British GP – race review – Nicholas Latifi

02.08.20

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“Okay, so it wasn’t what we expected at Silverstone today – but in a good way I think!

The theme and trend from the past three race weekends has suggested we’ve been relatively strong in qualifying compared to our direct competitors, the Haas and Alfa Romeo cars, but then we fall away in race pace.

We haven’t previously been able to hang on to them in the races – but today that wasn’t the case.

At the start I made a little mistake – chalk it down to my lack of F1 experience – I went a bit too fast into Copse in the dirty air, then lost a couple of positions as a consequence.

But once everything settled down I had really good pace relative to my direct rivals. The car felt consistent, giving me confidence to really push.

It was the first time this season that I was able to pass a car on pace alone, rather than making up positions through a better start or benefitting from somebody else’s misfortune.

I was clearly faster than some of my competitors, and that felt good, and my move on Kimi Räikkönen was my first legit overtake in Formula 1. It was cool to size that one up and make it happen. The race action in Formula 1 is very different to Formula 2 so it’s good experience to take away.

Overall, a lot of positives from the weekend, both from my side and for the team. Together, we have a lot of information to digest so we can make this sort of form a common occurrence.

Silverstone is my favourite circuit, so luckily for me, we get to do it all again in just a few days’ time!”