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Yahoo
06-05-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Is the risk that Mercedes took with Antonelli paying off?
Oscar Piastri claimed victory in Miami to make it three wins in a row, beating team-mate Lando Norris in a McLaren one-two. Piastri now leads the drivers' championship by 16 points from Norris. Meanwhile, Ferrari were embroiled in a controversy over team orders after Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc were both asked to swap positions. BBC Sport F1 correspondent Andrew Benson answers your latest questions after the Miami Grand Prix. What on earth is wrong at Ferrari? - Jonathan After the Miami Grand Prix, the questions in Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur's news conference focused largely on the team orders debate between the team and drivers Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc during the race. Vasseur became a little frustrated with this, and in the end said: "It's not the story of the day," pointing out that the only difference it made in the end was which driver finished seventh and eighth. "I would be much more keen to speak about why we finished one minute behind McLaren," he said. Vasseur claimed that in the race, the car's pace was a match for the Red Bull of Max Verstappen and the Mercedes, but Ferrari paid the price for their poor grid positions. McLaren, he admitted, were "on another planet". Charles Leclerc qualified eighth and Lewis Hamilton 12th, Ferrari's worst qualifying result of the season, and that was largely because they were struggling to get the best out of new tyres. That's why Hamilton and Leclerc ran on used tyres in the second set of qualifying. As Vasseur put it: "Everybody improved 0.5-0.6secs between scrubbed to new and we lost 0.2-0.3secs." Asked why Ferrari struggled with tyres in Miami, he said: "That's a good question. If I knew the answer, I would do a step forward and we would have fixed it between Q2 and Q3. "You always have to operate the tyres in a very narrow window. It's different from track to track, it's different from compound to compound, from track temp to track temp. And it's always after the session that you say, 'OK, I could have done differently.'" But that was just Miami. The wider issue is that the car is not where Ferrari expected it to be at the start of this season, after running McLaren so close for the constructors' title last year. Other teams - especially McLaren - made more progress over the winter, and Ferrari simply need to make the car faster. On average, it is the slowest of the top four teams, and Ferrari have scored only one grand prix podium, thanks to Leclerc in Saudi Arabia. Hamilton won the sprint in China, but that seems to be a case of him and the team finding a good set-up after just one practice session, while others did not, and then benefiting from clean air at the start of the race. As Leclerc put it: "Lewis did an outstanding job. Maybe some drivers didn't put everything together in (sprint) qualifying and he managed to do that and managed to outperform the car a bit. "Then tyre degradation being a big thing, when you start in front, everything comes to you a bit more. Lewis made a difference on Friday and Saturday." There are what Vasseur calls "some small upgrades" coming at the next two races in Imola and Monaco. And Vasseur hopes that the stricter rules on front wing deflection that are being introduced at the subsequent race in Spain will make a difference. "Everybody will have a new front wing in Barcelona," he said. "By definition and by regulation. I think it will be perhaps a reset of the performance of everybody." The implication is that McLaren are benefiting from exploiting this phenomenon. McLaren themselves say they expect it to make little difference to them. Ferrari progressed well with upgrades in both 2023 and 2024 after difficult starts. Vasseur remains confident they can do the same this year. Hamilton said on Sunday: "I feel optimistic for the future. I think this car really does have performance. Something's holding us back at the moment. We've lost performance since China. And it's there, it's just we can't use it. Until we get a fix for that, then this is where we are." 'Fire in my belly' led to team orders controversy - Hamilton Verstappen 'not racing very smart' - Norris Is the risk that Mercedes took bringing Kimi Antonelli into the team now rather than later paying off? – Callum Kimi Antonelli had had a steady start to his debut Formula 1 season, as he said was his plan from the start - he wanted to build steadily and not make big errors. In Miami, the 18-year-old for the first time showed a glimpse of the high potential Mercedes believed him to have, and which persuaded them to throw him in at the deep end this year. He was confident in the car from the start, and he was always the faster Mercedes driver over one lap. Pole for the sprint race was an outstanding performance, and he repeated it with third on the grid for the grand prix. Neither race went as well, but team principal Toto Wolff believes that was evidence of Antonelli's continued need to learn in the complex world of F1. Wolff described the qualifying performances as "another proof of his talent and a good indication of how the future can be". He added: "In the race, challenging, because it's so difficult here to find the right reference. The medium (tyre) stint, quick enough, you know, with George (Russell) holding on in the back on the hard tyre. "And then when he went into the hard, he just lacked experience managing it the right way. "(We're) finding the right references and trying to guide him, but when you're in that car, it's not easy. It's just part of the learning curve." Wolff always said that it would take time for Antonelli to adapt to F1, and that's the way it is working out. Antonelli has a long way to go before he proves he is the generational talent Mercedes - and others who have worked with him in the junior categories - believe him to be, but Miami was a good step in the right direction. How can Fernando Alonso turn his season around, having not scored a single point up until now? – Andrew It's fair to say that Fernando Alonso is not having his best season, and it's highly unusual to see that he has scored no points while team-mate Lance Stroll has scored 14 points and is 10th in the championship. The bottom line is that the Aston Martin is a poor car. Alonso has made a couple of mistakes, but fundamentally he has been unlucky and Stroll has benefited from circumstances. Alonso is still comfortably faster than the Canadian - the two-time champion is 7-1 ahead across all qualifying sessions at an average advantage of 0.321 seconds. He was driving well in Australia in the wet in an impressive sixth place, but crashed on gravel at Turn Six. The chaos in the race helped Stroll, driving well, to move up and claim that sixth place. Stroll then benefited from the disqualification of both Ferraris in China, and was promoted to ninth place. There, Alonso retired early on with his brakes on fire. Stroll benefited again from the chaos in the Miami sprint, where Alonso was driving well and on course for points when he was taken out in a crash with Liam Lawson. His spin in the grand prix, while uncharacteristic, "didn't change anything," he said. "I lost five seconds and then 10 laps later I catch the same group of cars and was still in the same place and then benefited from the virtual safety car. "Even with that, not enough (pace) to be closer to the cars in front today. We need to get better for Imola. We are not happy being at this pace but we are all trying the best we can." Aston Martin team boss Andy Cowell praised Alonso's qualifying performance in Japan as "outstanding" and in Jeddah as "impressive". But with no retirements, Alonso finished just out of the points in both races. The reality is that the car is eighth fastest in qualifying on average and in Miami was the slowest of all. So scoring points is always going to be difficult. Cowell said in Miami that Aston Martin were "not a happy camp and we're trying to work out (what has gone wrong)". Alonso was frustrated Aston Martin had rejected his calls for an earlier change to slicks in the sprint on Saturday in Miami, and said on Sunday: "I am trying to do my best behind the wheel. "I nailed Japan, P11. Jeddah was nearly perfect. As I said (before), we have three or four opportunities when chaos happens and you have the opportunity to score points. "There were three already this year. Australia, and I had the mistake and went on the gravel and went off. China, with three or four cars disqualified, and I had brakes on fire on lap one. "And yesterday the track was for dry tyres and we kept with the inters for too long. "We missed three opportunities to score points in my case and it is going to be one or two more in the season. I guess let's hope for some more." Alpine poised to replace Doohan with Colapinto Audi announces second management restructure Miami Grand Prix review
BBC News
22-04-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Will Verstappen modify his driving after penalty?
McLaren's Oscar Piastri leads the 2025 drivers' championship after victory in the Saudi Arabian Grand the first triple header of the season, there is a week's break before Formula 1 heads to Miami from 2-4 that, BBC Sport F1 correspondent Andrew Benson answers your latest questions following the race in Jeddah. Will Max Verstappen modify his driving as a result of the decision to give him a five-second penalty in Saudi Arabia? - KateMax Verstappen was given a five-second penalty in the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix because the stewards adjudged him to have gained an advantage by leaving the track while contesting the lead with McLaren's Oscar Piastri at the first stewards pointed to the driving standards guidelines in making their decision, reporting that "Car 81 (Piastri) had its front axle at least alongside the mirror of Car One (Verstappen) prior to and at the apex of corner one when trying to overtake Car One on the inside."In fact, Car 81 was alongside Car One at the apex. Based on the drivers' standards guidelines, it was therefore Car 81's corner and he was entitled to be given room."Verstappen chose not to give his opinion of the incident or the decision after the race, pointing to the risk he would be censured by governing body the Bull team principal Christian Horner said the penalty was "very harsh" because "Max can't just disappear".The guidelines don't dictate what a driver in his situation should do, but taking the lead back by going off track is not an option. But Verstappen races hard, and pushes the limit of the rules. In critical situations such as this, he will do everything he can to keep position, and then force the stewards to make a is understandable on two levels: first, the advantage of being in front and running in clean air is significant, as the race subsequently showed, and if he ends up being allowed to keep the position, it can win him the race; second, in the past, the stewards have often chosen not to punish the guidelines have changed this year, after significant pressure from the other drivers, exactly because of the way Verstappen was the first time the new rules have been tested with Verstappen, and this time his approach did not work. But he has had a lifetime of racing this way, so it would be quite a switch for him to change his said that, he is smart as well as tough. It would be a surprise if he did not learn from this incident in some ways for next Piastri's side, he has now laid down a marker to Verstappen. He is a decisive, clinical racer who is not to be intimidated. Does Lando Norris need to go sit down with Nico Rosberg to understand how he changed his mentality in his championship year? – GaryIn 2016, Nico Rosberg won the championship by pushing himself to the limit to be able to compete with an essentially faster team-mate in Lewis Hamilton, ensuring he was his best self all the time and hoping that would be was handed a significant advantage with the comparative reliability of the two Mercedes at the start of the season, and even then Hamilton would have clawed the advantage back had he not had an engine failure while leading in Malaysia late in the situation at McLaren this year feels different. In 2024, Norris was decisively the faster and more convincing McLaren driver over the season. In 2025 so far, that has been is struggling to adapt to certain characteristics of the McLaren - particularly its lack of front grip at certain phases of the corner with his driving he is aware of what he needs to do. As he put it in Jeddah on Sunday: "It's my qualifying, my Saturdays, which are not good enough at the minute. That's because I am struggling a little bit with the car."Yesterday was not the car, it was just me trying to take too many risks."So I just have to peg it back. I've got the pace. It's all in there. It's just sometimes I ask for a bit too much and sometimes I get a bit too 'ego' probably and try to put the perfect lap together. I just need to chill out a little bit."Of course when the margins are so tight - pole is being decided by hundredths of a second at each race - it's one thing to say that, and another to do it without coming off second best. During the race in Saudi Arabia, Liam Lawson picked up a 10-second penalty for completing his pass on Jack Doohan off-track, so gained an advantage. Max Verstappen only got five seconds for his off-track advantage. What's the difference between these two? - JamesAs the stewards explained in the verdict on Verstappen: "Ordinarily, the baseline penalty for leaving the track and gaining a lasting advantage is 10 seconds."However, given that this was lap one and a turn one incident, we considered that to be a mitigating circumstance and imposed a five-second time penalty instead."So Lawson got the standard penalty because it was during the body of the race, whereas Verstappen's had the mitigating circumstances of being on the first lap, which has come to be treated differently because of the proximity of all the cars. Why can't we go back to having a penalty that actually changes the position of the cars on track almost immediately (e.g. drive-through etc) rather than at a pit stop or after the race is completed? – NeilAfter the controversy of the title-deciding race in Abu Dhabi in 2021, it was decided that teams should no longer be able to talk directly to the race director during a grand they can still talk to his assistants in race control and discuss incidents. So when a driver does a manoeuvre that looks borderline, teams have three can choose proactively to give the place back - as McLaren did with Lando Norris against Lewis Hamilton in can get in touch with race control and ask for an opinion on the move, and then make a decision as to what to do about they can plough on and hope for the best, as Red Bull did in FIA stewards will then make their decision as to how to handle it. They have moved away from ordering drivers to give the position back, preferring specific penalties for specific course, the risk of this approach is that a driver in a faster car can commit an offence to gain an advantage and then effectively overturn the penalty before he serves it by building a lead bigger than the time loss of the is why Red Bull and Verstappen did not give the place back in Saudi people will see that as gaining from an unfair advantage, which is what the penalty is trying to prevent, so this approach clearly has potential flaws. But it is where the sport has landed for now. Williams have already beaten their 2024 full season points total. What has made them so much better? – StewartWilliams' progress this season is a direct result of the investment put in by owners Dorilton since they took over in 2020 and the changes to the team made under new boss James last year, the introduction of new factory processes caused a difficult winter, the car barely made the first test and it was overweight for the first chunk of the difference this year was dramatic - their launch was held at Silverstone in public view in mid-February, and they ran the car for the first time are very much focused on 2026 and the new rules being introduced then, but as Vowles put it at the launch: "What I can demonstrate is very clear progress that's taken place in manufacture, process, technology kicking in."We are moving into a new building this year, a benchmark driver in-the-loop simulator, that was started in 2023. The fact we've gone from 700 people to 1,000 means you'll have low-hanging fruit of producing a better car with more performance added to it. But I consider that second to the long-term investment to get us where we need to be."Being on the weight limit sounds like a small detail but is actually a big deal. Last year, it was costing them not far off 0.5 seconds a lap early in the year. Add that to this year's performance, and instead of being the fifth quickest car on average, as they are now, they would be eighth fastest, ahead of only Haas and top of that, Williams now has two world-class drivers rather than just one. And they are not crashing like they were last Albon ran with the car's improved performance and scored good points in the first three races, while both he and Carlos Sainz were in the top 10 in Saudi in a nutshell, the team has made progress, they have a better driver line-up and you're seeing it in the performance of the car.
BBC News
08-04-2025
- Automotive
- BBC News
Is Tsunoda an improvement on Lawson? F1 Q&A
Max Verstappen won the Japanese Grand Prix for the fourth successive time as he fended off McLaren's Lando Norris and Oscar 1 now heads to Bahrain for the second race of a triple-header, from 11-13 that, BBC Sport F1 correspondent Andrew Benson answers your questions. Why do drivers rate Suzuka as their favourite circuit when pole usually wins and there is very little chance of overtaking? Sunday's race was quite boring once Max Verstappen got to the first corner before Lando Norris. - StuartThe two things - the concept of a favourite circuit and one where overtaking is very difficult and the racing therefore sometimes uneventful - are not mutually look at Monaco. The drivers love the challenge of the track, but accept the race is likely going to be processional. So too with drivers did remark on the lack of action. But Fernando Alonso had a more nuanced has won at both Monaco and Suzuka, and made one of his greatest - one of the greatest - overtaking moves there when he passed Michael Schumacher's Ferrari around the outside of 130R in said: "This is Suzuka. I don't remember a race many times in the past where there is lots of overtaking without the weather changing."It seems every year we repeat always on Thursday how great Suzuka is, how great Monaco is, the glamour, the spectacular weekend, and then on Sunday we wake up and say: 'Ah, Monaco is boring, what can we do to the track? Suzuka is boring.'"Instead of looking at the negative, I try to enjoy the experience, and it was another great Suzuka."One thing is worth mentioning here. The resurfacing of the track in the first sector changed Suzuka this year from a circuit where tyre degradation was high, to one where it was changed the race from a two-stop strategy to a one. Add in the difficulty of overtaking to an event where there were no significant tyre-pace offsets developing, and the race was always likely to be though, led to a race that was driven pretty much flat out all the way by the drivers. And that - rare in the Pirelli era - they just because it fell short as entertainment, as a challenge for the drivers, it was very Verstappen - sensational all weekend on his way to victory - said: "It was a fun race. The whole race I saw two orange cars in my mirror and, especially those last 20 laps, we were pushing quite hard out there. You had to keep on fighting it, basically being on the limit."On the limit for an hour and a half around the greatest circuit on the planet. No racing driver is ever going to find that boring. Given the demotion to Racing Bulls for Liam Lawson, what are Jack Doohan's chances looking like at Alpine given that Franco Colapinto is a reserve driver? - AnjumWell, the first thing to say is just because Red Bull demoted Lawson, that does not necessarily mean Alpine will do the same to the surface, the Australian has had a traumatic start to the season. In three races so far, he has had two massive, expensive crashes. One when he spun in the wet in Australia, and one in Friday practice in Japan. Both were his was not the only driver to crash in the difficult wet conditions in Melbourne. Fernando Alonso and Carlos Sainz also did. And many more drivers spun or made there were some significant mitigating circumstances in crash was caused by him entering Turn One with the DRS overtaking aid still open. So the car didn't have enough downforce to cope with the G-forces on had been doing the same in the simulator in preparation for the race, thinking the DRS was closing automatically. But with the small lift he had on this particular lap, it did the same time, given his inexperience, it perhaps would have been a good idea for the engineers to remind him of though, had not realised he had been doing this in the mitigating factor was Doohan was under pressure to make up time because he had missed first practice while reserve driver Ryo Hirakawa was given an outing in his did Alpine not put Hirakawa in team-mate Pierre Gasly's car for first practice given Doohan's lack of experience at Suzuka? They had a difficult weekend in China and wanted to evaluate some new set-up ideas, for which they felt they needed Gasly's the two big accidents, Alpine feel Doohan has, on balance, had a positive start to the season, with some promising pace hidden by some unfortunate he is certainly not safe they decide to replace him, Alpine have two reserve drivers who could potentially step up - Colapinto and Estonian Paul Aron, who is due to drive the car in first practice at Bahrain this signing Colapinto from Williams, following his cameo role in the final few races of last season, the theory has been the access to Latin American money the Argentine gives means Doohan is on borrowed that threat seems to have diminished for now, the funding perhaps more theoretical than though, Doohan's fate rests on the whim of Alpine executive adviser Flavio Briatore. He'll decide what he decides, when he decides it. Was Yuki Tsunoda's Red Bull debut a success, and is he an improvement on Liam Lawson? - EdTsunoda set himself the target of scoring points on debut at Red Bull, and finished the race 12th, behind the Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso. So, by the standards he set himself, it was not a Bull want Tsunoda to be scoring good points to boost their bid for the constructors' title. So by their standards, it was not a success said that, it certainly showed started off strongly, being close on pace to Max Verstappen in first practice, and was again looking decent in final first qualifying, again he was only 0.1secs from second qualifying, Red Bull chose to give him one set of used tyres and one of new - not unsual for a quick driver in a quick car, but perhaps a mistake given his lack of experience with the meant he had only one realistic shot at getting into the top 10 shootout. And Tsunoda made an error on his only flying lap on new tyres, going into Turn One 15km/h faster than ever before, and having a race was dictated by qualifying 14th, but he did overtake Lawson on lap one then pull off an undercut pass on Pierre Gasly's for comparisons with Lawson before him, Tsunoda was a definite step up. He was faster than Lawson ever was, and looked a lot more in control and he will have to do better than this in the future to have any chance of keeping a seat at Red Bull in 2026. How likely is it that George Russell and Andrea Kimi Antonelli will race for Mercedes in 2026, with both out of contract this year? – JohnThe answer to this question depends entirely upon Max the world champion decides to stay at Red Bull, Mercedes will keep Russell and Antonelli next he decides to move, Mercedes is his most likely option, in which case Toto Wolff would have to decide which driver to performance right now, that would be Russell. But Antonelli is only 18, just three races into his career, and believed to have rich promise. Jettisoning him after a year would be harsh that scenario, Russell is likely to be an attractive candidate to Red Bull, will Verstappen do? For now, he is relaxed and waiting to see how the season develops. He is under contract to Red Bull until the end of 2028, but has performance-related get-out clauses if he wants to difficulty in making any decision about the future is no-one is absolutely certain what next year and beyond will look like in terms of are widely believed to be ahead on development of the new 2026 power-units. But their future is president Mohammed Ben Sulayem is pushing for an early abandonment of the 2026 engine formula and a return to naturally aspirated V10s running on sustainable fuel. Why, he has yet to explain. But for now all that matters is he exact route looks unlikely to happen. Ferrari and Red Bull back the V10 idea, but it is not appealing to Mercedes, Honda or Audi - and that's more than enough manufacturers to vote that idea down under F1's rule that does not mean a change won't come before 2031 - the current end of the new engine manufacturers would agree to a different, bigger engine - a V8, for example - with a turbo and some hybrid element, but not as much as the 50% of total power planned for next is a meeting to discuss F1's future engine direction in Bahrain on Friday and no-one knows what the conclusion will be - or indeed if there will be will wait a little longer to see how things stand on many fronts before making any decision on his future. Between a packed calendar, other commitments and strict regulations on costs, how much time do F1 drivers actually get to practise driving their cars during a season? Is it mostly simulator based? – ArvIn-season testing in current cars is forbidden by F1's are allowed to test in cars that are more than a year old. This was unrestricted for a while, but has for 2025 been limited for current drivers to 1,000km a can also participate in Pirelli tyre development tests in the latest cars, or whatever spec of car is required, if called than that, the only "practice" they get is in the the best drivers in the world need any practice in a year in which there are 24 grands prix is another question.
Yahoo
18-03-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
How long will Hamilton need to find feet at Ferrari?
The 2025 season began in thrilling fashion as Lando Norris beat Max Verstappen to win an incident-packed Australian Grand Prix. Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton finished 10th in his first race for Ferrari. Changeable conditions led to a series of crashes, three safety cars and an aborted start. BBC Sport F1 correspondent Andrew Benson answers your questions after the race in Melbourne. Will McLaren allow Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri to race? They always say the drivers are free to race, however whenever they get near on track, drivers are told to hold positions. Will this rob us of the only championship battle if the McLaren is so dominant? - Martin There's a simple answer to this question - yes. McLaren's philosophy is that the drivers are free to race, with the caveat that the team's interests always come first. What that means is that the drivers have rules - Norris and Piastri can compete but they cannot risk each other's cars. That's what explains the order, midway through the Australian Grand Prix, for the cars to hold station until they had cleared some lapped traffic and the team had a better understanding of the incoming wet weather. Team principal Andrea Stella said: "During the race at some stage we had to go relatively soon through some backmarkers while the cars were close together and the conditions on track were still a little tricky with intermediate tyres that were running down a bit in terms of their rubber, and at the same time receiving some updates on the weather forecast. "That led us to close, for a short period, the internal racing until we had clarity as to the weather prediction, what this meant for how we should use the tyres, and until we had closed the matter of overtaking the backmarkers. Once this was completed, we re-opened the racing." It was clear from the tone of Piastri's reply that he was not that happy about being told to hold station - at that stage he had closed to within a second of Norris and was challenging for the lead, claiming he was quicker. Once the drivers were allowed to race again, though, Norris extended the gap, and then Piastri made a mistake at Turn Six trying to keep up. That suggests Norris had previously been managing his pace to contain the wear on his intermediates. And Piastri admitted his tyres were too far gone by then to challenge. The overall philosophy was explained by Norris after qualifying. "There are clearly rules we cannot cross," he said. "Both cars must always stay in the race, but we're both competitors. That's clear. "We both want to fight for a win and victories. But there are boundaries around the car - just a little more space here and there. We're free to race, free to try and win races. "But what won us the constructors' last year was how we helped one another and how we kept things clean." How long do you predict it will take Lewis Hamilton to find his feet at Ferrari, as in to at least match Charles Leclerc, if he does? - Oliver Since Hamilton joined Ferrari, he has consistently referred to the learning process he will have to go through before he can perform at his optimum. Over the race weekend in Australia, the word that kept recurring was "building" - a reference to the accumulation of knowledge he requires before he can extract the best from himself within the context of Ferrari's car and team. This involves the behaviour of the car on track, the operations of the car's systems - two things that are interlinked - and his communications with the team, both in the car and out of it. Through the weekend in Melbourne, there were obvious signs that these were not yet at their most fluent. Hamilton said: "I've learned a huge amount this weekend. There's a lot to take away from it. And, yeah, I've got some changes I've got to make for next week, and I'll see how it goes." How long will this process take? Well, as the saying goes, how long is a piece of string? The question contains an assumption, though. Hamilton will certainly believe he can "at least match Charles Leclerc". In fact, he'll believe he can beat him on balance over a season. Of course he will. But Leclerc is richly talented, and possibly the fastest driver over one lap in F1. Good as Hamilton obviously is, this is no easy challenge. 'Copybook victory as Norris and McLaren come through chaos unscathed' Hamilton's first Ferrari race 'a big crash course' 'I'm just embarrassed' - tough introduction for F1 rookies What's wrong with the second Red Bull seat? No-one has performed well in it for a while now. It's like it's cursed - Niko Max Verstappen is a genius-level driver who is clearly an all-time great. Anyone who got into the second Red Bull would know they faced the fight of their lives to come out on top against the Dutchman - and that includes the other recognised top-level drivers in F1 at the moment. And within that reality lies the inherent contradiction of the approach Red Bull are taking to their second seat. They don't want a driver who can challenge Verstappen. They want someone who can provide enough support to get in the mix with his rivals and take points off them, easing Verstappen's path to the drivers' title and the team's to the constructors' championship. The problem is that they keep picking second-string drivers to do a job that only drivers of a higher quality are able to do. In a tightly-packed field, having a driver who is at best 0.3 seconds a lap off Verstappen is going to mean someone qualifies close to the back of the group of the top four teams, and therefore is rarely going to be of much help. For this season, they could have had Carlos Sainz - a driver who actually very marginally out-qualified Verstappen when they were team-mates at Toro Rosso back in 2015. But they rejected him on the basis of the potential tension it would cause in their team. Instead, they picked Sergio Perez - a decision that baffled many people in F1. It backfired on them when the Mexican had a second poor season, and they had to pay him off. Now they have picked Liam Lawson, a rookie with only 11 races' experience and of as-yet-unproven quality. Thrown in at the deep end in Melbourne, Lawson struggled, to say the least. The situation is exacerbated because the car is developed following Verstappen's feedback. He wants a very sharp front end, and has the ability to cope with the loose rear this inevitably creates. But only drivers of the very highest level of talent could cope with those characteristics, and only drivers with the very highest level of mental strength could cope with racing Verstappen. Lewis Hamilton fought for the title in his rookie season. Is that still possible for the right driver in the right car or have times, processes and cars moved on since then? - Doug There is no question that moving to a new team presents a driver with a series of challenges that make his life more difficult - as explained above. Hamilton, of course, famously fought for the title in his debut season with McLaren in 2007, but that was after meticulous preparation and thousands of kilometres of testing, which made him what is widely regarded as the best prepared rookie in history. It's been a while since a driver has immediately contended for the championship after switching teams, but then all the title battles in recent years have been between teams whose drivers have been with them for some time. The last time a driver new to a team fought for the title was 2010, when Fernando Alonso not only won his first race for Ferrari, but took the title battle to the wire. Had it not been for an infamously catastrophic strategy error at the final race of the season in Abu Dhabi, he would have been champion. Jenson Button was also on the fringes of the title fight that season, after moving from Brawn to McLaren. It's hard to form conclusions from that, though, because it's so long ago. F1 cars have become significantly more complex since then, and drivers have less time in terms of pre-season testing to prepare. Having said that, perhaps one should consider another year of Alonso's career. In 2023, he joined Aston Martin from Alpine, and he was outstanding from the start. He was Verstappen's biggest challenger for the first part of the season, took six podiums in the first eight races, came close to winning in Monaco, and was outstanding all year, even as the team fell from competitiveness. So, it's hard to argue against the idea that if a driver is good enough - and Hamilton obviously is - it is possible. Aston Martin have invested a lot of money in people, facilities and resources. Does money guarantee success in F1? - Anil Money is required to succeed in F1, but it does not guarantee success. The example always held up on this subject is Toyota's F1 programme, which ran from 2002-9. It is widely regarded to have had the biggest budget ever, but the team failed to win a single race. There were a bunch of reasons for this - and never having a true top-level driver was certainly one of them. But most would agree the fundamental issue was that corporate Toyota was too involved in the team, with too many layers and strictures of management, depriving it of the dexterity and fleet-footedness required of any F1 team operating at the highest level. At its heart, F1 success is about finding the right people, putting them in the right places, and empowering them to produce the best of themselves. An approach perfectly demonstrated by McLaren's rise from backmarkers to world champions in the last couple of years. As Alonso said in Australia, Aston Martin now have all that is required for success. They have a state-of-the-art new factory - including a driver-in-the-loop simulator, and a wind tunnel that has just become operational - and have signed Adrian Newey, the sport's greatest ever designer, to lead an expensively assembled technical team. But now they have to put all that together and prove they can compete with teams that have been at the front for years. "The package is completed now," Alonso said. "We will need time. This is not football. Football is very easy - you take the best pitch, the best manager, the best players and eventually you win maybe the next match. "In F1, you can have the best facilities, the best people, but you still need time to put the ingredients together and win, and we have so many examples in F1 history." Australian Grand Prix in pictures Australian Grand Prix Review How to follow Chinese Grand Prix on the BBC
