Record crowd hoping for home win - but will Antonelli 'disappear into distance'?

New Delhi, India Jul 5, 2026 ALN: A record crowd of close to 180,000 people is expected to cram into Silverstone for the British Grand Prix on Sunday.

The remarkable attendance figure is a measure not only of 1's growth but also Silverstone's determination to capitalize on a particularly exciting time for British drivers.

Many in that crowd will be hoping to cheer on one of the home favorites to victory, either nine-time winner Lewis Hamilton in his Ferrari, Mercedes' title contender George Russell, who is yet to stand on the podium at his home race, or world champion Lando Norris, last year's Silverstone winner, in his McLaren.

However, the prospects for a home win on Sunday are not looking promising.

Although Hamilton and Russell start alongside each other on the second row of the grid, they are both behind their teammates, with Mercedes' championship leader Kimi Antonelli on pole and Ferrari's Charles Leclerc alongside him.

Hamilton, who has already lost one race to Antonelli this weekend in the form of Saturday's sprint, does not sound optimistic. This sentiment is compounded by the fact that he has been beaten in qualifying by Leclerc for the first time since Miami in early May.

"I'm not trying to be negative but the Mercedes is flat-out quicker," Hamilton said. "If we are not able to get him on the first lap, he will just disappear into the distance."

Not that this will stop Hamilton from doing everything he can to extend his record of home wins to a remarkable 10 in his 20th race at Silverstone, a track where he has achieved some of his greatest victories.

However, Hamilton's downbeat remarks reflect not only his qualifying performance but also his experience in the sprint race.

Hamilton took pole for Saturday's shorter race, but despite leading the first nine laps, Antonelli stalked him throughout, getting closer until he overtook him on the Hangar Straight, much to the delight of the yellow-clad crowd in the 'Lando stand' at Stowe corner.

"Yesterday the car was so well balanced and was just getting quicker and quicker," Hamilton remarked. "Today I was struggling under braking; the car was snapping or locking, and it just wasn't underneath me the same.

"Nothing will change between today and tomorrow. If he gets a clean run, he'll be gone."

For Antonelli, it was a first pole for three races, since he dominated the Monaco weekend at the beginning of June.

Although he did not explicitly state it, this was also the perfect time to achieve it, at his teammate's home Grand Prix, just as Russell would be hoping to build on the momentum of his victory in Austria.

Antonelli has looked comfortable and composed all weekend, with pace flowing effortlessly from him, even if he emphasized that "it's never easy".

"This weekend is probably one of the most special along with Monza, because the crowd is amazing," Antonelli said. "It's incredible to see how much support there is for everyone. Of course, for Lewis in particular, but he's the legend here, especially around Silverstone.

"The crowd gives you such a positive energy, and to see people waiting such a long time just to see you and maybe get an autograph or a picture is just incredible. It's such a positive energy that makes the weekend special as well.

"Also, it's crazy that more than half a million people are coming this weekend."

Russell was 0.370 seconds slower than Antonelli but pointed out after qualifying that he was lacking straight-line speed compared to all the other Mercedes-engined cars.

McLaren 'in a bit of a pickle'

One of those drivers struggling was Lando Norris. He acknowledged in a BBC interview before the weekend that it was frustrating to be the reigning world champion but not in a position to defend his title, and nothing has changed at Silverstone. If anything, McLaren was struggling as much as at any race this season.

"We are just slow in the straight, slow in every corner; the car is not very efficient, we lack downforce, and we have too much drag," Norris said.

"We are in a bit of a pickle. This is a track that highlights both of them. You need to be efficient here.

"There are many places where you rely on drag because you don't have straight-line mode in certain areas, and this is where we lose a lot. In every straight—there are a lot of straights here—and in high speed, we are not very good, and we lose a lot in that and slow speed.

"This shows who has a good car and who hasn't, and it's clear that we don't."

Team principal Andrea Stella stated that in addition to the 0.3-0.4 seconds McLaren knows they are behind on pace, their car loses more performance in gusty conditions than others.

Upgrades are expected for the Hungarian Grand Prix in two races' time, with more to follow after the summer break.

"As of Hungary, we will start to see a bit of an acceleration in our competitiveness," Stella said.

McLaren has indicated they are about two to three months behind their rivals in terms of development, stemming from last season, partly due to the effort needed to defend their lead in the championship.

"During development, we adopted some directions from a conceptual point of view that we are now redirecting as we learn more about the 2026 regulations," Stella explained.

"This, especially from an aerodynamic standpoint, is not something you can converge on in a week. It typically takes one or two months. This couple of months is the delay we are currently facing.

"This is the performance gap we are trying to compensate for through developments and upgrades during the season."

McLaren is still struggling to optimize the Mercedes engine's performance, and they are out of sync with the introduction of the latest Mercedes engines, which include a reliability upgrade.

"We are now waiting to see if we can upgrade our specification and if this helps us somehow," Stella said. "It should just be a reliability upgrade, so I'm not sure that's the case.

"But there are definitely other factors we need to keep discussing with Mercedes, because when we look at performance in the straights, even considering they may have less drag, there are still some question marks."