Is it conceivable that Mercedes could drop Russell for Verstappen?
Venue: Silverstone Dates: 4-6 July Race start: 15:00 BST on Sunday
Coverage: Live commentary of practice and qualifying on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra 2 with race on BBC Radio 5 Live; live text updates on BBC Sport website and app
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Lando Norris led home team-mate Oscar Piastri in a fourth McLaren one-two this season, after a race-long battle in Austria.
Formula 1 now heads to the UK for round 12 at the British Grand Prix this weekend.
BBC Sport F1 correspondent Andrew Benson answers your latest questions before the race at Silverstone.
Is it conceivable that Mercedes could ditch George Russell in favour of Max Verstappen for 2026? Irrespective of Max's pedigree as a multiple world champion, bringing him in to replace George would be incredibly harsh on a driver who has performed pretty much flawlessly so far this year. - Ieuan
Yes, it's conceivable. We have summed up the situation with Mercedes in an earlier piece.
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It was already well known that Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff was likely to explore his options with Verstappen this summer - as he did last year. And it was Russell who broke this situation out into the open before the Austrian Grand Prix, by saying it was "only normal that conversations with the likes of Verstappen are ongoing".
Russell has driven an exceptional season so far. But Verstappen is regarded as the best driver in the world. Wolff is talking to him and his management to work out whether a deal is do-able and desired by both parties.
If the answer to that is yes, Wolff then has to decide who would be Verstappen's team-mate. It would likely be Kimi Antonelli, in the interests of creating the best balanced team.
Relations between Verstappen and Russell are tense, and it's hard to imagine them working as team-mates.
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Yes, that would be harsh on Russell - just as it was harsh on Carlos Sainz when Ferrari decided they preferred to sign Lewis Hamilton for 2025. But it would also be understandable from Mercedes' point of view.
As for Red Bull, team principal Christian Horner has emphasised that Verstappen has a contract until 2028.
"The rest," as Horner put it, "is all noise that's not coming from him."
Noise, perhaps. But it happens to be true.
Will Lewis Hamilton have any authority to change the engineering structure around him at Ferrari? It seems like he's overruled strategically in almost every race, and very rarely (in his eyes at least) for the better. - Alex
This is a topic that keeps coming up a lot with regard to Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari - the perceived tension between him and his engineer Riccardo Adami on the radio.
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But whenever Hamilton is asked about it, he dismisses it.
In Spain last month, Hamilton said: "Our relationship is great, no problems. We're constantly learning more and more about each other. We're constantly adapting to the way both of us like to work.
"He's worked with lots of different drivers before. We don't have any problems whatsoever."
Of course, you would expect him to say that, but it is also what is being said by Ferrari, and by insiders behind the scenes.
Team principal Frederic Vasseur characterises what is sometimes broadcast from the team radio as the standard to and fro between driver and engineer.
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And Hamilton feels his messages are regarded differently from those of other drivers - he has pointed out how stroppy Max Verstappen sounds from time to time with Red Bull, for example, but that people don't react the same way to that.
As for the specific situation in Austria on Sunday and Hamilton saying he wanted to stay out longer rather than pit when he was called, deputy team principal Jerome d'Ambrosio said there was no fundamental disagreement over strategy.
"It was more a matter of setting, so staying a few more laps," D'Ambrosio said. "It's nothing out of the norm. What we tried to do was our optimal strategy. Try to optimise your race time. That's what we did with both drivers.
"There was no incentive to do anything different because the McLarens were clearly far ahead and George quite far behind. So we just did the standard optimum strategy and that was the best thing to do.
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"The drivers question, 'Is this the best? Can we do something else?' They're racers, they're F1 drivers. That's what they do. That's what they should do. And I just saw Lewis right now and he looked at the numbers and said, 'Yeah, that's what made sense.'"
McLaren reserve driver Alex Dunne is currently second in the F2 championship [Getty Images]
Do you think Alex Dunne will get a seat in F1 next season and what potential does he have? – Ralph
Alex Dunne has certainly put himself on the radar of F1, first with his strong showing in Formula 2 in his debut season, and then with his accomplished performance in first practice in Austria at the weekend with McLaren.
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Of that, team principal Andrea Stella said that the Irishman had been "very precise" when doing the data acquisition work, and on performance runs later "not short of impressive".
Dunne, 19, ended the session just 0.069 seconds slower than race driver Oscar Piastri, although his time was set later in the session, when the track was quicker.
The question is, what do McLaren do with him next?
If Dunne doesn't win F2, he can stay there for another season. If he does win F2, he will have to move on. But where to?
McLaren don't have an available seat in F1, and there are not many he could take.
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Farming him out to another team is an option, but that's always complicated because teams are not always that keen to have a driver who is on a piece of elastic to a rival.
McLaren do have other options - they have an Indycar team, for example. Dunne could possibly go there for a couple of years. But if his ultimate trajectory is F1, which it seems now it might be, that might not be considered a desirable option.
But given Dunne's obvious potential, this is what people in F1 tend to describe as "a good problem to have".
What are Cadillac's chances of survival in F1? Especially considering they are starting from scratch rather than taking over an existing team like Audi with Sauber. - Adam
Cadillac - the luxury brand of US car giant General Motors - is entering F1 next year with a new team, in partnership with the US investment group TWG.
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They have set up a team from scratch and will use a Ferrari customer engine until a bespoke GM engine is ready. GM has been accepted by the FIA as a power-unit supplier from 2029.
The media was given a tour of the Cadillac factory site at Silverstone last week by team principal Graeme Lowdon.
He said: "You will not see this team over-promising in any way. But we do want to convey the fact that the ambitions are really limitless, as they should be."
Lowdon, who previously worked in F1 with Manor/Marussia, said the team were realistic about what they can achieve next year.
He said: "Can you imagine if you've owned a Formula 1 team for 10 years and then another team rocks up and beats you? You would be apoplectic. You would be so annoyed.
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"And so you have to assume that any new team coming in is going to be last, otherwise, you know, what's gone wrong somewhere else? We know how difficult it is."
The team is currently spread over six units at Silverstone. This will be rationalised down to four, in addition to the main new TWG base being constructed in Fishers, Indianapolis, and due to be finished next year, and the GM engine plant in Charlotte, North Carolina.
To deal with this disparate set-up, Lowdon says they have developed a "very flat management structure, highly modelled on the Apollo project. We're not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes."
He added: "Race teams are often described in military terms, organised in a kind of pyramid and you have one person at the top. And the typical military structure is command and control. So you issue commands, people do things.
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"When it's multi-site like this, that becomes a massive challenge. So instead, it's a different structure where it's mission control instead of command and control.
"Engineers are able to talk directly to each other. And the thing that's heavily imparted on them is the mission itself."
TWG and GM are massive companies and say they are in it for the long haul. Survival is not really the question. It's how successful they can be and in what timeframe that is more the unknown.
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