Are Leclerc’s struggles down to Lewis Hamilton revival? – F1 Q&A

Mercedes have two drivers who are battling each other for the world championship. This may be a problem, with management of the drivers’ on-track behaviour, but is having two drivers battling each other a good problem to have? – Robert

If a team is in a situation where only their two drivers are in contention for the championship, with no rivals, it’s nervy but it’s what most team bosses would refer to as “a good problem to have”.

That appeared to be the situation Mercedes were in over the first six races, and the team had agreed to let Kimi Antonelli and George Russell fight it out on track.

After their on-the-edge battles in Canada, Russell said the drivers had told team principal Toto Wolff they knew what they were doing and to please leave them to it.

Even so, in Canada and in Spain at the weekend, the team did intervene. In Barcelona, it was to warn that their battle was slowing them down and was making their attempt to beat Hamilton more difficult.

So they backed out of their fight for a while, although they got back to it late on, once Hamilton was out of reach, and Antonelli passed Russell for second before the Italian’s retirement.

Afterwards, Wolff said the team would have a talk about how to approach things in the future now Ferrari seem more of a threat – and don’t forget Lando Norris was in the picture at the front in the McLaren on Sunday as well.

Wolff said: “There is a third party now getting involved in the championship fight – constructor and and driver. And in that respect, we will discuss internally with the two drivers how we want to handle a situation where we risk holding each other up. I think it’s not going to be a problem. It’s just maybe we need to recalibrate.”

Although it seems the vibration issues at Aston Martin seem to be fixed, the car seems to be standing still or even going backwards. Has the team given up on this season’s car and putting their efforts into next year? Additionally, if this is happening, how would it affect Fernando Alonso’s decision for next season? – Brendan

Aston Martin have definitely not given up on this season.

They are falling back because they have so far brought almost no performance upgrades to their car, while all the other teams have.

That’s because they have decided the best use of their resources in the context of the cost cap is to introduce one major upgrade in one go, rather than drip-feed smaller ones over a series of races.

That upgrade is expected around the time of the Belgian Grand Prix – in three races’ time.

A revised and improved Honda engine has also been promised. Honda won’t say when it’s due to arrive, but sources in the team have told BBC Sport it is likely to be after the summer break, around the time of the Dutch Grand Prix.

Aston Martin’s problem is that even if that aerodynamic upgrade makes the car two seconds a lap faster – and if it did, it would be one hell of an upgrade – it will only move them up to Racing Bulls/Audi territory.

That’s at least respectable rather than embarrassing, which is what they are now, but it’s still a long way from where they want to be.

The upgrade is important on a number of different levels, including in the context of Fernando Alonso’s future.

From a team point of view, it is extremely important that it works, because the story of the past three years at Aston Martin has been the introduction of upgrades that on paper looked to be an improvement in performance, only for that performance not to materialise when they went on the car.

They are hoping, following the arrival of design legend Adrian Newey and the introduction of their new wind tunnel, that upgrades will from now on be more reliable.

Alonso is out of contract at the end of this season, and says he will take a decision on his future “after the summer”.

It seems he is waiting to see how the upgrades on car and engine turn out before making a decision as to what to do.

He’s 45 at the end of next month. He has made it clear he would prefer not to end his career after such a depressing year as he is having at the moment. And he has repeatedly said he believes he is still driving at a very high level.

At the same time, he won’t want to stay only to go through another year like this.

If he decides Aston Martin don’t look like they will improve next year, his options for racing in F1 next year are not that enticing, as he almost certainly won’t get a drive in a top-four team.