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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Episode Transcript

Sp (00:03):
2026 British Grand Prix Race Notes.
Dick's Race Notes.
Well hey everybody,I just wanted to throw
in my two cents on what Ithought of the British Grand
Silverstone this past weekend.
Silverstone isone of my favorite races on the
so much history. The crowd isalways massive, and since the
typically have at least one oftheir countrymen in the field,

(00:25):
supports just super fun totake in and experience. I the
sprint race itself was a veryquite aggressive and honestly, I
thought it was what sprint racesshould be like. Although we
knowthat a lot of the passing that
energy harvesting and deploymentit was very fun to watch. And

(00:49):
and Sabrina have done theirrace, I do feel like I have to
has had with his rear wing notrear wing not fully shedding
and then again at the followingthe actual race, and that put

(01:11):
an extremely spirited drive onit's important for our casual
racing car is on the edge ofpuff of wind or a sudden loss of
and fifty pounds of downforce totrack and into the gravel trap.

(01:34):
of those instances, Max wound updamaging the car significantly
in Silverstone. But Max isnot a happy camper about this,
has been twice lucky to havewith a large gravel run off to

(01:54):
anything solid. If this wereto happen at a place like Baku,
which is lined with concretethe crash damage to
both car and possibly the Thedriver would be immense. So I'm
alsowondering, why is it that Max's
mate, Isaac Hadjar hasn'ta similar failure? Is it really
a wing, a rear wing failure, orcar and just making a small

(02:22):
likely. I would bethe first to say that. And Red
is just covering for theircar achieve a certain degree of
cut air off of the of the rearto lose downforce and off goes
but it's totally speculation oninteresting that the second car

(02:46):
not had this problem. At leastit
hasn't had it yet. So that wasmy big comment. But here's some
others. First of all,watching Williams and Aston
back of the field is justBoth teams have
b-spec cars due to arrive soon,but I feel for everyone on both
teams that they have built suchduds in the first place. It's

(03:09):
too soonto call Ferrari a legitimate
certainly giving Mercedesthe reliability it issues at
is just very, um Mercedes likeon there, but it seems like

(03:30):
My third pointis, is that McLaren is in
big trouble and need moreas soon as possible. I'm hearing
thatthey will get more upgrades in
two weeks time at spa. Solet's see
what happens. And last butnot least, there's a lot of
like Ferrari are continuallywith people wondering out loud

(03:51):
a cost cap in place. The finalat the end of the season
promises to be very interesting.
may bethat teams like Ferrari bring
half of the season, becauseto exceeding the cap. Time will.
Joe's Race notes.

(04:14):
The British GrandPrix was odd, I have to say.
the end ofthe race was was fairly chaotic
why the safety car, uh, stayedsaid it was a software glitch,

(04:37):
that shouldn't happen. Imean, they
should have all these thingschecked that, um, in advance.
on a race weekend. So a softwareglitch doesn't sound awfully
to me it was probably more to docontrol given the, uh, the, um,

(05:01):
car had to come in, when thesort of stuff. Anyway, it ruined
the race. Um, for thelast lap of the race. I don't
last lap dashes after safetybit NASCAR, but, um, it, uh, it
because we didn't even have adon't think Charles Leclerc

(05:24):
the case. Um, I thinkhe would have won, you know, in
wouldn't have got him because,tyres to do it in the last lap.
think, I think Charles wouldbecause Kimi was catching him at
know, he admitted he didn'tthink he would have been

(05:46):
able to hold off Kimi. I feeldesperately
sorry for Kimi because he, youHe did everything
right. He worked hisway to the front and uh, it was
good and it looked like he hadit was just a tiny thing that

(06:07):
him up. So that's veryunfortunate. And of course,
and George was was lucky to get,did back. So it was,
it was pretty unlucky for pooradmit, um, I think that
um, George staying out at thesome places, although he didn't

(06:31):
was a, it was a big risk, youum, and, you know, whatever,
or wrong. Um, you know,you've got to make a split
it. So in theend, it worked out for him and
but it wasn't really deserved toit was, it was largely luck. And

(06:53):
was outclassed by Kimmy allFerraris are quick in
they still can't really competethe mercs on the full pace,
uh, throughout a race. So we'llsee.
We'll see howit develops. Again, it's very
circuit specific. So, uh, beyondthat, McLaren was nowhere

(07:18):
they seem to not be surprisedby that just because of the
nature of the circuit. Red bull.
Max did agood job, but they weren't in it
at the end. Causing that safetycar um, for a similar reason
to his accident in Austria. Nowyou can
say that's as he did. That's notBut you know,

(07:42):
there's only been like a weekbetween the two events. So to
find a solution to the problemis quite difficult to do. So
And I knowhe was upset about it, but you
it is. And the FormulaOne schedule is so brutal these

(08:04):
to even breathe really betweenthink it was, you know, it
his situation. But I don'tthink it it's fundamentally you
than you can blame them inthe same basic problem. So
I thought that the um Racingbulls were pretty solid. I Arvid

(08:27):
Lindblad did a great job. Um,Lawson too. I mean, obviously
they are, you know, they'rewell matched, but the,
uh, it's more impressive withbecause he's he's younger
and less experienced. Alpinelook good. I think that
was a circuit specific issue.

(08:48):
it just didn't seem to beGasly would have done better
that um you know down the backthere's no real changes. I mean
peoplebrought some updates. I think
Williams drivers seem to be ahad. But it didn't
turn out, uh, quite how theyweren't really on the pace at

(09:10):
they're chipping away at it.
lot of rumors about Carlos Sainzlooking to go somewhere else.
but we'll see. I mean ifyou're Carlos it might be a good
idea to stick where you are aswell to try and continue to move
forward with Williams. You knowthis
year has been poor. Last yearwas a lot better. And I think
there's potential for them tobounce back over time. So I

(09:32):
think,you know, as a whole, because it
was so soon after Austria, therewasn't a lot of difference
between the two races. Imean, there
were lots of bits and piecessuper impressive, I think, was
was the huge crowd. I mean, fivehundred and, uh, I think it was
zero people over the four days.

(09:53):
all time record in Formula one.
they've been counting. Anyway, Iremember one in Adelaide, the
race in Adelaide, which waswhich was absolutely huge. But
apparently thisone beat even that. So I think
we'll go on and going up inas as time goes by. But what we
don't need is, is, you know,saw. And there's nobody

(10:17):
to blame for that other than thehuge amount of money to do a
job of administering the sport.
youknow, several races now. They've
poor job and that shouldn't beshouldn't be acceptable.