FORMULA 1 PIRELLI BRITISH GRAND PRIX 2026

The elephant in the room is FIA "inconsistency." I put that in quotes because I don't think it's the real problem or even that they're being inconsistent. In fact, they've been very consistent in putting spectacle ahead of safety for most of the modern era. While it's true that the drivers and track workers accept some level of risk to do their jobs, the safety regulations are not in place to prevent accidents; they exist to prevent escalation and/or compounding of the consequences of a mistake. In this case, Max was in a dangerous position, and the stewards did not act to protect him or prevent the situation from worsening.

And we can't expect the drivers to police themselves. In 2024, Russell spent 15 seconds frantically screaming for a red flag from his inverted Mercedes in the middle of the Australian track. Sunday, he casually shrugged off any responsibility because he was technically following the rules. I'm not sure what the solution is, but I think it starts with an independent safety team who have no stake in the race outcome. Is that possible? I don't know.

On to the race-

Now that the FIA has nerfed the Ferrari turbo advantage, the starts are less interesting. Still, there was some good jostling through the first few corners. And we did see the return of "if you're leading the championship, you can do whatever you want" bias. (not taking anything away from the kid, but he went off the track and gained an advantage three times in the first two corners.)*

The best battle of the day came on lap 11 with Hamilton and Verstappen. Max had a go and Lewis was having none of it. Gave the Dutchman a taste of his own medicine, which Max did not like. They went wheel-to-wheel for most of the lap with Lewis keeping his place and Max whinging about it on the radio. I really liked this exchange. Five years ago, this would have ended with Lewis rolling over without a fight or Max just crashing them both out.

I'm getting worried that I'm going to have to change my mind about Lawson. I haven't done it yet, but I see a future in which I have to acknowledge that he's talented and deserves to be in that car.

Notable highs-
-Max/Lewis battle. hard but fair racing with minimal whinging.
-Top 3 finishers were covered by less than 3 seconds!
-Racing Bulls: solid performance from the whole team this weekend. "Best of the Rest" doesn't really cover it because, while they were miles behind the top 4 teams, they were miles ahead of the Audis.

Notable Lows-
-FIA stewards disregard driver safety... again.
-Ferrari and LeClerc. (to quote the greatest interview question of all time-) "... what the hell?"
-Aston Martin. Ugh!

The F1 circus heads to Silverstone for the next round. Look for Hamilton to be in a different league for this one. He has 9 wins, 7 poles, and holds the outright lap record there. OTOH, Russell has often shown flashes of brilliance but has tended to over drive his machinery and make big mistakes. It should be an interesting race.

We'll be at Doherty's in Apex, hope to see you there.

*I said what I said.