In modern F1, the “battery” stores electrical energy from the hybrid system so it can be deployed for acceleration and traction. How effectively teams manage battery energy can influence overtaking and defensive driving.
“On-charge” and “off-charge” are about when the car is using or building up energy from its hybrid system. That can affect how strong the car feels when it accelerates and how it manages speed through a lap.
“Strategy performance” means how smart the team is about race decisions like when to pit. The right calls can help a driver gain position even if the cars are close.
“Pit lane performance” is how well a team handles pit stops. If they’re faster or smarter than rivals, they can gain track position and change who wins.
A street circuit is a race course made from regular city streets. Because it’s not built like a normal track, it’s usually tighter and has less room for mistakes.
Qualifying is when drivers set the fastest lap to decide where they start the race. If you’re a little quicker in qualifying, you usually start closer to the front.
Consecutive victories means winning multiple races in a row. It usually shows the car is working really well, not just one lucky weekend.
Concept
polls
“Poles” means the driver qualified fastest and starts the race from the front. Starting first can make the race easier because you’re in clean air and have track position.
F1 qualifying is broken into parts called Q1, Q2, and Q3. If something goes wrong in Q3, the driver may not be able to set a fast lap, which can hurt where they start the race.
A “rookie season” in F1 is a driver’s first year in the series. The transcript contrasts Antonelli’s early experience level with later development, implying that new drivers typically need time to adapt to car behavior, racecraft, and team processes.
Concept
F2
F2 (Formula 2) is a lower-level racing series that many F1 drivers come through. Doing only one season there means the driver may not have had as much time to learn before stepping into F1.
Concept
F3
F3 (Formula 3) is another step in the junior racing ladder. If a driver hasn’t done it, they may have had less time in that kind of car and less practice before reaching F1.
The world championship is the main season goal in F1. Drivers earn points race by race, and the one with the most points at the end is the champion.
Topic
Miami circuit vs Montreal circuit (Russell's outlook)
They’re talking about how Russell thinks about the Miami track and how that mindset carries into the next race in Montreal. The key point is that Montreal has been a strong track for him before.
Topic
Antonelli vs Russell in Canada (Montreal) and championship pressure
They’re basically saying Montreal could be a big test for Russell against Antonelli. If Antonelli keeps winning, it could create extra pressure on Russell, even though the season is still early.
“Learning curve” refers to how quickly a driver adapts to new cars, teams, and racecraft over time. In this context, it’s used to explain why Antonelli’s performance could vary as he gains experience early in his career.
They mention that Antonelli did really well at Suzuka and Miami last year. Because those tracks are near each other in the schedule, it can make it feel like there’s a pattern—even if it might just be timing.
Weight transfer is when the car’s weight shifts forward/back or side-to-side when you brake, accelerate, or corner. If the tires can’t grip well, controlling that shift helps the car stay stable.
Concept
micro detail
They’re talking about very small adjustments that can make a big difference. Even tiny changes in how you brake or steer can help the tires last and keep the car fast.
This is the team’s work away from the track—studying what happened and planning changes for the next race. It’s not just the driver; the engineers help figure out what to adjust.
This is about not overheating or wearing the tires out too quickly. If you “keep the tires in,” you can keep grip longer and stay faster for more laps.
Track temperature affects tire grip and how quickly tires heat up, which changes which car is quicker. The host says the “temperature of the track” can “juggle” which of two cars looks faster, even if over the whole weekend they end up equally matched.
This means the team has to stop the car and tires from getting too hot. If they overheat, the tires lose grip and the driver can’t keep the same pace for long.
In F1, “the stop” usually means the pit stop for tires. The lap right after that stop can be crucial, because the tires and grip level can make or break your pace.
“Extreme rotation” means turning the car into the corner very sharply so it “pivots” more. The key point here is doing it without slowing down too much while you’re still in the turn.
This is about how the driver uses the steering wheel, the gas pedal, and the brakes together. The timing and smoothness of those inputs can help the car stay fast through the turn.
A “dominant car” is a car that’s usually fast enough to finish near the front. If that’s the case, even a bad race doesn’t hurt as much in the championship because you still score strong results.
A “rubbish weekend” is when the car just isn’t working well and you end up finishing much lower than you should. In the championship, that kind of weekend can cost a lot more when your car isn’t usually at the front.
“P4, P5” means 4th place and 5th place. In F1, where you finish affects how many points you get, so P4/P5 can be a big drop compared to winning or podiums.
The “competitive picture” is basically who’s faster than everyone else at that moment. In F1, it can change race to race—especially early in a new ruleset—because teams keep improving their cars.
The Buick Century is a mid-size car made by Buick. It was designed to be a practical everyday vehicle for families and commuting. It might come up in a podcast when talking about how ordinary cars show up in history and daily life.
They’re talking about changing F1’s engine rules so V8 engines come back around 2030. The idea is that the current hybrid setup may not fit how F1 cars need to use energy to stay quick and generate grip.
Energy split is the rule that decides how much of the car’s power comes from the electric part versus the fuel engine. If that balance doesn’t work well for F1 cars, it can make them harder to optimize for speed.
Combustion power is the “gas engine” part that makes power by burning fuel. In hybrid race cars, it has to work together with the electric part to meet the rules.
Downforce is the “suction” from the wings and body that presses the car onto the track. More downforce usually means the tires can grip better when you’re cornering fast.
Concept
80, 20 split
F1 rules decide how much of the engine teams can design themselves versus how much is shared or tightly controlled. An “80, 20 split” is a way of describing that balance, and the goal is usually to make costs and competition more even.
A V8 is an engine with eight cylinders arranged in a V shape. In this discussion, they’re talking about F1 possibly using a V8 layout again, which would change how the cars sound and how the engines are built.
A turbo V8 is a V8 engine with a turbocharger. The turbo helps the engine make more power by pushing extra air into the cylinders.
Term
electrical element
The “electrical element” means the car uses electricity as part of its power system, not just fuel. In F1, that usually involves storing energy and using it to help the engine.
Audi is one of the car brands mentioned in the discussion. They’re brought up to show that manufacturers might not strongly oppose a move toward V8 rules.
Honda is mentioned as another major car brand involved in the F1 engine debate. The speaker is using it to argue manufacturers likely wouldn’t oppose a V8 direction.
Term
accounting term is amelioration
The speaker is talking about how companies handle big spending on long projects in their financial records. If the schedule changes partway through, the way they “spread out” that cost can change too, which affects their accounting.
Cadillac is brought up as another brand that, according to the speaker, would be comfortable with a V8 engine direction. The point is that V8s are still important to their identity and engine culture.
Electrification means using electricity more in the car’s power system. In this discussion, it’s about how much of F1’s future power should be electric versus traditional engine power.
The FIA and F1 management are the organizations that write and enforce the rules for Formula 1. The speaker is saying they’re adjusting their approach after the electrification plan didn’t play out as expected.
Energy density means how much energy a battery can hold compared to its size and weight. If it doesn’t improve as expected, the electrified plan becomes harder to make work the way regulators hoped.
Aerodynamics is how the car’s shape interacts with the air as it moves. In F1, that air shaping is used to push the car down onto the track so the tires can grip harder. More grip means you can go faster, especially in corners, which is why aero is such a big deal.
Drafting is when the car behind gets a “slipstream” benefit from the car in front. That can make it easier to go faster or use less effort to maintain speed. Hughes is discussing drafting as an alternative to heavy aero, but says aero will still exist.
Lap time is how long it takes to drive one full lap of the track. In racing, teams try to make that number as small as possible. Hughes is saying aero is usually the biggest reason they can shave time off.
Mechanical grip is how well the tires can “hold” the track surface. It depends on things like tire type and how the car is set up. Hughes is saying aero usually has the biggest impact on speed, especially when tires are the same for everyone.
A standardized tire means every team runs essentially the same tire. That reduces the advantage teams can get just by picking a better tire. Hughes is saying that makes aero the main place teams can still gain speed.
Outwashing is when the front wing is shaped to push air sideways away from the car. Teams do it to keep the airflow behaving in a way that helps the car stick to the track.
Inwashing means the wing is designed to pull air toward the middle of the car. That can help the car’s aero work better and make the handling more consistent.
A wake is the messy air left behind a moving car. If it’s turbulent, the car behind can lose grip from aerodynamics and struggle to get close enough to pass.
Deployment strategy is the team’s plan for when to use the extra battery power. They adjust it based on the track and conditions so the car is strongest at the right moments.
Grand Prix qualifying is the main qualifying event for that race weekend. Teams adjust how they use the car’s extra power for the fastest single lap, then often stick with it afterward.
Concept
power is deployed
This means how the car sends its power to the tires while you’re driving. In the rain, that timing matters a lot because the tires can lose grip more easily.
Teams use “weather maps” to predict how the track conditions will change, like when rain will start or get heavier. That helps them choose the right tires and strategy at the right time.
Pierre Gasly is a Formula 1 driver. In this segment, they’re using his experience testing in the rain to show how scary or difficult wet driving can be.
Torque is the twisting force that makes the car accelerate. If it shows up too quickly in the rain, the tires can slip, and the car becomes much harder to drive smoothly.
Sometimes more engine power doesn’t make you faster if the tires can’t grip the road. In the rain, the limiting factor is traction, so teams may need to manage power delivery to stay in control.
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V8 engines are set to return to Formula One. The decision looks inevitable,
it's just a case of when. Is it crunch time for the championship already?
Why the Canadian Grand Prix could make or break George Russell's title hopes
after being outperformed by Kimi Antonelli in Miami?
And has Mercedes lost its advantage? With teams bringing upgrades to Montreal,
how many horses will be in the championship fight?
All that and plenty more, as always, coming up on the Motorsport F1 show with Mark Hughes.
Well Mark, we had some time off, didn't we? Now we got straight back into a Grand Prix
in Miami. As you know, I was out there, but an interesting race, what do you think?
It was very interesting. I think most of the overtaking wasn't fake. It was a little bit
like in Shanghai, where the battery just sort of kept the following cars in contention on the
straight. You weren't seeing any outrageous on-charge, off-charge contrasts. There was a little bit of
fatate around turning it in turn one, where you deplete and then you're a bit defenseless
into the next turn. But that wasn't the main point at where the significant action was happening.
That was happening in between the turn four to six sequence, where you could either sort of back
off and then sort of really charge the battery or attack. And then that determined how far down
the straight you could deploy for. But it wasn't making a night and day difference. It was just
a slightly different way of doing it. And I think everybody had worked out how to use that in
defence and attack. And it was quite sort of evenly matched those modes. So I think in the main,
it was a good race. And the thing that determined the outcome was nothing to do with the new rules.
It was to do with the driver performance of Kimi Antonelli and the strategy performance,
and then pit lane performance of Mercedes. And it was very, very closely contested between
them and Landon Orrus McLaren. And I think it was very interesting. And I think what was really
unusual about it, I think, was how there was a smaller gap between the top four cars,
because that's the other thing. McLaren, the Ferrari and the Red Bull all brought big updates,
which really seemed to work well, really boosted their performance so that they were, you know,
Mercedes weren't night and day the quickest. They may not even have been the quickest,
it may have been McLaren, it was that difficult to call. But there was such a small difference
between top four cars, but there were big differences between each teammate combination
in each of those teams. And so the driver performance was more significant for once
than the car performance in Determinariaco. So there's some very unusual and interesting
phenomena sort of unfolding in that race, I thought.
Yeah, there certainly were. And it's nice not to have to come into this one, really,
and go into huge detail about regulations and changes and whether they worked and things like
this. We will, I'm sure, talk about that a little bit. But as you know, as I say, I was out there
in Miami, and it was a very interesting backdrop to the Grand Prix itself. I mean, when you go to
the States, you know, they do things, it seems to be everything supercharged, everything's bigger,
everything's, you know, bolder. And the fact is, you know, the hub, the team hubs, they're all inside
the stadium. And to get into the hub, you go through the inner workings of the stadium, you
go out onto the pitch, they've all got their hubs there with the lounges there, you know,
for the driver lounges, I mean, not for the hospitality or anything like that. And that
had that kind of village feel around it that Formula One sometimes creates inside of the paddock.
So it's an interesting environment to be in. And then the backdrop, of course, that huge amount
of rain that came down on the Sunday morning, they brought the race forward. And I can tell you,
it was huge, huge blobs of rain. The thunder was right above us, the storm was right above when I
arrived at half past seven in the morning. And then by about 10 o'clock, there was no rain
at all for the rest of the day. And it was just this bizarre, this bizarre thing, never
trust the weather in Miami. Yeah, you said they do everything bigger, they do rain bigger, don't
they? And especially down the south. And yeah, I think the heaviest rain storm I've ever been in
was in Austin. And you suddenly realized why the drainage channels at the side of the road were,
you know, like huge, big, probably about 15 meters deep. And you thought, why are they that big?
And why are they that wide? And suddenly realized, oh, yeah, that's what. And I was out in it once,
it was literally like having a fireman's hose blasting you, you know, full blast. And yeah,
they do do rain. Pretty extreme, pretty extreme. Now we'll circle back to the Grand Prix until
to Miami and really where it sits in the calendar and what the fans think of it and things that
isn't being a street circuit in inverted commas. But before we do that, your article, your latest
MPH column article, which as always is a really enjoyable read, this talks about the, the inter
team rivalries, but really focusing on the person who came into 2026 as the championship,
but dead cert, really, I suppose everyone was saying that this is George Russell's year. But
he's got a real thorn in his side in a young kid starting his second season in Formula One,
who seems to be unbelievably quick and unbelievably composed already.
Yeah, I think George came in as the, the, the, the heir apparent, the champion apparent. Yeah,
I think that's, that's probably true. I think on balance, he probably still is.
Despite a really disappointing weekend for him in Miami, where he was a long way off
until his pace around four tenths off in each of the qualifying sessions
and half a minute behind in the race. But yeah, I think the, the, the flowering of Antonelli
has been obviously the obvious big story of this, the first few races and winning three, the first
four, leading the championship by 20 points now, three consecutive victories, three consecutive
polls. That is, I mean, less of a surprise. I mean, surprise there is that the stats have gone
so one sided in this, these first four races, but that he's capable of that level of performance
is not that much of a surprise. The signs have always been there. I mean, even before he arrived
in F1, you could see that this was a super talent. This was something out of the ordinary
that you don't see very often. You see once every few years and there was a lot of cynicism whenever
people like me wrote that and said, well, what's he doing? What's he doing? You need to know who
you're looking at and you need to look at the little signs and you need to assess how empty
his data banks are and, but you do see the little glimpses and those glimpses of those peaks are
invariably indicative of where a driver is capable of getting to if he gets in the right car and if
the circumstances are right. And of course he's in the fastest car in the field or has been for
three of the four races at least. And yeah, you're seeing the full flower, but at the same time,
those stats are a little bit skewed because actually Russell should have probably been ahead in
Suzuka. He just had a glitch in Q3, which put him behind and that was absolutely crucial to the
outcome. But yeah, last weekend, Miami, he was not in the same ballpark as Antonelli. And I'd
say that was more of an underperformance from Russell, a non-typical performance from Russell
than it was an old performance from Antonelli. Antonelli is just delivering brilliantly,
doesn't seem to have a care in the world. The focus is not on him, the spotlight, the pressures
doesn't seem to be on him. It seems to be on George as the experienced guy who was expected just
slot in. But he was never going to have an easier time from Antonelli in Antonelli's second season
as he did in his rookie season. He came in the rookie season credibly lacking in experience.
You know, he'd done one season of F2, hadn't even done F3 before that. Very, very sort of
sudden scent through the ranks. So it would have been unreasonable to have expected Antonelli to
have delivered in the way, say, Hamilton did in 07 or something like that. It was no one near as
prepared as that, didn't have as thorough a grounding as that. And wasn't as old. You are
still developing. You know, there is a big difference between 18 and 22 or 18 and 23, you know. So
yeah, I think we are seeing Antonelli develop into the great driver he always looked like he was
going to be. I think he's absolutely in contention for this world championship. I wouldn't be
surprised if there were one or few ragged edges still, you know, to become apparent as the season
goes on. But yeah, in terms of the narrative of the season so far, George has got a big problem.
He certainly does. I love this stat, this Antonelli stat that appeared over this weekend of
drivers who have gone on to do pretty impressive things. Drivers who have got their first polls
in a row, their first three polls in consecutive Grand Prix. And the list of it is Ayrton Senna,
Michael Schumacher and Kimmy Antonelli. So it's quite an elite group, isn't it? And then
drivers have got their first ever race wins in consecutive, you know, first three race wins
being consecutive Grand Prix, Damon Hill, Mika Hakkonen, and it was now Kimmy Antonelli. That
is quite an impressive lineup there, particularly in that first one with it with the Senna and
Schumacher. He puts him in quite an elite group, doesn't it? Do you think, let me hint back to
last season with Kimmy Antonelli, do you think he had a bit of a challenging time at certain points
through last season? Do you think that the challenges he had in such an open way, you know,
everyone watching on, such a huge audience watching on when he was making those mistakes and having
those problems, do you think that's accelerated his progress through that he made those mistakes
in Formula One, had to learn in Formula One as opposed to learning it maybe away from the public
eye so much? I think when you get into a car like this, or when you get into a car that
is clearly a title colour of a car, you recognise or you have to recognise that this is an opportunity
that doesn't necessarily come very often. And I think when you understand that, you take that
on board and you realise that you're not going to be given the slack that you might be given
ordinarily for making those errors. I think it probably does focus you a bit more and probably
does internalise a few things that enables you to deliver in a more consistent way. We've seen
it before, I think we've talked about it on this podcast before. When you get the car, you know,
you know that it might not be happening again, you know, it could be years before you get this
opportunity again. So it doesn't, you can't have as an excuse, I'm not really experienced enough
for this opportunity yet, because you don't get the choose when it comes. Yeah, all right.
So if we look at George Russell then, and you know, he was beaten, he was beaten by Kimmy
Adams this weekend, just gone without any doubt really, but he went into the weekend, George
Russell saying he doesn't really like the Miami circuit, it's not really, you know, so actually
it's kind of like it was a free hit for him maybe. When he goes to Canada to Montreal,
that is a good circuit for him, you know, he will, he does like that place.
Does he have to now outperform Kimmy Antonelli in Canada to reclaim that
number one driver position? I know that we're not talking number one, number two,
but to reclaim that, that right to the number one title?
I think he's, the problem with saying, I don't like Miami, just before going to one of the circuits
Montreal where he has performed brilliantly in the past and his track record around there is superb.
I think the problem with saying, yeah, it's just because it's Miami, I'm never very good here,
it really, really piles the pressure on you, so for Montreal, so if you set it up like that
and you say, yeah, you implying, yeah, you'll see normal servers resumed in Montreal,
well, what happens if Kimmy beats you there, you know, which is perfectly feasible. We don't know
how Kimmy's going to go there. He's learning a lot of these things, you know, very early in
his learning curve. So, yeah, I thought it was, I mean, it's admirable in a way that he was
secure enough in himself to say, well, yeah, he's just better than me around here. But I think it's
also, it could be troubling for him if the narrative continues with Antonelli on top when
we get to other circuits. The other thing, of course, these last two races, Suzuka and Miami,
were the two races where Antonelli was really outstanding last year as well. So there is
something about those two tracks, and it just so happens that they're next to each other on the
calendar. So it tends to form a narrative, but it might not be a narrative, it might just be
that's the sequence of those tracks. And, you know, you might still, who knows, you might still see
a bit more up and down from them as we cover more tracks. But yeah, it's a very, very interesting
proposition coming into Montreal. You know, is this a George track and it will normal servers
be resumed? Because if not, he's got a very difficult task. It's very early in early days in
the championship fight, but 20 points behind is significant even at this early stage. And if
there's a momentum starts to gather behind Antonelli, and Russell starts to feel that that is,
you know, the underdog. It's a more difficult fight to fight than dominating from the front,
I'm sure he's expecting to do a lot of the time.
Yeah, it adds an extra layer, doesn't it? Well, rather than talking about this is a McLaren circuit
or a Ferrari circuit, or now we're going to be saying, well, this is a looking into team circuits,
this is an Antonelli circuit or a Russell circuit, it's going to really liven this one up a little
bit. We've seen this before, haven't we? We've seen, we're going to call him a rookie for this,
for the benefit of this, a rookie coming in, a young gun coming in, and really upsetting the
apple cart in Formula One. I mean, we could look at Lewis Hamilton when he arrived back in McLaren
in 2007, and he was alongside a very experienced driver. Can you think of any other examples of
where we've seen somebody who is a title favourite that's had to reassess very early on?
I guess there was a little bit of 96 Williams with Damon Hill and the rookie Jack Villeneuve,
but, you know, Villeneuve came in, made a huge splash with Paul in his first race, and was looking
set to win it until, you know, he had a little tech problem near the end. But subsequently,
the next few races of the first half of the season, Damon quite easily put him in his place,
so that wasn't quite the same as the Hamiltonal on so on, which we all went on, as we all know,
infamously, through the whole season. Kimmy Reichen came in and he's sophomore year at McLaren,
he became the fast McLaren driver, and David Coulthard's career was beginning to wind down from
that point onwards. Haven't been a title contender before then. Yeah, I mean, it happens, it's just
part of the rule of the jungle, really. You know, Michael Schumacher famously pushed Nelson
Piquet into retirement, the last few races of 91, you'd pushed him towards, helped him make that
decision towards retirement anyway, there were some other issues to do with his health, and but,
yeah, it's just, it happened, it's just the natural turnover of the sport, of any sport, I guess.
Yeah, but George Russell had, and you put it in your article as well, he had a few years at Williams,
not out in the wilderness, but at Williams anyway, and I think you put in your article that it was
two years too long in George Russell's opinion, really, he was there for a bit too long at that
time. Do you think that having that start to his Formula One career, then coming in and going up
against Lewis Hamilton, that that's given him the resolve, and we was talking about Kimmy, Kimmy
Antony's resolve, but what about George Russell's resolve, coming through what he's been through,
he's been in the sport for a very long time now, and he must have strength in his own mental
state and ability to be able to come back and fight. Has he got that resolve, do you think, to
deal with, to swat away the young upstart? I don't know if you'll swat away because
he can only determine his own performance, he can't determine Antony's, but he's certainly got
the resolve, he's certainly got the mental acuity, and he's able to understand himself,
and then pull performances from himself as required. I don't think we're going to see a
spiraling George Russell, but I think you'll see him sort of come back from this, and yeah, I do
still see him as the logical favourite for the championship, but there are going to be tracks
like low grip surfaces like we had in Miami, where the surface was basically too hot for the tires,
where you're going to need a bit more finesse, weight transfer and skill rather than
using the steering so much, where Antony's style is just better suited to it, and George
needs to sort of learn from that, he needs to understand that there are still weaknesses to
his game, but all the top drivers do have that, they all are always looking for advantages and
disadvantages and where somebody else might be getting time on them, and they don't just shrug
that off and say, well I'll be quicker than them somewhere else, that might be a defence mechanism,
might be what they say, like George said in Miami, but that's not really, I don't believe, what will
be going on, I think you'll be looking very, very carefully at that, and the micro detail of that,
and going behind the scenes with his engineers and his team around him and trying to sort of say,
right, next time when we get to X, Y, Z circuit, what do I need to do, what can we do differently,
and what is it that he was doing there, that was letting his tires stay in, and rear tires stay in
shape better than I was doing, why was I taking more from the tires than he was, where was that
time coming from, what was he doing in those corners, and I think he would have a much fuller
understanding by the time he goes into Montreal than he had, say immediately after the race in
Miami. Yeah, and it's also things, things he says, his demeanour as well, when I was watching George
Russell over in Miami, he seemed to be projecting a lot of negativity, you know, I wonder whether he
and the team have got to work on that a little bit, because when you're around that negativity,
they always say negativity breeds negativity, positivity breeds positivity, I wonder if that's
something that he has to look at with his team as well, so when he goes to Montreal, the best possible
George Russell appears in Canada. Yeah, for sure, I mean, it's very difficult to maintain a positive
core, you can say positive things, but to really mean it and to come across as authentic.
If you're having a very troubling weekend, you don't understand where this is coming from,
you know, this performance deficit, but you have to sort of put a line under that, and
as if it had not happened in terms of your attitude, but you absolutely have to acknowledge
that it happened in terms of your preparation. Yeah, I'm sure he has the people around him
and the tools to deal with that. One thing that, and you've hinted this already, and this is all
in the article that you've written, it's about George Russell in particular, but it is about
rivalries, inter-team rivalries, but one thing that Mercedes now have to look at, and you've
mentioned this as well, is that it's not just an inter-team rivalry they've got to deal with,
McLaren looked strong, Ferrari looked strong, I mean, okay, Leclerc seemed to have a complete
wobble on that last lap and threw it all away, but they were doing okay, and then Red Bull,
I mean, Max Verstappen went a hugely long time, and though we're not deconstructing the race,
race lap by lap, but he ran a really long time in those hards, I think he said at the end it was
probably too long on those hards, but they have upgrade packages coming along. When the teams
arrive in Canada, will Mercedes have a significant upgrade that means that they extend their gap
again, or is it going to be Mercedes, McLaren, Ferrari and Red Bull now duking it out for the
rest of the season? It's going to be interesting, isn't it? Because, yes, Mercedes does have a big
upgrade coming in Montreal, but there is a second part to the McLaren upgrade, which is going to be
debuting there, and the first part was, you know, very, very successful, and I think we said
in the week before Miami, if their upgrade can get that two tenths that they were behind Mercedes
in Suzuki, it would be a very good upgrade, well, it was, it was absolutely there, and you couldn't
call which of those two cars was quicker. They had different strengths and weaknesses, and the
temperature of the track seems to juggle which of them was actually quicker than the other one, but
in the round, they were both, they were as quick as each other, those two cars. So,
yeah, there could be more performance to give you, who knows, it depends on the effectiveness,
the respect of upgrades. The Ferrari did look very quick at certain times in the weekend,
but it had the problem keeping the entire temperature down and on a track where that was
very, very difficult to do, and so that particular demand, which is not universal throughout all
the circuits, was extreme at Miami, and it exposed the Ferrari to be the first to fall, so a thing,
you saw Leclerc drop off the pace after a certain number of laps, and he started falling back from
the Norris-Antonelli scrap and more into the Russell-Piastri one behind, so that's
trade of the Ferrari, but on a more conventional track, who knows, the Ferrari may have been the
fastest car, and certainly Red Bull, yes, it required a very special lap from the stop, and
it put it on the front row, but it is, you know, he couldn't have even thought about doing that with
the car as it was before this upgrade, so that's working very well, that's a very big upgrade,
the car looks very different, and he seems happy with it, he seems as though there's, you know,
I've got something to work with now, I now understand it, and sure enough, as soon as he
gets a car that he can work with, and he can get that really extreme rotation on the corner,
without then losing the speed, which seems the natural thing to happen with other drivers,
he then loses what you've gained with a quick rotation through the scrub on the second part
of the corner, he's got the sensitivity to not have that happen, just through what he does with
the steering, the throttle, the brakes, sure enough, as soon as he gets that, there's a big gap to
his teammate, and all of a sudden as a kajar, who's been nipping tuck as quick as the stop, and
very often so far, as well as like bewildered, so where's that come from, and to his credit,
he worked away, he was over a second off initially, and he got it down to about seven tens, but still
he suddenly looked like a more traditional number two Red Bull driver, so I think he will
continue to make progress from that, I don't think he will settle into that role, I think he will
actually, I got a lot of faith in Hajar, his ability, but yeah, I think there's definitely
got to be a more of a Red Bull thread as well, so yeah in terms of the championship, if you think,
and it's between the two Mercedes drivers, well maybe it still is, it might not be,
there could be a surge with Claren, for example, or whatever, but it affects the dynamics, because
when you, I think we talked about this earlier in the season, when you have a dominant car,
even when you have a rubbish weekend, you still finish second, you're only losing,
what is it, seven points to the guy who's just trounced you, whereas you saw in Miami,
when you have merely a car that's competitive and not dominant, you have a rubbish weekend,
and you have P4, P5, and your teammates won, and so there's suddenly a much bigger penalty for
having a rubbish weekend, so yeah, there are all sorts of computations in terms of points for the
championship that arise from this different competitive picture, and it is moving around a lot
still, the competitive picture between the cars is still moving around, which I suppose you'd
expect so early into a new formula, I guess, but it's intriguing all the same, and you know,
is this, Claren, suddenly getting back on the path of understanding that it was on
in the previous two years, and suddenly it will pull clear again, that's another possible narrative,
or is this just a little blip for Mercedes, and they will then resume their early dump,
all of these things are still to be determined. Yeah, they certainly are, it did feel, it felt
like the start of a brand new season, we said it did, going into it, but being in Miami, it felt
like the start of a brand new season, it felt like all the teams were so happy to be back, it was
like everyone were greeting old chums again, it was a bit like that, but also there was that
understanding of we had a picture of what we thought was going to happen, and then it was
completely, not completely blown out of the water, but there were teams that had made big
advancements that we weren't necessarily expecting them to have had. The Grand Prix itself, by the
way, all the talk about George Russell and Kimmy Antonelli is on the MPH column, go to
motorsportmagazine.com and have a read for yourself, it really is a great read, it does talk
about the rivalry, and really what George is going to have to do to re-establish, if that is
really what he has to do, I suppose, his dominance in the season.
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Going into the race in Miami then, the circuit itself, what do you think of the circuit itself?
Do you think it creates great racing? Do you think that it would have been great racing or
good racing wherever they'd gone? What do you think about where it fits in the calendar now?
I think it's okay. It's a fairly good track. It facilitates racing. I think we would have had
you've got the natural passing places at the end of the straight into 11,
the end of the other straight into 18, turn one. They were all well-established passing places even
before we arrived there with the extreme hybrid cars. So, yeah, I think it's well-designed in
terms of creating an interesting wheel-to-wheel contest. In terms of the challenge to the
drivers, not so much. When you get the surface super hot like it was, it creates a particular
challenge and one that Antonelli Verstappen and Norris definitely mastered. It's to do with
your minimal steering inputs and getting the weight transference to do much of the cornering
and the rotation for you, but still carrying commitment and the corner entries. It's quite
a specific skill, but it's not a more traditional where big commitment needed in the braking areas
and really getting the most from the grip of the tyres and really using the steering very aggressively
that you get on higher grip circuits. So, it's a different type of challenge and it's a less
conventional one and I think that's probably why you saw the the untypical gaps between
teammates as their styles were more or less suited to that particular demand.
Yeah, reveal a lot. It was also extremely humid. Something you don't ever really realise until
it goes to these places is just how humid it is. Miami, particularly on the Friday and the Saturday,
in fact, it was extremely, when you got so qualifying on the Saturday and the sprint race
earlier on in the day, but we got to four o'clock in the afternoon, we're talking 50-60% humidity.
So, it's like going to Singapore. It's extremely humid and that in itself is
pretty unpleasant to be in when you're just standing around in normal clothes. Let alone
sitting in the race seat of a racing car. What about then this news that's come out over this
weekend? Mohammed Ben Salem has announced categorically, he says, that V8s will be back
in Formula One from 2030, 2021, 2030. Is this genuine or is this Mohammed Ben Salem saying,
stay with me, don't turn off from Formula One just yet because something's coming.
Is it a big carrot that's being dangled? What do you think there?
I think there's an element of Mohammed sort of pushing against an open door to make it seem that
he's carrying this thing on his shoulders against the wishes of the others. I don't think that's
the case. I think there's been a general recognition that these regulations were too ambitious in the
energy split and that it's not such a high percentage of electrical power. If you're
combining it with combustion power, it's not conducive to high downforce cars like Formula
One, which use an awful lot of energy to get through the air. So, I think there's been a
general acceptance of that. Some FIA officials have even talked about it openly, that we need
to be thinking about reducing that split to a longer term and maybe going more like an 80,
20 split. So, the teams have been sounded out, the manufacturers have been sounded out and they've
said, yeah, well, okay, but not yet. We've got to cover the costs of these ones over a certain
amount of time. So, yes, we don't have a problem with that. So, there isn't really a big opposition
to that idea anymore of going to V8. It may still be a turbo V8 and it may still have some
electrical element to it, but it would be nowhere near as much as at the moment. So, I think when
Mohammed says, yes, it's definitely happening. He's confident in saying that because he knows
there's not that much opposition to it. Yeah, I think it'd be extremely favourable if it did
happen. But, I mean, it's funny, isn't it? Go back to an 80, 20 split. Where have we been recently?
No, let's just don't be facetious. I've got to part that because I tell you what, it's very
easy to creep into me, my level of anyway. V8, the fans wouldn't push back on that. The fans,
I'm sure, would love a V10, but let's just be realists. So, we'd love a V8, right? So,
V8s would be great. The manufacturers, would there be any pushback? You know, Audi have come in,
Ford have come back in, Honda have come back in. Would there be pushback from the
Marks, the manufacturers, if Formula One said, okay, we're going to roll it back to an 80,
20 split and we're going V8? I don't think so. I think, as I say, at the timing, yes, there'd be
some pushback on bringing it in sooner. I think the accounting term is amelioration,
where you do a big investment for a big project and you write it off over a certain
period of years. And if you suddenly halfway through that process knock 25% off the time that
you're ameliorating it by, it has very significant implications, accounting and financial implications
for these big organisations, which aren't normally the most agile in doing sudden changes of policy
like that. But in terms of the principle of it, no, I don't think so. I think certainly
Ford, Cadillac, they would certainly have no problem going V8, they home market is still
wouldn't say it's dominated by V8, but V8 is still a very significant part of their
production. So no, I think as long as you can say we have the sustainable fuels,
we have electrification, we've helped make more efficient, etc. I don't think there's
a particular problem there. And I don't think there ever has been. I think it was just too much
emphasis was given to this drive of the automotive industry at the time,
towards full electrification, which is not looks not now to be happening, it looks to
as though it's going to be more even split. So sort of the FIA and Formula One management saying,
we got it wrong, but they're not saying we got it wrong. They're saying we're agile and we're
listening and we're kind of they're spinning it in a good way. And I don't you do what,
if they have to spin it that way for us to get V8, some of the noise coming back into motorsport,
go back to an 80-20 split or something like that, if we have to run three years of pain,
four years of pain, just to get there, it's probably worth it because they have learned
some big lessons from that. Yeah, I think so. I don't think, you know, you can look on it and say
they've got this formula wrong, but I don't think it was for the, I don't think it was
with the intention of doing something that was, that the new was going to have to be disguised
to make it seem attractive. But I don't think that was ever the plan. I think they did it in
the expectation that the battery technology would have improved, you would have had greater
density of battery, energy density in the batteries by this time from when they, you know,
first started this formula off, and that hasn't really happened. And that's, I think,
that's what's really caught it out. So yeah, I think it's good that you can recognize your errors
and put them right. But yeah, we talked about last time that there is a trade-off between
doing that and pretending everything is fine. And I don't think we should ever be pretending.
No, I have to say, I think that
admitting that something you've attempted hasn't worked out right, there's nothing wrong with
that. Carrying on regardless, there's something wrong with that, you know, but being, you know,
making mistakes, that's fine, you know, that's okay. Now, if you want to keep up to date with
Formula One, then you can go to motorsportmagazine.com. You can then subscribe to the F1 newsletter,
and you'll stay on top of all the stories as they come out. And it's as well worth doing,
you get the newsletter straight into your inbox, your email inbox, and you can read it from there.
It's time to move on now, Mark, to the audience questions. And I've selected two for this episode,
because one of them was a little bit about regulations and about the FAA and the mistakes
and things like that. So I've kind of scrubbed that one off. That was a really nice question from
Iceman11, though, and we have kind of addressed that. So thank you very much for your question.
But the two that I've got for you here, one is from Greg, and he says, and it's a big statement,
so bear with me. The absurd level of aerodynamics is ruining the racing. Manufacturers talk about
applications to road driving. There is nothing in Capitals, nothing about F1 aero that applies to the
road. Why can't the FAA slash Formula One just say there'll be no aero other than perhaps a small
tunnel under the car for stability and give the cars fat tires that trailing cars can really draft
behind? The problem with that is that you can't uninvent aero. You can't say there's no aero,
because the car, by definition, it moves air as it moves, and the designers will, by definition,
seek to move that air in the most advantageous way possible to lap time. And whether you restrict it
by saying you can't do that, it won't matter. You will still
find a way of generating downforce. And yes, a long, long way in the past cars didn't really have that.
It's only because it wasn't understood. As soon as it's understood, it's here, you can't uninvent it.
So, yeah, you could put any regulation you like on, but there will still be aerodynamics,
and it will still be the main area of competitive striving, because that's where the most lap time
is. Yes, there'll be a bit on engine power, and yes, there'll be some on mechanical grip and tires,
but given, especially given that you have a standardized tire, the biggest lap time
gain will always be aerodynamics, regardless of how restrictive you make the regulations on aerodynamics.
There will still be, that's where the advantage will be found, and because it's a competitive
endeavor, it is a game of aerodynamics. That is what the competition is, it's a competition of
aerodynamics. And you can't say there isn't, you can't have aerodynamics, because that's like
saying you can't have air. It's just there, it's just fundamental to the sport.
Yeah, so that you're right. I mean, they try to mitigate outwashing, and by making the
end plates on the front wings, they've got to be vertical, you can't have them
turning the air out, it has to be inwashing, but it seems to always find ways to flick the air off
in turbulent ways to cause a wake behind. It's just part of the process, game.
You just, when somebody says you can't do that, you say okay, well I'll manipulate the air around
here to make it do that instead, and I'll get the same effect, or maybe a lesser effect, but it
will still be the area where you gain the lap time. Now, final question, this is from Steve,
he says it strikes me that with battery deployments, on a lot of tracks, you can either have a car that
can set a fast lap time, i.e. in qualifying, or one that is quick in places where another car
can attack, but not both. A driver can monster the car in front, but if there is no place to pass,
that battery power was wasted. It reminds me of the Daniel Ricciardo Monaco win where he had
lost power, but just had enough in the right places so no one could pass. Mercedes had the
right combination in Miami. It's more of a statement though from Steve, do you want to respond to that?
I think it depends a lot on the track layout, Steve, and I think some tracks you will have that,
and as teams better understand, you will see a move towards everybody being the same, but
yeah, in terms of the Mercedes McLaren deployment, it was a moving goalpost, it was quite an
interesting aspect with Miami actually, gives us a chance to talk about this. It was a moving goalpost
with the wind direction and the strength, and that changed a lot going into Saturday afternoon,
and that had big implications on what the best deployment strategy was for the battery,
and what McLaren were doing on Friday and Saturday was perfect for those conditions,
and much better than the setup Mercedes had arrived at, and they both then tweaked
for Grand Prix qualifying, which you then stuck with for the rest of the weekend,
but the wind changed a lot, and it was a big headwind that turned for
six sequence I was talking about, whereas the place where you could choose how much really to
save or how much to use, and that headwind meant there was a lot of lap time to be found through
those corners by really attacking those corners, because there was so much more grip there than
had been earlier in the weekend, that actually you weren't going to be punished very much
for taking that lap time, yes you'd lose out on the straight just as you did before,
but you'd gained so much more by attacking it than you could when the wind wasn't there,
so I don't think it was necessarily a case of one team mastered it and the other one didn't,
I think they were both very very closely matched, and the circumstances came to one
better than the other, I think probably as much as that, but I don't think it's a specific
one car is better at this than the other car, I think what you were seeing there was
just very very fine home margins and random variables mixing it up.
Yeah it was a fascinating race in many many ways, we will end the episode here Mark, but before we
do a lot of the drivers were almost fearful of driving those cars in the rain, they were very
concerned because of the way the power is deployed on these cars, so what happens
Belgium, what happens further down the line when the heavens open and the drivers who have
their own safety because of the way the power is deployed, because of how immediate that
deployment comes on, that was the main concern really. Yeah I think we'll probably find that
they will be developing weather maps that are much more
benign I would guess, that's probably something that's being worked on right now, I think it was
Pierre Gasly that tested at Silverstone on the wet and said it was the most terrifying thing he's
ever done, so yeah it is a challenge but they'll manage it all, I mean yeah there'll be incidents
I'm sure but they will manage and the ones who manage the best will come out in front and but
yeah it's a very big challenge, a huge amount of torque instantly to live it from the battery
is you've got to you know sometimes you can have too much power and it actually better off
in terms of competitiveness you actually better off with less, so I think yeah maybe there's
going to be some work done on wet weather maps that give a less aggressive delivery. Yeah I'm
sure we'll revisit that one anyway, there's something that struck me when I was out there
anyway just the level of concern that was coming from the paddock, anyway thank you very much
as always Mark it's been a real pleasure, thank you and some great questions there again thanks
thanks for the listeners and viewers, yeah not my questions I know you've just, no no no
those are just bang average, as always, thanks very much there to Mark and of course thanks to
you as well for watching, hopefully you enjoyed the episode if you did give it a like and subscribe
tell your friends as well too and don't forget get your questions into Mark for the next one
you can do so by going to motorsportmagazine.com or by leaving your questions in the comments
on the YouTube video. Now the latest issue of the magazine is available in the shops,
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with an exclusive interview with last year's winner that's Robert Kibitsa, will Ferrari win Le Mans
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About this episode
Mark Hughes and the hosts dig into why V8 engines could be on the way back to Formula One, arguing the current hybrid direction has not delivered as hoped. They connect that bigger regulation debate to Miami, where heat, rain, battery deployment and tire management shaped the race. The conversation also tracks the rise of Kimi Antonelli, Russell’s struggles, and how small gaps between closely matched cars can swing the championship picture quickly.
V8 engines are set to return to F1: the decision looks inevitable — it’s just a case of when.
Plus: George Russell has a big problem. After being outperformed by Kimi Antonelli, who took his third successive win in Miami, he's piled the pressure on himself to deliver at the upcoming Canadian Grand Prix. Is it crunch time for the championship already?
Has Mercedes lost its advantage? With teams bringing more upgrades to Montreal, we could see more drivers joining this year's title battle.
And your questions answered on why F1 doesn't simply ban aerodynamics, and the intricacies of energy deployment.
More from Mark Hughes and Bryn Lucas on the stories that really matter, in the latest episode of the Motor Sport F1 Show.
Subscribe now for every weekly episode and tell us what you want to know from Mark. Send us a message on social media or find this podcast at https://go.motorsportmagazine.com/4tepf25 and drop your questions in the comments. He'll answer a selection of the best every week.
Read Mark's column every Wednesday at https://go.motorsportmagazine.com/4tepf25
