What does Leclerc’s Silverstone triumph mean for the rest of the season?

Despite the anti-climactic safety car finish, it is quite possible that Silverstone’s British Grand Prix was the best race so far of the 2026 season. With special guest Brian May in attendance at the Ferrari pit garage, Charles Leclerc piloted his own red special to a first victory of the season.

Lewis Hamilton almost made it a Ferrari 1-2 but ultimately fell short to George Russell’s Mercedes after a late pit stop error by the Ferrari team under safety car cost him a second-place finish.

Mercedes had endured a challenging day following Kimi Antonelli’s sprint victory on Saturday. George Russell suffered from a near Q1 exit after a bizarre front-left tyre lock up at Luffield, but he managed to scrape through to start fourth on the grid. In the race, Antonelli was catching Leclerc, but a late race front-left wheel shield failure from excessive kerb use cost him a chance at the win, and indeed any points.

With Mercedes not having such a dominant day and Ferrari being the car to beat in the race, what does this mean for the rest of the championship? And do Red Bull and McLaren have a chance at catching up?

Whilst a fifth-place finish for Isack Hadjar and an unexpected DNF for Max Verstappen is far from ideal for Red Bull Racing, those stats don’t tell the whole story. After a change of plan, Max Verstappen was on a two-stop strategy, something none of the other frontrunners had opted for. Yet Verstappen was still managing to hold his own, and in the closing stages of the race, had good pace to battle for the final podium positions with Russell and Hamilton.

It is still evident by Verstappen’s frustration that he continues to dislike these new regulations and after crashing out of the race with only a handful of laps to go, Verstappen was visibly cross with the handling of his Red Bull car. However, it is clear the team have made improvements, with Max coming off the back of a podium last time in Austria, and the two drivers regularly setting consistent lap times.

It is a possibility that Red Bull can catch up to where Ferrari are now in terms of car performance. The question is, how quickly can they do that?

The same question applies to McLaren, who had a much less straightforward day than their rivals. They would have entered their home Grand Prix quietly confident of a strong result and possibly a podium finish after their decent race pace in Austria and the Silverstone circuit, having similar characteristics to Canada, a track where Lando Norris won the sprint race earlier this year. However, in sprint qualifying on Friday, Oscar Piastri was stuck in no man’s land, struggling to even make it through to Q3. Whilst the pair enjoyed a blistering start to the Sprint Race as they both jumped up multiple positions off the line, that was where the enjoyment ran out for the team, as they struggled to keep up with Mercedes, Ferrari, and Red Bull for the rest of the weekend. Last year’s Constructors’ Champions and Drivers’ Champions find themselves in an unusual place of once again being reminded that they must play catch-up.

So, what does all this mean going forward into the rest of the season? Charles Leclerc has now returned to form, having had a few races struggling with the balance of his Ferrari. After banishing the demons of past disappointments at Silverstone to take his first win at the track, he is well and truly back on form, and the following string of races could play very much to his advantage. Spa in Belgium is the next round, a track where he scored his first Formula One victory at, followed by Hungary, a race he dominated the first half of last year before suffering an unexpected mechanical issue dropping him off the podium—that really was his best chance for a victory in 2025. If he and Hamilton can go on a small run of success and capitalize on Mercedes’ misfortune and reliability problems, both drivers could haul themselves back into the title picture.

Whether the same can be said for McLaren and Red Bull, that remains to be seen, as both teams find themselves in a similar situation of being competitive one week and then suddenly finding themselves off the pace the next.

Mercedes still of course remains the benchmark team having the obvious full package, but with Russell taking 43 points out of Kimi’s lead in just the last three race weekends, this championship certainly isn’t all decided.

And finally, a word for the new regulations. It’s clear that there has been a significant improvement made after the change in energy deployment was made after Bearman’s crash in Japan. It feels like overtakes now are done more on skill and bravery rather than purely on battery, as it was in Australia. When you factor in as well the rumours of Bahrain and Saudi being rescheduled for later in the year, this season is only just starting!

📸Image credits: Formula Motorsport Limited, McLaren Racing,