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F1 Explains: race strategy in 2026 - with Bernie Collins
F1 Explains: race strategy in 2026 - with Bernie Collins
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About this episode
Bernie Collins breaks down how 2026-era F1 strategy is evolving, focusing on why qualifying and race plans are getting more volatile: less downforce means more mistakes, overtaking is easier, and new smaller tyres are harder, more stable, and last longer—pushing teams toward fewer pit stops and potentially earlier/alternative calls. He also explains how teams build circuit-specific race models, how they adjust for new tracks like Madrid, and why resurfacing changes tyre degradation. Quick-fire listener questions cover cost cap spending, grid/pit-lane order rules, and what teams can do during the Bahrain/Saudi break (factory work, limited testing, no full track tests).
Topics:
2026 race strategy changes
overtaking and track position
tyre updates and fewer pit stops
qualifying volatility with less downforce
strategy modeling using 2025 vs 2026 data
new track planning for madrid
impact of resurfacing on tyre degradation
cost cap and real team spending
grid order when no qualifying time is set
what teams can do during calendar gaps
So much has changed for the 2026 F1 season. How has it affected the job of a race strategist? The new cars and new tyres mean teams have to think differently when planning their pit stops. Race-winning strategist and Sky Sports F1 expert Bernie Collins joins Christian Hewgill to explain it all.
Bernie also answers your questions on what F1 teams are doing during the April break in racing, how much it costs to race in F1, and what happens when drivers don't set a time in qualifying.
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Hello, everybody.
Welcome to F1 Explains, the official Formula One podcast that is all about answering your
questions on the greatest sport in the world.
My name is Christian Hugel.
And how this podcast works is you email F1Explains at F1.com on any topic you like.
So long as it is Formula One dependence, we insist on that much.
And we find an expert from the world of Formula One to put your question to.
And this week, our expert is, I can say this extremely comfortably, one of our most popular
guests in F1 Explains history, someone who's been with us right from the start
and someone who you always go absolutely mad for on this podcast.
From a Formula One strategist and part of the Sky Sports F1 television team,
Bernie Collins, what a joy it is to have you here.
Welcome back to F1 Explains.
Thanks, Christian. Yeah, it's good to be back and good to be answering some of the
questions and that's a very kind introduction.
And it's entirely truthful, Bernie.
It's entirely truthful.
Bernie, we've got a bit of a mixed bag of questions today, sort of a bit of an F1
Explains quick fire episode.
Of course, as I just mentioned, you were a strategist in Formula One.
I say were because you used to work full time within teams.
I suppose once a strategist, always a strategist.
You're still a strategist, but just for the television rather than permanently
sat wearing green in the case of your last job on the pit wall.
So of course, whenever you're on the pod, there tends to be strategy themed questions.
So shall we start with, as is tradition, a strategy themed question?
Let's go.
Well, we should talk about the new season, Bernie.
And of course, the new era of Formula One, we find ourselves in where
so many things, of course, have changed.
How has strategy changed this season, particularly race strategy?
Yeah, I think there's been quite a few changes this season.
We're a little bit into it.
I think it's continues to evolve in as teams learn, drivers learn, etc.
I think what we're seeing is that, let's say, the strategy up until
a race hasn't really changed what teams and drivers do in qualifying
is largely the same, if we think of that as being strategy as well.
And it's maybe more susceptible to errors
because the cars have less downforce.
So we see more lockups or more mistakes from an engine management side.
So qualifying is maybe a bit more volatile than it used to be.
Reason we're seeing more overtaken than we did in the past in general
for each of the tracks that we've been to so far.
So that's one aspect is overtaken a little bit easier,
which tends to allow the faster cars a bit more of a way through
than what they had in the past.
We're seeing and that's, you know, down to lots of reasons
and the reduced size of the cars, how the battery is deploying, those types of things.
We've also got new tyres this year,
which lots of the other aspects that were new outside the power unit
have sort of gone a bit under the radar because there was so much focus
on the power unit, but we've got new tyres.
They're smaller than they were before.
But that means that when we talk about the tyre
compliance in terms of a C1 or a C2, it's not exactly the same
as a C1 or a C2 that we had last year.
So in general, I would say, thus far,
the tyres have been harder than they were last year,
and that means that we're seeing less tyre degradation.
So the tyres are lasting longer into the race than they did last year
and they're more stable throughout the lap.
So those things combined are pushing maybe less pit stops that we've seen
in the past because the tyres are able to go further into the race.
So I think actually the tyres has been the biggest change
that we've seen in Stradae, which is a bit unrelated to the power unit changes.
A couple of things to pick up on there.
Firstly, on tyres, Bernie, if anyone missed it not too long ago,
we were joined by Mario Asola from Pirelli to talk about the changes
to tyres this season right here on this feed on F1 Explains.
So scroll back on this feed to listen to that if you might have missed it
and want to go into more details on the change to the tyres this season.
Bernie, one thing you said there that particularly interests me.
Of course, I'm a Formula One fan,
so overtaking is always going to particularly interest me.
You're right, Bernie, of course, we've seen so much more of it.
Do you think when strategists are in their strategy meetings
before the start of races, do you think they are saying,
well, actually, we might be more likely to make up places?
You know, of course, track position is always important,
but do you think it might promote some bolder strategies
as we move through the season, given strategists may say to their drivers,
actually, mate, we back you to go and make these places back up
because it is proving easier to overtake with this generation of car?
Yeah, I think so.
I think when overtaking is a little bit easier, it has a few effects.
So it takes away some of the importance of qualifying.
Now, last year in 2025, we basically had a series
where pretty much the qualifying positions
was very, very close to the finishing positions
to qualify and had this overriding effect on the end result of the race.
So that's a little bit better.
It does, like you say, promote the opportunity.
And we've not seen it so far yet.
But I think we will, where if someone's stuck behind another driver
because the piece is too close, they may convert to a two-stop
rather than a one-stop because they know
that there's a chance of getting back through the traffic.
People might be a little bit briever in their pit stop decision
stopping a little bit earlier and not so worried about the traffic.
They stop into, for example.
So there were lots of things, as well as that, the field
and that's the 22 cars are at the beginning of this regulation
a little bit more spread out.
So at the end of last year, when you were looking at who was in your pit
window, i.e. who you would do a pit stop and come out behind,
the cars were all very close in piece.
Now you can look at some much slower cars
and know that you're able to overtake them.
So it does have quite big effects
on when you're thinking of your strategy going into the race.
Or if you have a slightly slow pit stop, for example,
hopefully you might be able to recover that.
So I think it will push teams
maybe as we get more into it to do an alternative strategy
in the hope that they can use a fresh
or tired to overtake towards the end of the race.
Reminded me slightly there, Bernie, of the Australian Grand Prix.
We saw a virtual safety car.
I believe it was because Isaac Hadja broke down around about lap 11.
Both Ferraris stayed out
rather than pitting under the virtual safety car
where they might have got an advantage.
Perhaps that's the situation where that had happened later in the season
where the teams might have had a bit more knowledge
of how much easier it is to overtake on these cars.
Maybe Ferrari would have been tempted to split the strategy
and think, for example, OK, Lewis,
we'll bring you in in the hope that you can battle your way back forward.
Yeah, I think so.
I think there's a few aspects of that.
As one, you're not thinking about if you get stuck a little bit in traffic,
how easy it is to come through.
And two, that they weren't expecting that tyre
that people fed it for the last bit of the race to last as long as it did.
So the two aspects are going together,
the how easy overtaking is and how long the tyres are lasted.
Now, it's worth saying that we might see later on in the season,
Pirelli choose to bring softer tyres.
So we might that that, you know, in my mind
make strategy even more interesting again,
because you'll have tyres that won't easily last long distances
and you'll have easy overtaking.
You should have the tyres dropping off more dramatically, so higher degradation.
And all of that would go together to mean that you've got
paste differences between the cars that allows quite interesting strategies
and races to unfold.
Interesting stuff.
We will continue to follow the strategic development of the season
as we go on.
And if one explains, Bernie, I'm sure it's not the last time
you'll be on with us this season, so we'll pick it up with you later in the year.
I mentioned the email address f1explains at f1.com.
Do send your questions in.
Thank you so much for all the questions we're getting so far this season.
Loads and loads of them coming in.
We really appreciate it.
Marcus is in Melbourne, Australia, speaking of the Australian Grand Prix.
I hope you were with us a few weeks ago, Marcus.
Marcus says, how does strategy change from track to track?
Bernie, so many variables on this one, isn't there?
Yeah, there's a lot of variables.
I think if we think of the first starting point for strategy
is what's the quickest race to the end of the race?
If there was no other cars involved, so totally in one traffic.
And the track specific aspects of going to that is what is the pit loss?
So how long does it take to do a pit stop?
How are the tyres performing?
So what are the first lap speed differences between the tyres and lap time?
So is a medium half and second quicker than a hard, for example?
And then what the tyre degradation is?
So how quickly lack one lap, the medium gets slower than the hard tyre, for example?
So all of those aspects build a very basic race model that says
this is the preferred strategy to the end of the race,
be that a one stop or two stop, whatever.
So they're all circuit specific, you know, the pit loss, the tyre degradation
that all comes from the circuit.
The other thing that then goes into that is how easy it is to overtake.
So how much are you going to risk that traffic?
You know, if a two stop is quicker on paper,
with not considering other cars, but if overtaking is really difficult,
you might go to a one stop, for example,
because you don't want to get trapped behind other cars.
So the overtaking that affects your sort of race plan
more than your optimum, faster strategy.
There's lots of other things that goes into that,
like the temperatures you're expecting, the wind conditions,
every big influence on car setup, for example,
what the track and roughness is like.
So you can get and you can see it just on normal,
like street surfaces or pavement surfaces, you know,
how much of the little greens can you see or how smooth is it?
And that all has a bearing on the tyres
and it all has a bearing on those other bits of the model,
like tyre degradation and, yeah, and how we build up that model together.
Track roughness we'll come back to in a moment.
Our next question speaks a little bit about that.
I just wanted to pick up on one thing there.
Obviously, you as a strategist, Bernie,
you're going to be relying on data from previous race weekends.
Now, obviously, in this area of Formula One, you know,
you might be looking at let's look at the Japanese Grand Prix from last year,
but we're in a very different area of F1.
So with data from last year, less important than it was before is one question.
And my second follow up to that is we're also going to a completely new track
this season in Madrid, where I'm guessing it's even more difficult
for strategists like yourself because we've never raced there before.
Yeah, so if I start with the normal track question,
so teams, let's say, have done a few races now.
So they have some knowledge of how the tyres, the car,
the overtaken is performing last this year.
So what they will do is they will look at Australia, if we take that example,
and we'll say, OK, degradation this year, and I'm making these numbers up.
So do not quote these numbers.
Decorations this year was half of what degradation was last year.
So the tyres are lasting twice as long, really ballpark numbers.
And they'll do that for Australia.
They'll do that for China.
They'll do that for Japan.
And then over the course of the season,
you get a relationship between this year and last year.
You get a relationship in terms of overtaken
and in terms of how the tyres are performing.
And then you take that relationship
and you apply it to the circuit you're currently at.
So when you come to Barcelona, for example,
you look at Barcelona last year and you'll say, OK,
on average this year, degradation is half.
So we'll apply that to the model from last year.
Roughly, there's been twice as many overtakes.
OK, we'll apply that to the model of Barcelona
last year. So you take your Barcelona data,
which is still the most relevant thing that you have for Barcelona.
And you will apply the 2026 offsets to it.
So that's how you get your base model going into Friday morning in Barcelona.
And then obviously any running that you get throughout that event
starts to override the information that you've got in the past.
So you're sort of interpolating the information between 2026
and the circuit that you're at.
And obviously, the further you go through the year,
the more data you've built up on this 25 to 26 comparison.
So the later races get better and better and better
in terms of your accuracy going into it.
Because you'll have some circuits.
Australia is a good example.
This year it was dry, last year it was wet.
So the 2026 to 25 comparison for Australia is probably not that good.
But China, very similar conditions.
So the more data you get as a strategist,
and engineer the better, you know, it just gets better and better.
So then when you get to Madrid, you don't have a Madrid model, like you say.
You'll have a simulator model and you'll have some estimates
of overtaking, of track roughness, of tire performance.
But what you might do then for Madrid,
and I don't know which complements it's going to be in Madrid,
but let's say it's C1, C2 and C3,
you'll start to look at how that tire has performed at similar tracks.
And what I mean by similar tracks is similar speed corners,
similar number of braking zones, all of these things.
You start to look at tracks through the year.
You might look a backy, a street track, similar type corners.
So you'll start to take elements of the tracks you've been to in 2026
and formulate a Madrid model.
But it will definitely be the weakest model that you go in to on a Friday,
which is why we always say at a new track, the Friday running is so, so important.
And one of the reasons, for example, last year in China,
having not been there for many, many years, having a sprint weekend was really, really difficult.
So the learning that you get on Friday in Madrid
is really, really important to try because that model will be less accurate than the others.
Hopefully that explains it.
It explains it perfectly.
And we should just say if you knew it a formula one, the reason why
sprint weekends can be particularly difficult, particularly on tracks like China,
where there isn't loads of data is because the teams get less practice time.
There is usually three free practice sessions over the course of a weekend
for a sprint weekend that goes down to one.
And then we, of course, have sprint qualifying and the sprint race.
And again, if you're slightly new to us,
Pirelli has five compounds of tyre of which it selects three
to be that weekend's soft, medium and hard tyre.
Those five compounds are named C1, C2, C3, C4 and C5.
You can see how they came up with the naming formula, which is very logical.
C1 being the hardest and C5 being the softest.
Well done to all involved with that.
It's an excellent naming system that I hope stays for many years
because if I can understand it, there's a chance other people will too, Bernie Collins.
Let's go to Joel. Hi, Joel.
Joel says, hello, I listen to this podcast every week.
Joel, we appreciate you.
Joel says, while watching free practice one in Suzuka,
the commentators were talking about resurfacing the track.
I presume they meant the track had been resurfaced,
as opposed to the commentators have done it themselves.
I don't think that'd be Alex, Jake's a strong suit, but fine.
How does that affect the cars, the strategy and the weekend overall?
So, yeah, this is the second Japanese grand prix in a row, Bernie,
where a part of the track has been resurfaced.
How does that affect things?
Yeah, so the track has been resurfaced.
I think it was like two thirds of the track this year,
I think from turn seven to the end of the track.
And yeah, you're right.
The commentators, we talk about it a lot,
because it does have a bearing,
so there's a few things that will have a bearing on.
And some of them will seem very minor,
but when you're trying to get in the very detail of the strategy,
it makes a big difference.
So the first one is track roughness.
And that is when you look at the track or you look at the asphalt.
Sorry, I always say tarmac, which is the wrong word.
When you look at the asphalt.
Is it not tarmac?
Tarmac is a brand name.
And asphalt is the right name.
I don't know that.
It's like when people say do the hoovering.
I mean, you shouldn't do that because it's a that's the right.
It's the vacuuming.
Yeah, there you go.
Yes, the asphalt, there we are.
Other brands of asphalt are available.
I presume, I don't really know.
Carry on.
So just to me, yeah, anyway,
but I always struggle with the word asphalt.
So you could see that's made up of tiny little stones
and you can have a look when you're riding a bike.
You'll see some surfaces that are
lots of gaps in between the stones.
You can clearly see the stones.
That'll be quite rough tarmac or asphalt.
Then there are some that almost look like
perfectly polished, very, very smooth.
And those the difference of those two surfaces
has a massive effect on the tires
because the very, very smooth surface
has a lot of contact part of the tires
and the very, very rough surface
because it's got the gaps
has much less contact part of the surface tires.
So the smooth surface will have a lot more grip.
Think of it like sandpaper.
So if you've got the very rough sandpaper
and you've rubbed that across a tire,
you're taking lots of surface off the tire.
So the rough tarmac as well as being
not as much contact patch will lead to higher degradation.
Borean is a prime example.
Very, very rough tarmac asphalt,
very high tire degradation.
So that's the first thing we're trying to check
is the new asphalt that they've put down
is it rough or smooth?
Does that match what they've done before?
And that is the biggest contribution by far.
The second is how clean or dirty is it?
Over the sessions, we talk a lot about track improvement.
Track improvement is because we are putting
some of our own rubber down on the track
and that has had been to increase the lap times,
increase the grip, allow drivers to brake later.
So the track improvement is another thing.
So how many races have there been before us?
How long is it gonna get to get that tarmac up to speed?
Then the final, maybe more minor point
is how dark is the tarmac or asphalt?
The darkness sets the track temperature.
So if you can sometimes see on tracks very dark patches
and in that patch, the tarmac or the asphalt
will be a higher temperature
and that affects sort of things
like tire surface overheating.
So those are the three elements of tarmac
that are important.
It always amazes me in Formula One
that little things, where it seems little on the surface,
like attractory surfacing can just change everything.
And I've been in paddocks for race weekends
where attractory surfacing has changed everything
and it's the talk of the weekend.
It's, yeah, such is the technicalities of the sport.
This is a good point to take a little bit of a break.
When we come back, and me and Bernie
have had a preview of this, when we come back,
I think one of the cutest moments
in F1 Explains history is on the way.
If that doesn't make you stick around,
I don't know what will, back in a second.
Attention, together we answer America's call to win.
We are Marines.
We were made for this.
Welcome back to F1 Explains.
My name is Christian Hugill.
I'm with Bernie Collins, the former Formula One strategist
where we're doing some quick fire questions
and all things F1.
F1ExplainToF1.com is the place
to send your emails, your questions.
You can send them in the form of just written words.
We don't mind the written word on this podcast,
but if you would like to hear your voice played to the world,
which some people think is a wonderful thing,
some people find it absolutely terrifying,
but if you're happy to do so,
attach a voice note to your email
and we will play it and it will go all over the world.
That is exactly what this list has done.
Hi, I'm Jeremy from New York
and I like listening to F1 Explains.
And a question I have is how expensive is it
to race a team in Formula One?
Thank you.
I mean, that's one of my favourite voice notes we've ever had
and I'm going to sound really British here,
but I love Jeremiah's cute, young New York accent,
like a proper little New Yorker.
I just think that's adorable.
It plays very cute.
Bernie, I'd love you to go through the answers.
So, yeah, how expensive is it to race a team in Formula One?
I'm guessing, Bernie, it's very expensive,
but I believe you can help us break down a few of those numbers.
It's very expensive.
It's definitely, well, I don't know Jeremiah's background,
but it's probably too expensive, but we have...
Joe, I was going to listen to this and think,
you know what, these numbers are realistic.
I might have a go.
Yeah, so the teams have what's called a course cap,
so it limits how much they can spend in a given year
on the running of the car, the team members' equipment,
getting everything to the track.
And that number, and I'm going to read that off to make sure I'm right,
is $215 million.
Yeah, which is about £170 million,
which is coincidentally how much it costs us
to keep producer Chris employed.
I don't know if you knew that.
I have been wondering.
I have been wondering.
Yeah, yeah, that's it.
But that doesn't include things like driver's salary,
the salaries of the highest three paid members,
and it also doesn't include things like market and activities.
So when you say, I guess maybe Red Bull are the best of it,
running demo cars in the middle of maybe New York,
wherever they run it,
those types of things are not included in that course cap.
So actually, in reality, the entire team,
the marketing and the sponsorship,
all of the other aspects that go with it,
actually costs a lot, a lot more than that.
We don't have a number in that
because some teams spend more than others,
but the $250 million is what teams are under
for each season to a lot.
Yeah, $215 million,
£170 million or 199 million euros,
according to producer Chris as Matthew,
which is usually extremely reliable
in terms of our conversion.
I mean, we're not doing live conversion tables here,
but roughly that.
And yeah, the cost cap,
I remember when it was first suggested, Bernie,
being a controversial thing that was suggested,
but actually, I think it's sort of been universally welcomed
in Formula One nowadays in terms of helping
some of the smaller teams on the grid
get profitable and stay in profit.
But also, and I won't name any names,
but there's definitely, Bernie,
here is where you and I were watching the sport
when we were younger,
where the team that was winning in Formula One
was simply the team that was spending the most money
and the cost cap stops that
is how you spend your money
rather than just having the deepest pockets.
Yeah, I think that is true.
I think that there are still obviously an historic,
you know, the teams that have spent the most money
in the past are still some of the leading teams
because it takes time to build it up and get these things.
And sometimes teams will invest that money
in infrastructure or other bits in the background.
So it's still that historic aspect is still there, I think.
And we should also say as well,
there's no necessary guarantee
that the teams will make the cost cap
and that's where prize money
in the Constructors Championship
becomes extremely important.
Teams haven't just got that money
definitely available to spend
and it's not like it's a case of,
oh, it's easy for us to reach that cap.
And that's why, for example,
you know, Williams coming fifth in the championship last season
is huge for a team like Williams
compared to coming seventh, eighth or ninth
because the money increases the further you get up the table.
Jeremiah, wonderful voice noting.
Thank you for listening, we really appreciate it.
We're going to stay in the United States of America now
and go over to Wade in California.
Wade has emailed F1Explains at f1.com
and Wade says,
after turning the final corner of a hot qualifying lap,
why do drivers steer towards the center of the tracks
as they approach the finish line?
Why don't they stay along the edge
which is a slightly shorter path to the line?
It never fails to amaze me,
the small details that our listeners notice.
Excellent detail from Wade.
Bernie, what's the answer?
Yeah, so I think it all very much
depend a little bit track to track
but the exit in that final corner,
I think the priority is the exit out of the final corner.
So you, whatever trajectory you sort of come out of,
if you think if we're going to do a second lap
that it's important to take the shortest distance
that you can to the first corner
and make sure that your entire straight is very well
and done, whereas the line's obviously
always much closer than the first corner.
So they just get the exit of the last corner
and then try and get to the line as quickly as possible
and the difference in distance is generally very small.
It'll be more extreme the effect that he's talking about
based on where the start finish line is
compared to that final corner.
The other thing is it'll also vary a little bit
based on the traffic particularly behind the driver.
So in any given straight,
if they can move a little bit off the racing line,
so a little bit away from where they would optimally be,
it means that the driver potentially starting a lap behind
doesn't have any sort of a toe down the mean straight.
So you don't want to help the driver behind
who's starting their lap a little bit faster
than they would otherwise have been.
So there's a few aspects I think going into it
but the overriding one is that
you're not so worried about where you're aiming
on the straight, you're just worried about getting on power
as quickly as you can under the final corner.
Yeah, makes perfect sense.
Wade, great question.
Thank you.
This next one is for Martha who is in Ottawa in Canada.
Hello, Martha.
Martha says, in qualifying,
when multiple cars don't set a time,
how do they pick the order they get to be on the grid?
And when multiple cars have pit lane starts
for changing parts,
how do they decide the order they get
to come out of the pits?
Bernie.
So the grid, as we know,
is normally set by the lap time that people have set
in their relevant qualifying positions.
So the top 10 in Q3, for example,
if, let's say, two people don't set a lap time in Q1,
then there's a number of criteria we start to look at
in order to give them their starting position.
So it might be, the order is,
drivers who tried to start a lap,
so drivers who left the garage did a lap
and then started to the cross-control line
and started a time lap.
So they're the first group.
The second group is drivers who left the garage
and at least started their out lap
but didn't get across the control line.
And then the third group
is people who never even left the garage.
So there are the three groups that people are put into.
So if one driver went out and did a lap and a half,
he's ahead of a driver who went out
and did half a lap, for example.
And within those groups,
so let's say two drivers go out
and they both start a lap but don't finish it,
then the way that it will go is they luck
to what those drivers set in their last competitive session.
So if both of those drivers were in P3,
they'll take their lap turns from P3.
If one of those drivers wasn't in P3,
they'll go back to P2 and so on.
So that's how they formulate their positions.
Now, if they've not set any lap time at all
in the qualifying session,
and obviously they need to be given permission
to start the race,
so they need to have proven to the FII
that they are capable of setting a good lap time.
And so that's one thing to think about.
The pit lane start one.
So if a driver has some penalties
or an issue on the way to the grid
or forced to start from pit lane,
basically if they get to the end of the pit lane
five minutes before the start of the race
or more than five minutes before the start of the race,
they are forced to line up with the pit lane
in their qualifying order.
And that uses the same sort of breakdown
that I just outlined.
So even if they don't qualify in order,
they'll be given a position.
So they go to the pit lane in that order.
So if someone qualified P5 and someone qualified P10,
in the pit lane, they'll be one and two respectively.
If they don't make it to the pit lane
until after five minutes before the start of the race,
they simply line up in the order that they got there.
So if they both go with four minutes to go,
they just like hit whoever gets their first to basically.
And that's to stop us trying to rearrange cars
in the pit lane with less than five minutes to go.
Now, a bonus answer.
Unless there's a very good reason
or there's lots of cars start from the pit lane,
the majority of people remain in their garage
right up until the start of the race.
So they remain in the garage with their tire blankets on,
everything nice and warm, everything under control.
And then they go to the end of the pit lane
because it's a bit of an advantage to have your tires
that little bit hotter than it would be
if you're on the grid.
So that's why you tend to see people
shooting out of the garage very, very late on,
just rolling to the end of the pit lane
and then starting the race.
But if there was five, six, seven cars,
you'd see them like a mini grid in the pit lane.
You've given a bonus answer.
I'm gonna give a bonus answer to a question
that Martha didn't even ask,
but it reminded me of,
I think we've had this on F1 exposed before,
of when drivers set identical qualifying times
and how that gets determined.
Now this has happened twice in recent seasons
in the 2025 Spanish Grand Prix,
Max Verstappen and George Russell set identical times.
They had fun together that weekend, didn't they?
In the 2024 Canadian Grand Prix,
again, Max and George both recorded
identical qualifying times.
That one was particularly satisfying
because it was a one minute 12 dead.
But in the 1997 European Grand Prix at Hereth,
that is the only time in Formula One history
that three drivers have set identical time.
Jack Villeneuve, it says here Schumacher.
Do we think that was Michael Schumacher or Ralph Schumacher?
If producer Chris could find out for me,
I'd be extremely grateful.
A Schumacher and Heinz-Harald Frenzen
posted exactly the same time of one minute 21.072.
And in that circumstance,
it is whoever sets the time first
gets to take the first grid slot.
Producer Chris, do we know whether that was Michael
or Ralph Schumacher yet?
Because it's of imperative importance before we move on.
The breaking news is it was Michael Schumacher.
There we are. Thank you, Chris.
The breaking news there from the 1997 season
that it was Michael Schumacher.
Had Ralph even started F1 in 1997?
I don't, I would say no, yeah.
No, I don't think he had, had he?
So I'd gone myself into it.
He's completely needlessly there.
What a shame.
Anyway, no, producer Chris says,
do you want me to check that as well?
We'd like to check that.
It's fine.
I'm sure Ralph will be happy.
Chris says he's got to earn his money
that we've talked about earlier somehow.
Yes, well done, Chris.
You've done a fabulous job.
Right, Bernie, a final question before we let you go.
And this is from Chantal, who says,
hello, everyone.
I'm a long-time listener on Spotify,
but this is my first time sending in a question.
That could be you, by the way.
If you've been listening to this podcast for ages
or you found this this season,
you've never sent in a question.
Just someone in, f1explains at f1.com.
Chantal says, with Bahrain and Saudi
not happening in April,
will the FIA and F1 let the teams work more on the car
to allow for changes and improvements?
Will they let teams actually run a car on track?
Bernie, I've been DM'd this question a lot
on my Instagram recently.
So two questions there, Bernie.
Firstly, can the team work on the car
to allow changes and improvements
and upgrades and that sort of thing?
Yeah, 100% they can.
So the teams that we work in tirelessly in the background
through simulator work, through wind tunnel work,
through dyno work, for example.
And dyno, I mean, it could be an engine on a rig
to try and improve that or see what the deficits are on that.
It could be a gearbox.
It could be the whole chassis sometimes.
So there'll be lots of work going on in the background
in order to try and improve the car,
bring new components, bring new front wings,
rear wings, whatever the case may be.
That's naturally happening in the background a lot anyway.
It's just that this case that the team that you see
at the track will also be back at the factory to help with that.
So normally in the factory,
a lot of that activity is happening.
As well as that the other benefits to the teams
that are trying to catch up is they're not trying
to repair the broken parts
from two races that we're missing.
So a lot of turnover in factory in terms of producing parts,
getting them to track,
transporting them to different places,
none of that bit's happening.
So you can switch resource from making a new front wing
because someone damaged one in China
or someone damaged one in Saudi
in order to get in the parts that you need for Miami.
So that will all help in order to bring it together
and there will be a big effort.
And it's important to say, isn't it?
F1 does have mandatory shutdowns in a calendar year,
two of them, the summer break
and the winter break,
where you are not allowed to do any work
and that is basically to force the teams to have time off
because we know they're workaholics in Formula One
and if they could be working on Christmas Day, they would.
But this is not one of those, is it?
This is just, we've obviously in the unfortunate situation
where we've not got racing,
but people aren't off as such.
They are still, I mean, James Vowles has said
they'll be using the break to produce new parts,
reduce the weight of the car.
He wants Alex and Carlos in the simulator,
teams like Williams who've got work to do,
they will be working, won't they?
Yeah, I think a lot of teams will be working,
we'll be seeing this as a really good opportunity
to try and catch up.
You know, I know some teams have been struggling for parts
and they'll be trying to get themselves up
to a fullerious supply of everything.
So that will be happening as well as the upgrades
that they want to try and bring.
And you just save time in every aspect
because you're no longer running simulations
of boring and jetty, you could stream it into Miami,
you could do lots of pre-event work from Miami.
So it will really help the teams that are struggling
and I think that the teams like Mercedes
who have the upper hand at the moment
would actually have preferred to get the two races,
get the points from those two races on the board
before the teams develop their cars.
So yeah, the factories will be full working hours.
Hopefully most of the traveling team
do get an opportunity for a few long weekends,
but yes, it'll be enhanced to the pump,
as we say, in factories.
I would like to hope there were some long weekends
and I would like to hope there's at least a couple of Lyons.
That's what I would like to hope,
but you never know, they're hard taskmasters
in Formula One.
And then the second part of Chantel's question was,
will the teams be able to run a car on track at all?
Well, I think some people might have seen
that there was some wet tire running in Suzuka.
That was a planned wet tire task
which was always going to help run out from Suzuka.
Teams can have, basically have to choose
which Pirelli tire tests are going to do during the year
and they'll choose it based on what suits them best.
So there were some teams involved in that post-Suzuka
running in order to test intermediate on my tires.
But aside from that, teams won't be able to say,
okay, we don't have a race this weekend,
so we're going to go and run the car at Silverstone.
That won't be allowed to happen.
So they won't be able to do a full test somewhere else.
What you might see teams doing,
and it depends on what they've done before the season,
is there's a limited amount of either demo running
or promotional film days that they're allowed to do.
And they might use some of those days to test some parts,
but they are very, very limited in mileage
and they're not the correct tires.
So those may be used,
but for example, I could envisage Mercedes
using a demo day, 50 kilometers,
I think is what a demo day is limited to,
in order to give their drivers start practice.
So just do start practice.
So there's things like that that might happen,
but it won't be a test day like we see in Bari
and pre-season testing or in Barcelona this year.
It'd be very, very limited, Roman.
Yeah, Birdie's done a great job of explaining
that there are some elements
where there are very limited tests available,
as I say, testing tires for Pirelli, that sort of thing,
other than those very limited exceptions
and filming days and that sort of thing.
Formula One bands mid-season testing since 2009.
That was to, again, help costs
because it's expensive to run test teams,
which Formula One used to do,
and also helped with Formula One's environmental impact as well.
So yes, for way more than a decade now,
Formula One hasn't done mid-season testing.
There was pre-season testing, which is a proper test,
but other than that, no, teams are not allowed to go out
and do a test day on a track like Silverstone
or a test track that is restricted
to pre-season testing only.
Bernie, this has been a pleasure.
We've covered a lot there, haven't we?
We've done strategy, we've done testing,
we've done the roughness of circuits.
We've got through a veritable smorgasbord of F1 questions there.
Yeah, like you said, we've done quite a lot.
And just to echo your point you said about Chateauby
and our first-time listener,
there are no stupid questions
to just send all the questions and we'll answer them.
Oh, absolutely, absolutely.
And it's one of the things...
We've mentioned a few times this season that we've...
I mean, Bernie, you've been with us
since one of our very early episodes,
but this is the start of the fourth season
of F1 Explains.
And it's not just, as we've always said,
there's no such thing as a stupid question,
but also some of the things our listeners think about
that I've been watching F1 since the 90s
and have just never thought about it.
So what a great question.
I've never thought of that.
You continue to amaze us with your questions
at f1explains at f1.com.
Bernie, will you get a little bit of a pause in this period?
Yeah, I've got a few weeks in the UK
so I can get back on the right time zone,
which my body is very much looking forward to.
And so, yeah, I've got a little bit of downtime
and then I'm back out in Canada.
So that'll be good.
Fantastic. Bernie, it's always a pleasure.
Thank you so much.
And we'll speak to you later in the season on F1 Explains.
Thank you.
And don't forget to check out F1's other official podcast
Beyond the Grid.
Absolutely fantastic to listen to at this period of time
with insights and stories from people up and down
the Formula One grid.
Of course, there is highlights of all of the seasons
so far over on F1 TV
and on this very feed, F1 Nation.
And of course, as I say, email your questions.
F1explains at f1.com.
We're not going anywhere.
We have new episodes every Friday.
So until next week, we'll see you then.
Bye for now.
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