The technical regulations of Formula 1 have undergone a major change this season, with the clear objective of making it easier for the single-seaters to follow each other and to be able to fight wheel to wheel, improving the show on the track.
One of the main changes was the return of ground effect, making use of the famous venturi tunnels that sit under the chassis to allow the cars to reach higher speeds in fast corners by generating much more downforce.
McLaren driver Lando Norris is hopeful the British track will show what a big step forward the 2022 F1 cars have made in that regard, improving the average quality of British Grand Prix racing.
“Silverstone is always a great weekend, seeing the Formula 1 cars here is always something spectacular,” said Norris . “I think the racing this year has also been better overall. Maybe not so much on, let’s say, long straight layouts.”
“But at circuits where you have longer corners, like Silverstone , I think that’s where the big differences in the current cars compared to previous years will stand out.
“I hope that shows and we have a better race, more entertaining,” he added.
The British Grand Prix is set for another big crowd after a sold-out weekend, with fans eager to see all three British drivers: Norris and the Mercedes duo of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell.
Hamilton , like the Englishman from McLaren , believes that Silverstone will be an ideal circuit to show how good the new F1 cars are at the fastest corners.
” Silverstone is still one of the best tracks, if not the best, because of the fact that all the corners are medium and high speed, which are always the most fun,” said the seven-time world champion.
“With these cars that we have now, I mean, if you look at Barcelona, we suffered bounces in the high-speed corners, so it wasn’t anything spectacular, but hopefully by this race we’ve fixed those issues. But we’ll see.” “.
“I think for all of us, it’s going to be amazing. And we’ll also be able to follow each other a little bit more closely this year, so hopefully the race will be better too.”
Hamilton and Russell will go into the weekend motivated by their good result at the Canadian GP after a difficult start to the year, in which Mercedes had to fight harder than their rivals to adapt to the new rules.
Although Hamilton hopes that the Silverstone design will be better suited to the Mercedes W13, he is wary of the impact the now-famous bounces could have on the car’s performance.
“For sure we are better in the medium and high speed corners than in the low speed corners, but we suffer from the rebounds,” Hamilton said.
“So I don’t know how Copse and all those corners will feel with this car. It will be interesting for us to be there and see how we go. [I’m] really excited to get back to the UK.”
