F1: Lewis Hamilton, Silverstone’s superhero

The English won the GP of Great Britain and totals 15 podiums on the track where the category was born in 1950. This weekend will look for its first star with Ferrari.

Silverstone is the cathedral of Formula 1. There, on May 13, 1950 the story of the category with the victory of Nino Farina with Alfa Romeo began. Remoked several times, the old airport used by the Royal Air Force during World War II is an icon of the World Cup and a place where triumphs have a special flavor, because the story is breathed in every corner. And if there is someone who reaped triumphs in Silverstone is Lewis Hamilton.

The English achieved nine successes in the GP of Great Britain, a triumph record for a pilot in a GP. The total delirium of English fans, waving the British flags, became a classic that always accompanied Lewis. Some of his successes have heroic trim, such as when he won in three wheels in 2020. His Mercedes suffered a just puncture when he entered the final turn, but thanks to the advantage that his skill already had, he managed to cross the goal as the winner with the left front cover shattered. The COVID-19 avoided what would have been an epic celebration on the podium: the race was played by closed doors.

Hamilton always had a plus in Silverstone. A year after winning on three wheels, I would put on the superhero layer to celebrate again. In the first round, a frantic battle with Max Verstappen ended with rubbing and accident of the Dutch in Copse. The English had to purge a penalty of ten seconds at its last stop in boxes and returned to track in the fourth place, 13 seconds from the leader, Charles Leclerc, and with 24 laps for the flag of paintings. The heptamcampeon flew with its silver arrow and came to success after overcoming Lando Norris, receiving the position of Valtteri Bottas and moving to Monegasco. Already his first success, in 2008, remained in the memory for his great start from the fourth drawer in the rain to quickly be second and reach the tip of turns later. In 2016 he celebrated in a competition in which he started with a safe car because the track was flooded and Lewis almost collided with the flagship car in the neutralized turns …

If some epic lacked the Hamilton-Silverstone relationship, last year the English won again and served to cut with a drought of 56 races without triumphs (He did not overcome from Saudi Arabia 2021). And it was not simple, because an inopportune Chapron put everything uphill.

In total, Lewis went up 15 times to the podium in Silverstone in 19 visits: they were 18 as a Grand Prix of Great Britain and one like 70 anniversary GP. Hamilton participated in the awards ceremony in the last 12 times he ran there. To find a race in Silverstone without Hamilton on the podium you have to travel until 2013 (2009, 2011 and 2012 complete all four).

This weekend, Hamilton will arrive in Silverstone dressed in red for the first time. His dream since I was a child to run in Ferrari reached him at age 40 and, in a season that comes very uphill, more than the neck he must take the cape at home. For the Scuderia, the English track has a very special value: there he achieved his first victory in F1 in 1951 with the Argentine José Froilán González as a pilot.

Maranello’s team is crooked. He did not win in 2025 and the chance of fighting for titles seems to be completely mortgaged. The update that was put on the track in Austria with the premiere of a new floor (deflectors, edges, central body and diffuser) injected some competitiveness into the SF-25, but remains far (very) of the McLaren. But Lewis in Silverstone brings out other things that can even more equate the disadvantage with Woking. A no less data: Lewis signed his worst start of the season this 2025. He had never reached the 12th date without stepping on a podium. In 2009 and 2024 he did it in the tenth, until this year, his most lean records. On the track that went up to scatter champagne, he will seek to cut his longest drought since the beginning of the tournament. His audience will hope to see the hero brought to light his talent once more.