Has Formula 1 found the answer to Mercedes' domination?

A week on from Mercedes’ fourth victory of the season, everything pointed to the reigning champions maintaining an unbeaten record in 2020. Same venue, same car but crucially for the show, not the same tyres.

By lap five of the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix, we were being treated to something rare: Mercedes under pressure.

Last week’s headlines made uncomfortable reading for Pirelli, as questions were raised about its tyre choice for the second Silverstone race following the front-left failures a week before.

After another tyre meltdown in the British GP, that arguably altered the course of the title race between both Mercedes drivers, teams were given tyres one step softer for the 70th Anniversary weekend, with the C2 (hardest), C3 and C4 (softest) tyres versus the C1-3 offering seven days prior.

Pirelli stuck firmly to its guns, altered tyre pressures and camber and that was it. It’s a decision that made for a thrilling race full of strategy and it should be commended for that.

We should also be demanding more of the same. After all, the reason for having different compounds is to increase strategy options and to make races less predictable and more exciting. Silverstone has shown the way forward.

Max Verstappen and Red Bull‘s gamble to start the race on hard tyres turned out to be inspired, with the Dutchman more than capable of remaining in striking distance of both Mercs ahead, even in the first few laps before they were crippled by blistering tyres.

Higher temperatures than the previous week, and the step softer in tyre compounds, opened up the rear tyres of the Mercs and the race itself, ending the prospect of yet another processional Mercedes win.

Strategic options multiplied thanks to the slightly too-soft C4 tyres and the lack of certainty that a one-stop strategy using mediums and hards would work. There was no easy answer; a welcome breath of fresh air in the stifling heat.

Do you preserve the tyres and likely end up going too slowly? Or do you increase the pace and push the tyres outside of their operating window, necessitating an extra pit stop?

It strained the teams’ software models as they attempted to work out the most efficient race strategy. Their plans emerged long before lights out on Sunday. Renault was able to work the medium tyre better than the soft so did not even attempt a Q3 lap on the softest tyre. Red Bull had to roll the dice to give Mercedes something to think about so Verstappen’s Q2 lap was done on the hard tyre — which he would start on — rather than the mediums Hamilton and Bottas both opted for.

Verstappen was shaping up for just the single-stop race until it became clear that Mercedes did not have the measure of him on race day, and converted to a two-stop, having run longer in the initial phase of the Grand Prix to cover Valtteri Bottas off.

Behind them, Charles Leclerc and Ferrari brilliantly proved that there was another option: the Monégasque driver putting in a stellar drive for fourth place, making the solitary stop work.

Lewis Hamilton may have had a chance at doing the same while in the lead. Mercedes mulled over its options in the closing laps and Red Bull crafted a counter-strategy but he ultimately stopped again. His fresher tyres gave him the pace to re-take a demoralised Bottas for second, but it was the chance of the unlikely coming to fruition that made it an engaging final 15 laps.

Further down the order, positions were still being settled in the final three laps as strategies played out.