ON REFLECTION- Britain

You can always rely on Silverstone to produce an F1 classic just at the right time. Lewis Hamilton extended his lead at the top of the table thanks to another win, but it was far from conventional.

Williams played their part in making this a cracker as they went toe to toe with Mercedes, but they conceded victory far too easily.

Here are the main talking points from the weekend.

Leave the format as it is

F1 is set to change, and in a big way, as the FIA and Strategy Group thrash out plans to entice fans back to the sport.

However, the potential idea of a Saturday sprint race is ludicrous as teams already eye up the idea of saturating the grid with young drivers and third cars.

The problem with F1 is not the format of the weekend. True, three practice sessions is excessive but the current qualifying format is the best it’s ever been. In fact, it’s often the more interesting part of an entire weekend.

With races often ruined with brake conservation, tyre preservation and fuel saving, qualifying is the only part of a weekend where drivers go flat out against the clock.

The problem with F1 is the technical rules. Only when the powers that be realise that and start changing them can we move forward.

Nico Rosberg & Lewis Hamilton

Rosberg won’t win the title without quali improvement

Nico Rosberg would have won the British Grand Prix had he started on pole position, and if he wants to win this world championship then his Saturday form needs to improve.

In Austria two weeks ago, he beat passed Hamilton on track and dominated the weekend for the first time. He can’t rely on doing that in every race.

On Sunday’s the pair seem to be even. Hamilton’s dominance from the first few races has gone, and their race pace is often similar. Whichever one starts out front will invariably win the race, will makes Saturday afternoon‘s Q3 the key session of the weekend.

Rosberg seems to have lost a little bit of self-belief. He had the wood on Hamilton last season, but he seems unable to close the deal. In Austria, he fell into the gravel trap, while at Silverstone his assault on pole never really materialised.

Rosberg can beat Hamilton in 2015, but if he’s going to do it then he needs to start by mastering qualifying once again. If he doesn’t, Hamilton will win his third world crown.

Williams messed up

Williams once again acted like a rabbit caught in headlights in the race as they let a possible victory slide by. The British team haven’t won a race since 2012, and haven’t competed regularly at the front since 2004.

Their show at Silverstone stank of a team who didn’t know how to manage the situation. When Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas darted into the lead, their pace indicated that Mercedes could be beaten in the dry.

Start of 2015 British F1 GP

However, Massa, who led the race, lacked the necessary pace. Bottas was by far the quicker driver, and the team should have released him into the distance. Instead, he sat behind the slower Massa and their chances of victory quickly diminished.

The team froze and allowed Hamilton to cruise a few seconds behind. That gap let the German team pit Hamilton earlier than the Williams pair and he emerged in the lead courtesy of the undercut.

Hamilton and co toyed with Williams in the race, and it gave the impression that they didn’t see them as a race-long threat.

It’s great to see Williams competitive again, but they need to show more ruthlessness at the front.

✅ Check out more posts with related topics: