Max Verstappen with his eighth victory of the season held out Lando Norris. Photo / Don Kennedy
Hollywood, rather than the expected ‘Just Stop the Oil’ group of protesters, ‘invaded’ Silverstone for the British Grand Prix on Sunday.
Jerry Bruckheimer, the producer of Top Gun, Maverick and the Mission Impossible movies, was given special permission by F1 to set up a mock F1 garage in between the Mercedes and Red Bull teams in pitlane, so they could shoot scenes for his Apex movie starring Brad Pitt as a returnee F1 driver, brought back to support an up and coming driver, played by actor Damson Iris.
World champion Max Verstappen, and his 19 fellow drivers, may have had to share some of the limelight with Pitt, who joined the driver line-up on the grid for the British National Anthem, but there was no chance Pitt was going to be a threat in the race.
The Apex team had two F2 cars made up to look like F1 cars, sitting at the back of the grid, but they only went a few hundred yards on the formation lap before peeling off.
So it was lights out for Pitt and co, but it was camera rolling and all real action on the track as the grand prix began.
Verstappen, from pole position, was overtaken by Lando Norris in the McLaren, before the first corner. The 150,000-strong crowd, mostly British, let out a deafening roar of approval.
Verstappen was even coming under pressure from Oscar Piastri in the other McLaren, on those opening laps. But this was no Hollywood script, so eventually Verstappen settled into attack mode and passed Norris on the fifth lap, and steadily, but surely, pulled away.
Most teams had adopted a one-stop strategy for the race unless you were in a Ferrari. Both Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc pitted early and compromised their race strategy because although they started on hard tyres, and were destined to stay out longer, they found they were cutting out their tyres and were forced to pit early. Tyre wear is the team’s Achilles heel.
Certain irony in that, given Pitt played the part of Achilles in the movie Troy, so can likely relate to the Ferrari problem!
Once Verstappen took the lead, the only thing that could stop him was a safety-car intervention, which came when Kevin Magnussen’s Haas car blew up, and he was stranded on the track.
Norris was once again right on Verstappen’s tail, but on the restart, Max was all action again and was soon off and gone. The interest then centred on Lewis Hamilton’s charge to take second place off Norris, having got ahead of Piastri who was caught off guard by the timing of the safety-car.
For the British fans, the battle of the British pair had begun. At Luffield, Hamilton actually got alongside Norris, but he was not going to let Lewis pass.
Behind them, came a battle between George Russell, Fernando Alonso, Alex Albon and Sergio Perez, who was having another recovery drive in the second Red Bull car, after failing to get out of Q1 for the fourth time this season.
The Mexican’s future at Red Bull is under threat if you listen to Red Bull adviser Helmut Marko, but team boss Christian Horner is standing by the team’s clear number two driver, who eventually finished sixth after starting from 16th.
“Some of his moves in the race exemplify exactly how skilful he is as a driver, particularly on Carlos into Stowe and his pace in the last stint meant he was right there,” Horner supportively remarked.
“It’s frustrating for him that he has to fight back after qualifying in recent races but he is finding his form and will find it further in Budapest.”
No such issues for Verstappen, who took his first British GP victory, although he did win at Silverstone in 2020 when a second race was held, called a 70th anniversary race, due to Covid restricting the number of race venues available that year.
The last British GP victory by a Red Bull driver was Mark Webber in 2012. Since then, Mercedes has won the race eight times, with Hamilton winning seven of those, and Ferrari winning with Sebastian Vettel in 2018 and last year, with Sainz.
This was Verstappen’s eighth win of the season out of 10 races, the other two going to Perez, making it a Red Bull clean sweep. Including last year’s victory in the season-ending Abu Dhabi GP for Verstappen, Red Bull has now won 11 consecutive races, tying the record with McLaren. It was also Verstappen’s sixth consecutive victory, equalling a mark shared by four other drivers, Alberto Ascari, Michael Schumacher, Vettel and Nico Rosberg.
“Of course, very happy that we won again,” Max said. “I mean, 11 wins in a row for the team, I think that’s pretty incredible, but it wasn’t straightforward today.
“I was doing a bit of drifting on Thursday with marketing, and it felt like I was doing that also in the start, which wasn’t very good. But at least it made it a bit more exciting.
“I had to push for it. Lando didn’t really put up a fight, he was very nice to me, but he actually came back again in the DRS, so he had a lot of pace today - he did very well today.”
Verstappen is a close friend of Norris off-track and seemed genuinely pleased for him. He is now 99 points ahead of Perez in the championship, with Alonso still third, but losing ground after a disappointing seventh-place finish.
“We maximised the race today and took seventh place in a difficult weekend for the team,” Alonso stated.
Hamilton was thrilled to join Verstappen and Norris on the podium in his home grand prix, given the difficulties his Mercedes team has faced this season. It was humbling for the seven-time world champion, and eight-time British GP winner, to be only third best, but he is yet to re-sign with Mercedes, and is showing a lot more humility this season. When he joined the other two in the pre-podium room, Hamilton said to Norris: “What a rocket ship!”
The reply from Norris was quite swift: “Alright mate, relax.”
Hamilton repeated the “rocket ship” comment in the press conference.
“That McLaren is a rocket ship. High speed it was insane,” Hamilton said. “Big congratulations to Lando and McLaren. It was where I first started, so to see them back up there, looking so strong … I mean that thing was rapid through the high-speed corners, wow! I couldn’t keep up, but we had a good little battle on the restart.”
Norris was clearly delighted with his first British GP podium, and also the massive step forward in performance from the McLaren team.
“First of all, I want to say a big thanks to the whole team: they’ve done an amazing job and none of this would be possible without the hard work that they’ve been putting in,” he said.
“It was an amazing fight with Lewis, to hold him off, and I brought the fight to Max for as long as possible. It’s a long, lonely race when you’re just in the middle but it’s amazing to be on the podium of my home race.”
Norris recalled watching the 2007 British GP on TV when Hamilton first started in F1 with McLaren.
“Watching in 2007 when I was 7 is what made me want to be a racing driver today and then to be here and be fighting and being a Formula One driver … I didn’t know then that Lewis would still be here 15 years later and still going strong.”
He also reflected on what being in F1 means to him in general.
“It’s special, it’s an honour and privilege in many ways and exciting at the same time.”
For Piastri this was by far his best result and confirmation of the faith that McLaren boss Zak Brown put in him to deliver when they could have stayed with Daniel Ricciardo.
“P4, what a result! Of course, it was slightly frustrating with the safety-car,” Piastri said.
“I thought we were on for a podium for a very, very long time in that race, so it hurts a little bit but I’m very, very happy that the hurt is for a podium. Given where we started this year, I’m very, very happy. Awesome result for the whole team. It was amazing to be running at the front again and I can’t wait for more.”
As fantastic as it is to see McLaren back fighting at the front of the field, the reality is Red Bull is running away with both the drivers and constructors championships. The plot of the movie Apex is of course largely a secret, but this race was no Hollywood production, despite the mock team garage and the presence on the grid of superstar Brad Pitt in racing overalls. Perhaps the headlines in the Daily Express newspaper, best summed up this race.
“It’s Lando hope and glory but there’s no stopping Verstappen,” the headline proclaimed, followed by the inevitable: “Life in the Pitt lane.”
For Pitt, that life is not how he imagined it would be.
“I’ve got to tell you, as a civilian, I had no idea what it takes to be a driver-the aggression and dexterity, they’re amazing athletes,” he said. “I’ve got so much respect for everyone out there in all classes.”
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