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Driver of the Week – Lando Norris, McLaren

Finishing second at the British Grand Prix, Lando Norris made a statement. The English driver held off Lewis Hamilton after a late safety car shuffled up the strategy.

Despite Hamilton having the faster “Soft” tires on his Mercedes, Norris defended the seven-time world champion to hold on to the second-place finish.

But it wasn’t just the late-race heroics that made Lando the Driver of the Week. He started off the race strong, too, jumping out to a lead over Max Verstappen in the first few laps of the Grand Prix.

The performance against two of the top drivers in the history of Formula 1 turned heads. Reports have leaked that Red Bull’s Helmut Marko has met with Norris’s agent over the weekend.

It’s no secret that Red Bull is actively seeking a long-term replacement for the aging Sergio Perez. And after a more than respectable drive at Silverstone, Norris appears to have jumped the line into serious contention.

Marko, and Red Bull in general, are known for their cutthroat strategies when it comes to driver lineups.

Norris is one of the top young drivers in Formula 1 and stealing him away from McLaren would be a serious coup for the Austrian team.

Regardless of what happens in the future with Norris, his second-place finish in Britain was one of the top finishes of his career.

The podium result was his seventh since joining F1 in 2019 and tied for the highest finish he’s ever had.

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Constructor of the Week – McLaren

The tide has turned for McLaren. After scoring just 17 points during the first eight races of the year, the British team has secured 42 over the last two Grand Prix.

A substantial upgrade package is the reason why. In-season development is pivotal to moving up in the standings and teams have to be precise when it comes to their research and development.

The Cost Cap era of Formula 1 has changed the way teams do business. Previously, the in-season development was limited only by the amount of money that the constructor wanted to spend.

The results were teams like Ferrari and Mercedes pulling away from the others due to the massive amounts of funding injected by their parent companies.

The old ways left smaller organizations like McLaren and Alpine (previously Renault) in the dust. But, with the new cap on spending for each season, the smaller outfits are able to stay competitive.

And after starting the season so poorly, McLaren struck gold. Suddenly, the car is competitive with the top teams in Formula 1 and there is nothing foreseeable that will change the performance.

Team CEO Zak Brown told Sky Sports that the British Grand Prix was a test for how well their upgrades actually work. The second-place and fourth-place results speak for themselves.

The papaya orange team has jumped Alpine in the standings and it’s not outrageous to suggest they may eventually catch up to Ferrari and Aston Martin if they continue this pace.

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Rookie of the Week – Oscar Piastri, McLaren

With all the focus on Lando Norris’s second-place finish at Silverstone, the spotlight on Oscar Piastri’s result has been nonexistent. The Australian driver had the top result of his young career in England.

The fourth-place finish was one of the best rookie results for a driver in several seasons. And he did it despite not having the full amount of upgrades that his teammate Lando Norris was working with.

Indicating the expectations around Piastri, the result was somewhat of a disappointment considering the pace in the car.

An untimely safety car ruined his strategy and allowed Lewis Hamilton to jump ahead of him during the pit cycle.

With the pace to finish on the podium and possibly as high as second, the relative disappointment in the result is a sign of both McLaren and Piastri’s quality.

The rookie is far and away the top first-year driver in Formula 1 and is on a career trajectory that could see him land a role on one of the sport’s top teams.

Eventually, a seat is going to open up at Mercedes and possibly Ferrari. Based on what he is doing in his maiden year, those two teams will likely take a close look at bringing in Piastri.

As for the remainder of this season, a few podium finishes is a fair expectation for the Australian.

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How Our Writers and Broadcasters Voted

—Driver of the Week—
Dane	Lando Norris
Greg	Lando Norris
Stephen	Lando Norris
—Rookie of the Week—
Dane	Oscar Piastri
Greg	Oscar Piastri
Stephen	Oscar Piastri
—Constructor of the Week—
Dane	McLaren
Greg	McLaren
Stephen	McLaren