Prime Tire Newsletter | This is The Athletic’s F1 newsletter. Sign up here to receive Prime Tire directly in your inbox twice a week during the season and weekly in the offseason.Welcome back to Prime Tire, where today I’m both 1) overjoyed that Mexico-England’s World Cup kickoff wasn’t moved up to clash with our post-British GP race work last Sunday and 2) furious that FIFA kept me up past 4 a.m. London time right after a dramatic Silverstone weekend.But don’t worry, there are only a few soccer football references in today’s newsletter!I’m Alex, and Sam Joseph will be along later. (Luke Smith and Madeline Coleman are enjoying some well-earned rest ahead of the Belgian GP.)This Again: 2026 British GP 🤝 2021 Abu Dhabi GPThat Silverstone race ending looked mighty familiar.There was a dominant Mercedes driver storming to yet another victory, crushing the hopes of a title rival. Then, a handful of laps before the checkered flag, there was a crash that should’ve been avoided, the appearance of the safety car and Lewis Hamilton losing as a result.All told, there were a few similarities between last weekend’s British GP and the 2021 Abu Dhabi 2021. It includes some that I’ve admittedly crowbarred in here through a sleep-starved brain-scramble for something analogous.Instead of Hamilton cruising toward victory and an eighth world title, like 4 1/2 years ago in Abu Dhabi, it was Kimi Antonelli at the wheel of the fastest Mercedes last weekend. This time, Antonelli was on course to catch Charles Leclerc with a few laps left and move 55 points clear in the standings in his pursuit of his first title. Spoiler: Leclerc won.(More déjà vu? Antonelli’s main title rival this season, George Russell, was down in fifth after another disturbingly familiar race for him, too. That was: poor speed around flashes of great potential, then an unfortunate slow puncture just when he seemed back in control.)There’s one key difference from the race-ending description above: This time, Mercedes lost due to its own reliability problem. The wheel shield around the left-front brake duct on Antonelli’s car was damaged on a curb, and was what ultimately ruined his once-very-high chances of winning the race.But everything else also happened at Silverstone, including Hamilton’s loss.We’ll get to Hamilton in just a minute, but first: It was Max Verstappen’s spin into the gravel on Lap 47 that brought out the safety car. His race-ending crash is a real problem that Red Bull should’ve avoided.