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Britain: Preview
Topic Started: Jul 4 2007, 07:33 PM (185 Views)
dcoulthard19
Chief Engineer
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Next up is one of the most highly anticipated British GPs in years. It will be Hamilton's first home race and naturally there will be alot of attention on him this weekend, it will be a big weekend for the young man but he has coped with everything thrown at him so far so there is no reason why he should be flustered here despite the huge interest he will receive, in the past we have seen Britain's heroes spurred on by the crowd to great success, Mansell in particular had some great British GP wins in his career including his charge on Piquet where he came from 30 seconds back and performed a great overtaking manoevre on him. British drivers have a great record in their home GP, 21 of the 56 GPs have been won by the Brit, the most recent success being David Coulthard in 1999 and 2000. So this is a stat that will bode well for Hamilton.

What are Hamilton's chances of winning his first home race I hear you ask? I feel he has a huge chance, he has had great success at Silverstone in the past including 2 brilliant wins in GP2 last season plus he has done extensive testing roung the place. You could say he knows the track like the back of his hand unlike other places he has gone to this year where he hasn't known the track at all but still done brilliantly well. And of course he has a brilliant car in the mclaren and they should be very good around the Northamptonshire track.

However who are Hamilton's threats? Ferrari have definitely made a comeback however poor tactical decisions and a few mechanical problems hampering race preparation flattered Ferrari. In reality the two teams were alot closer. Certainly in qualifying both teams are still very even, in the race pace Ferrari look more consistent like before Monaco but Mclaren are there or thereabouts and will be motivated to do well at what is a home race for them too. I think the Silverstone track may suit Ferrari a little less due to the amount of bumps in the circuit but having said that Massa got a good time in the testing there recently, both teams will fight closely for this victory.

Driver wise Raikkonen is now looking in much better shape and Silverstone has been a good hunting ground for him in the past so he could be the bigger Ferrari threat, also his confidence from his win in France will be sky high and he will have belief. And of course Alonso can't be ruled out, he looked the faster of the two mclaren drivers in France until his problem in Q3 and he is a two times world champion and had gone well in Silverstone in the past including a dominate pole to flag victory last season. And we haven't talked about Massa, he wasn't happy at the traffic in France but in reality Raikkonen out-performed him, he looks a very good candidate for pole but his race pace and race craft is a bit questionable. However he fought back in Bahrain after a miserable race in Sepang, he could well do the same here. So overall between the top 2 teams and top 4 drivers there isn't much to separate them and it could be a thrilling contest but you have to make Hamilton favourite slightly due to home advantage.

Away from the front it should be an interesting battle between Renault and BMW, both teams are very even so it should make for an interesting battle, Kubica looked really good in France and he has another good chance at getting a good result here, he looks fresh from his horrifying accident and he has adapted his driving style well to the 2007 spec tyres which he struggled with earlier on.

Then you have the midfield battle and that is anyone's game but with 4 clear top teams now teams like Toyota, Red Bull and Williams will find it harder to score points unless there is alot of attrition. Also Honda have improved vastly in race pace and they will be fighting for the 8th and 9th places too, this could provide some instense racing like this midfield battle has done at other tracks this season.

We have talked about Hamilton, what about the other Brits. They will all be very competitive and will all give their best but unfortunately a small bite of the points is all they can hope for in the dry I think, but if it were to rain I think all 4 Brit drivers could do very well in the wet conditions.

Overall it should be a very close and exciting British GP, a little bit of rain wouldn't go a miss though just to spice things up even more.

So this weekend's key questions:

Can Hamilton win on home soil?
Or will Ferrari maintain their Magny-Cours advantage and spoil the British party?
Who will win the Renault/BMW battle?
Can one of the other 3 Brits get a decent result?
Will the current Mclaren and Ferrari political happenings hamper their focus and performance?
Will a successful and well run event finally persuade Bernie that Silverstone deserves its place on the calendar?
Dave Richards will annouce the plans for Prodrive, who will be their supplier and who will their drivers be?

Enjoy the British GP weekend!! and if you are going then have a fantastic weekend.
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Red Andy
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