Spherical eight of System 1 season takes place in Austria this weekend within the beautiful environment of the Styrian hills.
Final day out in Barcelona, Mercedes had been overwhelmed in a grand prix for the primary time this 12 months with Lewis Hamilton taking victory.
The Briton’s first grand prix win for Ferrari, mixed with Kimi Antonelli’s retirement late within the race, narrowed the hole on the prime of the drivers’ championship to 41 factors.
Earlier than Sunday’s race in Spielberg, BBC F1 correspondent Andrew Benson solutions your newest questions.
A retrospective podium for Pierre Gasly. Justice? Or a can of worms greatest left unopened? – Clive
System 1 has clearly obtained itself in a little bit of a pickle concerning the pit-lane dashing penalties within the Monaco Grand Prix.
The information are that 5 automobiles got penalties for pit-lane dashing when none of them had gone over the restrict.
The size of the pit lane had been mis-measured – it was attainable to drive a shorter distance than officers initially realised, by 77cm.
And because the pit-lane velocity restrict is policed by the point taken to move by way of a collection of timing loops over a particular distance, that meant the drivers had been wrongly penalised.
This led to a sequence of occasions that had a dramatic impact on the race end result.
George Russell was most badly affected by what adopted, having a 3rd place become a twelfth and dropping 15 factors within the course of.
However McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and Crimson Bull’s Isack Hadjar additionally had their outcomes modified.
Is it justice that Gasly is returned to a 3rd place on the flag that he misplaced as a result of Alpine refused to serve his penalty throughout the race, whereas the opposite drivers’ outcomes are unaddressed?
Ought to the stewards who handled Alpine’s proper of overview over the Barcelona weekend have left it at that, and never raised the very apparent questions that adopted on from it?
When it comes to pure justice, the reply to each these questions is clearly no – there stay a variety of points raised by this example that haven’t correctly been handled.
McLaren and Crimson Bull have taken the case to the FIA court docket of attraction. No date has but been set for that to be heard.
Mercedes have withdrawn their attempt to get the race result reviewed after concluding there was no viable mechanism for restoring Russell to the place he may have completed, and it could not serve anyone to tug all of it on.
As McLaren mentioned of their assertion about giving discover of intention to attraction: “We consider this case raises essential questions regarding sporting equity, regulatory consistency and the integrity of competitors.”
The disgrace is that this might all have been prevented had the FIA and F1 acted otherwise earlier than the race.
Groups warned the FIA that there was an issue ready to occur with the pit-lane dashing restrict throughout the Monaco weekend.
Officers did look into it, however their preliminary conclusion was that the considerations had been unfounded. That was clearly an error. Had that been correctly addressed on the time, none of this may have occurred.
When it comes to sporting equity, it is onerous to not conclude that the difficulty needs to be taken to a full and correct conclusion.
Will Ferrari make Carlo Santi Lewis Hamilton’s everlasting full-time race engineer, or is his function nonetheless thought-about momentary? – Anthony
The connection between Lewis Hamilton and his new race engineer Carlo Santi has began off effectively.
Santi was initially meant to be a stop-gap earlier than Hamilton obtained a brand new full-time engineer, however a Ferrari spokesperson says: “Carlo and Lewis are working fairly effectively collectively and there is no plan to switch him.”
Hamilton has discovered a way more passable relationship with Santi than he had with Riccardo Adami final 12 months, and he is tried to clarify that with out sounding too detrimental about his scenario in 2025.
Hamilton mentioned in Canada, the place he completed second for what was his greatest end result with Ferrari on the time, that Santi was “completely superior and I am actually loving working with him”.
In Monaco he went additional and in contrast the connection with Santi to the one he cast over 12 years at Mercedes with Peter ‘Bono’ Bonnington.
“Driver-engineer working collectively may be very, essential,” Hamilton mentioned. “Final 12 months, Adami and I had a very good relationship. He is a beautiful man. We labored comparatively effectively collectively.
“Catering to a driver’s wants takes time to study.
“Once you’re giving an engineer suggestions, their understanding of through-corner stability, their understanding of all the weather that contribute to the struggles that you simply’re combating, you attempt to describe what it’s, the issue you could have, nook by nook, entry, mid and exit the place you dissect it into 5 sections if you would like.
“Having that driver-engineer collab, it is hit or miss generally. With me and Bono, we hit it off from the start. He had working relationship with Michael (Schumacher). I do really feel like Carlo is like my Italian Bono.
“He is a little bit of an OG. He is an older man that is been across the block and he is very calm. You possibly can hear him on the radio. That is the element that we’re in a position to enter collectively. Our understanding of the engineer facet, it is one thing that is very cool.”
