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Welcome back to Prime Tire, where I’m still drying out after being caught in a downpour walking into the Silverstone paddock on Sunday morning. The warm glow from seeing Nico Hülkenberg take a first Formula One podium in 239 attempts is helping, however.

I’m Alex, and Madeline Coleman will be along later.

Patrick Iversen has just flown back home to Texas, and while I’ve stayed steady on London time all week, I’m back as Tuesday host, with Pat again taking my slot on Friday. Normal service will resume next week.

A Lost Verstappen Victory?How rain spoiled Red Bull’s clever set-up tactics

I fully agree with Madeline saying “a case of ‘what could’ve been’” about Oscar Piastri’s 2025 British Grand Prix. One can make the same case for Lando Norris taking his trophy to celebrate with fans gathered on the Silverstone pit straight before a photographer essentially fell on his nose.

But the same really applies to Max Verstappen’s result last Sunday, too.

The Dutchman delivered another epic lap to claim pole — running adrift of the Q3 pack and being all inevitably Thanos in sealing a fourth such grid-heading result of 2025. It was Suzuka-esque, and afterwards, I asked him how he feels when showing such searing speed at tracks that really show an F1 driver’s class.

“I think it’s natural. (These are) tracks that I just enjoy more,” Max replied. “I don’t like street circuits in general. I just like the high speeds, where you have to be committed. It’s more flowing. That’s really where an F1 car comes alive. Naturally, the car has to work with you, right? And we know that on this kind of track the car just comes alive a bit more.”

And this got me thinking: What other tracks have these Red Bull-boosting characteristics for the rest of the F1 calendar? Because, at these, Verstappen is surely going to be more than just a thorn in orange sidepods.

  • Spa. The second half of the 2025 season starts at a track where Verstappen has been mighty in recent years, amid grid penalties galore. The high-speed Eau Rouge/Raidillon, Pouhon and Blanchimont corners will show the RB21’s best form well.
  • Monza. The Italian GP venue is all straights, which rewards the slippery Red Bull in terms of straight-line speed. At Silverstone, the team fitted a smaller Monza-spec rear wing so the car’s baseline strengths meant it was faster than the McLarens at Abbey, Copse and Maggots/Becketts in qualifying and had better end-of-straight speed, too.
  • Qatar: The Lusail track was designed as a motorcycle venue and the corners flow very quickly. At much faster F1 car speeds, the G-forces even pummel drivers’ stomachs against their tight seatbelts. Verstappen won here in 2023 and 2024 when McLaren probably had the pace to prevail both times.
  • Las Vegas. An odd one, this. The long straights should favor Red Bull’s car, but it is tires that will dictate the result. They did in 2024, when Mercedes was alone in really getting the rubber to work in cold November in Nevada.

Verstappen’s safety car restart spin dropped him from second to 10th, although he recovered to finish fifth (Rasid Necati Aslim/Anadolu/Getty Images)

Now, as discussed last week, you can never count Max out of anything in F1.

He’s good enough to be in the fight at upcoming tracks where McLaren should dominate — in Hungary, the Netherlands and Singapore. But four tracks out of the remaining 12 where Red Bull could really nick more wins along the lines of Suzuka and Imola for Verstappen earlier this year isn’t enough to overturn the now 69-point deficit he faces in the drivers’ standings.

So, what happened to Verstappen’s Silverstone potential?

In a word: rain.

The Sunday morning and early afternoon showers at Silverstone meant Red Bull’s skinny wing choice was exposed — and it was notable that Verstappen was fast in the drier start and end to the race. In the soaking middle, he was nowhere and furious about it.

Red Bull had fitted its Monza wing to eradicate the understeer Verstappen hates that had held him back on single lap pace in practice. The weather forecast changing dramatically overnight on Saturday-Sunday left it stranded, as when it rains, bigger rear wings help drivers keep control of their cars with extra downforce effect.

Of course, Verstappen also made a second major error in this season — after his Spain red mist moment. He spun out of second at the safety car restart and had also been off the road in front of Norris before the first pitstops for the leaders. It was a rare poor mistake from the world champion, which he didn’t feel was down to Piastri’s penalty-earning safety car restart braking.

“I just got on throttle and the car was gone,” Verstappen said of his spin.

Another team off the road and spinning around at Silverstone was Ferrari. Over to Madeline to explain what went wrong for Lewis Hamilton, Charles Leclerc and co. last weekend.

Inside the Paddock with Madeline ColemanFerrari’s ‘difficult weekend’

Ferrari’s British GP was complicated. It’d shown signs of strong competitive pace, and with Hamilton starting the race fifth, you couldn’t rule him out of podium contention. After all, the seven-time world champion had previously secured 12 consecutive podium finishes at Silverstone, and he excels in wet conditions.

The Ferrari drivers immediately diverged on strategy in the mixed-conditions race, where knowing when to swap intermediate tires for slicks (and which compound at that) was the key. Leclerc made the call to go from inters to slicks on the race’s formation lap — giving up his sixth place to start from pit lane. He then had several off-track moments on the way to a bruising 14th.

“It’s easy to say at the end that it was not the right call,” Ferrari team boss Fred Vasseur said afterwards. “But I think Charles (quickly) understood that it was not the right call because he was already five seconds slower than the guy in front of him (on the first lap).”

Hamilton’s strategy, though, was the right one — inters, inters and softs. But because others such as Hülkenberg and Lance Stroll pitted before him, they were able to jump ahead, though Hamilton later caught and passed Stroll

It’s fair to wonder whether Hamilton’s pit stop to finally take softs came too early. He pitted a lap before Hülkenberg (who went on to secure his maiden F1 podium). But Hamilton’s out lap wasn’t clean, as he skidded off the track just after the pit lane exit and lost several seconds (with Leclerc also off in the background). The off aided Hülkenberg in holding that coveted podium result, as Hamilton is still waiting for his first silverware in Ferrari red.

“When you have to take the decision on the pit wall, it’s a very tricky one because you always have to be in anticipation,” Vasseur said. “And on top, we lost the Lewis’ GPS all the race. It meant that were completely blind and we didn’t know where the car was.”

Hülkenberg HailedWhat Nico’s rivals had to say

Hülkenberg ending his 238-race-long F1 podium drought went down tremendously well in the paddock.

As Luke Smith explained, Mercedes and Aston Martin — where the veteran made several super-sub appearances across its various guises at the start of this decade — were on hand to help Sauber with extra champagne for its surprise celebrations.

Here’s what a selection of Hülkenberg’s peers had to say about his result, with the German a popular figure amongst the F1 driver pack:

  • Max Verstappen: “He knows what he can do. He has shown that in the past, before F1 and in F1. But for whatever reason, it didn’t work out up until now. So for sure he will take it and he will be very happy. But I think he knows how good he is anyway. A podium does not suddenly say that you are better. It’s just really nice for him to at least be on the podium.”
  • Oscar Piastri: “The highlight of the day.”
  • Fernando Alonso: “Super happy for him. One of the best drivers on the grid and never had the opportunity to have a proper car underneath (him). I’m very truly happy for him.”
  • Pierre Gasly: “Been a long time coming, so good for him.”
  • Alex Albon: “What a legend.”
  • Gabriel Bortoleto: “Seeing him fight for the podium and achieve this result after so many years in F1 means a lot.”
  • Carlos Sainz: “For me, he’s always been a top-five driver in the grid every time he’s been in F1 – his level of talent and race execution is incredible.”
  • Charles Leclerc: “Congratulations to Nico for his podium, it’s a great achievement for him and his team.”

Hülkenberg is a popular figure at Aston Martin, after driving for the team full-time in two stints between 2012 and 2016, as well as stepping into its cars during the COVID-19 pandemic (Bryn Lennon/Formula 1/Getty Images)

Hülk’s result really enhanced the feel-good factor as the paddock was packing down at Silverstone. It’s a huge achievement for a driver who was effectively shown the door on full-time F1 racing after the 2019 season.

But he refused to accept his fate. He used his position as Racing Point/Aston reserve driver (and occasional pundit on German TV) to badger Guenther Steiner into a full-time return with Haas for 2023. And Hülkenberg used his time off in the meantime to think about how he could improve with rear tire sliding, which had held him back for years of sensitive Pirelli tires to such movement. Ever since, he’s consistently lit up the midfield with magic results.

Hülk mark two is arguably better than his trophy-laden junior career and early F1 record showed. Now, he’s got a headline result (and plenty of Lego) to prove it.

Congrats, Nico.

Outside the points

🚨 Very much not deserving of points this, but Northamptonshire Police are appealing for assistance in catching a man wanted in connection with the theft of a steering wheel from a classic F1 car on display at Silverstone. Other cars were sadly damaged, too, with several YouTubers arrested over one incident.

🏆 In much more uplifting news — as Norris, Piastri and Hülkenberg did on Sunday — here’s the full story on those intricate Lego trophies handed out on the Silverstone podium via Luke.

👨‍👩‍👧‍👧 And also at Silverstone, Madeline told the story of Williams at the formerly family-run team’s home event. Albon brought home a handful of handy points in eighth, while Sainz was in the wars with the wayward Leclerc.

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(Top photo: TKTK)