Formula 1 is in rude health, with ever-rising global interest in the sport, sell-out attendances at Grands Prix and impressive viewing figures on television and online, helped in the UK by several leading British drivers like the current world champion, Lando Norris, George Russell and the veteran Lewis Hamilton. Despite eye-wateringly high ticket prices at Silverstone (where daily car parking alone costs up to £170 for the full event!), the four-day attendance at this weekend’s British Grand Prix was a record-breaking 565,000, including 175,000 present on Sunday’s main race day. The previous record was 520,000, held by Australia’s Adelaide back in 1995.

The ongoing success of this key annual event on the British sporting calendar has led to the President and CEO of Formula 1, Stefano Domenicali, suggesting that he would be very happy to discuss a contract extension with the longtime owners of the circuit, the British Racing Drivers Club, who had signed a £300 million deal in 2024 to host the event for 10 years.

In general and for environmental reasons, Formula 1 is looking to focus wherever possible on venues where most fans can arrive and leave by public transport rather than private cars, and Melbourne, Monaco, Montreal, Singapore and the new circuit in Madrid are great examples of this. However, some tracks deserve to be retained despite their relatively rural locations, and Silverstone illustrates this point perfectly. The Italian Domenicali, a former Ferrari team principal, praised the Northamptonshire facility, adding:

They are doing a good job on minimising any problems on the logistic side with so many people coming – a good problem to have.

I can personally vouch for this, as arriving at and leaving the venue used to feature absolutely horrendous traffic jams, and there are clearly still issues to be resolved on this front, but it is at least much better than it used to be.

The British Grand Prix weekend is always very important for the Aston Martin outfit, as its high-tech, state-of-the-art headquarters is located in Silverstone, very close to the circuit. However, it’s embarrassing for all concerned, including the team principal and managing technical partner, Adrian Newey, and its power unit supplier, Honda, that the outfit currently finds itself as the slowest Formula 1 team, even lagging behind the Cadillac new entrant. This came to a peak at the recent round in Austria when one of its cars was forced into retirement and the other, driven by the veteran 2005/06 double world champion Fernando Alonso, finished last, three laps behind the victorious George Russell after also having been lapped by every other car. More bad news merely followed at Silverstone.

Newey’s first car for Aston Martin has been overweight and underdeveloped as well as underpowered, which is simply disastrous in the rarified atmosphere of Formula 1 motor racing. However, he took a decision not to introduce any improvements in a fragmented way, and he and his colleagues have been busy behind the scenes working on a revised car, which it is hoped will run for the first time in Hungary in late July at the final race before the summer break. It will feature amended aerodynamics and a significant loss in weight, and the legendary designer, who has been experiencing a torrid time with Aston Martin, if not financially, is hoping that the car will be a sufficient step forward to improve the team's fortunes and persuade Alonso to remain with Aston Martin for the 2027 season and not simply slip away into retirement. The Spaniard will be 45 later this month, the oldest on the grid, and he has indicated that he hopes to decide his future this summer.



On a different front, the speculation about the future of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen simply increased in the Silverstone paddock after McLaren’s Lando Norris, a longtime close friend of the Dutch driver, said on Thursday that it would be “good” if he were to join him next year at the Woking-based team. It would certainly fit in with other Red Bull staff having opted to move there too, including Gianpiero Lambiase, so we can only but wait and see. Verstappen is keen not to discuss the subject publicly and simply wants to focus on his driving for Red Bull until the F1 summer break.



Elsewhere, Ferrari’s team principal, Fred Vasseur, had a very public disagreement at Silverstone with Mercedes’ Toto Wolff, with the latter questioning exactly how many car upgrades the Italian team has introduced recently despite the ongoing budget cap restrictions. These improvements have without doubt boosted Ferrari’s pace, increasing their threat to Mercedes and thus Wolff’s clear interest in the subject.



Meanwhile, the former longtime Red Bull team principal, Christian Horner, made a first return to the Formula 1 paddock on Grand Prix day after having been relieved of his Red Bull duties shortly after last year’s British Grand Prix. He was a guest of Domenicali and the FIA President, Mohammed Ben Sulayem. While on this subject, it would appear that Lawrence Stroll, the owner of the struggling Aston Martin team, might have renewed his interest in acquiring Horner’s services, with the latter still keen to return to F1 if an appropriate opportunity arises and preferably as a part owner rather than merely an employee. Horner is also set to release his first memoir book entitled “Drive” in October, which should be an interesting read.



On a fun level, Sunday’s pre-Grand Prix drivers’ parade wasn’t undertaken on the back of a low loader trailer as usual, but it featured all 22 of them behind the wheel of individual Lego F1 minicars, capable of up to only 15mph. It follows on from something similar having taken place at last year’s Miami Grand Prix, which was highly popular with both fans and drivers but where the pairs of pedallers from the then 10 teams shared a car rather than having one each. It goes without saying that there were multiple deliberate track limit issues and examples of intentional contact between the drivers as they slowly completed a full lap of Silverstone!