Silverstone is looking for a national hero, and Fernando Alonso adds humor: "They'd need to pay me."

Formula 1 arrives at its epicenter, Great Britain and Silverstone . Except for Ferrari, Sauber, and part of Racing Bulls , the rest of the teams are playing at home. The British track is one of Formula 1 's traditional sanctuaries, and Stefano Domenicali has just confirmed that it ticks all the boxes required for a Grand Prix, as a sign of continuity for the future.

This edition comes fresh and direct from the Red Bull Ring once again. With doubts about the extent of McLaren's superiority, will it be as overwhelming as the one at the Austrian circuit? On paper, an ideal layout for the MCL39, especially if the minor tweaks made last week have refined its performance. Ferrari also needs to confirm the qualitative leap seen seven days ago following the developments introduced there, and whether Mercedes can recover from last weekend's setback.

Meanwhile, at McLaren, tensions remain high regarding the team's leadership. Nothing beats a win for Lando Norris ; it would be his first on home soil. Lewis Hamilton makes his Ferrari debut at Silverstone after winning last year , and he'll never want to shake off his status as Charles Leclerc's wingman.

George Russell is the third contender for victory at home, more in the spotlight these days due to a renewal with Mercedes, surrounded by all kinds of rumors, with Max Verstappen at the other end of the spectrum . The Dutchman began the weekend surrounded by a cloud of journalists at his press conference, eager to extract any word from him regarding his conversations with the German team. With little success.

On the current topic, Fernando Alonso took the opportunity to jokingly offer one of the gems of the weekend: “I don't have any advice. I can be a consultant, but they would need to pay a lot of money. At the moment, no advice.” Hamilton was more generous on the subject. “What can I say? If someone asked me about Mercedes, it's a great team too (in addition to Red Bull). With the passion, the great staff they have, a great factory, a great environment to work in.”

The Asturian and Sainz arrive at Silverstone in reverse conditions compared to months ago. Aston Martin is on the rise, introducing some new features to the AMR25 at Silverstone. The Madrid native and Williams are disoriented by their decline in efficiency and reliability.

Alonso: The magic wand and the new package

Alonso has now been in the points for three consecutive races, bucking the trend seen in the first third of the championship, with a run of points until Montmeló. The performance at Imola gave the AMR25 a boost, albeit with some reservations. The following two races saw no points. At Montmeló, Alonso scored thanks to the final safety car, and in Austria, thanks to his skillful handling of the DRS after a superb qualifying session.

Because this is the magic wand for Alonso , the improved efficiency on one lap, A vital factor in contributing to the recent results . Four times in a row in Q3, three in the points. This weekend, the British team is hoping for another twist with a modification to the car's underbody and fairing.

"With the new package we felt more competitive ," Alonso explained about that first major evolution at Imola . "With how tight the grid is right now, if you put a new part on the car that gives you a tenth, a tenth and a half, it can be five or six places. With the new package since Imola I felt more comfortable with the car. With this other package here at Silverstone we hope to have the same feeling and the same improvement."

Although the Asturian also warns: "It's less than the Imola package, a very small tweak to the floor and nothing too obvious. You wouldn't even notice, because it's so far under the car, and it's a minor thing. In Imola it wasn't that big either, although it seemed to work a little better than the wind tunnel numbers said. But this is less than what we brought to Imola."

While downplaying the extent of this development, Alonso anticipated that " fighting for ninth or tenth place would already be a good weekend . " The Asturian was pleased to have been able to run behind Liam Lawson's RB1 last weekend without destroying the tires after just one stop, improving on the pattern of the previous two races, when performance had dropped compared to qualifying. Discounting the eliminations of Verstappen and Antonelli at the Red Bull Ring , the last two points positions seem to be the realistic target for this weekend.

Sainz: "We're making too many mistakes."

On the contrary, Sainz arrives at one of his most iconic circuits with a heavy burden on his shoulders. As a driver, but also as a team. Although Sainz hit rock bottom at the Red Bull Ring, with an undriveable car on Saturday and being knocked out of the race without even being able to start. "I think everything that could go wrong this year has gone wrong so far . There have been eleven races with outstanding and good moments, but most of them have been very complicated for everyone. We're really looking forward to ending this bad run because we're making too many mistakes for the car we have . The speed is there, I feel comfortable with the car, but it seems like we have no respite in terms of luck and execution of the weekend."

With diplomacy and tact, Sainz wants to act as a spur to Williams, drawing attention to the shortcomings his team is experiencing. "There's some concern within the team about having so many reliability issues , three in a row with Alex, and the brake issue with me. Mine was a combination of many factors, and we now understand why it happened and why it shouldn't happen again."

However, Williams is concerned about a recurring problem with the Thai driver's car , which the team is unable to isolate and resolve, and which also affects the Spaniard. "The problem with Alex's car, which has occurred several times in a row, is something we are trying to resolve and understand, and we are doing everything we can to do so this weekend. It is a very rare problem that only occurs on race day, so it cannot be simulated at certain times of the weekend, even if we do everything we can."

Sainz is optimistic about the FW47's potential at the British track, which could be thwarted by reliability issues. Williams has had three retirements with both drivers in the last four races, and the Madrid native finished tenth in Montreal with his neutered car. "We can't allow that to happen at Silverstone, because it's a good track for us," he added.

"Even if we haven't developed the car, I have every confidence that, in Canada, Austria, and even Barcelona , ​​we would have scored a point if we had done things right. There are many consecutive weekends where the potential of the car and the speed of the team , of the two drivers, have been much greater than the results we have achieved," he lamented.

Sainz also anticipated that Williams will remain in the running with developments, as one is underway that "was developed a long time ago, although not with our feedback from testing and the first races. There's an improvement that 's been in development for some time , which encourages us. We're not going to keep going backwards, that's for sure." For now, the most urgent priority isn't so much losing ground in Formula 1, where retirement due to a breakdown is becoming rare.