Q: I’m following up on the questions about the Williams and Alpine chassis situation from last week. This F1 season started off with Saudi Arabia, Australia and Japan in the first four races, which are all tracks that tend to have big crashes. Do teams bring more parts to tracks that they deem to have high chances of crashes, and what would happen if an entire team was unable to compete on a weekend with all the back to backs on the 2025 schedule?

Will From Indy

CHRIS MEDLAND: They certainly try to bring more spares for those sorts of races, yes. Teams will look at the venues likely to have high attrition or incidents and target their manufacturing plans accordingly, but as has been the case recently, that doesn’t mean they always have them available!

There are different ways around it — you can make parts from different materials than carbon fiber to have them more quickly and cheaply, but if they’re made out of a metal, for example, they’ll be heavier and therefore offer poorer performance. Or you can use parts from the previous car if they are extremely similar and fit, but again, that will come at a loss of performance.

Those are only solutions in desperate situations, and James Vowles told Williams it couldn’t do that this year as he looked to improve the quality of the car and its spares.

You raise a great point about the calendar, though. Bahrain was a safe race as it’s so unlikely you have a chassis written off there — Romain Grosjean in 2020 is an exception, but proves it can happen — so that back-to-back with Saudi was less dangerous to negotiate with no spare. But in 2025, Australia ahead of China and Japan ahead of Bahrain and Saudi means no team can afford to be in the same situation as they’d miss the following race, too.

That said, most teams had significantly different cars this year as they approach it as a two-year cycle where they will just upgrade this car until the end of 2025, rather than build a totally new one next year. That’s because of the regulation change in 2026 that will require all of their focus from as early as possible, so the 2025 car should be similar enough to this year’s that the current chassis and spares can serve as back-ups if needed.

Q: After every F1 race, drivers are available for interviews/questions in a designated press area. Every single driver is accompanied by another team member. This person certainly appears to be recording every conversation with a press individual. What is going on here? Who is this unknown person and why the recordings? Sky Sports people go up and down pit row all the time interviewing team members and no one is observing or receiving anything. Just curious, no complaints.

Bob Anderson, Arlington Heights, IL

CM: That’s one of the teams’ press officers, who are making sure the drivers are carrying out their media duties and not just disappearing at the first opportunity. They’re keeping an eye on which outlets have been spoken to already, who has yet to be addressed, and when they might be free. They record it all so they have the original quotes in case they feel their driver is misquoted or says something they shouldn’t, and they also often build the driver’s post-session press release quote from those comments, too.

On the grid or in the pit lane, it’s usually pre-organized to some extent. I do the same for SiriusXM and you check who is willing to talk on the grid ahead of the season, then you catch either their eye or that of their press officer before approaching them, in case they really don’t want to speak.

As it’s a live one-on-one discussion and not in the press area, there’s more space so there’s often a press officer nearby, but they’re trusting the discussion and know it goes out live so there’s no point checking/recording the quotes as they happen. On very rare occasions they will ask for a link to the broadcast though if anything controversial comes up and they want to check what was said. It’s team-specific as to how it’s handled — some will still record everything, others will leave you to it a bit more, knowing you will be fair and that you have a good enough relationship with the person you’re interviewing. But one-on-one interviews from a written media perspective regularly have a press officer sitting in on them in F1, which can be a bit frustrating.

Personally, I wish the drivers/team members were trusted a bit more, but also were a bit more proactive themselves, rather than almost needing babysitting at times to ensure they carry out their media duties.

Aston’s “babysitters” making sure Fernando and Lance are in the right place and saying the right things at Suzuka. Zak Mauger/Motorsport Images

Q: Regarding Ferrari and Hamilton, we must remember that others answered the siren call in the middle or later in their careers: Prost, Mansell, Alonso and Vettel. However, I don’t recall similar B.S. directed at them as has been directed at Hamilton. Clearly there is a double standard, but we knew that already. So, the question is, how will this future relationship work?

Don Hopings, Cathedral City, CA

CM: Forgive me if I’ve missed something Don, but I haven’t noticed criticism of Hamilton for this move at all. In fact in the coverage we’ve provided, I talked about how tough the current situation must be for him because he’s still got this year to get through at Mercedes before he can focus one what looks like a great move given where Ferrari’s heading. Feel free to write back in and let me know what in particular you’re referring to, though.

I’ve noticed more commentary around Carlos Sainz and whether Ferrari replaced the wrong driver, which it hasn’t. Charles Leclerc is a great talent too, and younger (although I keep prematurely aging Carlos, who is still only 29), and both are just so closely matched that there’s no decisively right or wrong choice around who to replace there — you just don’t pass up the chance to sign Hamilton.

Given the relationship between Fred Vasseur and Hamilton — which dates back to Vasseur running Hamilton in his ART junior teams — I don’t think there’s going to be an issue at all. Hamilton will be getting a fresh start, and already has huge respect for Vasseur and his management style. Add in the attractions of being part of the Ferrari brand and everything that partnership will be doing away from racing, and I honestly think it’s going to be a far more positive 2025 for Hamilton than if he was still waiting for Mercedes to try and turn things around.

Q: I have noticed that at least for the Australian and Japanese Grands Prix, Sky TV has not been taking as many of their on-air talent to the race but instead have been showing some of them in the UK Studio. Is this a cost-cutting measure, and will it continue all season?

Sean P. Walsh, Arlington, VA

CM: The same will be true in China, but as far as I’m aware that’s the last race that will use the studio as the base. The core presenting team has been in the studio, partly due to the timing of the races (Sky is a British broadcaster so its main audience is watching in the early hours if tuning in live for Australia/Japan/China, and more so just for the racing action at that stage) but it has still had people on the ground, too.

From Miami, the entire team is back on-site and that’s set to be the norm for all of the European rounds and Canada, and I’ve not heard that it will be any different for the flyaways at the end of the season, either (although I guess if feedback is positive it could change).

I’m sure if it saves costs that’s not seen as a negative by Sky, but there are also other factors that stakeholders have to take into account such as carbon footprint — just look at F1’s recent release about how it’s progressing towards its Net Zero target with changes to its broadcast and a far bigger chunk of remote operations.