Lewis Hamilton, George Russell and Lando Norris will be racing on home soil this week at the British GP; the trio are widely regarded among the best drivers in F1; watch the British Grand Prix live all weekend on Sky Sports, with lights out at 3pm for Sunday's race
Thursday 6 July 2023 10:03, UK
Lewis Hamilton says he is "excited" to watch how George Russell and Lando Norris' Formula 1 careers progress.
In 2018, Hamilton was the only British driver on the grid but Russell and Norris made their F1 debuts a year later after impressing in junior single-seater categories.
The trio will be racing on home soil this weekend at the British Grand Prix - live on Sky Sports F1.
"It's not passing the baton, but knowing we have other great British drivers will prolong the success of the Brits moving forwards. Our fan base will always have good drivers [to cheer for] because we generally develop good drivers in the UK," said Hamilton.
"George and Lando are both incredibly talented and have such a bright future ahead of them. It's crazy to think they are as young as they are. Lando is 23 but has been here for ages. I'm excited to watch their journey and where they get to."
Norris revealed he has been getting to know Hamilton better this year and feels their relationship is growing.
"I have so much respect for him and what he's been able to achieve in F1," the McLaren driver added.
"He's part of the reason I'm an F1 driver, so it's weird thinking I'm now racing against him."
Mercedes had a disappointing Austrian Grand Prix as Russell and Hamilton finished seventh and eighth. The result means Aston Martin are just three points behind them in the battle for second in the constructors' championship.
Hamilton says Austria "highlighted areas" for Mercedes to work on, while Russell hopes the lack of performance was down to the track characteristics.
"I'm sure we will get to the bottom of it, but we still have the same car from two races ago in Barcelona when we were flying so the only thing that is different is the tyres, something we need to understand," Russell told Sky Sports F1.
"A few surprises out there, Lando and McLaren did a really great job so well done to them. We need to understand what went wrong on our side.
"It definitely doesn't feel how we want it to, the car is moving around a lot, a little bit worse than all of the other circuits but the pace was substantially worse than we were expecting. We need to get to the bottom of it."
He added: "[The upgrades] are another step in the right direction, it's just another step. It's clearly circuit dependent because we were nowhere here and with the same car we were good in Canada and fast in Barcelona.
"That bodes well for Silverstone because Silverstone is more in line with Barcelona than it is this circuit."
Mercedes will bring their second major upgrade package of the season to Silverstone, a track which has traditionally suited their car throughout the F1 turbo-hybrid era.
Toto Wolff says the team are approaching the British Grand Prix with "cautious optimism".
"We scored a handful of points, but we didn't have the pace for much more. The field behind Red Bull is incredibly close and also fluctuating each weekend," said Wolff.
"Some of this is circuit-specific, and some the upgrade cycle across the grid. We fell on the wrong side of this equation in Spielberg, but we've got a chance to bounce back immediately.
"The team has been hard at work to analyse and draw learnings from our performance. We have taken the result on the chin and will aim to recapture the momentum we had built up across previous races.
"With the next upgrades and experiments coming in Silverstone, there are reasons for optimism. Nevertheless, we are not getting ahead of ourselves. We're focused on the job at hand, extracting performance from the car, and will see where we stand this weekend."
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
