At the Silverstone track, as expected, multiple teams introduced important mid-season updates. The proximity in the calendar to Barcelona, much later in the schedule this year, has led various teams to split their update packages between the two Grands Prix.
Ferrari has a lot to sort out at Silverstone. As we mentioned, the Italian team had an intense technical workday on Friday to resolve the issues brought by the package introduced in Barcelona, which is limiting the most recent version of the SF-24. Free Practice 1 and 2 were conducted with different tasks for Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc, with the Monegasque driver tasked with collecting data with the updated configuration, while his teammate ran the sessions with the old aerodynamic setup from before the Spanish GP. A clearer picture emerged for Enrico Cardile and Fred Vasseur’s men, highlighting that Ferrari is still affected by the bouncing that appeared with the new floor brought to Barcelona. The update package provided more downforce, as the drivers first, and then Fred Vasseur, indirectly admitted.
The update confirms steps forward in efficiency and in slow corners but brought the unexpected issue of bouncing. This factor completely hampers the Maranello car, especially on a fast track like Silverstone. The twelfth round in England was supposed to be the event where Ferrari would complete its development curve before the summer break, with new updates complementing the major package anticipated in Spain. However, these updates have been postponed due to the problems that have arisen, showing the SF-24’s limitations. Aggressive development has had to slow down in favor of better understanding the aerodynamic platform. Ferrari’s main goal now is to optimize the Spanish package through setup work. The SF-24 still seems to be battling with Mercedes, which brought new wings to Silverstone to find efficiency on a fast track like the British one.
While Ferrari fights to get back on the right development path, McLaren and Red Bull expect important feedback from Silverstone, a track just a few kilometers from their bases in Woking and Milton Keynes. Red Bull is no longer the best car in every condition, and at the same time, the MCL38 confirmed in Austria to have a very broad window. It’s a moment when Milton Keynes is under pressure, pushing Max Verstappen to sweat out the results on track. The engineers led by Pierre Waché brought a significant package to Silverstone, anticipating an update originally planned for Hungary.
The floor has been revised in the area where the anti-intrusion cone is embedded and the initial part of the bargeboard, with a package expected to be worth about a tenth of a second. The Silverstone update for the RB20 completes the one introduced in Spain, where the Anglo-Austrian car was updated with new, more sculpted sidepods in the lower part, similar to the work done on the Ferrari at the same GP. The complex radiator layout has its advantages in terms of weight distribution, but the intervention on the sidepods in Spain forced the Milton Keynes technicians to tweak the vertical inlet, especially for the summer races. At Suzuka, Red Bull had already worked on improving cooling efficiency, adding supplementary inlets to the sides of the cockpit.
McLaren, for its part, will work with smaller, more gradual, and more track-specific packages. After bringing a new front wing in Austria, which was immediately promoted on both cars, the MCL38 in its home GP was updated at the rear with a specific medium-low downforce wing for Silverstone. In addition to a revised slotted engine cover, Andrea Stella’s technicians declared three new beam wings with different chord and load for the twelfth round. This variety of choices allows for aerodynamic setup options in case of a wet race. The papaya car ran the sessions with the classic single-element configuration, quite usual for the MCL38 this season. Much improved in the slow corners, Norris and Piastri’s car quickly found performance in Silverstone’s fast turns, making a 1-2 on Friday. In Austria, Max Verstappen and his RB20 demonstrated superiority in the high-speed sections, especially on Saturday, compared to the MCL38, which, however, can count on a very wide setup window.
Ferrari has a clear mission for Saturday at the Silverstone circuit in England: fine-tune the car to improve performance. Overnight, the work on the driver-in-the-loop simulator aimed to provide useful information so that technicians, drivers, and engineers could address yesterday’s issues by adjusting the setup. The comparative tests with the two versions of the floor on Friday were pre-planned before arriving at Silverstone. The goal was to gain a better understanding of the car, as the updates from Spain provided more downforce only on paper, while on track, due to various factors we’ve extensively explained, the downforce was not apparent.
Undoubtedly, using a medium-load wing below the optimal choice does not help. The SF-24 has shown clear instability at the rear. The front is solid and allows good entry, but at mid-corner, when the rear should follow the front end, things get complicated. A limitation imposed by the excessively high drag level complicates achieving the correct top speeds. But when the operating window is short, finding an effective compromise is very difficult. Adding to this are the weather conditions, which complicate the situation even more.
For Ferrari, even with the rain, there’s some oversteer on exit, as was clearly visible in the final free practice session for the British Grand Prix. Very light understeer on entry at low speeds is partially fixed with the steering wheel settings. However, the two Ferrari drivers seem to have found a good operating window for the compounds in these wet conditions.
The news of the day, however, concerns the Maranello team’s decision: as we explained yesterday, the comparative tests between Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc, one with the old car and the other with the newer one, provided answers, and overnight it was decided to revert to the old SF-24 configuration, which evidently gives more guarantees on the Silverstone track. We’ll see if this will be a definitive rejection.
Regarding Red Bull, Max Verstappen complained about high-speed entry. Only at high speeds, not in the “speed range.” As for Mercedes, George Russell and Lewis Hamilton’s cars seem to heat the tires well and find enough grip. A similar situation for McLaren, which quietly seems ready to fight at the top even in wet track conditions.
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