Damon Hill predicts ‘desperate’ driver will win British Grand Prix as 10th Lewis Hamilton Silverstone victory ruled out

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Lewis Hamilton can pull a rabbit out of the hat at Silverstone, but Damon Hill doubts the crowd favourite will score his first win with Ferrari in the 2025 British Grand Prix.

It has not been the start to his adventure in red that Hamilton would have wanted when the 40-year-old realised his childhood dream to become a Ferrari driver at the start of this term. Hamilton heads to Silverstone for round 12 of the 2025 F1 season still without any podiums.

Never before has the Stevenage-born star gone as deep into a season without any rostrums, while also now enduring the longest podium drought of his 19-year career at 13 Grands Prix. He also only sits sixth in the F1 drivers’ championship ahead of the British GP with 91 points.

Hill does not expect Silverstone to spark Hamilton’s season into life, either, despite being the most successful driver in the history of the British GP with nine victories to date. No driver in F1 history has also ever earned more wins at a track or one race than Hamilton has at home.

Damon Hill thinks Lando Norris has ‘got to be’ the favourite to win the 2025 British GP

The weather could help bring the Ferrari star into contention at Silverstone, after Hamilton’s emotional wet-dry win in the 2024 British GP as the crowd favourite withstood the threat of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen. The win even ended Hamilton’s 945-day win drought since 2021.

READ MORE: McLaren driver Lando Norris’ life outside F1 from parents to celebration

But while rain is on the forecast for the 2025 British GP, Hill thinks the winner at Silverstone has ‘got to be’ McLaren driver Lando Norris. The 1996 F1 champion expects the 24-year-old will be ‘desperate’ to earn his first home win after coming second in 2023 and third in 2024.

Hill told the Mirror. “Nigel Mansell used to say the support of a home crowd was worth a second a lap, and it definitely adds something. If I had to stick my neck out at Silverstone, it’s got to be Lando. It feels like this is his time, I’m sure he’ll be desperate to win it.”

McLaren’s strategy denied Lando Norris a chance to fight Lewis Hamilton and win the 2024 British GP

McLaren’s strategy denied Norris his chance to fight Hamilton for the win in the 2024 British GP, having pitted the Bristol native onto a set of soft compound Pirelli tyres for his final stint as Silverstone started to dry back out. It meant he could not push and finished 7.547s back.

READ MORE: The most successful F1 drivers at the British GP of all time and at Silverstone

Red Bull, in contrast, gave Verstappen a set of medium tyres for his final stint, which allowed the Dutchman to pass Norris for second place on Lap 48/52. Hamilton worked wonders with soft tyres to win the 2024 British GP and take his first win since the 2021 Saudi Arabian GP.

Norris will now need a clean performance from McLaren if he is to fulfil Hill’s prediction and win the 2025 British GP. McLaren team principal Andrea Stella feels Norris can win the 2025 British GP, as well, after the Briton won last Sunday’s Austrian Grand Prix from pole position.