F1 Drivers Press Conference — British Grand Prix 2026 — PART 2

[0:00] Welcome back to Silverstone, everybody, for Group 2 of our Drivers' Press Conference. [0:05] Left to right, Arvid Lindblad, Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas. [0:08] Very warm welcome to you all. [0:11] Lewis, if we could start with you, please. [0:14] Back at Silverstone, a place where you've had so much success in the past. [0:19] How deep is the bond between you, the British fans, this racetrack? [0:25] I mean, it goes 20 years strong, so it's pretty deep. [0:29] I think it's my 20th year, right? [0:32] Someone told me I'm at 20th, yeah. [0:36] So it's been building for a long, long time, since my first pole position here in 2007. [0:41] So it's phenomenal when you come here. [0:44] I heard that we're going to have the biggest crowd this weekend that we've probably ever had. [0:48] And, I mean, it's such a privilege for us Brits to be here representing the country. [0:55] Also in the height of all this great sporting moment. [0:58] You've got Wilmerdon going on in the World Cup as well. [1:00] So with England winning yesterday, which is good as well. [1:04] And Lewis, let's talk about performance. [1:09] Of course, that great victory in Spain a couple of races ago. [1:12] But then you referred to Austria as a reality check. [1:15] What was the reality of Austria? [1:22] I mean, obviously we had some great performances before. [1:26] But the fact is, as you could see it in the race, we lose quite a lot of time. [1:32] I think it's like four tenths a lap we lose in a straight line. [1:35] And so it's hard to recover that through corners. [1:40] I think we've got a great car fundamentally. [1:42] It's just we've just got to continue to work until we maximize what we can and get the best results we can. [1:49] Score as many points as we can until we can close that deficit. [1:52] And what about this weekend? [1:54] The faster corners here, more reminiscent of Barcelona than Austria. [1:59] Are you a little more confident coming into this one? [2:02] It's not that I'm not confident. [2:04] It's that the fact is we've got long straights. [2:06] I think this is going to be the most unprecedented weekend in terms of the power deployment. [2:14] All us drivers have been talking on the driver's chat just how poor the power is going to be through this track. [2:21] We run out of battery power. There's only a few corners to charge the engine. [2:25] So the cable will be switched off for a large portion of the lap. [2:30] And that's where we will struggle probably the most. [2:36] And I mean, the deficit could be twice as big. [2:41] Well, look, good luck this weekend. Thank you, Lewis. [2:43] Arvid, let's come to you. [2:44] We've just heard about the bond between Lewis and Silverstone. [2:48] It's your first British Grand Prix. [2:50] Just how excited are you about the next four days? [2:53] Yeah, I'm extremely excited. [2:54] It's going to be a very special moment for me. [2:57] I remember being here in 2013 when I was five and sitting in Maggots and Becketts with my dad. [3:07] As I was watching the cars go past when I was really sort of learning about my love for the sport and asking him questions. [3:13] You know, is it possible to be there one day? [3:15] You know, could that be me? [3:17] And yes, 13 years later to be coming here as a Formula One driver will be incredibly special. [3:23] Tell us about the helmet design as well for this weekend. [3:26] Yes, so I've got a special helmet this week. [3:29] It's quite different. [3:31] But yeah, I wanted something that really reflected my journey to this point, almost like a map of it as such. [3:39] As I've said before, when I was five, six, I believed I could be in Formula One. [3:45] So I wanted the images to be almost like me envisioning my journey as my five-year-old self. [3:50] So I've got lots of these little sketches on the back of my helmet of pivotal moments that have helped me get here. [3:56] And the phrases of sort of like dream big and that sort of stuff. [3:59] So I think it's really cool and looking forward to using it on track this week. [4:04] What about the competitiveness of racing bulls? [4:07] Double points finishes in the last three races. [4:11] So how confident are you in terms of what you can achieve here? [4:15] Yeah, very confident. [4:16] I think the team have done an amazing job to bring upgrades, to bring performance to the car. [4:21] Over the past few races, you know, it wasn't that long ago we were in Miami and it wasn't easy to get out of Q1. [4:26] And, you know, we've showed in the past few weeks how strong the car is. [4:30] So they've done an amazing job. [4:33] Hopefully that will stay the same this week. [4:36] As Lewis touched on, you know, we need to see what the deployment's like, what things are like in Quali and the race. [4:43] But so far we've been reasonably decent on the straight. [4:47] So hopefully it should be okay. [4:48] Well, good luck with that. Enjoy it. Thank you. [4:50] And Valtteri, let's come to you. [4:52] Not your home race, but you have stood on the Silverstone podium four times. [4:58] Just tell us about your memories of this place and what it feels like for you to come. [5:04] Yeah, the podium here is pretty epic. [5:06] So I'm very lucky to have been there a few times. [5:09] And it's just a fun track and a fun weekend. [5:12] You know, it feels almost like a festival rather than a Grand Prix. [5:16] You know, there's so many people just having a great time, not only supporting the Brits, [5:21] but I feel like for the whole grid there's good support, so good energy. [5:25] So, yeah, that's why I always love coming here. [5:27] What about Cadillac? [5:29] Austria was a tough one for you guys. [5:31] Are you confident that you've overcome the reasons for the problems you had last weekend? [5:38] We've made some modifications to the brake cooling here. [5:41] But anyway, it's a much lower stress for the brakes on this track. [5:46] So we should be okay here. [5:48] But of course, we've got to be prepared for the next hot races, [5:51] potentially Budapest being troublesome. [5:54] But yeah, it's been a big issue, obviously, not having finished the last three races. [5:59] But the team was working as hard as we can to solve these issues, and we've just got to move on. [6:07] You didn't get as much running as you wanted last weekend, but the upgrade package you ran there, [6:11] do you think it'll give you lap time here at Silverstone? [6:15] It will, for sure. [6:16] You know, we only did two laps of the race, so we couldn't really say anything about the race pace. [6:20] So let's see here, very different type of track. [6:24] But yeah, for sure, any little upgrade we've bought the car so far has been helping. [6:29] So it should be the same here. [6:31] Okay, good luck with that. [6:32] Thank you. [6:33] Right, let's open this to the floor. [6:34] We will start with the broadcasters as ever. [6:38] Who's first, please? [6:39] Craig Slater, Sky Sports. [6:41] A question for Lewis. [6:42] I was with the trophy the other day. [6:44] Lewis, the gold, your name's on it nine times. [6:48] What would it be like to get the 10th with Ferrari? [6:51] And are the team especially tapping into you this weekend, [6:55] given your expertise around here, how to go about trying to win this race? [7:01] My engineers, yeah, have been asking me, like, how did you do it? [7:06] What did you do? [7:07] How do you normally run the car here? [7:08] So I hope that I've steered in the right direction. [7:12] But we only have one practice session tomorrow, [7:14] so it's going to be definitely a challenge throughout. [7:20] And I'm really not thinking about the trophy. [7:23] I mean, it's not something I don't think any of the drivers actually think about. [7:26] You think about just obviously executing the best you can through the weekend, [7:29] trying to bring the right energy, absorbing the amazing energy that we have here from all the fans. [7:34] I mean, I think Nigel said it best. [7:37] On your home turf, you get that extra bit of speed coming from the energy from the fans. [7:44] So I'm hoping that propels us and helps us close the gap to those guys that are ahead. [7:51] Thank you, Luis. [7:52] Next. [7:55] Hi, Luis and Arvid Kriya from Supersport Africa. [7:59] Obviously, as a home race, there's that. [8:01] How much of a boost do those fans really give you? [8:03] And do you see it as a boost or a little bit of extra pressure to perform well this weekend? [8:10] I think for me, I don't know, it's going to be my first experience. [8:15] It's hard to really comment on it now. [8:17] But, you know, as these guys said, you know, the fans here are amazing in Silverstone. [8:22] I think it is a record highest, you know, attendance. [8:27] And even for me in F2 and F3, it's always been amazing. [8:29] You know, when you're driving on the straights and you see the Union Jack and, you know, [8:32] even more so you have the grandstands, but the fans here also feel the, you know, the grass. [8:37] And it's just full, and I think it's really amazing to see it. [8:40] It probably will, you know, push me on a little bit. [8:43] So far for myself, I haven't really felt any pressure. [8:46] You know, I've been enjoying living my dream. [8:49] So I don't think that will change this weekend. [8:53] I agree. [8:54] It's not a pressure thing. [8:55] It's like they're helping push you along. [8:58] So it's just encouraging. [9:02] And it's unbelievable to experience. [9:04] You can't put really into words how you feel when you see the cars, sorry, when you see all the flags [9:11] and we see people supporting you as you travel around the circuit. [9:14] It is one of those circuits that you do get to also see them in the distance when you're going down so straight, [9:20] for example, or come around turn seven. [9:22] You kind of see them all lined up and just cheering you on the whole way. [9:28] That's both. [9:30] Next. [9:31] You tell us that you were 13 years ago in Beckett's dreaming on being in Formula One. [9:43] Now that you are close to Luis, have you ever dreamed to achieve what he has done and how you feel about it? [9:50] Yeah, I think all of us would love to win, you know, seven World Championships. [9:57] It, yeah, it was a long time ago that I was sitting in Maggots and Beckett. [10:01] So just to be here for myself is very cool. [10:04] But I've always, you know, dreamed of wanting to achieve a lot in the sport. [10:10] So we'll see what happens. [10:11] You know, in the end, this is my rookie year. [10:13] I've got a lot to learn, a lot to improve on. [10:16] So I'm focused on that for now, but for sure, I want to, I want to do well. [10:21] And, you know, winning a World Championship is definitely part of the dream. [10:25] All right, one, part two of the FIA press conference at Silverstone is done. [10:30] And honestly, this one felt way more explosive than the first session. [10:34] And at the center of everything was Lewis Hamilton. [10:40] And between Ferrari pressure, Silverstone expectation and rookie type and rookie hype, there was a lot happening today. [10:48] First of all, Lewis Hamilton was obviously the center of their attention. [10:51] And honestly, the pressure around Ferrari right now feels huge after Austria. [10:55] Because in Austria, they got the upgrades and it didn't work. [11:01] They had a problem with tire degradation and Lewis explained it. [11:05] And he said that he worked a lot with engineers to see where the problem is and fix it as always as he does. [11:14] He also admitted that today, in today, that Austria was a realty check for Ferrari after the excitement from Spain. [11:22] He basically explained that Ferrari still doesn't fully understand why the race pace collapsed so badly during the Austrian Grand Prix. [11:30] And honestly, that's probably the biggest concern for Ferrari fans right now. [11:34] But he said that they have been working really, really tight with the engineers. [11:39] And they are trying to fix the problem. [11:42] And he said that in Silverstone, they brought a couple of the upgrades that will make the car much more complete. [11:51] And not have those particular problems. [11:54] But he also said that we will need to see how he's going to react to the upgrade. [12:00] Because Silverstone is supposed to be one of the Ferrari's strongest tracks on paper. [12:05] But then, Hamilton got asked directly about the huge Ferrari upgrade rumors for the Silverstone. [12:10] And honestly, he didn't deny anything. [12:12] He smiled, the vote is specific, but admitted that Ferrari is pushing aggressively with development right now. [12:19] Instantly got everybody in the media room talking, because the rumors around the paddock are saying that Ferrari could bring revised floor upgrades, rear suspension tweaks, and tire management improvement this weekend. [12:32] After the Austrian exposed Ferrari's weaknesses badly, Silverstone suddenly feels massive for the team. [12:37] Hamilton also talked emotionally about Silverstone himself. [12:41] He remembered that this is his home race. [12:43] And now that he rises as Ferrari driver with a massive expectation around him again, he admitted that today that racing at Silverstone with Ferrari feels much more special. [12:55] And honestly, he could tell the crowd energy already means a lot to him. [12:59] And they asked him, is this a motivation for you, that you have a lot of fans cheering for you to win at Silverstone? [13:08] Or is this a pressure from them? [13:12] He honestly was really direct and he said that it's an honor to have these kind of fans cheering for you. [13:21] And he said that he will do his best to deliver the best performance at Silverstone at his hometown. [13:29] Then was Bottas, and honestly Bottas looks super relaxed today. [13:33] Cadillac still isn't fighting near the front constantly, but Bottas said that the project is solely becoming more stable behind the scenes. [13:40] He said that they brought a lot of upgrades that will have a tick to the team, to the car, to go much more faster and be much more good. [13:51] He also talked about how important Silverstone is for development, because high-speed tracks expose weaknesses immediately. [13:56] And one interesting thing said that Bottas admitted several teams in the midfield are much closer than people realize right now. [14:05] Meaning one small upgrade can completely reshuffle the order, and that's the most important thing. [14:11] Limbald, on the other hand, the rookie is hype around himself for Silverstone, and for him is a big thing. [14:21] Because this is basically his first major home race media spotlight in the Formula 1, and the British media were all over him today also. [14:32] Limbald sounded calm but confident. [14:34] He admitted that he's still learning every weekend, but he also said that Austria gave him confidence that he can constantly fight in the midfield right now. [14:42] And honestly, the Red Bull clearly sees him as a serious long-term project. [14:49] I mean, the Bulls, the second team of Red Bull. [14:54] The funniest moment today honestly came when Limbald got asked about pressure inside the Bulls system. [15:01] And he laughed before basically saying that it's something normal to have pressure, a little bit of excitement, and those all together mix give him the power to consistently fight in the field. [15:18] Another huge talking point about today was the British drivers. [15:26] It was a really interesting thing to hear them give their own opinions about the Grand Prix of the Silverstone. [15:35] And several reporters today even asked whether this could become one of the strongest eras ever for British Formula 1 drivers. [15:43] And honestly, they might have a point. [15:45] Overall, this second press conference felt much more emotional and intense than the first one. [15:51] Hamilton feels pressure but also optimistic and he enjoys the pressure of the fans. [15:58] He enjoys the cheering for him. [16:01] And also, he knows that for him and for Ferrari, Silverstone is critical. [16:08] And all around, he is really, really enjoying every bit of it. [16:12] Bota's sound come about Cadillac future and Limbald hype is growing very, very quickly right now. [16:19] Anyway, guys, let me know what you thought about this part 2 of this press conference. [16:23] Can Ferrari upgrades actually work? [16:25] Will Hamilton fight for recovery at Silverstone? [16:28] And how big do you think Arvid Limbald's future can become? [16:32] Don't forget to like this video if you enjoyed this content. [16:36] Subscribe to the channel. [16:37] And as always, I'll catch you in the next one.