Business of Speed Podcast - British GP 2026 Predictions: Can Lewis Hamilton Do It Again?

Episode Date: July 3, 2026

Welcome back to the Business Speed Podcast. It is Silverstone weekend. It is America's 250th birthday weekend. There's so many things going on. And Lali is at home somewhere in the United States. There's tons of American flags around her. You should all see it. It's actually quite the sight.

Hola, Vincenzo. I am in the U.S. celebrating the 250th birthday. We had Canada Day this week. Now it's 250th birthday. Colombia plays today against Ghana, 9.30 p.m. Eastern time. world cup is in full swing like i said the other day on one of my stories on instagram what a time to be alive this is amazing and we get silverstone weekend there's mid ohio and indycar i mean it's like lions and tigers and bears i yeah mid ohio i'm missing mid ohio by uh two days because i'll

be i'll be in columbus uh on monday so sad pity sad i'd love to be at mid ohio great track great fun all right silverstone we already had sprint qualifying so we have seen sprint qualifying these predictions are slightly tainted because we have seen sprint qualifying i'll say it one more time we have seen sprint qualifying my predictions yesterday on the missed apex podcast with spanners would have been completely different had i seen what we have just seen maybe they wouldn't heard those so so i want to give my i don't i don't want to give mine anyway i don't want to give I actually would love for mine to disappear from the annals of the internet. I want to say something really quickly because as you know, and I hope people are starting to learn, I am an F1 fantasy legend.

Do not take these and do your fantasy based on what I'm about to say. Because F1 fantasy is a scientific game. This I do with my heart. So people need to understand. I got a couple messages. So basically she's saying she doesn't believe in her choices. No, it's like a strategy thing. Because someone said like, well, you said Lando Norris.

So I put Lando Norris. I'm like, no, I never said this was advice or fantasy. So here we go. I'm going to give you my predictions. And I'm really excited to give these predictions because I'm going to start with my P1 hometown hero, Lewis Hamilton. He's going to win the Grand Prix.

That's my P1. Take it to the bank, people. P2 is going to be Kimi Antonelli. And P3 is going to be George Bustle. There you go. That's my predictions. Yep, that's my predictions. You know, the British media watching Sprint

and listening to the commentary was quite funny because George Russell had nothing but problems, but Kimi Antonelli, the car, was being very cooperative. And I just thought it was funny to hear it in that setup because they have the same car, right? If we're to believe that they have the same car and that all drivers on all teams have the same car, the car shouldn't be fighting George

but be so compliant for Kimi. That's just the way I feel. But my predictions, I'm going to still, man, I'm going to stick to my predictions. I want to hear them. From this day, I have to remember exactly where they were. But it was Kimi Antonelli, Oscar Piastri, Max Verstappen. Okay, no, listen, go with your gut.

That's not a bad prediction. Max Verstappen, you can never discount. Kimi Antonelli is incredible. So I like this. But I will say I am also a firm believer in jinxing your own team and jinxing your favorites. I'm very superstitious when it comes to that. So I will never pick my own teams and drivers. Almost never pick my own teams and drivers.

I'll just put it that way as well. Okay, okay. Listen, another little quick gossip that I heard. I saw Lawrence Barreto talk about this. I wanted to run it by you. Maybe you heard. Paul Monaghan, chief engineer at Red Bull, is not in Silverstone this weekend. there is a slight rumor in the air that he might have been poached by Cadillac and Red Bull saying

no he wasn't at three Grand Prix's last year no big deal that would be a tremendous loss for Red Bull after everyone they've lost it would be a great poach for Cadillac have you heard about this Vinche yet I don't know if I'm uh like I don't want to call it fake news there's rumors out there and Laurence Barreto talked about it so what do you think yeah rumors are rumors and I think there's all like we're getting closer to silly season as it you know anyway so sure anytime someone doesn't show up there we're going to hear rumors i don't know do i believe it is it going to make an immediate difference on cadillac not this season it won't maybe not even next season it won't but yeah i mean listen the red bull i don't believe that any single person aside from very

there's very few people in the paddock that could make a tremendous difference on the team by leaving or joining a team I truly do believe that Adrian Newey may or may not be one of them Lewis Hamilton or Max Verstappen may or may not be others that can do those types of things and then of course other engineers of course and team principals I don't think it's the magic pill Cadillac it's like a magic pill for Cadillac they have a great team already and we're still seeing how difficult it is for them to grow that team like we knew this going in right it was gonna me so challenging. So again, big coup, big win for them. If they do pull in, if he's pulled, but I don't think it's the magic bullet, right? You still, there's still a lot of other pieces

that need to be put together and Cadillacs, you know, they're still on the, they're still at the bottom. Although I will say this for Cadillac, thank God for Aston Martin because they actually look decent compared to them. Honestly, like it makes, puts everything in perspective, but also I think the Cadillac project was always meant to be a long-term project. Ownership wasn't there to just go in and try to win a Grand Prix in the first season and get out. Like, it is a long-term project. You and I both really believe in that project. We like that project a lot.

If they are able to get some, like, key personnel signings, someone like a Paul Monaghan would be an incredible asset for them to have. I think that slowly but surely, you're right, as the season progresses, we're going to start hearing about little poachies here and there. Honestly, by the way, and I know we try to make these episodes short, but talk about the poaching of the century. I need to talk for one second about Scott Dixon being signed. Okay, well, there you go. Scott Dixon being signed by Aaron McLaren. Oh, my goodness.

That is like an incredible sign, leaving Chip Ganassi Racing after 20 years. So we're in that time. It's hunting season. It's poaching season. And we're going to start seeing some moves in the summer for sure. yeah i mean you know lewis lewis left mercedes after a long time and yeah why can't dixon do it why not right it's that's a long time 20 years a long time to be with the same team and everyone needs fresh blood yeah but zach brown is like poacher extraordinaire he got oscar piastri

now he got scott dixon like doesn't matter the series now that guy is a negotiator like incredible elite level elite level so good on zach also it also comes down to i think you know marketing too and how zach brown never i think zach brown views it you know especially with his marketing background he views everything as you know marketing at the end of the day so when you look at mclaren as a media company if you don't instead of looking at them like race teams yeah a lot of the moves make sense you know you you're getting you're creating media and marketing around your properties and it is easier to bring people over when you know dixon's dixon's probably more marketable now than he is valuable as a driver and i don't mean that as a shot on dixon at all

i just age wise in general right same thing with ferrari bringing over hamilton you knew you weren't getting prime hamilton years but you're she's still prime market wool yeah but also but also i'll take i'll take hamilton past his prime which i disagree with and over over i don't want to even give a name because i don't want to shade anybody on the grid but almost all the signs carlo signs that's fine he was literally taking over carlo signs so you can compare that directly right yeah exactly so the point the point is these drivers build up so much equity right over the years that at some point, why not have a swan song somewhere? Why not leverage all your marketability and go with a team that's going to put a lot behind you or that does a lot in the marketing

world? They do have to set themselves up for what's next. You talked about this with James Hinchcliffe on the podcast, right? Yeah, they do. They have to set themselves up for what's coming after this. Your peak earning years in theory are behind you. They don't have to be. That's why you're seeing a lot of these guys with investments and businesses and things that they're setting up but yeah again no shade i wasn't taking a shot at scott or lewis but yeah they're they're past the prime year in theory prime years yeah but they are supremely more marketable now because of what they've built over that time and let's not forget tony kanan friend of our podcast as well runs that team and who is a great

friend of his ryan hunter ray who's who's now going to be on on the payroll at arrow mclaren right Hunter Ray now who did he bring on his other very good mate Scott Dixon so lest we forget that Tony Kanan is there and is probably very influential

in a lot of these decisions that are taking place at Arrow McLaren it's not all Zach Brown Tony Kanan is a very smart guy very well liked and he has a lot of great friendships there

and people he's raced against and respects so he would know who would be excellent in certain positions and I think that's a lot to do with Tony that signing

so there you go We'll leave you with that. Silverstone weekend, 4th of July in the United States. Lots of other fun things going on. Like we talked about Lewis Hamilton, Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes, Ferrari. We think those are going to be our battles for the weekend. Let us know what you think. I want your predictions.

We should do fan predictions. So maybe next race, we'll bring in some fan predictions. Love that. We'll see what the fans pick. We'll put some calls out there and shout some of you out, depending on how many predictions we get in. in the I love that

Twittersphere or wherever we get our predictions so yeah send those in so that we can call them out or we can make fun of you

or not make fun of you for how great or dumb your predictions are ciao for now guys see you on the next one