F1 | BRITISH GP, GIAN CARLO MINARDI “SAINZ AND LECLERC MUST BE ALLOWED TO FIGHT. I’LL EXPLAIN WHY.”

Having said goodbye to Austria Formula 1 has already arrived in Silverstone, England. With some exceptions, historically it is a track for the English teams and here it will not be easy to annoy Red Bull and Max Verstappen.

But it will be a good testing ground for Ferrari after the positive result achieved last week, to verify if there will again be a further step forward. Certainly, the weather conditions could play an important role since the SF-23 was in trouble in low temperatures.

At this moment Ferrari must aim at recovering the gap from Aston Martin and Mercedes to try to take second place in the constructors’ ladder. I do not see any other goals.

The drivers themselves must work together in this direction. In the ladder Carlos Sainz is ahead of Charles Leclerc but both cannot aspire to any trophy. For this reason, they should be free to fight it out on the track, having as sole objective the most points for the team.

Mercedes and Aston Martin seemed in difficulty in Austria. Silverstone will be a testing ground for them as well, to verify if that was only an isolated episode. The situation for McLaren is different. With the introduction of the new car Lando Norris took fourth place. This weekend Piastri will also be able to count on the updated car. It will be interesting to follow their work.

Yesterday (Wednesday) the 2024 calendar was made public, made up of 24 grands prix, starting on March 2 and closing on December 8. Running on Saturday will be nothing new for Formula 1. In fact, the 1985 South African grand prix was already run on Saturday. Next year Italy will again be able to count on Imola and Monza. We will get to work immediately to recover what it was not possible to do this year due to the flood.

Gian Carlo Minardi