F1 2018: 5 Early Predictions for the 2018 British GP

After nine rounds of the 2018 Formula One season, the championship is still anyone's game, with Sebastian Vettel leading and the rest of the field chasing. Hamilton trails by just one point, while Raikkonen, Ricciardo and Verstappen still lay in wait with an outside chance. The Austrian Grand Prix saw Bottas's string of bad luck continue, and Grosjean's string of bad luck come to an end.

Now we head to Silverstone, a home race for a fair few teams and for defending world champion Lewis Hamilton. Can the Mercedes driver pull it back for himself and his team, or will Vettel and the Scuderia extend their lead in both championships? We saw a crazy race in Austria, and hopefully, the season will continue in kind. Exactly what will go down at Silverstone? It's hard to know, but as always, that won't stop us from trying!

#1 Haas Outqualifies Red Bull

2018 Formula One Grand Prix Testing Feb 26th

An extremely pleasant surprise at the Austrian GP was that Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen finished a stellar P4 & P5, reeling in Haas's biggest points haul of all time. Grosjean himself also scored his first points of the season after an extremely disastrous first eight races.

While Verstappen did win the race for Red Bull, it was in part due to a bunch of bad luck for Lewis Hamilton & Valtteri Bottas. Furthermore, Ricciardo did not have the best luck, with a gearbox failure leading to a DNF for him. Therefore it doesn't indicate that Red Bull will have the easiest time recovering as a unit for Silverstone.

On the other hand, Haas seem to have finally gotten their problems out of their system. If Grosjean & Magnussen drive their cars to the limit, they could have the pace to out-qualify both Ricciardo and Verstappen, as shown in Austria where Grosjean started ahead of Danny Ric.

#2 Hamilton & Vettel start 1 & 2

With just one point separating them in the drivers' championship, it seems that Vettel & Hamilton are destined to duke it out for the rest of the season. With Botta's clinching pole in Austria, Hamilton & Vettel placed 2 & 3 in qualifying (Albeit before Vettel received a grid penalty.)

With the title race being so close, both drivers will be as motivated as ever to get a good start at Silverstone. That is why we can't see anyone but one of these two securing pole position in Great Britain. They say that a hometown crowd can give a driver an extra tenth in qualifying, which is why we believe that Lewis will just manage to edge Sebastian out to start first. Hopefully, we can see a start like this so that the two title contenders can battle it out.

#3 Sirotkin Scores Points

Sergey Sirotkin of Russia and Williams Martini on track...

After Romain Grosjean finally scored some points in Austria, it leaves Sergey Sirotkin as the only driver who is yet to score on the current grid. Williams has been having a terrible season this year, with only Lance Stroll scoring a P8, and that too after a crazy race in Baku. Sirotkin himself hasn't really been at fault, as in the unreliable and slow machinery of the Williams, he really hasn't had the best opportunities to score.

That being said, Britain is home soil for Williams and as always it could be that the hometown advantage gives the team an extra bit of motivation. Austria saw a number of DNF's, even the big guns from Mercedes and Red Bull. If the same sort of happenings take place at Silverstone, and everything goes right for Williams, it could be that F1's resident Russian finally scores.

Russia has been on a roll lately, as their football team just beat Spain on penalties in the World Cup to proceed to the Quarter Finals on home soil. Therefore, it could be that Sirotkin takes some inspiration from the likes of Denis Cheryshev and gets some points for Russia.

#4 Red Bull Restore Ricciardo's faith with a Podium

2018 Austrian Formula One Grand Prix Sunday Race Day Jul 1st

Due to his current contract situation, Daniel Ricciardo has been the at the attention of the F1 media for the recent few weeks now. Christian Horner and Red Bull have made clear that they would like to retain him, meanwhile, Ricciardo himself has played it coy and has not been straightforward as to where he will end up. You can't blame the Australian however, as he is simply looking out for his own best interests, and has to look at all the pros and cons of staying with Red Bull.

While there have been some cons in the recent past, such as some troubles in qualifying as Ricciardo was made to give Verstappen the tow for three runs, without a single one for himself. Furthermore, Ricciardo suffered a mechanical failure in the race that can't help Red Bull's case. However, Red Bull know how to bounce back and we believe that they'll give Ricciardo a flawless drive in Britain that will lead him to a podium!

#5 Raikkonen enters the Mix

Currently sitting third in the drivers' championship, Kimi Raikkonen still has an outside chance to take the whole thing. While this may not seem like it on the outside as the Iceman hasn't won a race since Australia 2013, the Finnish driver still has the machinery and the talent to finish high, with 25 podiums in that time.

Raikkonen may not be at his peak, but he still shows every race that he has the pace to qualify and race extremely well. Kimi has five podiums, the same as Vettel this season, and if everything goes his way on Sunday, he could still conceivably come away with the win. Raikkonen has one previous victory in Great Britain, with Ferrari in 2007, and finished third here last year.

We believe that the Iceman will be able to put everything together on Sunday, get past both Vettel & Hamilton, and come out with the win, putting him well into the mix in the driver's championship.

Edited by Kishan Prasad