2011 British Grand Prix
Channel: the aleatoric learning channel
Date: 2021-12-18

Changes to the circuit mean that the race was previously classified as being in Northamptonshire, but the movement of the start-finish line means that the race is now officially classed as being in Buckinghamshire. Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner noted that the pits are lower than the circuit proper, and that he believed that drivers would have to treat the corner at the entry to the pit lane as they would a corner on the circuit. Formula One Management reversed the intended pit lane order, placing the Red Bull Racing, McLaren and Ferrari pit garages behind the retaining wall, and moving the Team Lotus, Hispania and Virgin teams' garages to the visible end of the pit lane. With Mark Webber driving for Red Bull Racing, Ricciardo's debut marks the first time that two Australian drivers have competed in the same race since Alan Jones and Vern Schuppan raced in the 1977 Austrian Grand Prix. Once the first lap times were established, the drivers pitted for the dry compounds and took to the circuit once more in another race to beat the weather. Heikki Kovalainen qualified seventeenth after setting just one lap time to preserve tyres for the race. The Lotuses of Heikki Kovalainen and Jarno Trulli became the first retirements of the race, stopping within the first ten laps of the race due to gearbox issues. The second round of pit stops saw Vettel and Alonso enter at the same time, but an uncharacteristic mistake from the Red Bull mechanics meant Vettel was delayed and allowing Alonso to take the lead of the race. Button pitted for new tyres but retired from the race after the front right wheelnut was not attached, leaving the wheel visibly loose on the exit from the pits and continuing Button's run of poor results in his home race. Adrian Newey, Red Bull Racing's technical director, admitted that his team had the most to lose from the ban on off-throttle blown diffusers because the Red Bull RB7 had been designed around the concept, in comparison to other teams who had simply applied it to their respective cars after the fact. Red Bull Racing's Christian Horner responded to the protest, stating that the Mercedes teams had been granted concessions of their own to manage pressure within the crank case. Due to the teams' dissatisfaction with the situation, the FIA has stated that it is prepared to withdraw the rule change from the German Grand Prix, restoring the Valencia specification of regulations, which would allow teams the freedom to run engine maps at their discretion, but require them to use the same engine maps between qualifying and the race.