Daniel Ricciardo has revealed the key factor he is considering before committing to a new contract with Red Bull beyond 2018.

The Australian was considered the highest profile driver that was out of contract at the end of this season and potentially looking for alternatives following a disappointing five years with the Milton Keynes outfit that has seen them close but never close enough to challenging Mercedes and now Ferrari.

However, possible seats at the other top three teams are now seemingly unavailable, as Mercedes continue with Valtteri Bottas alongside Lewis Hamilton and the Scuderia consider Charles Leclerc as a replacement for Kimi Raikkonen.

That means Red Bull is the only viable front-running option left, but even there, there are claims he was wanting assurances of his position in the team alongside Max Verstappen.

"Not that I don’t want that [No.1 status] but I don’t need that, it’s all right," Ricciardo was quoted by F1i.com.

"Obviously Max is driving well but I genuinely think there have been things every weekend since Monaco which have just been a bit of a disruption or a bit of bad luck.

"Like the front wing and all that with Paul Ricard. Just pisses me off."

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Instead, the main worry has been on Red Bull's decision to switch to Honda in 2019, with the 29-year-old keen to ensure it was made for the right reasons.

"I’ve obviously heard the team out more than once and they’ve given me the reasons," he told Motorsport.com.

"The important thing to understand for me why they’ve done it, it can’t just be purely on emotions. Like, ‘It’s gone to shit with Renault, whatever, and we’re doing it because we want to change’.

"They’ve obviously done their homework and they strongly believe that it is a good thing, not just on an emotional decision.

"They’ve done what they can to try and encourage me to make it happen."

Mercedes motorsport boss Toto Wolff believes getting on terms with Ferrari in terms of race starts is more important than the possible strategy mistakes his team has made in recent weeks.

In France and Austria, Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen respectively, used a tyre advantage to challenge into the first corner, however, at Silverstone, it was simply wheelspin that saw Lewis Hamilton lose two places by the first corner before being involved in the infamous collision with Raikkonen at Turn 3 which spin his car around.

Traditionally this is another area where the German manufacturer hasn't been the strongest, with both Williams getting ahead memorably by Turn 1 in 2015 at the same race another example where it has let the team down.

"We need to find some performance in the race starts to avoid incidents like we saw [at Silverstone]," Wolff said. "What we need to understand is where can we improve and where can we engineer."

Explaining what happened, chief race engineer Andrew Shovlin added: "There was a bit less grip on the grid than we were expecting.

“We had done practice starts there and at Silverstone they do actually allow you do a start from the grid, but for some reason on Sunday, we didn’t quite have what we expected and as soon as you get the wheelspin, you lose traction - and that lost him places quickly.

"We know very well that if we qualify on pole we have got to get off the line as well as the Ferraris, and that is what we will be trying to do in Hockenheim."

The strategy was also in the spotlight again in Britain as a decision to leave Valtteri Bottas out on used Mediums during the first Safety Car, though gave the Finn track position over Vettel, would see him drop back to fourth by the finish as his grip ran out.

“I think the strategy was pretty good," Wolff insisted. "We decided to go for the track position. It was the right call in my view, and we wouldn’t have won the race otherwise in my opinion. So [I'm] fine with that. 

“I think that both strategies are valid, but doing the opposite [to Ferrari] was the choice we went for and at the end, it brought us a P2 and P4.

"Considering how the race started, we need to accept the result as an acceptable outcome with real damage limitation."

Formula 1 should consider dropping the requirement of each team to run two cars, opening the way for single or three-car entries, says ex-Williams technical chief Pat Symonds.

The respected British engineer is now part of Ross Brawn's team at Liberty Media, conducting research into coming up with rules to improve the racing, predominantly from when the new Concorde Agreement comes into effect in 2021.

The thought of three-car teams, in particular, has been put forward before, when several teams collapsed leaving the grid with just the current total of 20 and Symonds wants to put it back on the agenda.

“What has been considered is what is the ideal number of cars,” he was quoted by RaceFans. “More in the context of ‘Should we introduce more teams to Formula One?’.

“It hasn’t been on the agenda, [but] it’s a good point and probably at our next meeting it’s something we will debate.”

Admittedly though, Symonds doesn't expect much support because of the current political landscape in F1.

“I think at the moment one of the problems that F1 has suffered from is that the teams have probably held too much power. It’s a little bit of ‘turkeys voting for Christmas’ sometimes," he claimed.

“I guess they’ll be worried that if there was a smaller number of teams with a big power base, that’s probably not conducive to change and we all need to change and evolve as our sport changes, as the world around us changes.”

McLaren's new sporting director Gil de Ferran has outlined where he intends to focus as he looks to turn around the fortunes of the British team.

Last week, the former Indianapolis 500 winner and ChampCar champion, who initially joined as an advisor ahead of what was thought to be a 2019 IndyCar project, replaced Eric Boullier who resigned from his post as part of an overhaul by CEO Zak Brown.

At Silverstone, the American was seen on the pitwall for the first time and he would speak to Motorsport.com after the race about what is his second role in F1, having worked for Honda between 2005 and 2007.

“The success I had behind the wheel and any success I have as a businessman, I think came from really trying to understand what my weaknesses were,” de Ferran said.

"This is really the philosophy I’m bringing to my job. Originally as an advisor to Zak, that’s how I was looking at things and I’ll continue to do this - but with more responsibility."

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One thing that De Ferran is sure of, even after his short stint with the team, is the potential within McLaren is there to return back to the heights the team once had and somewhat nonchalantly thought they would just stroll back to.

“It’s clear to me that the team has a lot of talent,” he continued. "Wherever I look, you see smart guys ... There’s certainly a lot of talent and a lot of brainpower.

"[It's about] knowing how to get a team together, working together and getting people to feel focused and motivated, really understand where they are going, and truly engage.

“This is how I personally operate, and this is really the philosophy I’m bringing to my job," he added. "The key area here is communicating, having clarity in certain things. I think that will help going forward."

Mercedes motorsport boss Toto Wolff is pushing for the engine regulations to be unchanged in 2021 and beyond if no new manufacturer decides to join the grid.

Though a final agreement on changes to the current V6 turbo-hybrids is anticipated, recent comments by Aston Martin CEO Andy Palmer and uncertainty over a possible Porsche entry is potentially meaning one of the key ambitions of Liberty Media, to encourage new suppliers, may not be met.

Therefore, if only the current four manufacturers, Mercedes, Ferrari, Renault and Honda remain, Wolff wonders what would be the point of changing anything at all?

“It’s still very much [up] for discussion," the Austrian told RaceFans. We had a presentation that would have meant a redesign of the engine.

“All four OEMs currently engaged in Formula 1 have given their preference with an understanding from our side that we maybe needed a bit more noise and not a discussion around fuel consumption, that’s important.

"But just for the benefit of redesigning an engine, without anybody else entering, it doesn’t make a lot of sense," he claimed.

“If somebody would commit to coming into F1 the way we have committed ourselves, all four of us – go through the lows and highs, the expense of the investment it needs – then let’s discuss engine regulations. But if nobody’s inside, it’s an academic discussion.”

While it may seem clear from the side of the Mercedes chief, Red Bull boss Christian Horner told the same outlet there is still another opinion to take into consideration.

"I think it’s down to the FIA and Liberty to decide what do they want,” he said.

Possible changes mooted so far include the removal of the MGU-H to improve the noise and the revs as well a reduce the cost, that is something that all manufacturers have accepted but it will be interesting to find out what the next step will be.

Renault Sport managing director Cyril Abiteboul hasn't closed the door on Fernando Alonso joining the French manufacturer for a third time in the future, but only on a multi-year deal.

The Enstone-based outfit is still considering possible driver options for 2019 as they wait for final confirmation from Red Bull on whether Daniel Ricciardo will be remaining with the team beyond this season.

That is key as Carlos Sainz is currently on loan with Renault and would be considered the lead candidate to replace the Australian if he were to go elsewhere.

"We are not in a hurry and we also have to see what are the side effects of the [Red Bull] decision on the engine," he was quoted by F1i.com last weekend at Silverstone.

"In general the drivers we have work well and we would like to keep them, but I am also calm in the sense that, if we have a good car and progress as a team, we will have a selection of drivers who want to be with us."

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Names like Stoffel Vandoorne and Esteban Ocon, both who have past associations with Renault, have been linked but the history between the team and Alonso means that possibility is always thrown in the hat.

"I don't want to encourage that rumour," Abiteboul told Spain's Marca.

"I think Fernando first has to decide what he wants to do for himself, which is whether to continue driving in F1 or not.

"We have a lot of respect for Fernando, but we are more interested in drivers who want to be with us in the long term.

"We could still reach an agreement with Alonso, but doing it for a year would not make sense," he concluded.

Toro Rosso technical director James Key admits his team is still searching to discover what caused Brendon Hartley's incredible suspension failure during Saturday practice at the British GP.

The Kiwi was approaching Brooklands when the front-left imploded the moment he touched the brakes, sending his car into the gravel and barrier at relatively high-speed and despite frantically trying to rebuild his car in time for the race start, Hartley would only last a lap before returning to the pits to retire.

Speaking to Motorsport.com, one possibility that Key had ruled out was an upgraded suspension part was to blame after reverting to an old-spec as a precaution.

"It is still being investigated and understood. We’ve never had any issues at all, certainly not of that nature. We did nine races without any problems," said the British engineer.

“We haven’t seen anything like that, all the loads that were going through the front left suspension were well within the loads that it was designed for.

"That corner had a history, it had been used the previous day, it had been used in Canada, a big braking track, it had been used in Bahrain.

"It had been serviced and quality control checked, proof-tested, and everything was fine," he added.

"What we need to establish whether there was some damage to it."

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Key would then explain the process currently being undertaken with the junior Red Bull team hoping not for a repeat in the future.

"They’ve been sent back to the factory, they’ve all been quarantined, they will go through a forensic examination so that we can work out what is impact damage, what is the potential failure, clues to how a failure could have occurred, etc. And we have various options to address any possible outcomes," he said.

"We did a race with Pierre for 52 laps without any problems whatsoever, so it feels like a one-off, due to a set of circumstances that we need to understand, although you can never make assumptions like that."

Formula 1's managing director of motorsport, Ross Brawn, is "sure" a solution will be found to keep the British Grand Prix at Silverstone beyond 2019.

As crowds basked in the sunshine, one fact some seemed to forget was last Sunday could have been the penultimate race held at the Northamptonshire circuit which held the first F1 race back in 1950.

This comes after the BRDC bosses activated a break clause last year in the race contract they signed in 2009 citing spiralling, unsustainable costs as the reason why they could no longer host the British race beyond next year.

However, speaking to Sky Sports' Martin Brundle on the grid, Brawn pointed to the crowds and the atmosphere before declaring: “I’m sure we’re going to find a solution with Silverstone because we cannot leave this behind.

“The frustration is the negotiations are taking place in public," he continued. “Every circuit we deal with we do it quietly and get on with it, but for some reason, Silverstone chooses to make everything public which causes more difficulties.

“But we’ll find a solution.”

F1 has been here before on several occasions with former supremo Bernie Ecclestone threatening to pull the race and, indeed, Donington Park was meant to be taking over in 2010 before their planned expansion fell through.

A street race in London has been touted as an alternative, but after the thrills of this past weekend, it would be hard to imagine the calendar without a trip to where it all began.

Outspoken former Formula 1 world champion Jacques Villeneuve believes the stewards only penalised Kimi Raikkonen 10 seconds during the British GP because it was Lewis Hamilton he hit.

The now infamous moment took place at Village on the opening lap as the Finn locked his front-left brake and tagged the right-rear of the Mercedes, spinning him into the run-off area and dropping the Silverstone favourite to the back of the field.

The stewards would then give the Ferrari driver the harshest penalty that can be given and served during a pit-stop of 10 seconds which to some seemed excessive compared to similar incidents, notably Sebastian Vettel taking out Valtteri Bottas at the start in France.

"I don't understand why it's 10 seconds, and another time it's five, sometimes it's nothing," Villeneuve told Autosport.

"That's what's wrong. It's racing. I don't like it when there are racing penalties, it should be for dirty driving, which is a different thing, or stupid driving.

"They decided that it's Lewis, we're in the UK, he's fighting for the championship, that's worth 10 seconds.

"If it had been Bottas, it would have been five seconds, that's the thing," he added, the penalty Vettel was later given for colliding with the second Mercedes driver at Paul Ricard.

Fernando Alonso and Pierre Gasly were left scratching their heads at inconsistent penalty decisions, which in some cases saw no punishment despite a clear transgression, but the former Williams driver turned pundit offered another example where the driver involved and the location could have been considered.

"You see things like [Max] Verstappen in Austria when he touched Kimi [to pass him on the opening lap]," said the Canadian.

"Why wasn't that a penalty? Just because Kimi didn't go off? If Kimi had gone off, then it would have been a penalty?

"That's what's wrong, it's the action that matters, not what happens after the action, ultimately."

The Silverstone incident gained more attention after Hamilton's reaction, suggesting Ferrari were using "interesting tactics" before later rescinding.

However, Villeneuve believes the Briton should be grateful it happened.

"Without them crashing into each other he would have been running third the whole race, not having people moving out of the way to let him by, he would have destroyed his tyres," he claimed.

"That ended up working out because he was the later one to pit, so he was the one who at the end had tyres that were still OK compared to Bottas.

"He finished second after a crappy start, so he should be happy with that because he wasn't going to win this race. Nothing to complain about."

Kimi Raikkonen received the backing from a former Mercedes driver in Nico Rosberg regarding the first-lap incident with Lewis Hamilton at Silverstone.

The current world champion had suggested that the Finn was involved in some "interesting tactics" by Ferrari and that their collision may not have been accidental before later admitting he overreacted and accepted the Finn's apology.

In between this initial comments and his later withdrawal though, his former teammate refuted any thought that there was any intention from Raikkonen to take out Hamilton.

 The answer is pretty simple. 100% not on purpose," Rosberg said on his YouTube channel.

“Kimi is driving for his own thing. He was out there and just completely messed it up, braked way too late, locked up and torpedoed into Lewis.

“It is unusual for Kimi because usually, those kinds of things don’t happen to him. So a bit strange.

“But definitely not on purpose, and well deserved to get a 10-second penalty and two [licence penalty] points.”

Also always one to weigh in on a controversy, Red Bull team boss Christian Horner also claimed the moment was out of character for Raikkonen.

“When you have that growing tension, speculation is unavoidable when these incidents occur,” he said, trying to explain Lewis' initial reaction.

“But I believe it’s nothing more than a racing incident.

“I would be surprised if there was anything else or if Kimi is that kind of driver,” he added.