Race Notes | 2026 British Grand Prix | 187 | Max's Repeat Failure, an FIA Glitch & the Win Kimi Never Got

Max Verstappen's rear wing failed again, this time in the race, triggering a late safety car the FIA blamed on a software glitch. Neither Dick nor Joe is convinced by that explanation.

What followed was a chaotic last lap sprint. Charles Leclerc inherited the win. George Russell gambled on worn tires and got lucky into second. Kimi Antonelli, who'd done everything right, got nothing.

Sabrina wasn't able to record this week, so it's Dick's notes and Joe's notes covering Silverstone’s record breaking crowd and a Red Bull problem that isn't going away.

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Transcript

Speaker: 0:03

2026 British Grand Prix Race Notes. Dick's Race Notes. Well hey everybody, I just wanted to throw in my two cents on what I thought of the British Grand Silverstone this past weekend. Silverstone is one of my favorite races on the so much history. The crowd is always massive, and since the typically have at least one of their countrymen in the field, supports just super fun to take in and experience. I the sprint race itself was a very quite aggressive and honestly, I thought it was what sprint races should be like. Although we know that a lot of the passing that energy harvesting and deployment it was very fun to watch. And and Sabrina have done their race, I do feel like I have to has had with his rear wing not rear wing not fully shedding and then again at the following the actual race, and that put an extremely spirited drive on it's important for our casual racing car is on the edge of puff of wind or a sudden loss of and fifty pounds of downforce to track and into the gravel trap. of those instances, Max wound up damaging the car significantly in Silverstone. But Max is not a happy camper about this, has been twice lucky to have with a large gravel run off to anything solid. If this were to happen at a place like Baku, which is lined with concrete the crash damage to both car and possibly the The driver would be immense. So I'm also wondering, why is it that Max's mate, Isaac Hadjar hasn't a similar failure? Is it really a wing, a rear wing failure, or car and just making a small likely. I would be the first to say that. And Red is just covering for their car achieve a certain degree of cut air off of the of the rear to lose downforce and off goes but it's totally speculation on interesting that the second car not had this problem. At least it hasn't had it yet. So that was my big comment. But here's some others. First of all, watching Williams and Aston back of the field is just Both teams have b-spec cars due to arrive soon, but I feel for everyone on both teams that they have built such duds in the first place. It's too soon to call Ferrari a legitimate certainly giving Mercedes the reliability it issues at is just very, um Mercedes like on there, but it seems like My third point is, is that McLaren is in big trouble and need more as soon as possible. I'm hearing that they will get more upgrades in two weeks time at spa. So let's see what happens. And last but not least, there's a lot of like Ferrari are continually with people wondering out loud a cost cap in place. The final at the end of the season promises to be very interesting. may be that teams like Ferrari bring half of the season, because to exceeding the cap. Time will. Joe's Race notes. The British Grand Prix was odd, I have to say. the end of the race was was fairly chaotic why the safety car, uh, stayed said it was a software glitch, that shouldn't happen. I mean, they should have all these things checked that, um, in advance. on a race weekend. So a software glitch doesn't sound awfully to me it was probably more to do control given the, uh, the, um, car had to come in, when the sort of stuff. Anyway, it ruined the race. Um, for the last lap of the race. I don't last lap dashes after safety bit NASCAR, but, um, it, uh, it because we didn't even have a don't think Charles Leclerc the case. Um, I think he would have won, you know, in wouldn't have got him because, tyres to do it in the last lap. think, I think Charles would because Kimi was catching him at know, he admitted he didn't think he would have been able to hold off Kimi. I feel desperately sorry for Kimi because he, you He did everything right. He worked his way to the front and uh, it was good and it looked like he had it was just a tiny thing that him up. So that's very unfortunate. And of course, and George was was lucky to get, did back. So it was, it was pretty unlucky for poor admit, um, I think that um, George staying out at the some places, although he didn't was a, it was a big risk, you um, and, you know, whatever, or wrong. Um, you know, you've got to make a split it. So in the end, it worked out for him and but it wasn't really deserved to it was, it was largely luck. And was outclassed by Kimmy all Ferraris are quick in they still can't really compete the mercs on the full pace, uh, throughout a race. So we'll see. We'll see how it develops. Again, it's very circuit specific. So, uh, beyond that, McLaren was nowhere they seem to not be surprised by that just because of the nature of the circuit. Red bull. Max did a good job, but they weren't in it at the end. Causing that safety car um, for a similar reason to his accident in Austria. Now you can say that's as he did. That's not But you know, there's only been like a week between the two events. So to find a solution to the problem is quite difficult to do. So And I know he was upset about it, but you it is. And the Formula One schedule is so brutal these to even breathe really between think it was, you know, it his situation. But I don't think it it's fundamentally you than you can blame them in the same basic problem. So I thought that the um Racing bulls were pretty solid. I Arvid Lindblad did a great job. Um, Lawson too. I mean, obviously they are, you know, they're well matched, but the, uh, it's more impressive with because he's he's younger and less experienced. Alpine look good. I think that was a circuit specific issue. it just didn't seem to be Gasly would have done better that um you know down the back there's no real changes. I mean people brought some updates. I think Williams drivers seem to be a had. But it didn't turn out, uh, quite how they weren't really on the pace at they're chipping away at it. lot of rumors about Carlos Sainz looking to go somewhere else. but we'll see. I mean if you're Carlos it might be a good idea to stick where you are as well to try and continue to move forward with Williams. You know this year has been poor. Last year was a lot better. And I think there's potential for them to bounce back over time. So I think, you know, as a whole, because it was so soon after Austria, there wasn't a lot of difference between the two races. I mean, there were lots of bits and pieces super impressive, I think, was was the huge crowd. I mean, five hundred and, uh, I think it was zero people over the four days. all time record in Formula one. they've been counting. Anyway, I remember one in Adelaide, the race in Adelaide, which was which was absolutely huge. But apparently this one beat even that. So I think we'll go on and going up in as as time goes by. But what we don't need is, is, you know, saw. And there's nobody to blame for that other than the huge amount of money to do a job of administering the sport. you know, several races now. They've poor job and that shouldn't be shouldn't be acceptable.