Silverstone Round One 2026 Report

Friday practice

On Friday, we had four sessions to get the car properly dialled in. Silverstone is a track we'd never quite clicked with before, so we had a full test programme planned for the day. However, in true British fashion, the weather took a turn for the worse.

The morning was extremely wet, and with no rain forecast for the rest of the weekend, running felt slightly pointless. In the afternoon, we worked through a range of setup changes, but I was still struggling with the car feeling too stiff.

That evening, the team at EXCELR8 reworked the car and we analysed the data to settle on a direction. The only issue was that we were now heading into qualifying in the dark.

Qualifying

A new day brought very windy and cold conditions. As it was Round 1 of the new season, we went into qualifying starting from P18, which meant a lot of traffic ahead and the need to position the car carefully.

I was quickest in the early stages, but by the chequered flag I had dropped to P7, just 0.4 seconds off pole. It was extremely frustrating, as I had been 0.52 seconds up on my lap before a car spun in front of me.

Race 1

The qualifying format meant that each driver's second fastest lap set the grid for Race 1. The race itself was dry, but I didn't get the best start. Despite that, I managed a strong drive through the pack, climbing from P11 to finish P4 overall.

It felt like there was more in the tank, but we struggled with straight line speed. After the race, we discovered the issue was that the right rear brake was stuck on!

Race 2

I was feeling very confident going into this race, especially with the straight line issue resolved. Starting from P7, I made a strong launch and was up to P3 by Turn 2. However, I was caught out by cold rear tyres, which shuffled me back down the order to around P12.

I managed to recover well, climbing back to P9 by the penultimate lap. On the final lap, I got a great run and tucked into the slipstream behind a very experienced driver. Then, unexpectedly, he appeared to come off the pedals around 60 metres before the braking zone, leaving me with nowhere to go and resulting in slight contact with the rear of his car.

The contact unsettled his car, and he spun towards the barrier, unfortunately collecting my teammate, Giovanni Santora, who had been driving incredibly well. The race was red-flagged, and I was subsequently called to the stewards, where I was disqualified.

I want to make it absolutely clear that I would never intentionally cause contact or put another driver at risk. The team and I felt the circumstances warranted an appeal, which we submitted, but unfortunately it was unsuccessful. The team have subsequently requested a review as we feel it was an unfair penalty in the circumstances so the matter is now in the hands of Motorsport UK's court.

Race 3

Due to the earlier disqualification, I was also handed a 10 place grid penalty, meaning I had to start from P17. I kept my head down, stayed composed, and worked my way through the field, picking them off one by one.

By the flag, I'd made 10 overtakes to finish P7 overall. Overtaking at Silverstone is a challenge in itself, so to gain that many places after everything that had happened made the result feel incredibly well earned.

On a personal note

I felt it was a strong weekend overall and great to be back in the car. There's still a learning curve with a new team, but their attention to detail was meticulous.

I've also been dealing with a few health issues recently, despite not feeling at my best, I believe we extracted the maximum from what we had to have promising first round, lets see whats to come!