F1 in Britain: Automated software to blame for crushing expectations

英国站 F1：自动化软件导致预期落空

Formula 1 returned to what is a home race for most of the teams on the grid this past weekend with the British Grand Prix. Yet again this season, we saw the fastest car not win the race, as reliability has been a problem. But racing giveth and racing taketh away, and the beneficiary of one driver’s bad luck was another driver who really needed that win. 上周末，一级方程式赛车（F1）迎来了英国大奖赛，这对赛道上大多数车队来说都是一场主场比赛。本赛季我们再次看到最快的赛车未能赢得比赛，可靠性问题依然存在。但赛车运动有得必有失，一位车手的霉运成就了另一位急需这场胜利的车手。

Perhaps the bigger story, though, was the unfulfilled expectation that we’d see a late-race restart after the safety car came out on lap 48 of 52. An on-screen message told commentators and viewers this would be the case, but it was displayed in error, and what had been an entertaining race ended as something of a damp squib. 然而，更大的新闻或许是人们对比赛最后阶段重启的预期落空了——在 52 圈比赛的第 48 圈，安全车出动。屏幕上的信息告知评论员和观众比赛将会重启，但该信息显示有误，原本精彩的比赛最终以一种令人扫兴的方式结束。

Silverstone, like many of Britain’s race circuits, was a World War II airbase before being demobbed, which means it’s quite flat and can be rather windy. It’s also pretty fast even in its current layout (which was changed in 2010), with corners that are among the best places in the world to watch an F1 car change direction. 银石赛道和英国许多赛车场一样，在退役前曾是二战时期的空军基地，这意味着它地势平坦且风力较大。即使在 2010 年改建后的布局下，它依然非常高速，其弯道是世界上观看 F1 赛车转向的最佳地点之一。

There were worries that the new cars would find their hybrid power units starved of energy part-way round the track, and in qualifying, the cars were limited to recovering and deploying just 6.5 MJ across a lap, compared to the 8 MJ per lap allowed in the sprint and main race. That energy limit in qualifying was about right—unlike at Suzuka in Japan, where we had the rather pathetic sight of cars slowing down before the fast 130R弯, drivers in qualifying looked to be at the limit through corners like Copse, Maggotts, and Becketts. 人们曾担心新赛车的混合动力单元会在赛道中途耗尽能量。在排位赛中，赛车单圈能量回收和释放被限制在 6.5 兆焦耳（MJ），而冲刺赛和正赛允许的限额为 8 兆焦耳。排位赛的能量限制设定得恰到好处——不像在日本铃鹿赛道，我们看到了赛车在高速 130R 弯前减速的尴尬景象；而在银石赛道，车手们在 Copse、Maggotts 和 Becketts 等弯道中看起来都发挥到了极限。

On Friday, one driver in particular stood out: Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton. The most successful driver at Silverstone since its inception, the place named a straight after him as part of that 2010 update. It must be weird going to a track knowing they named part of it after you because you’re just that good; that honor usually comes in retirement. But Hamilton was on form, buoyed up by a massive crowd, most of whom were there to see him. 周五，一位车手表现格外突出：法拉利的刘易斯·汉密尔顿。他是银石赛道自建成以来最成功的车手，赛道在 2010 年改建时甚至以他的名字命名了一条直道。当你因为表现过于出色而让赛道以你的名字命名时，这种感觉一定很奇妙；通常这种荣誉只会在退役后才会获得。但汉密尔顿状态极佳，在现场大批观众（其中大多数是为他而来）的欢呼声中备受鼓舞。

Much had been expected of a newly upgraded Ferrari engine in Austria, but a combination of altitude and heat meant we did not see it at its best. With thicker, cooler air, the gap to the Mercedes was much less, and an inspired lap from Hamilton, egged on by more than 100,000 spectators, saw him grab the sprint pole from Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli by 11 毫秒. 人们对法拉利在奥地利站升级的新引擎寄予厚望，但由于海拔和高温的影响，我们没能看到它的最佳表现。在空气更稠密、温度更低的银石，法拉利与梅赛德斯的差距缩小了许多。在超过 10 万名观众的助威下，汉密尔顿跑出了精彩的一圈，以 11 毫秒的优势从梅赛德斯的基米·安东内利手中抢走了冲刺赛杆位。

The following day, Hamilton managed to keep the young Mercedes driver at bay and held out for eight laps before the inevitable happened. But Hamilton still finished second, and less than 3 seconds back after 17 laps. That’s much less of a deficit than we’ve seen before. 第二天，汉密尔顿成功抵挡住了这位年轻梅赛德斯车手的进攻，坚持了八圈，直到不可避免的事情发生（被超越）。但汉密尔顿最终仍以第二名完赛，在 17 圈后落后不到 3 秒。这比我们之前看到的差距要小得多。

That afternoon saw qualifying for Sunday’s race, but this time Hamilton could only manage third on the grid. Antonelli snatched pole, but between them was Charles Leclerc, Hamilton’s teammate at Ferrari. Leclerc has been ill at ease with his race car, and if you’re not comfortable in an F1 car, you won’t find its limit. He failed to finish in Monaco and Barcelona and finished a distant eighth in Austria, albeit after qualifying second. This past weekend looked like that trend might continue, until something finally clicked between Leclerc and his Ferrari SF-26. Both Ferraris made better starts than Antonelli with Leclerc in the lead. 当天下午进行了周日正赛的排位赛，但这次汉密尔顿只拿到了第三名。安东内利夺得杆位，而汉密尔顿的法拉利队友查尔斯·勒克莱尔排在两人之间。勒克莱尔一直对自己的赛车感到不适，如果无法适应 F1 赛车，就无法发挥其极限。他在摩纳哥和巴塞罗那站退赛，在奥地利站尽管排位赛第二，正赛却只获得遥远的第八名。上周末看起来这种趋势可能会持续下去，直到勒克莱尔与他的法拉利 SF-26 赛车终于找到了默契。两辆法拉利赛车的起步都比安东内利更好，勒克莱尔处于领先位置。

Then on lap 41, something broke in the steering or suspension of Antonelli’s Mercedes, possibly after riding heavily over one of the circuit’s serrated curbs. The Italian driver made another two pit stops to try to solve the problem but to no avail. He would end the race in ninth on the road but was scored 15th after being penalized for repeatedly driving off-track in an attempt to bring his damaged car home. 第 41 圈，安东内利的梅赛德斯赛车转向或悬挂系统出现故障，这可能是因为重重压过了赛道上的锯齿形路肩。这位意大利车手又进行了两次进站试图解决问题，但无济于事。他最终在赛道上以第九名完赛，但因在试图将受损赛车开回维修区时多次驶出赛道而受到处罚，最终被判为第 15 名。

Up front, Leclerc looked set to cruise to his first win in almost two years. Then, on lap 48, the active rear wing on Max Verstappen’s Red Bull malfunctioned at Stowe corner. For 2026, F1 cars use a low-downforce configuration on the straights, then a high-downforce setting for the corners. But if front and rear wings don’t transition between the two states quickly enough, it can make the car uncontrollably unstable. And this is what happened to Verstappen in qualifying in Austria, and now again during the race in Britain. 在前方，勒克莱尔看起来有望轻松赢得他近两年来的首场胜利。然而在第 48 圈，马克斯·维斯塔潘的红牛赛车在 Stowe 弯的主动式尾翼发生故障。2026 年规则下，F1 赛车在直道使用低下压力配置，在弯道使用高下压力设置。但如果前后翼在两种状态间的转换不够迅速，会导致赛车出现无法控制的不稳定性。这正是维斯塔潘在奥地利排位赛中遇到的情况，如今在英国站的正赛中再次发生。

The four-time champion had been in an engaging battle with the other Mercedes of Russell and the Ferrari of Hamilton up until this point; now speculation is stronger than ever that he might walk away from the sport at the end of the season to go GT3 racing instead. 这位四届世界冠军在此之前一直与另一辆梅赛德斯（拉塞尔驾驶）和汉密尔顿的法拉利进行着激烈的缠斗；现在，关于他可能在本赛季结束后离开 F1 转战 GT3 赛事的猜测比以往任何时候都更加强烈。

The safety car came out to allow the Red Bull to be recovered from the gravel trap it was parked in. With just four laps remaining, there was every prospect of the race finishing under caution as there wouldn’t be time to reorder the cars and then conduct a restart. Indeed, the rules state that one lap must be completed behind the safety car after the lapped cars are allowed to unlap themselves, and this only happened on lap 51. Leclerc took the win ahead of Russell and Hamilton, who swapped positions when the Ferrari made a pit stop, but the Mercedes didn’t when the safety car came out. Unfortunately, the unlapping command also caused an automated message to show up announcing that the safety car would be in that lap, meaning a one-lap race to the end. 安全车出动，以便将停在砂石缓冲区里的红牛赛车拖走。由于比赛仅剩四圈，比赛很有可能在安全车带领下结束，因为没有足够的时间重新排列赛车并进行重启。事实上，规则规定在被套圈赛车完成解套后，必须在安全车带领下完成一圈，而这直到第 51 圈才发生。勒克莱尔最终夺冠，拉塞尔和汉密尔顿分列二三位。当安全车出动时，法拉利选择了进站而梅赛德斯没有，导致两人交换了位置。不幸的是，解套指令还触发了一条自动信息，宣布安全车将在该圈结束时撤离，这意味着比赛将以最后一圈的冲刺结束。