McLaren’s Lando Norris transformed pole place right into a race win at a wet-dry-wet Sao Paulo Grand Prix on Sunday.
Max Verstappen got here by the sector to take second after beginning behind the grid due to an engine penalty, whereas his Purple Bull team-mate Isack Hadjar was on the rostrum in third.
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Mercedes sealed the constructors’ championship for the primary time since 2021 at Interlagos following a fourth-place end for George Russell and fifth for brand spanking new world champion Kimi Antonelli.
Right here BBC F1 correspondent Andrew Benson solutions your newest questions.
Lewis Hamilton has simply accomplished his four-hundredth F1 grand prix, with greater than 100 of those races having him on pole place. There are drivers with a greater pole share than this, so simply how good is he and for a way for much longer can he keep on the high? – Clive
Lewis Hamilton is definitely one of many biggest System 1 drivers in historical past.
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He is statistically probably the most profitable – with probably the most race wins and pole positions.
He is tied with Michael Schumacher for probably the most championships with seven, and plenty of would – and do – argue he ought to have eight, given the controversy of the mishandled ultimate race of the 2021 season.
Greatness as an F1 driver is about greater than uncooked statistics, besides Hamilton has persistently proved to be on the very highest degree, with a sequence of excellent drives in races that can go down in historical past as among the biggest ever.
Examples of these could be the 2008 British Grand Prix and the 2021 Brazilian Grand Prix, together with many others.
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All of this could go with out saying.
He is additionally gained races in practically all his seasons – the one exceptions being 2022, 2023 and 2025.
There is no such thing as a query that, throughout the context of his outstanding profession, Hamilton struggled comparatively within the period of ‘ground-effect’ automobiles from 2022-25.
He was overwhelmed by Mercedes team-mate George Russell in two of their three seasons collectively, and regarded a shadow of his typical self in opposition to Charles Leclerc in 2025.
These performances led some to query why a driver previously famed and lauded for his adaptability didn’t appear as in a position to adapt to the driving model required of these automobiles.
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And that, in flip, led to questions as as to whether the very fact he apparently couldn’t was associated to his age – he’s now 41.
However with this yr’s automobiles, Hamilton is again in far more acquainted territory, is performing extraordinarily nicely once more and is neck-and-neck with Leclerc.
These questions in regards to the 4 years from 2022-25 will stay simply that, however there isn’t any doubt Hamilton is delicate to them. He has referenced them quite a lot of instances this yr, together with final weekend in Brazil, when the subject of his four-hundredth race got here up.
“I by no means ever thought that I might be reaching numbers like that,” he mentioned. “It is loopy as a result of I nonetheless really feel younger, and whatever the issues that folks say, you noticed my pole final week, I nonetheless have the tempo, I nonetheless have the velocity and I nonetheless have the dedication, which is most vital and the main target. For me, that quantity is type of irrelevant.”
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Longevity in sport will depend on many components, and every athlete is totally different.
On the face of it, nevertheless, there isn’t any apparent purpose why, on an age entrance, Hamilton can not proceed for a great few extra years – Fernando Alonso is 45 and remains to be acting at an especially excessive degree, as he proved but once more in Brazil on the weekend.
Hamilton has mentioned he needs to race at the very least till F1 returns to Africa, which won’t be till 2030 on the earliest, when he, too, might be 45.
For that, he’ll want at the very least one new contract, as his present one with Ferrari is believed to finish subsequent yr.
We heard, and noticed, a variety of ‘yo-yo racing’ within the first half of the season. This appears to have diminished. What has modified? – Ali
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‘Yo-yo racing’ was a time period coined firstly of this yr for a brand new character of on-track battle wherein automobiles swapped positions a number of instances over a sequence of laps.
This was attributable to the brand new power-units launched this yr, which have a close to 50-50 cut up between inner combustion and electrical energy and are essentially vitality starved.
The operations of those engines included ‘overtake’ and ‘increase’ modes.
‘Enhance’ is a facility for a driver to demand additional electrical vitality each time he needs, so long as the battery has cost.
‘Overtake’ mode offers a driver following inside one second of a automotive in entrance an additional 0.5MJ of vitality restoration and deployment functionality per lap.
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In the beginning of the season, this – mixed with the groups’ and drivers’ relative unfamiliarity with the brand new know-how – led to quite a lot of examples of yo-yo racing within the early grands prix.
That is the place one driver has extra electrical vitality out there, makes use of it to overhaul, whereupon the motive force behind now has extra and overtakes again, and so forth.
This has been much less prevalent not too long ago and there are two causes for that.
Primarily, the tracks in current weeks have been much less ‘energy-starved’. And the extra energy-starved a automotive is at a monitor, the extra chance there’s for yo-yo racing.
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The overtaking comes from the variation in vitality ranges, and being at tracks the place drivers cannot use all of the vitality they need on a regular basis.
On high of that, drivers and groups have now been utilizing the engines for a season and are far more on high of easy methods to use them, and subsequently how to not go away themselves weak.
On the similar time, rule modifications have been launched because the begin of the season to scale back the influence of vitality hunger, corresponding to imposing vitality limits on tracks the place it’s a main subject. This flattens out the peaks and troughs in vitality availability.
And into subsequent yr and past additional steps are being taken to make the engines extra “regular” in operation – by altering the vitality cut up to 60-40 in two steps by 2028.
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That is virtually definitely going to result in the frequency of overtaking lowering, whereas the drivers grow to be happier with how the automobiles really feel to drive.
Whether or not the viewers perceives that as higher or worse racing stays to be seen.
What’s the purpose a driver like Esteban Ocon would wish to keep in F1 as a reserve driver quite than decide to race elsewhere in a special sequence? All F1 drivers are very, excellent, and presumably could be in demand, so why not compete elsewhere, win some races, be a hero? – Stephen
When it grew to become clear that Ocon was not going to be retained by Haas subsequent yr, and that his choices for a race seat appeared to have evaporated, the Frenchman was insistent that his F1 profession was not over.
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Staying concerned within the sport as a reserve driver – if he can discover a spot – is the easiest way to maintain present within the sport.
It means a driver is accessible ought to both of the race drivers at no matter staff he can land with be incapacitated.
It retains him conversant in present F1 equipment by simulator periods, and maybe driving current automobiles.
And it merely retains his face round and in folks’s minds.
Go and race elsewhere, whether or not it is Indycar, System E or endurance racing, for instance, and it is a lot easer to be forgotten, or for folks to imagine your time has come and gone.
Why hasn’t Liam Lawson been confirmed for 2027 regardless of his sensible driving this yr? – Pete
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The choice as to which two of the three drivers in rivalry to drive for Racing Bulls subsequent yr is within the arms of the Purple Bull shareholders Chalerm Yoovidhya and Mark Mateschitz, and Purple Bull’s final F1 boss Oliver Mintzlaff.
Lawson is in rivalry alongside together with his present team-mate Arvid Lindblad and F2 front-runner Nikola Tsolov.
The outdated Purple Bull manner – underneath Helmut Marko and Christian Horner – would have been to jettison Lawson now on the idea he has had his probability within the lead staff and is unlikely to be thought of for an additional, and put in Tsolov as the subsequent cab off the rank, so to talk.
The counter-argument is that leaves two unproven abilities going in opposition to one another subsequent yr, which would go away Purple Bull not figuring out what they’re .
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Higher, this argument goes, to maintain Lawson and Lindblad collectively subsequent yr for a fuller studying on Lindblad, with Lawson as a known-quantity benchmark, then drop whoever performs least nicely on the finish of 2027 in favour of Tsolov.
In not so many phrases, Racing Bulls staff boss Alan Permane made this second argument in Brazil on the weekend.
“Purple Bull’s had a really profitable younger driver programme,” he mentioned, “and I do not wish to be important of it, however I feel if you happen to guys are important of it, perhaps typically the drivers have not been in a position to have sufficient time to settle, or perhaps some snap choices have been made.
“We’re making an attempt to use a little bit little bit of science, and that takes a while.
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“So we’re every little thing and finding out, analysing, and time is on our aspect. We’re not in a rush to do something, and I am very assured the best determination might be made.
“I realise it is irritating for our drivers. I realise it is irritating for everybody else, however we wish to get it proper, and we are going to get it proper.”
Interlagos persistently produces thrilling races. Ought to F1 be doing extra to protect racing at ‘traditional’ circuits? – Nathan
F1 faces a troublesome balancing act with the calendar.
It needs a really international world championship. It needs thrilling racing that engages audiences. It needs a great mixture of circuit varieties for variation and curiosity. And it needs to earn cash.
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In terms of ‘traditional’ race tracks, that is not all the time a simple equation to resolve.
The principle purpose is that the traditional tracks are sometimes in nations that aren’t ready or keen to pay the big-money charges.
The identical mannequin and restrictions don’t apply in autocracies that wish to use races for nationwide self-promotion, therefore they will and do are likely to pay greater charges.
However F1 is nicely conscious of the significance of traditional circuits, and it needs to make sure it retains the perfect of them.
As a consequence, F1 does make compromises that make sure the likes of Monaco, Silverstone, Spa and Suzuka keep on the calendar, even when not yearly any extra within the case of Spa.
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On the similar time, the game makes a substantial effort to make new tracks as fascinating as potential. Some are extra profitable than others, however that is all the time going to be the case.
Take Las Vegas, for instance. It’s removed from the best monitor by way of driving problem, and was hardly prone to be given it’s made up of streets in an American metropolis, however it makes up for that with spectacle and kudos.
As for forthcoming everlasting circuits, former F1 driver Alex Wurz – the designer of the brand new tracks in Qiddiyah, Saudi Arabia, and Rwanda, that are each on account of come on to the calendar within the subsequent few years – has executed his degree finest to make sure they’re fulfilling and difficult for drivers and promote good racing.