Both Mercedes drivers, Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas, hope Formula 1 gets “creative” in how it can differentiate the second Silverstone race from the first.
Last weekend saw F1 hold a second championship race at the same circuit in the same season for the first time ever, as the Red Bull Ring hosted both the Austrian and Styrian Grand Prix’s.
Unsurprisingly, however, the experience of having raced a week earlier meant teams were much better prepared for the second race and the level of unpredictability only really came from a wet qualifying on Saturday.
For the British GP and 70th Anniversary GP, both at Silverstone, the only change being made is with tyres, as the second race will see the C2, C3 and C4 compounds, as opposed to the C1, C2 and C3 for the first.
Mercedes though were the only team to block a bid to introduce a reverse grid qualifying sprint race on a Saturday, with the starting order determined by reversing the Drivers’ Championship standings.
Hamilton agrees with that position, however, and believes F1 should look at alternatives.
“I’ve not watched the races so it’s difficult to have the same perspective as you [the media] will because we’re in this bubble,” he admitted. “It’s a bit of a different viewpoint.
“I definitely think we should be trying to be more creative maybe, but I don’t know what that is, I don’t have the answers for it. But just shifting a tyre is not going to make any difference, literally no difference really for us.
“Reverse grid? I think it would just be mayhem. If we qualified at the front and then you put us last it would be a bit of a difficult one and we would probably just end up not trying to qualify for the front so, it is a difficult one.
“I wonder if there are other series that are doing anything different that we could look into. We have these two races at Silverstone and we could definitely do something to spice it up, particularly for the second one I think.”
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Teammate Bottas wasn’t too concerned with the spectacle the second Austria race produced but did agree it would be nice to try something new.
“I think we saw two different races even though it was the same place,” said the Finn.
“Obviously the weather played a part and mixed things up a bit on Saturday and it was a completely different kind of race weekend, even though it was the same format, the same track.
“I think that’s the beauty of the sport, there are always so many unknowns and so many things that can happen, so for me, it’s not really a big issue.
“But, yes, I agree with Lewis, I think we could be creative. It just needs to be done in the right way. I don’t know what the right way is but I know Silverstone has lots of track layout options. Who knows.”