Five winners, five losers: British Grand Prix
- Peter Johnson
- 3 days ago
- 8 min read
Written by Peter Johnson, Edited by Meghana Sree
A truly chaotic British Grand Prix produced some potentially season-defining and even career-defining moments, but for whom?
Winner - Lando Norris
Twelve months on from a strategy blunder which surely cost him last year’s British Grand Prix, Sunday was Redemption Day for Lando Norris.
While others faltered in the rain, drove erratically under the Safety Car and were otherwise involved in tight wheel-to-wheel combat, Norris simply delivered lap after lap.
It was generally a rather lonely race for the Briton, who was for large parts running in an isolated second place before finding himself way out front after Oscar Piastri’s penalty.
However, not only did he etch himself into Silverstone folklore by becoming the thirteenth British winner on UK soil, he potentially for the first time this season truly has the upper hand in the title battle.
While Norris has often been criticised for his mentality, especially in comparison to the usually steely Piastri, he arguably now has the edge over his teammate who revealed his first major crack of the season.
Winner - Nico Hülkenberg
Nico Hülkenberg finally claiming his first Formula One podium is truly one of the greatest stories the sport has witnessed, possibly ever.
In an era when drivers are getting younger and younger, with teams increasingly taking chances on the fresh talents they have invested in throughout their junior careers, spaces on the Formula One grid have dried up even for proven race winners – see Daniel Ricciardo, Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Pérez.
For Hülkenberg, who himself went three years without a full-time seat between 2020 and 2022, to still be in F1 at all is impressive. It seemed inevitable for many years, though, that his career would eventually be remembered for a glaring absence of podium finishes.
Three consecutive points finishes in Spain, Canada and Austria suggested his Sauber package had become genuinely competitive, but starting 19th and last at Silverstone after a disappointing Qualifying, it seemed that that run was likely to end with a whimper.
Hülkenberg’s legendary run to the podium was, simply put, down to being on the right tyres at the right time. Arguably the best strategy call of the entire race was when his Sauber team left him out on worn intermediate tyres for a lap longer than Lewis Hamilton, who lost ten seconds to the German on his out-lap.
It was a truly deserved result for a driver and team who absolutely mastered impossible conditions, and with five of the six rookies retiring from the race it was a day in which experience truly won out.
It was also Sauber’s first podium since Kamui Kobayashi’s P3 at Suzuka in 2012.
Winner - Pierre Gasly
There is a solid argument that Pierre Gasly does the most with the least in F1. His performances and results consistently outweigh the potential of his car to a greater extent than perhaps any other driver on the grid.
Silverstone may only have yielded Gasly’s fourth points finish of the season (including Sprints), but considering his machinery, his return has been phenomenal.
Qualifying eighth and finishing sixth in what is overall the least competitive package on the grid, the Frenchman even pulled off a last-lap overtake on Lance Stroll to achieve his highest finish of the season.
The only driver to have scored 100% of his team’s points this season, Gasly has for some time been carrying the hopes of his entire Alpine squad.
With another driver swap potentially on the cards for the sister car, Gasly has shown that there is potential for Alpine to claw their way back in the Constructors’ Championship if they can find the right second driver.
Winner - Aston Martin
Strangely, given how despondent both Fernando Alonso and Stroll seemed to be on Sunday, Aston Martin actually had a very positive weekend.
With Stroll coming home in seventh and Alonso ninth, astonishingly it was the Silverstone-based team’s first double points finish since their home race twelve months ago.
In spite of a great result on paper, both drivers felt there was more on the table. Stroll, who at one stage ran in third behind the two McLarens, described his car as “the worst piece of ****” he had ever driven, while Alonso was critical of his team’s “very wrong” strategy calls.
It almost seems counter-intuitive, therefore, to include Aston among this week’s winners, but to have such a positive weekend and still be disappointed is perhaps a sign of better things to come.
Winner - Silverstone
In a meeting with Prime Minister Keir Starmer last week, Formula One CEO Stefano Domenicali said that Silverstone “has the right characteristics to stay forever” on the calendar.
The home of F1 may already have a contract until 2034, but with other legendary venues, not least Spa-Francorchamps, having to settle for a bi-annual race at best, it is a vital reassurance from the sport’s boss that its long-term future is secure.
Once again on race day, Silverstone served up another delight. How many tracks are there these days where literally every single race in recent years is iconic? Hamilton’s emotional win in 2024, Norris overtaking Verstappen off the line in 2023, Sainz’s maiden win in 2022, that opening lap in 2021, Hamilton winning with three tyres in 2020 – the list goes on.
In a world of unpredictability, the one certainty every single year is that the British Grand Prix is going to rock. 2025 was no exception.
Loser - Oscar Piastri
He may have finished second and he may still lead the Drivers’ Championship, but last weekend was the first time this season that serious cracks have emerged in Piastri’s armour.
The ice-cold Aussie’s only real blunder in the first 11 rounds of the championship was at his home race way back in March, when a spin in the rain sent him tumbling down the order.
Debate will rage as to whether his penalty at Silverstone for erratic driving behind the Safety Car was fair, but in many ways that is beside the point. The Piastri we have come to expect this season would have taken it on the chin, buckled down and driven off into the distance again. Except, on Sunday afternoon, something felt off.
The Australian’s plea with the pit wall to consider ordering a position swap with Norris following his penalty was a cry of desperation so far removed from his usual calm demeanour. In hot pursuit of his teammate, he then had a hairy moment through Maggots and Becketts that hindered his charge.
Piastri was on the edge, both physically and mentally, and with Norris’ superb return to form since his embarrassing weekend in Canada, he may have his teammate on the ropes.
Loser - Charles Leclerc
Who could have imagined that Charles Leclerc’s 2025 British Grand Prix could unfold into a disaster similar to his race in 2024?
It was a second consecutive 14th-placed finish for the Monégasque in Britain, and while he managed to finish on the lead lap this year, he may well reflect on his performance this time around more negatively.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but the decision he and several others made to pit for slick tyres at the end of the formation lap seemed speculative at best.
Granted, if it had worked out it would have been a masterstroke, and with Lewis Hamilton starting on the intermediate tyre Ferrari had both bases covered. Strategy aside, though, Leclerc was all over the place on Sunday.
Twice he almost collided with former teammate Carlos Sainz and he also had quite the adventure through Maggots and Becketts at one stage.
Days like last Sunday are occasions when the driver truly makes the difference, and in comparison to teammate Lewis Hamilton, who achieved his joint-highest finish of the season, Leclerc was nowhere to be seen.
Ferrari are currently sleep-walking to second place in the Constructors’ Championship and surely are due a superb weekend at some point, but Silverstone was not it.
Loser - Franco Colapinto
We didn’t even see Franco Colapinto on Sunday as he failed to take the race start, and that may well prove to be his parting moment from F1.
The young Argentine will rue the missed opportunity to have one more go at showcasing his talent and staking a long-term claim on the second Alpine seat, but truthfully he had probably already put the final nail in his own coffin.
A crash in Qualifying had already consigned Colapinto to a lowly grid slot, which later became a pit lane start due to the work performed on his car.
Flavio Briatore put a show of faith in the former Wiliams driver by swapping him in for Jack Doohan after the Miami Grand Prix, but his performances over the last six races have been such that it would be little surprise to see Doohan back in Belgium.
To be fair to Colapinto, he has been under intense scrutiny since the day he stepped into the Alpine, but it is a sink-or-swim environment in F1, and from the outside it does not appear that he has dealt with the pressure well at all.
Loser - Yuki Tsunoda
Another driver to be drafted into a new team earlier on this season is Yuki Tsunoda, whose performances have been little more impressive than Colapinto’s in recent races.
For the second straight weekend the Japanese driver was handed a ten-second penalty for causing a collision, with Haas’ Oliver Bearman on the receiving end on this occasion.
Given his success with Racing Bulls, Tsunoda is proof – if proof were needed – that the ultimate problem with Red Bull’s second car is indeed the car itself, rather than the driver.
However, being off the pace is one thing, but getting involved in accidents is another. Pérez’s position in the team became untenable because of the amount of money he was costing Red Bull in damage. While Tsunoda is not necessarily at that stage, he would be well advised to start keeping his nose clean.
Loser - The Rookies
Given the biblical weather that Silverstone witnessed at times on Sunday, the British Grand Prix was at one stage simply a race of survival. It just so happens that the necessary survival instincts are generally borne out of experience and an underlying composure.
Norris, Hülkenberg and Gasly were all exponents of both characteristics, while the 2025 intake of rookies displayed across the board that they are still a little way off in both aspects.
For Colapinto, his weekend was done and dusted on Saturday, while Liam Lawson, Gabriel Bortoleto, Isack Hadjar and Kimi Antonelli were all involved in race-ending incidents.
Bearman, in fairness, had a very solid Sunday, finishing two seconds outside of the points despite being sent into a spin by Yuki Tsunoda. However, his weekend was ruined by a totally avoidable ten-second penalty for attacking the pit lane entry under red flag conditions during the final Free Practice.
Ultimately, it is mistakes such as that and weekends such as these from which you learn the most as a young driver. Fortunately for five of our rookies, they will definitely be back in Spa for another go. For one, though, this could be it.
Comments