The battle for the drivers’ championship has tightened up as Formula 1 prepares for this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix.
Kimi Antonelli’s lead over Mercedes team-mate George Russell has narrowed to 25 points with Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton a further seven point back.
Before the race at Spa-Francorchamps, BBC Sport F1 correspondent Andrew Benson answers your latest questions.
I’m struggling to see how Max Verstappen could go to McLaren. They never have a number one driver and last year Max was laughing at McLaren’s decisions when trying to be fair to Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, such as the swap in Monza for a slow pit stop. Max isn’t going to accept a team order to let his team-mate past to keep things fair (like he didn’t in Brazil in 2022). Surely it would tear McLaren apart if he went there? – Tim
The first thing to say here is that McLaren Racing chief executive officer Zak Brown has done everything he can to dismiss the idea of Max Verstappen moving to McLaren in the foreseeable future.
Brown said at the British Grand Prix that the talks he had recently with Verstappen’s management “didn’t go anywhere”, that he was “very happy with my two racing drivers” and “what I couldn’t offer him (Verstappen) was a seat in my race car”.
Be that as it may, Verstappen and his management are exploring their options and McLaren are a team they are considering.
Verstappen is under contract to Red Bull until the end of 2028, but has a performance clause in his contract that is likely to mean he could leave at the end of this year if he wanted.
That clause does not come into effect until October, so there is plenty of time before anything is likely to happen, and sources have told BBC Sport that Verstappen has made no decisions as yet.
Could it work if Verstappen wanted to go to McLaren? Well, first of all, Brown would have to find a way to remove one of his current drivers, world champion Lando Norris or Oscar Piastri.
If he managed to do that, the fundamental basis of McLaren’s philosophy is fairness. Their drivers are allowed to race each other and the team will only intervene in specific circumstances, such as those that arose a few times last year.
It’s fair to point out that this is a different approach from the one that has traditionally been adopted at Red Bull, but it’s the same one as used by Mercedes, another team with which Verstappen has had talks.
Neither would change their approach were Verstappen to join the team, but why would he have a problem with it?
I’m sure he would back himself to win any fight with any team-mate he came up against.
Equally, any team who takes on Verstappen would be aware that they would be taking on a level of stress they might not experience with any other driver, and that it would test their management skills.
But while some might argue Verstappen’s singular, no-compromise approach is a reason to be wary of signing him, F1 teams are ultimately about performance. And signing Verstappen is a guarantee of the highest possible performance in the cockpit on arguably the most consistent basis.
For McLaren, who are this season experiencing some of the downsides of being a customer engine team in a way they had not previously, that could be a very attractive proposition as they seek whatever edge they can.
Lewis Hamilton, age 41, has recently won a race for Ferrari. Fernando Alonso, age 44, is consistently out-performing his younger team-mate and probably given a comparative car would also win a race. Are the cars easier to drive or is it that some drivers’ ability to drive at the top level has more longevity? – Matthew
It is a fact that grands prix are less physically demanding than they were in, for example, the mid-2000s, when there was refuelling and a tyre war and races were driven flat out from beginning to end.
With tyre and energy management, that is no longer the case.
Make no mistake, though, driving an F1 car is still an highly demanding physical experience, and Hamilton and Alonso are in excellent condition.
The answer is that the real limiting factor for a racing driver as they age is mental rather than physical, as long as they are able to continue to meet the bodily demands.
Drivers tend to lose the desire and commitment that is needed to test themselves to the limit in an extremely dangerous environment.
You have to really want it to perform at the highest level in F1, to drive to the limit every time you get in the car, no matter how competitive it is. And Hamilton and Alonso remain totally committed, and in love with what they are doing.
Combine that with their absolutely exceptional levels of ability – they are, after all, two of the very greatest drivers there have ever been – and you have the reasons they are able to continue to deliver as they do.
But the fact that so few others over the years have been able to do this just goes to show how unusual it is – and how extraordinary what they are doing remains.
Spa is held by many as one of the all-time great circuits. What is it that makes it so good? And will these 2026 cars work well there? – Clive
