Components 1 is again in North America this weekend for the Canadian Grand Prix, the fifth spherical of the 2026 season.
Mercedes’ George Russell, who received the race final 12 months, will probably be aiming to slim the 20-point hole to his team-mate Kimi Antonelli on the prime of the drivers’ championship.
Commercial
Earlier than the race in Montreal, BBC F1 correspondent Andrew Benson solutions your newest questions.
Why do not different F1 drivers enter completely different types of motor racing like Max Verstappen is presently doing with the endurance racing? – Paul
final weekend generated a variety of curiosity, however it’s no accident that he’s solely the third grand prix driver in additional than 20 years – and possibly longer – to race critically elsewhere whereas competing in Components 1.
The opposite huge identify to take action was Fernando Alonso, in direction of the tip of his first profession in F1, after which whereas he was nonetheless beneath contract to McLaren.
Commercial
Nico Hulkenberg additionally raced at Le Mans when he was at Drive India in 2015.
The principle motive drivers don’t typically do that is that their contracts forbid it.
Why? Properly, danger is the primary apparent motive. Then there are potential contractual clashes, and the shortage of time accessible to commit to doing one thing like this correctly.
In Verstappen’s case, it’s a query of the stability of energy between driver and staff. He has large leverage with Purple Bull that the majority different drivers shouldn’t have.
He’s a four-time world champion, and the staff are determined to maintain him comfortable. On a common stage, but in addition as a result of
Commercial
Alonso’s state of affairs was not dissimilar. His McLaren was uncompetitive. The staff needed to maintain him comfortable. And within the case of the Indy journey notably, McLaren F1 boss Zak Brown is a motorsport fan via and thru and he thought it was a cool factor to do.
On Verstappen, by the way in which, he was completely – and unsurprisingly – excellent on the Nordschleife.
His first stint within the automobile on Saturday afternoon took his staff from tenth on the highway to the lead. A lead they by no means misplaced till the driveshaft failure that value them the win on Sunday morning.
Most of that was Verstappen overtaking different automobiles, albeit a small quantity pitted out of his means on divergent methods.
Commercial
However the race additionally underlined why F1 groups do not let drivers do that type of factor.
Verstappen practically crashed at excessive pace early in that stint when his automobile’s entrance wheels turned airborne over a crest as he chased a rival.
And there have been a collection of different near-misses, as there at all times are on this type of race with a lot of completely different classes of automobiles, and big pace differentials.
Typically, these types of races are extra harmful than F1.
Purple Bull’s Sebastian Vettel received the 2013 drivers’ championship – the final to function V8 engines – by 155 factors from Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso [Getty Images]
A lot of the 2013 season was boring. Why such a passion for the period? I am intrigued by the calls for of the brand new period and really feel it is constant and coherent with the present age. Are the critics of the present period flagging their age and risking their obsolescence? – Dave
This query primarily centres on the push by FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem to return Components 1 to a set of engine rules which might be just about the identical because the period from 2010-13.
Commercial
We delved into this matter extensively final week. There is a hyperlink to that article under.
Now, as to the precise query, sure, 2013 was fairly boring, or not less than the second half of it was.
The season began comparatively competitively – Purple Bull’s Sebastian Vettel received 4 of the primary 10 grands prix, however Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, Lotus’ Kimi Raikkonen and Mercedes drivers Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton all received over that interval.
However a change to the specification of tyres following a collection of blow-outs on the British Grand Prix led to Purple Bull dominating and Vettel received the final 9 races in a row to clinch a fourth consecutive world title.
Commercial
The final years of the V8 period, as soon as refuelling was banned on the finish of 2009, fluctuated between intensely aggressive and, er, not.
The 2010 and 2012 seasons had gripping title fights. In 2010 there have been 5 drivers within the working till the penultimate race, and 4 mathematically on the final one.
That was the 12 months Ferrari dropped the ball on technique in Abu Dhabi and threw away the title, letting Purple Bull and Vettel in to win their first title.
In 2012, there have been seven completely different winners within the first seven races, and the title struggle between Vettel and Alonso went to the ultimate race once more.
In 2011, as in 2013, Vettel and Purple Bull dominated.
Commercial
However there have been much more elements concerned in these eventualities than simply engines. Tyres, for one. The relative competitiveness of the automobiles for an additional.
Nevertheless, the naturally aspirated period – and particularly the years from 1994-2009 when there was refuelling – was infamous for the shortage of overtaking on observe.
That has definitely elevated this 12 months with the brand new fashion of “yo-yo racing” caused by the brand new hybrid engines.
There are such a lot of points wrapped up on this engine debate. A few of it might be folks paying homage to the previous, one they felt was extra enticing than what F1 serves up at the moment.
Commercial
However there may be additionally a price situation, whether or not the essence of F1 has been polluted, noise, the altering road-car market place and on and on.
With Kimi Antonelli doing particularly properly currently and a variety of discuss his expertise and future, can we put a few of his outcomes right down to his race engineer Pete Bonnington? Everyone knows how good Lewis Hamilton was working with Bono. – Michael
The connection with their engineer is without doubt one of the most vital for a racing driver.
In Peter Bonnington, Antonelli has somebody of huge expertise, who has “discovered from the greats”, as Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff put it in Miami.
Commercial
Bonnington beforehand had the identical function with Michael Schumacher after which Lewis Hamilton. Wolff says: “He has been mentor to (Antonelli). But additionally a powerful boss.”
However placing Antonelli with Bonnington is only one instance of the care Mercedes have taken with the beginning of Antonelli’s F1 profession.
Wolff has at all times been satisfied of his protege’s potential. He has stated again and again that he knew Antonelli would make errors at first of his profession, however that equally he knew he would come good.
And now Antonelli has executed precisely that, Wolff is already within the subsequent section – retaining him grounded and centered on the job, and never getting carried away with issues.
Commercial
Wolff says: “We have to preserve re-emphasising and repeating the message. It is a lengthy sport. He has a killer of a team-mate (George Russell) that’s extraordinarily quick. The others are catching up in efficiency. And we need to play the lengthy sport.”
How does a driver’s measurement and weight have an effect on the efficiency of the car? Is any allowance or compensation made for bigger drivers, for instance Russell vs Antonelli? – Gil
The F1 guidelines are constructed in such a means as to minimise any deficit a driver may endure from their measurement and weight.
The minimal weight for an F1 automobile this 12 months is 768kg, and that features the motive force.
Commercial
The precept behind that is that in any other case lighter drivers would have a bonus over heavier ones, as decrease weight is lap time.
Again within the late Eighties and early Nineties, this was the case. So, for instance, when Nigel Mansell and Alain Prost had been Ferrari team-mates in 1990, the significantly heavier Mansell needed to actually drive quicker to lap on the similar pace as Prost.
As Mansell was stated to be greater than 20kg heavier than Prost, that in principle put him at an obstacle of a bit of over 0.2secs a lap.
Basically, that is now a non-issue, though it does nonetheless crop up for taller drivers infrequently in the case of seating place and making an attempt to get their head low sufficient to not impede the airflow, particularly into the engine air consumption.
