The British Grand Prix 2023 was the 10th round of the 2023 F1 season, and took place at the Silverstone Circuit in Silverstone, UK, during the weekend of the 7th to the 9th of July.
Max Verstappen won the race from the pole, followed by Lando Norris, and Lewis Hamilton completing the podium.
Final results
Race evolution
Pit Stops
There were a total of 24 pit stops during the race.
The most popular pit stop windows were:
- Laps 26-29: 6 stops
- Laps 31-33: 13 stops
The fastest pit stop was Sergio Pérez's, stopping the clock at 28.060 seconds during his pit stop on lap 28, while the slowest one was was Nico Hülkenberg's, who stopped the clock at 41.972 seconds, 13.912 seconds slower than Pérez, during his pit stop on lap 7.
These times include the time the driver spent going through the pit lane, as well as the actual time he stopped for the mechanics to work on his car.
Strategy
We saw a variety of options in terms of pit stop strategies during this race, however most drivers chose a 1 stop. Only 4 drivers tried a 2 stops, and 1 driver tried a 3 stops.
The race winner, Max Verstappen, was on a 1 stop strategy.
1 stop
-
5Carlos Sainz
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9Sergio Pérez
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1George Russell
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1Oscar Piastri
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3Logan Sargeant
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2Lance Stroll
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8Pierre Gasly
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8Valtteri Bottas
-
-Alexander Albon
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4Lewis Hamilton
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2Fernando Alonso
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-Max Verstappen
-
-Lando Norris
2 stops
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2Nico Hülkenberg
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-Yuki Tsunoda
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5Charles Leclerc
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1Nyck de Vries
3 stops
-
2Guanyu Zhou
Excluding those drivers who could not finish the race, those on a 1 stop strategy gained 1.58 positions on average, the ones on a 2 stops strategy lost an average of 1.5 positions, while those on a 3 stops strategy gained 2 positions on average.
Despite of the average possitons gained or lost, and considering a deeper analysis of the performance of each strategy, we consider the 1 stop strategy as the optimal for this race.
It is important to note that this might not always be the case for other races held at the Silverstone Circuit, as the conditions might change from year to year, in terms of wheel degradation, accidents, safety cars, etc.
Incidents
There race went on mostly with no incidents. Only 3 divers were involved in circumstances that were severe enough to prevented them from finishing the race.
These included, Pierre Gasly, who retired dure to damage caused by a collision with other cars on lap 46, Kevin Magnussen, who suffered an engine malfunction on lap 31, and Esteban Ocon, who had an oil leak on lap 9.
Collision damage
-
Pierre GaslyLap 46
Engine
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Kevin MagnussenLap 31
Oil leak
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Esteban OconLap 9
Qualifying
Max Verstappen managed to get the pole position by 0.241 seconds and a final lipe time of 1:26.720. Right next to him, completing the first line of the grid, was Lando Norris.
Track evolution
As the qualifying session went on, with the track rubbering in, and the drivers testing the limits of the grip of their cars, the times per lap dropped, and all of the drivers that took place in Q2 improved their times in this second session.
The Q3 is the time were all the remaining drivers put all their cards on the table, even those with a superior car who might have been managing their times in Q1 and Q2 push their cars to the limit in Q3. It therefore comes as no surprise that all of the drivers that took place in Q3 managed to improve their times in this last session.