in cost? Is it just Bernie asking si much money for Silverstone to host it?

They need to recoup as much as they can from the punters as Bernie extracts huge amount from the circuits. The circuits can't even keep the money from the advertising on the circuit during the GP weekend.

It's a slow strangulation process.

I used to go every year. Even booked the same seat. In Club, opposite the podium. You could see them come out of Stowe, around Club, up the Straight, into Abbey.

Some people look at the headline cost and go "How much!!??". But as someone said you get a lot more than just F1. Porsche Supercup, GP3, GP2, and all the FP and Qulai and Races that goes with it. If going for just one day then yes Sunday is the worst value for money.

The last time I went was when $ilv£r$ton£ advised people not to come on the Saturday due to the rain. I really didn't like their attitude. The next year what happens? They split the grandstands. Club was split into 4 or 5 parts, the nearer the straight, the higher the price. My ticket price went up something like £60. I called time. I won't be back.

I've seen $ilv£r$ton£ sold out at the beginning of March. Not anymore.

For anyone who has never been I recommend the Friday. As long as it doesn't rain.

Edited by Sir Bagalot on Tuesday 5th July 19:29

[threespires]

Thanks for full info OP -

[lord summerisle]

Sir Bagalot said:

The last time I went was when $ilv£r$ton£ advised people not to come on the Saturday due to the rain. I really didn't like their attitude.

That year (2012) was when it had basically rained most of the way through May and June - i remember that when i got to the Marshal's campsite on the Wednesday we had a short break in the rain when getting the tent out of the car... but for the rest of the weekend it was just rain, rain, rain. My post was surrounded by water (thankfully the flag point was a platform built out of scaffolding) and they where asking folk not to come so they could prepare the fields they rent for additional car parking for the Sunday - plus there was extra park and ride capacity away from the circuit. On the Friday because it was taking so long to get people on to the parking areas, folk where abandoning their cars on the dual carrageway and walking in (screwing up the traffic system at the end of the day as the roads werent clear)

End of the weekend all the snatch vehicles where sent to the car parks and camping areas to tow everyone out. There was 3, 4, 5 of them running around the Marshal's campsite and the public campsite adjacent pulling folk to the road most of sunday evening and Monday.

[Sir Bagalot]

lord summerisle said:

Sir Bagalot said:

The last time I went was when $ilv£r$ton£ advised people not to come on the Saturday due to the rain. I really didn't like their attitude.

That year (2012) was when it had basically rained most of the way through May and June - i remember that when i got to the Marshal's campsite on the Wednesday we had a short break in the rain when getting the tent out of the car... but for the rest of the weekend it was just rain, rain, rain. My post was surrounded by water (thankfully the flag point was a platform built out of scaffolding) and they where asking folk not to come so they could prepare the fields they rent for additional car parking for the Sunday - plus there was extra park and ride capacity away from the circuit. On the Friday because it was taking so long to get people on to the parking areas, folk where abandoning their cars on the dual carrageway and walking in (screwing up the traffic system at the end of the day as the roads werent clear)

End of the weekend all the snatch vehicles where sent to the car parks and camping areas to tow everyone out. There was 3, 4, 5 of them running around the Marshal's campsite and the public campsite adjacent pulling folk to the road most of sunday evening and Monday.

So they had plenty of time to prepare but failed to do so....

[rsbmw]

Dr Z said:

Mandatory tyres for this race is a choice between Medium and Hard tyres.

Thanks for the post. Don't understood this bit though, since you have to use 2 compounds, and there are only 3, isn't giving a choice between 2 as mandatory a little redundant?

[S0 What]

Derek Smith said:

I see that LH and NR have and identical tyre choice, unlike at Austria. Is this because he's copying LH or perhaps imposed by the team, afraid of being accused of being partial again?

Intersting shade of tinfoil on that hat your wearing
The choice was made ni on 2 months ago (shocked you didn't know that) i meen that in a good way, you allways come accross as knowing more about what you post than 90% on here
Notice i take the pee then kiss arse, never kiss arse before having a dig

No idea what will happen i just hope McLaren carry on progressing, the last 2 seasons could have been a carry on film, farcical, Sid james could pull off Ron, ronspeak/double entendre, same thing Kenneth Williams as Martin Whitmarsh and Peter Butterworth could do Fernando, he did that Spanish ells bells hotel owner

Another absolutly awsome thread opener (as usuall) we don't deserve you, , it needs saying, you deserve it, thank you

[Crafty_]

So as far as the WDC goes...

Rosberg has an 11 point lead. There are 11 races remaining. Lewis is likely to have to take penalties at two races for engine components, I reckon those races are with 30 points to Rosberg (he wins, Lewis comes 5th).

That leaves 9 races and Lewis needing an average of 4.6 points per race over Rosberg.

If he wins 7 and Rosberg wins 2, the title goes to Nico. That gives some scale of the task. If Lewis has another reliability issue causing lost points in a race or even a bad qualifying he's screwed. As would team orders, getting caught out in a downpour - pretty much anything will screw it up.

If Lewis can get out in front and then the Red Bulls steal points from Rosberg that would help. Lets not forget that Merc were well off the pace in Singapore last year and neither Merc driver looked like winning there. Hungary isn't a good track for the Mercedes either.

Lewis has to continue the WDC fight here and make it count. The interesting thing is that even with all the problems Lewis's first four races (Australia, Bahrain, China, Russia, 57 points) have outscored Rosberg's last four (Monaco, Canada, Baku, Austria, 52 points), so its just starting to work in Lewis's favour, but he'll need more than that.

Ferrari will still be looking for Marchioone's win that he is apparently demanding... for the moment I think Vettel would be content with actually getting a race distance done, he is tired on 96 points with Kimi and Ricciardo is only 8 points behind them and Max amazingly (given he hasn't been in the car all season) less than a race win away.

Force India will be looking to recover from a troubled outing in Austria, if they can keep momentum they might just catch Williams by the end of the year.

Mclaren too will be wanting to score whatever points they can grab, they could steal 6th in the WCC from STR if they go well. I did see an article saying that Honda were considering an engine upgrade for this race, not seen any confirmation yet.


Its all going to get rather serious

[Flooble]

Yes, another awesome thread opening and a nice analysis there crafty.

I do think Lewis could well be stuffed because of reliability. Although having pored over the rule book I cannot see a restriction on him swapping engines four times in one weekend and starting from the back of the grid, then having no further worries. Although it would prevent him from getting any newer spec engines later in the year.

However, I think I must have missed a rule somewhere since the logical thing to do would have been to swap engines at Baku, especially after his awful qualifying, since the DRS overtakes there were a doddle - when you were in the right engine mode. He could have banked a pile of spare engines, started at the back, and still finished second.

Can anyone find out if engine swap penalties carry forward from one race to the next now? I seem to recall that in 2014 they were supposed to, then they changed it when it became apparent last year that McLaren would have to start from the back of the grid for the entire year and would still have unspent penalties ...

[Trax]

lord summerisle said:

That year (2012) was when it had basically rained most of the way through May and June - i remember that when i got to the Marshal's campsite on the Wednesday we had a short break in the rain when getting the tent out of the car... but for the rest of the weekend it was just rain, rain, rain. My post was surrounded by water (thankfully the flag point was a platform built out of scaffolding) and they where asking folk not to come so they could prepare the fields they rent for additional car parking for the Sunday - plus there was extra park and ride capacity away from the circuit. On the Friday because it was taking so long to get people on to the parking areas, folk where abandoning their cars on the dual carrageway and walking in (screwing up the traffic system at the end of the day as the roads werent clear)

End of the weekend all the snatch vehicles where sent to the car parks and camping areas to tow everyone out. There was 3, 4, 5 of them running around the Marshal's campsite and the public campsite adjacent pulling folk to the road most of sunday evening and Monday.

Thats the first GP (and last to date..) I went to. I was working in Northampton at the time, so took the chance whist living there to go. Was even happy for Webber to win, rather him than Alanso.

Anyways, regarding traffic and such. I had the three day ticket, and had booked parking in the Silverstone School car parks for Saturday and Sunday, and was going to park at the circuit for Friday, as it was free. On the Friday I hit the traffic somewhere before the McDonalds and Travel Inn/Lodge. From the school website, they had alternate routes to get there if there was traffic, so I turned right were instructed, and drove straight up to the Silverstone Village, and into parking, somewhere round turn 9 I think. No traffic problems at all. Leaving only took about 15 mins to get on to the road too.

Saturday and Sunday routes in (back roads again) was also no problem. I seem to remember there were lots of oppurtunities to park, on the walk in from the school parking, with signs into fields. so if you havent got parking, you may be able to find space in the village.