Red Bull have not won the British GP since Mark Webber's win in 2012; Red Bull can equal McLaren's long-standing record for consecutive wins this weekend; watch every session from the British GP live on Sky Sports F1 and for free on Sky Showcase this weekend
Thursday 6 July 2023 11:50, UK
Red Bull are seeking a record-equalling 11th consecutive victory this weekend but the British Grand Prix is a race the team have something of a curse in.
The Milton Keynes-based team have only won the British GP on three occasions and have not tasted success since Mark Webber's win in 2012.
While Red Bull may not have had a car competitive enough in several seasons in that intervening period, a number of victory opportunities have been snatched away for a host of reasons...
In a British Grand Prix famous for six big tyre failures during the race, Sebastian Vettel had appeared set to make it back-to-back wins at Silverstone for Red Bull.
Starting third, the German had moved ahead of a slow-starting Nico Rosberg off the line and then inherited the lead on lap eight when pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton suffered the first of those six tyre blowouts.
Maintaining a steady lead over Rosberg, Vettel looked on course to extend his championship lead, but with just over 11 laps remaining the gearbox on his RB9 failed and he was forced to park up on the main straight.
However, the resulting Safety Car brought Webber back into contention after first-lap contact had seen the Australian drop down to P14.
Fifth when the race resumed with six laps remaining, Webber swiftly passed Daniel Ricciardo, Adrian Sutil and Kimi Raikkonen to give himself four laps to chase down Rosberg for victory on his British GP swansong.
But Rosberg was able to hold off the charging Red Bull to claim victory by just 0.7 seconds.
"It was a bit of a slow-burner but what an extraordinary end," was Sky F1's Martin Brundle's assessment of the 2020 British GP.
The first 49 of the 52 laps had been something of a non-event as Mercedes dominated out front and appeared to be cruising to an easy 1-2 with Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas.
But that all changed as Bottas' front left tyre gave up on lap 50, allowing Max Verstappen to grab second place.
With Verstappen 15 seconds behind Hamilton and having over 30 seconds in hand to Charles Leclerc behind, Red Bull opted to pit the Dutchman to protect their gained position and seek the fastest lap point.
That stop left Verstappen 34 seconds off the lead on the final lap, but in dramatic scenes Hamilton would suffer the same puncture as Bottas at the end of the Wellington Straight.
"Can we win this?" Verstappen asked when told of Hamilton's issue.
"If you get on with it!" was his engineer Gianpiero Lambiase's reply.
Hamilton's team radio meanwhile had his engineer Pete Bonnington (Bono) counting down by the second as Verstappen closed in.
But Hamilton would have just enough time in hand to limp across the line on three wheels, just 5.8 seconds in front of Verstappen.
Christian Horner said there had been "no guarantee" Verstappen would have made it to the end without stopping given tyre concerns of his own, but Red Bull fans were left wondering what might have been.
One of the most famous moments of recent British Grands Prix and an incident which fully ignited the rivalry between Verstappen and Hamilton.
Twenty-four hours earlier, Verstappen had won the inaugural F1 Sprint, getting past Hamilton off the line and then powering away to claim pole position for Sunday's Grand Prix after seeing off Hamilton's challenge through the first half of the lap.
Cue the Sunday and one of the most dramatic opening-lap tussles of recent times.
Hamilton would get a better start from P2 on the grid, like Verstappen did the day before, but the Dutchman managed to stay ahead through the opening corners before the pair played a game of high-speed dare down the Wellington Straight as the Red Bull just held onto the lead into Brooklands.
"It's not over yet because Hamilton gets another slipstream all the way down the old pit straight into Copse corner, these are critical corners for this Grand Prix!" exclaimed Brundle on commentary.
In the Sprint, Hamilton had attempted to dance around the outside of Verstappen at Copse with no luck and seen the Red Bull get away.
Now knowing he'd need to lead by the time they reached the Hangar Straight to take command of the Grand Prix, Hamilton opted to dive down the inside at Copse instead on Sunday. As Verstappen turned into the 180mph corner, the pair touched wheels with Verstappen being sent spinning into the barriers in a crash that measured 51 times the force of gravity and requiring hospital checks.
Hamilton would go on to claim victory despite a 10-second penalty and accusations would fly between the two camps post-race, with Verstappen saying the seven-time world champion had been "dangerous" and "disrespectful and unsportsmanlike" with his post-race celebrations, while Hamilton said Verstappen had been "too aggressive" in their wheel-to-wheel battles.
A year ago, Red Bull arrived at Silverstone on the back of six straight victories and appeared set for another win when Verstappen claimed the lead on lap 10 after Carlos Sainz's mistake through Becketts.
But just two laps later, Verstappen would run over debris - ironically off an AlphaTauri, Red Bull's sister team - which would cause significant structural damage to his car.
It left the Dutchman battling in the lower regions of the top 10 as he eventually finished seventh.
Team-mate Sergio Perez saw his victory chances ended by contact with the two Ferraris on the restart following Zhou Guanyu's horror crash.
The Mexican recovered from 16th to second after a Safety Car period and thrilling racing with Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton, but would be unable to chase down race-winner Sainz as Red Bull's British GP win drought extended into an 11th year.
While Red Bull may not have won the British GP since 2012, they have been victorious at Silverstone much more recently.
In 2020's Covid-affected calendar, two grands prix were held at the venue and Verstappen would produce a sublime performance to win what was the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix.
After saying he would "not just sit behind like a grandma" at being asked to cool his car, Verstappen was able to make his strategy advantage count by staying out longer than the two Mercedes and then passing Bottas later in the race to claim a superb win which was only his ninth in F1 at the time.
Red Bull have been unbeatable so far in 2023, winning each of the opening nine grands prix.
Having also been victorious in the 2022 season-ending Abu Dhabi GP, the reigning world champions are on a 10-race winning run and on the brink of matching an F1 record that has stood for 35 years.
McLaren claimed 11 consecutive victories in 1988 and no other constructor has managed to repeat that feat, with Mercedes and Ferrari only ever managing 10 consecutive wins during their periods of dominance.
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner on his team's chances this weekend:
"Silverstone is going to be epic, it's going to be fantastic there but who knows what obstacles there might be. We saw what happened there last year.
"(The British GP) is a race we haven't won since Mark back in 2012 so that's a big race for us on this calendar.
"We saw last year that Max hit a bit of debris and it screwed the floor and that was his race run.
"It's fine margins between victory and success. The team is operating at an incredible level but it only takes a bit of weather or a bit of bad luck or a puncture for things to turn around pretty quickly.
"We've got to stay at the top of our game and see how long we can keep this run rolling for.
"Of course we go to Silverstone with confidence but we're also very acutely aware that it's very easy to drop a ball and very easy for variables to come in that are sometimes beyond your control."
Thursday July 6
6pm: The F1 Show (also streamed on YouTube and Sky Sports App)
Friday July 7
8:40am: F3 Practice
10am: F2 Practice
12pm: British GP Practice One (session starts 12:30pm)
2.05pm: F3 Qualifying
3pm: F2 Qualifying
3:40pm: British GP Practice Two (session starts 4pm)
Saturday July 8
9:15am: F3 Sprint
11:15am: British GP Practice Three (session starts 11:30am)
1:10pm: F2 Sprint
2:15pm: British GP Qualifying build-up
3pm: BRITISH GP QUALIFYING
5pm: Ted's Qualifying Notebook
Sunday July 9
8:10am: F3 Feature Race
9:50am: F2 Feature Race
11:50am: Porsche Supercup
1:30pm: Grand Prix Sunday - British GP build-up
3pm: The BRITISH GRAND PRIX
5pm: Chequered Flag: British GP reaction
6pm: Ted's Notebook
Next on the F1 calendar is the big one, Silverstone. Don't miss the British GP live on Sky Sports from July 7-9.
