Norris and Hulkenberg Chase Away Ghosts at Silverstone

There isn’t just one style to win in Formula 1. Not all victories and titles have to be earned forcefully, as Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton, or Fernando Alonso have done, to name the three world champions currently on the grid. Should Oscar Piastri, still leading the championship, crown himself, he will be described as the modern version of Kimi Raikkonen. What will be interesting is how Lando Norris interprets the title, given all the comments about him—some good, others not so much.

Typically, the negative aspects surrounding him revolve around how he manages pressure. The mental aspect has become increasingly important in the world of racing. Sometimes, it has been Verstappen who has thrown him into turmoil, leaving him feeling miserable. Other times, it was Piastri who landed a few blows that made him stumble and question himself again. It will be fascinating to see if his outstanding performance at Silverstone this Sunday allows him to dispel some of those ghosts. In a race turned into a sort of Haunted House for strategists by the rain, Norris executed everything well, without overexposing himself and capitalizing on the mistakes of others. The first of these mistakes was Piastri, who was removed from contention by the stewards with a fair ten-second penalty for erratic driving during one of the restarts (lap 21). The second was Verstappen, or rather Red Bull, which configured a car with minimal downforce that helped the Dutchman achieve an unlikely pole but left him vulnerable on Sunday. Verstappen’s skill allowed him to salvage a fifth place that highlights how good he is.

Following the two McLarens, who achieved their fifth double of the season, emerged the Sauber of Nico Hülkenberg, who broke a seemingly endless drought and found his way to the podium 255 grand prix later. Aside from Norris’s victory and Piastri’s frustration with the stewards, the event will be remembered for Hülkenberg’s feat, who started last with one of the most unremarkable cars and, thanks to the guidance of the technicians at the Hinwil (Switzerland) team, set to become Audi in 2026, was in position to achieve something nearly impossible. Fernando Alonso finished ninth, and Carlos Sainz crossed the line in twelfth.

Norris’s victory carries tremendous symbolic weight. Not only is it his second consecutive win—the first time he has done so in the same season—and the fourth of the year, but it’s also at home, before a crowd completely devoted to him, making them believe again that they can dream of the championship a month later. The eight points between the McLaren pair set the stage for a high-voltage second half of the season, with days of glory for one and misery for the other. “It has been incredible, very stressful. In those last two laps, I was blank. I just thought about not messing it up and trying to enjoy the moment. Maybe it won’t happen again, so I tried to hold onto everything I could,” summarized Norris, the thirteenth Brit to win in his home country, completely ecstatic. “I don’t want to talk about what happened. Apparently, you can’t brake when you’re behind the safety car, even though I would have done so five laps earlier,” Piastri remarked, visibly frustrated, with an angry look that was new for the Australian. “Honestly, I don’t even know how I did it,” Hülkenberg added, quite eloquently.