F1 Explains: race strategy in 2026 - with Bernie Collins

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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.

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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