Lando Norris seeking his first back-to-back victories to break Oscar Piastri’s title momentum, fresh twist in Max Verstappen contract rumours, George Russell’s Mercedes deal, Yuki Tsunoda’s poor form, Lewis Hamilton’s first home race for Ferrari

Formula 1’s 75th anniversary celebrations arrive in Silverstone for the British Grand Prix, the venue and race that started the world championship in 1950.

And at the halfway mark of the campaign, the sport is enjoying a fascinating 76th season.

With three rounds to go before the mid-year break, Lando Norris is attempting to use his win last weekend in Austria to break title leader Oscar Piastri’s momentum.

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Lewis Hamilton, meanwhile, is hoping for a lift in front of his home crowd as his complicated adjustment to life at Ferrari continues.

But off the track the intrigue is most acute, with Max Verstappen’s Mercedes dalliance taking its biggest twist yet.

PIT TALK PODCAST: Is Lando Norris back in the championship fight, and how will Oscar Piastri respond in Silverstone? Listen to Pit Talk below.

CAN NORRIS BREAK NEW GROUND?

Norris’s victory in Austria was personally historic.

Last weekend was the sixth McLaren one-two the Briton has been part of, but it was the first to feature him as the winning driver.

He was beaten to the team’s first one-two in more than a decade by Daniel Ricciardo in 2023, and Oscar Piastri beat him to the subsequent four.

In Austria, though, he emerged as the dominant driver on a dominant McLaren weekend for the first time.

With the team having racked up four one-two finishes so far this year and being likely to claim several more, it would be all but impossible for him to win the title without breaking that streak.

This weekend he could tick off another personal achievement critical to his title hopes.

While Norris has won seven times in his career — seven times since last year’s Miami Grand Prix — he’s never claimed back-to-back victories in the same season.

The closest he’s come is by finishing second on either side of victories in Miami and Monaco this year.

Norris has some successful history at Silverstone, winning in British Formula 4, Formula Renault 2.0 and Formula 3, the last of which was in 2017.

But a grand prix victory would be a crowning achievement, particularly in the context of this season.

“If I could win anything, if I could swap all race wins for one, it would be for a Silverstone win,” Norris said.

“It’ll be the one that probably puts the biggest smile on my face, bigger than Monaco, and it’s the one that since I was a kid and since I first started watching Formula 1 that I’ve wanted to win the most.

“It’s so special — even more from my side that this is my seventh grand prix here and every year it gets better and better and my supporters have grown and grown,

“Now to finally have my own grandstand is also something that’s pretty incredible, to think that I’ll have that many supporters and that many fans cheering for me.

“This is one of the most exciting, fun, enjoyable and memorable weekends of the year for sure.”

CAN PIASTRI GET HIS HOME-RACE REVENGE?

The Australian Grand Prix curse continued earlier this year, with Piastri failing to become the first home racer to finish on the podium Down Under.

He came painfully close, however, having been challenging Norris for victory when they both slid off the road. Norris continued with the lead, but Piastri lost more time in the grass and crossed the line ninth.

Now it’s Piastri’s turn to avenge that lost shot at victory by winning on Norris’s home turf.

It wouldn’t be the first time British and Australian drivers traded successes at their respective home events.

Mark Webber and Jenson Button notably won each other’s home races twice each in 2010 and 2012, with Button also claiming victory in Melbourne in 2009. Neither was ever able to win at home despite circumstances several times appearing to be in their favour.

Piastri is well equipped to deal Norris the same fate.

The Australian was won just as many junior-category races at Silverstone as Norris, though his last was more recent, in 2019, when he dominated the weekend in Formula Renault Eurocup.

He’s always been competitive at this track in Formula 1, albeit this race has always come after McLaren has brought a critical upgrade to put it among the frontrunners.

But the Australian doesn’t see this weekend as being another straight fight between himself and Norris.

“I think it’s going to be an interesting weekend — Silverstone always is,” he said. “The weather’s always a factor, and it looks like it will be again this weekend.

“I don’t think it’ll just be two McLarens this time. I think Mercedes will probably be quick. Red Bull — you honestly never really know, but they’ve been good here in the past. Ferrari as well looked to be a little bit stronger in Austria, so let’s see.”

Cooler conditions and the smooth tarmac will almost certainly bring Mercedes back into its competitive sweet spot, as was the case last year, when Hamilton stormed to victory in mixed conditions.

Red Bull Racing — or Verstappen at least — should also be strong given the RB21 has been at its best through high-speed corners, which dominate the Silverstone layout.

Ferrari is uncertain but arrives at Silverstone optimistic that it is finally moving in the right direction.

It’s worth remembering that Mercedes, Red Bull Racing and McLaren were all in victory contention last year.

The McLaren drivers will start as favourites, but history suggests this race could be wide open.

WILL RUSSELL BE A VICTIM OF HIS OWN SUCCESS?

Simmering speculation about Mercedes stringing along George Russell in protracted contract negotiations have boiled over since last week’s race in Austria, where the Briton himself announced that Mercedes is talking to Verstappen about a potential blockbuster switch as soon as next year.

It forced Mercedes boss Toto Wolff into some impressive contortions when asked about his discussions with the Dutchman’s management team, though he was forced to admit that talks really were taking place. While on the one hand he would be happy to field an unchanged line-up next season, he couldn’t deny the appeal of singing the four-time champion to the team.

It was Verstappen’s turn to answer questions on the matter this weekend, and he played a typically straight bat to any and all attempts to have him divulge information.

“I have nothing to add,” he said. “Nothing has changed from my side.”

The only thing he denied outright were rumours that he might take a sabbatical next year to see which teams had nailed the new regulation before jumping back into the driver market.

He did, however, leave one loose thread.

“There is no decision at the moment,” he said, per The Race. “For me it’s not about 2026 or whatever. I just focus on what I have ahead of me, work with the team, and then of course a lot of people make up assumptions.”

Suggesting that he’s yet to make a decision obviously implies that he’s contemplating making one, which in turn implies his end-2028 Red Bull Racing contract isn’t watertight.

It’s a fascinating situation, but for Russell it is particularly excruciating, with his talks effectively on hold and dependent on Verstappen’s decision-making.

Worse, though, is that the latest paddock whisper suggests Verstappen’s contract exit clause could be that he’s free to leave if he’s outside the top three in the championship at the mid-season break, which follows the next three races in Great Britain, Belgium and Hungary.

Verstappen is currently third, nine points ahead of none other than Russell.

If speculation about the contract clause is true — and it must be said there have been many different rumours about the conditions in the clause — and if Verstappen really is contemplating leaving Red Bull Racin for Mercedes, it puts Russell in an almost unbelievable situation.

If Russell outperforms Verstappen such that he moves into third in the championship before the break, he will effectively give the Dutchman permission to take his Mercedes seat.

Performing well could effectively put him out of a job.

There’s a lot of water to flow under this bridge and a lot of conditions still to be met, but this contract situation is growing more convoluted by the week.

CAN HAMILTON’S NEW APPROACH PAY DIVIDENDS?

Hamilton’s first race in Italy this year was a milestone moment in the Briton’s Ferrari switch, but his Silverstone homecoming in red could be even more significant.

Hamilton isn’t just the biggest name in British motorsport, he’s also the biggest name in Silverstone. No-one comes close to touching his record nine victories at this track, the last of which came in emotional circumstances last year.

Perhaps more relevant to his current lot at Ferrari is that he’s also on a 12-run podium streak at the circuit.

His first home Ferrari appearance comes at an interesting time.

Hamilton’s struggle adjusting to his new life have been well covered, but in Austria there was a small change in trajectory.

He felt more competitive relative to teammate Charles Leclerc than he has for most of the season.

But after finishing a lonely fourth after yet another messy radio exchange with race engineer Riccardo Adami over strategy, Hamilton also feels like now is the time for him to begin trying to shape the team around his own experience.

“I said, ‘Look, I’m not here to start fourth and finish fourth. I’m racing for every little bit that we can gain’,” he said, per The Race.

“In a scenario like that, for example, both of us [Ferrari drivers] were on the same strategy. I’d never want to do the same thing as my teammate ever. And in that last stint, for example, we were not under pressure from the cars behind.

“They said, ‘Yeah, we would have got overtaken by Charles towards the end’. But I said, ‘Well, there could have been a safety car, and in that point there was no risk in taking the gamble’.

“I said, ‘I don’t want to get to a point where I’m ignoring you’.

“What we’re doing is working on our communication — we’re still getting to know each other, how we like to operate — and that’s understood.”

While Hamilton is taking greater responsibility off the track, on matters of car set-up he’s relented to taking cues from Leclerc, to which he attributed his improved Austria form.

“I’ve slowly migrated to the place where Charles does run the car, and last week was the closest [to it], and our pace was the closest it has ever been,” he continued.

“It is still tough. It’s a tough balance to drive, and it’s not a comfortable one.”

With optimism around the car’s floor upgrade — though the more significant suspension components aren’t due to arrive until the next race — Hamilton arrives at home with his shoulders back and chin up.

Whether his new approach and a new disposition is enough to continue his podium streak — or maybe even add another victory to the tally — is now the question.

CAN TSUNODA LIFT?

Coming off the back of his worst Sunday performance of the season, troubled Red Bull Racing star Yuki Tsunoda was frank about his issues at the Austrian Grand Prix.

“The issue in the race was me,” he said, blaming his poor racecraft and subsequent damage for his anonymous twice-lapped 16th-place finish.

It earnt Tsunoda a rare piece of Red Bull Racing history.

Austria was his fourth successive finish outside the points.

The last driver for the team to go four races without a point was Mark Webber, who failed to score five times in a row at the 2009 European, Belgian, Italian, Singapore and Japanese grands prix.

However, those were the days that points were paid down to eighth, and two of those results — Europe and Belgium — were ninth-place finishes. Another two were retirements — he was crashed out of the Italian Grand Prix and suffered a brake failure in Singapore.

The last time an RBR driver finished four times or more outside the top 10 was in 2008, when David Coulthard endured a five-race barren run between Germany and Italy.

Crucially that was before Red Bull Racing had even won its first grand prix — when it had just three third-place finishes on record.

Tsunoda’s run, therefore, is the worst of any Red Bull Racing driver in its race-winning and title-winning era.

Of course the story now isn’t about how the Japanese driver is underperforming but rather how Red Bull Racing has managed to build a car only Verstappen can drive, given Tsunoda is the fifth racer to have been ground down in the second seat.

Still, the 25-year-old is remaining optimistic.

“I haven’t seen yet so far a driver who got used to [the Red Bull Racing] car straight away,” he said. “But at the same time, I feel I’m in the right direction, at least on the short runs.”

He pointed out that despite being knocked out in Q1 in Austria, his margin to Verstappen was the smallest of the year so far, and he added that he was still running without the team’s latest set of upgrades.

“Once I get full package, I still have good confidence that I can be in a level that they want,” he added.

“We worked so hard last couple of days into here, what we can do better or not, and we’re going to try another couple of things that I never thought about.

“I’m looking forward to it.”

Tsunoda is benefiting from the fact Red Bull Racing has no clear alternative to him, while speculation over Verstappen’s short-term future is also forcing the team to think with a longer term strategy.

But given the trajectory of the four drivers who came before him, you have to wonder how much more of a beating he can take before it terminally injures his confidence.