You were there, I was there, and what a weekend at Silverstone! In this episode of Trackside Tea, we relive Lando Norris’s emotional home win in wet-dry chaos, Oscar Piastri’s controversial penalty, Nico Hülkenberg’s epic first podium, and Max Verstappen’s wet-weather woes — no telemetry, just sheer F1 joy.
Speaking of Joy...what has happened to Christian Horner!!!! :-)
Listen now, relive the magic, and share your standout moment!
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New episode every week — no telemetry required
- Landos Dream Win
- Wet Weather Roller Coaster
- Piastris Protest and Penalty
- Hulkenbergs Emotional Podium
- What else went down?
- The Standings
- Celebrities with The Brundle
- LandoStand
- OMG - Christian Horner
- Virtual Safety Tea
TRANSCRIPT:
Hey.
Hey, everyone.
Welcome back to Trackside Tea, where we skip the nerdy engineering stuff and just drive into the emotion, energy, and entertainment of f one.
I'm Rebecca, and today's episode is truly special because I was at Silverstone last weekend.
You all felt the British Grand Prix magic.
Right?
Rain, chaos, home heroics.
Let's get into it.
Lando's dream win.
Let's kick off with the epic headline, which everyone's talking about.
Well, actually, there is more than one epic headline, but we'll start with this one.
Lando Norris.
What an amazing moment.
Wicked pace in the wet dry conditions and a home victory in front of his crowd.
He was even getting emotional crossing the line, funnily enough.
Oh my god.
We did it.
And when I say his crowd, not only was it a home crowd as in the location at Silverstone, but he had his own stand, the Lando stand.
Stow corner a, b, c, and an added extra d.
It was all pure Lando.
They decked it all up the sides with a logo, etcetera, and we all well, most of us got a free t shirt to wear as well.
More about that little issue later.
You definitely couldn't miss his fans.
That's for sure.]
I'm kinda glad it wasn't a stupid hot weekend.
With floral yellow T shirts, we would have been a wasp flying bee's favorite area.
Not sure I would have fancied that, to be fair.
It's been years since a Brit outside of Hamilton won at Silverstone, and it's the first McLaren win there since Hamilton himself back in 02/2008.
Lando, you are a legend.
And what made it even better for him?
His whole family were there, including his grandparents.
So sweet.
Wet weather roller coaster.
Oh my goodness me.]
The weather was bonkers.
It's like Silverstone has its own little microclimate, a bit like Avebury.
The amount of times Paul and I, my husband, for those who don't know, have been there, and it's glorious until you get to the outskirts, and then it's hammering down with rain.]
And then to drive out the other side, and it's gorgeous again.
This is how it felt at Silverstone.
We were keeping an eye on the weather all week before we left, and it kept changing.
So we genuinely had no idea what was gonna happen when we got there.
As much as they tried to predict the rain coming, it still felt a little bit unpredictable.
So the rain definitely set the tone for the race.]
There were multiple safety cars, lots of shifting tire strategies, and a pretty treacherous track underneath them.
I have to say ponchos are king at event like this.
Best purchase ever.
And we had see through ones, so you can still see our fabulous color t shirts underneath.
But you know that point when you get part of you wet, and then you just think, screw it.
I'm wet now.
Who cares?
That was me.
And to be honest, the rest of the family too.
It was Paul, myself, my youngest daughter, my step kids, and my mother-in-law all in a row ponchoed up.
It was quite a sight, I have to say.
Then the sun came out.
Poncho off.
And then you just slowly watch the next menacing cloud head towards you.
One spot of rain has a race to get the poncho back on because when it started, oh my gosh, did it start.
But when I say microclimate, I had a friend over the opposite side at Farmer's Corner.
What?
Farmer's Corner?
I have no idea where that came from.
Farm Curve.
And when it rained on us, at one point, it wasn't raining over there.
That is just it just seemed really insane.
But you gotta love the British weather, I guess.
I will say one thing for it.
It brings everyone together.
Unless you are grumpy, and I have to say we did have a few sat around us that are a little bit grumpy.
The majority, when you're all trying to get on your ponchos, everyone quickly helps everyone out.
When you got your poncho tucked up behind you, there's always somebody to grab it and put it down.
It was actually quite an epic moment.
Pastries protest and penalty.
Oscar Pastry has Oscar Pastry.
Piastri's protest and penalty.
Oscar Piastri, not Oscar Pastry, has come into the firing line this week.
Lando fans get annoyed at him because he's champion Lando for the championship, and some think he's got a little bit cocky these days.
He crossed the line second, but the drama in his race bubbled after a whopping penalty he received.
After one of the safety cars, Oscar was in front, and as the safety car left, he broke.
Admittedly, it was quite a hard break, and Max ends up narrowly missing going into the back of him.
He well and truly backed Max and Lando up, So Lando basically could find it easier to pass Max when they started, I reckon.
Now it is normal for a driver at the front to slow right down to give the safety car space to get away before the front car zooms off and restarts the race.
As going past the safety car or even colliding into it would be even more of a no no.
But he also broke really hard, and I think Nico was heard saying in the cooldown room after the race that they even backed up to him, and he needed to break.
It wasn't too bad stewards, and he was hit with a ten second penalty.
He called it extreme and asked the team to consider swapping positions with Lando.
He wasn't the only one that thought it was extreme either, with even Max Verstappen defending him, which is rare.
He admitted the penalty looked harsh.
Yes.
He broke hard, and he was a bit naughty, but ten seconds was very harsh in my opinion.
On the upside, it may have cost him the win, but he still got there in second place.
But I also will say he does need to get over himself a little bit for the after interview, though.
He was very salty, as the kids would say, and did not come across well.
I get that he was annoyed, but there's still fans there to support him, and he still got second.
Seemed a little bit over the top he did for that interview.
Hulkenberg's emotional podium.
Oh my god.
So the second epic headline.
What a race to actually be at.
So cue the underdog moment, Nico Hulkenberg.
After 239 races, he finally gets on the podium in p three.
Silverstone literally erupted.
The crowd loved it.
Everyone was so happy for him.
It was very well deserved, and he went from nineteenth to third.
How epic is that?
He can well and truly own this win as well as he turned down the advice from his race engineer at least three times.
They said to pit for wet tires.
He said no.
And then they said it again, and he said no.
And then they said stay out, and he said no when he went to change his tires.
Same tires, though.
I really must do a tire spanner episode, I reckon, as even then I'd learn a bit more about them as well.
I think that might be a good idea.
Others waited for a couple of laps to change their tires.
And in that time, he put in the fastest lap and raced up a fair few spots.
After that, all he needed to do was keep Lewis at bay, and he did very nicely.
It was an epic feel good moment and also shows that you should never give up.
Although not sure about the Lego trophy, your first when you get a trophy made at a Lego.
At least it's unique, I guess.
One of the sweetest Insta posts I've seen since then was the Aston Martin and Mercedes clubbed together and sent over some champagne for them to the garage as they never thought it was gonna happen.
So they were not prepared at all.
Bless them.
Oh, and a quirky snippet I read today.
In the run up to Silverstone Grand Prix, Sky Bet had the odds of Nico getting a podium spot of 750 to one, which 27 people took a bet on.
Did they know something we didn't?
But also, you know what's really spooky?
What's Hulkenberg's number?
Yep.
27.
It obviously was fate.
Other highlights.
What else went down?
Hamilton, having won last year in his Mercedes, was hoping for another home win in his Ferrari, but that was not meant to be.
Managing p four and just missing out on a podium spot.
Tough break in front of his home fans, that's for sure.
George Russell took a spin early on, which he never really recovered from, just scraping one point by coming in 10.
Not his finest race, and another homeboy too.
Max Verstappen.
Well, pole position was not his for long.
And after the controversial start after the safety car with Oscar, the next corner, Max spun out while battling to get back in front in the very wet conditions, dropping him to p five finish.
Sorry, Max, but it was epic for us as it was on the stretch of track we could see in front of us.
The gasps that you could hear from our whole stand as with all the spray, you couldn't really clearly see it was Max, Orlando, or Oscar, or all three of them.
So the tension was quite wild at the time.
Charles had a wobble as well.
And right in front of us, he headed towards the barrier across the gravel area.
Luckily, he managed to pull it back and got himself back on track, literally.
Only p 14 for him though this time.
Cool.
Blimey.
There was more than I thought happened.
Oh, I cannot not mention the rookies.
Ollie Bearman was the only one to finish the race, and he was really close to points as well with eleventh place.
Colapinto didn't even start.
Lawson, Bortoleto, Hajar, and Antonelli never finished, which left just 15 in total in the race.
I'm not sure I've ever seen that before.
I definitely didn't get my predictions right on that one, though.
I think I said 18.
Oops.
And I could not go without mentioning Fernando Alonso.
He got points again.
He got two points because he only got in ninth, but Straw managed to beat him.
He got six points coming in seventh.
I have to say that was pretty good for him.
The standings.
Piastri still leads, but now just by eight points.
He is definitely feeling the heat from his teammate.
Norris closes in fast with back to back wins now, and Verstappen stumbled this weekend, and his only saving grace was that George also stumbled.
Meanwhile, the constructors' battle was heating up.
McLaren is surging ahead and no chance of someone catching them unless something goes drastically wrong for them.
Ferrari and Mercedes are close, and Red Bull, well, they really need to reassess themselves this time.
Celebrities with the brindle.
We didn't see the brindle trundle till we got home as on the big screen, you get different peeps to watch.
But was that an epic trundle or what?
The celebs treat Martin as if he's the celebrity.
And the best one by far must have been Hannah Waddingham.
Oh my goodness me.
She was well and truly starstruck.
I'm not sure that Martin even knew how to deal with it.
Bless him.
He is such a star.
Lando stand.
Well, as I may have said, we were in the Lando stand.
He had Stow Corner for all his fans.
It was brightly colored in its decor all around the sides, and we were all given a free floral yellow colored t shirt and wristband.
The only downside was that not everyone could have a t shirt.
Okay.
Time for a mini rant here.
We arrived on the Friday morning and went straight to the place where you collected them from.
There were three container type huts, each with different sizes on, so we thought, oh, this is pretty organized.
They scanned our tickets for it, which appeared on the app easily enough, and we got our t shirts and wristbands.
There was no fan pack though, which was one of the things that was promised when we purchased the seats, but we still got a t shirt and wristband.
We got all by my stepson's as he wasn't with us until the following day.
Now during the day, the queue was massive, and people must have waited a fair while for their t shirt.
So we were really pleased that we managed to go first thing in the morning.
The Saturday morning, when we had my stepson with us, we went to get his t shirt.
Not a big queue, so we only waited a few minutes.
While in the queue, we found out that they only had small and a few medium left.
We wanted medium, really, but the last one went to the person in front of us, so we got a small.
It wasn't the worst thing in the world.
It was just a little bit tighter than he would have liked.
What frustrated me was that then they only had small sizes for the whole of Saturday and for those who only had Sunday tickets.
I felt that it needs to be more planning, get more larger ones.
Small people can wear large t shirts, but large people cannot wear small t shirts.
I saw a young lad who was quite upset because he could not wear the t shirt he was given because he was handed a small blessing.
I felt so sorry for him.
If I'd actually had my one on me, I would have swapped over with him because I just felt so bad.
Although having said they just had smalls for the rest of the two days, within a couple of hours, they were out of those as well.
So there must have been a fair few people that didn't even get a shirt.
Now how do I actually probably know that?
Because the next thing that makes me so cross, people who ruin it for others.
I'm in a chat group for Silverstone, and in that group, people were saying things they heard.
People sat nearby saying they kept going back on Thursday, just taking the band off and getting another t shirt.
They'd said they'd already made £350 on eBay by selling the T shirts.
Then somebody else said the people in this tent next to them said they didn't even have Lando stand tickets at all.
But one of their mates did, so they kept doing it as well.
And they had at least two or three each.
They weren't even in the Lando stand.
It seems like everyone working on there wasn't all scanned in the QR code.
The woman who served us, she scanned our QR code.
And as soon as it gets scanned, it's marked as complete.
So you can't use it again.
But clearly, not everyone was doing that.
But the sad thing is, it's people that do that sort of thing that don't even think about the fact that some poor kid or adult may be quite upset because they didn't get their t shirt.
They came here to support Lando.
That was promised for them with their ticket, and they didn't get it.
I genuinely hate people like that.
But you know what?
On a positive vibe, another good thing about the Lando stand, he wanted to have proper party vibes, and it did.
Every time there was no commentary on or a race on, they had a DJ, and he was pretty good, I have to say.
I believe it was Shane from Boyzone was the actual DJ.
And then you had a guy who was on the microphone singing, trying to get the crowd up and going, which was really good.
So there's some real good vibes and the music was pretty good.
But the best top thing ever was the team leader that was running all the volunteers on the Lando stand.
He was epic.
And you know what?
He managed to get the fans up and dancing and clapping more than the DJ did.
He was absolutely amazing.
His name is Gary, and somewhere I will put his link to his TikTok because, oh my goodness me.
We found out afterwards he had TikTok.
He was absolutely epic.
If you ever get Gary in your stand, you'll know it.
He literally was walking up and down half the time, getting everybody to clap, getting everybody to dance.
It's just such an amazing vibe.
It was absolutely unbelievable, and everybody loved it.
He is what made it an even better race.
Thank you, Gary.
Oh my god.
So that was gonna be it for this episode.
But what on earth happened?
Christian Horner just got the sack.
Who saw that coming?
It's what so many people wanted for so long after the drama last year.
If you don't know about that, then just Google Christian Horner scandal 02/2024.
But mid season, he got kicked out.
And apparently, according to him, without warning.
In his speech to the staff, he stated he was not leaving Red Bull completely, but he had no idea what was next for him.
Oh, dear.
I have to say I'm semi happy he's gone.
So we'll see.
We'll see how Red Bull do now.
But why did this happen?
Has Christian been accused of something else and they're keeping it out of the press?
Or they said a while ago he's being investigated for last year again.
So did they decide enough was enough?
Or is Max planning to sign with Mercedes?
And the board told Christian if he goes, so do you.
Max has a get out clause in his contract that if he's lower than third place in the championship, I think, by the summer break, then he can leave.
And it seems Max is working towards that.
And, actually, if George had done better at Silverstone, he would have been even closer to that goal.
But he's gonna have to do a couple more races yet.
But then again, if Max went to Mercedes, where would George go?
I mean, they wouldn't get rid of Kimmy as he's too young and has a whole career in front of him.
But poor George, that is definitely a watch this space kinda moment.
Just realized this turned into an oh my god Christian got sacked drama to what would happen to Max and George drama.
Oh, well.
Never mind.
Virtual safety tee.
One more time.
Magical.
Top moment, celebrating Lando in the Landostand.
The atmosphere was epic.
Now your turn.
Were you team Lando?
Chewing for Hulkenberg or still miffed about Piastri's penalty?
Find me on Insta at Trackside team with Rebecca.
This was British Grand Prix Bliss, home heroics, chaos in the rain, and memories that are last a lifetime.
I loved it.
And if you enjoyed reliving a bit of Silverstone with me, please subscribe, share with fellow fans, and join me again.
Next stop's hungry.
Let's see if the vibe...
