Answering your F1 mailbag questions on Ocon to Haas, strife at Red Bull, and more

Photo by Jayce Illman/Getty Images

Your biggest F1 questions answered ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix

We have reached the midway point of the 2024 Formula 1 season.

This weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix kicks off what could be a second half for the ages. Will someone truly challenge Max Verstappen in the Drivers’ Championship? Will one of Red Bull’s rivals truly put the pressure to them in the Constructors’ Championship?

Consider this: Already six different drivers have won a Grand Prix. In just 15 seasons in the history of F1 have more than six drivers won a Grand Prix. Should two more drivers win a race — say Oscar Piastri and Sergio Pérez, for example — that would bring the total to eight, putting the 2024 season into a tie for third in this specific category. (The 1975 season saw nine different winners, while the 1982 season stands alone with 11 different drivers having won a race).

Given all of this, we here at SB Nation thought it was time to open up the F1 mailbag. Thanks to the incredible community that is “F1 Threads,” we solicited questions from a fantastic fanbase.

Here are the questions, and our answers.

Our first question comes from my pals at the Dirty Side of the Track podcast.

I think what we are seeing in F1 is slow progress towards going fully sustainable. The cars under the current regulations use E10, a fuel that is 10% sustainable ethanol, and 90% fossil fuel. The upcoming regulations will use a 100% fully sustainable fuel, which I think is an important step.

The other thing to consider is that under the current regulations, the power production between the internal combustion engine and the hybrid system is around 75/25, whereas in the upcoming regulations that split will be closer to 50/50.

So ultimately I think we are seeing evolution with sustainable fuel technologies in F1, just not at an overly rapid pace.

A bunch of questions were sent in by Adam, let’s tackle the first three before moving on to the next three he sent in.

On Esteban Ocon to Haas

Thursday’s news that Haas and Kevin Magnussen were parting ways opened the door to such a pairing.

This is one of those moves I will need to see in action before I can buy in. Let’s just say I’m skeptical of pairing Esteban Ocon with Oliver Bearman. Ocon has certainly endured an, as you say, interesting history with teammates.

The “glass half full” view might be that in recent years Ocon was paired with a living legend of the sport (Fernando Alonso) who he was trying to compare himself, and then in recent years he was paired with a peer with whom en enjoyed something of a spotty history.

Perhaps in more of an “elder statesman” role, Ocon can finally feel comfortable within the team, and as such thrive?

That’s the wildly optimistic approach, but if this is truly the path Haas goes down, that might be what they are thinking as well.

On Red Bull drivers

There’s a reason the second seat at Red Bull is often referred to as the “second seat of death,” and it has little to do with what energy drinks can do to the body …

But enough about my cardiologist.

Nyck de Vries might have been last year’s example — and the jury may currently be deliberating regarding Sergio Pérez — but the team’s history has more examples. Both Alexander Albon and Pierre Gasly were given their chances to drive alongside Max Verstappen, and both were shown the door. And let’s not forget that Verstappen slid into a seat once occupied by Daniil Kyvat, who himself was benched after a collision with Sebastian Vettel at the 2016 Russian Grand Prix.

Formula 1 is not a sport known for patience, and that certainly is the case at Red Bull. In many ways, their history helps fuel the ongoing speculation about Pérez.

On De Vries

Honestly, I think De Vries was put in a difficult situation. Christian Horner said as much following the move to sack him mid-season, calling him something of a “stopgap” approach.

As someone who also covers the National Football League, I at times find myself making comparisons between drivers and quarterbacks. And if you think of the two positions, there is some significant overlap.

One of the lessons in quarterback evaluation that has always stuck with me is something that Bill Walsh, one of the most brilliant minds in football, said about quarterbacks in the NFL. It takes three years for them to figure it out.

Franz Tost, the former boss at AlphaTauri, said the same about Formula 1 drivers.

However, fan bases and ownership groups are not exactly patient when it comes to young quarterbacks in the NFL, and the same can be said about F1. In the NFL there are just 32 quarterbacks, but the sphere of F1 drivers is even smaller. There is not a lot of patience given to younger drivers, given the talent in the lower ranks, and Red Bull/AlphaTauri had lots of options.

Could De Vries have figured things out eventually, if given three years? Perhaps. But given his age coming into the sport, and the options Red Bull/AlphaTauri had behind him, the leash was always going to be short.

Now let’s tackle the next three questions from Adam.

On F1 books

The one I’m finishing right now is The Formula, by Joshua Robinson and Jonathan Clegg. It’s a good “big picture” view of the sport as a whole, and of some of the twists and turns in Formula 1 that have shaped it into the sport it is today.

How to Build a Race Car by Adrian Newey is also a must-read, both for the technical insight the legendary designer offers, but also for his writing style. As someone who writes professionally, I often find myself more in awe of his writing style, than his brilliant engineering mind.

This off-season I’ll absolutely be tackling Driving to Survive by Guenther Steiner. Because it’s Guenther. Enough said.

On SB Nation covering F1 Fantasy

Check back in the off-season …

On the next young driver to get an FP1 shot and whether that is Paul Aron

Well, apparently Aron is getting an FP1 session with APXGP this weekend in Budapest:

(I wildly vacillate between the social media campaign for “F1” — which includes a social media account for the team dating back to last season, where they apparently moved on from Nyck de Vries at the end of the year — being amazing or exhausting, but I digress.)

The easy answer here is Andrea Kimi Antonelli, right? Not only is his 18th birthday coming up after the summer shutdown, but the adjustment of the Super License requirements means the door is open to Antonelli at least getting an FP1 session soon.

This is a fantastic question. I wish I could offer more in way of a response.

However, I’ve just been to Miami, so I can only speak to that experience.

Which was incredible.

In talking with fans who were at the Miami Grand Prix one of the cool aspects is the ability to go into Hard Rock Stadium, where the paddock is located. You can sit or standing the 300-level of the stadium and have a bird’s eye view of the paddock. As someone lucky enough to be down in the field itself, the roar of the crowd when a driver, team boss, or other F1 personality showed up was a great moment.

The other thing about the Miami Grand Prix is that given it is held at an NFL stadium, the amenities available to fans and media members alike are phenomenal. And the race organizers have certainly tried to cater to every level of fan. On the morning of the Miami Grand Prix, I was able to chat with Tom Garfinkle, the Managing Partner of the Miami Grand Prix and the CEO of the Miami Dolphins. He outlined the extent to which race organizers were trying to make the race accessible for all levels of fans.

“I mean, we had, it was really fun because for the third year it was always kind of the vision and yesterday it happened more than the first two years. At one point I walked out, and the 300 level [of Hard Rock Stadium] was probably half full. So the campus pass holders can go on the top of the stadium,” described Garfinkel.

“They can go, you know, if you look right across the way here, you see these stands right here where there’s people standing, those are campus pass holders, they have risers that they can stand on them. Once the cars go by, that’s $450 for three days.

“It’s $150 a day to stand on a riser right next to the racetrack. Get all kinds of food, go across the bridge. You can go up in the stadium, walk around the top of the stadium, see almost the whole racetrack, look down in the paddock. The concessions up there are the same as they are for Dolphins games.

“So for $150 a day, you know, I think you can have a great experience and then there’s $15,000 for the highest end. You know, lobster from Carbone, so we’re trying to run the spectrum up and down. We want it to be a place where everybody can come and have a good time.

“And if you are a celebrity or a dignitary of some sort, your ability to get in and out easily to be secure without people asking you for a selfie every two steps you take and to be with your friends and be able to enjoy fine dining or something and try to do that as well.”

Garfinkel’s goal is to turn every attendee into a fan of F1 by the time they leave.

“Well, hopefully by the time they leave, they’re all race fans,” said Garfinkel when asked if he had an ideal split in mind between race fans and celebrity fans.

“I think at the end of the day, the racing comes first. We wanted to produce a racetrack that delivered quality racing and where there was overtaking and where there’s exciting places to watch the racing,” described Garfinkel. “And then after that, we want to create a great experience around that and hopefully whether you’re a hardcore fan or whether you’re just a casual fan that wants to come out here and have a good time, you know, you can have both.”

I’ll be heading to at least one more Grand Prix this season, if not more, so watch this space for additional thoughts. But I would say that Miami was a tremendous experience for myself, and those I was able to talk to who attended.

F1 Threads is filled with wonderful people, and Helz absolutely tops that list. Helz is a fantastic advocate for what a positive social media community can be and wears many hats in F1 Threads, from their role as the official greeter as well as helping run the P10:DNF contest each race weekend. Cheers to you Helz

However, Helz brought the heat with this question.

One of the pieces I’m proudest of since starting out in this motorsport journey is this, wherein I try and summarize just what it takes to be a race car driver. My main takeaway from all the drivers and motorsport figures I’ve been lucky enough to speak with and hear from through the past year-plus?

Being a race car driver is incredibly hard.

Whether F1 drivers, F1 Academy drivers, IndyCar drivers, NASCAR drivers, team principals, team owners, or others, the main point I took from every interaction is that driving a race car is hard. From hearing Abbi Pulling describe a lap at Monza to Alexander Rossi talking about everything that goes into a lap at the Indianapolis 500, it is an incredibly hard job.

And then Jack Doohan offers up the reminder of just what is at stake if things go awry …

One thing that, in my mind at least, tips the scales towards F1 being the tougher series is the schedule. 24 races, all across the globe, with some brutally difficult stretches. The recent tripleheader is one such stretch. Then there is the tripleheader that will come at the end of the season where the grid will go from Las Vegas to Qatar and then to Abu Dhabi to close out the year, all within three weeks. That is tough on the drivers and the teams.

But this should not take anything away from IndyCar. At all. It takes a completely different kind of human to hit some of those speeds you see during qualifying at the Indy 500. And then to have the mentality of “put it in the wall or put it in the show?”

That is … different.

This from Jahl is quite the question to end on.

Sportswashing is by no means unique to Formula 1.

I am a Newcastle United supporter after all.

The Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) continues to widen its approach, pushing into the world of golf and luring soccer stars to play in the Saudi Pro League. Other nations with hugely questionable track records regarding human rights have made similar inroads in the world of sports.

From where I sit, I think there is a belief in all of these sporting leagues in the idea that, for example, bringing the grid to a particular nation — along with the media — will help to shine a light on some of these issues, and over time enact positive change.

Perhaps that is a wildly naive point of view. And of course, the response to that is to look at the lack of positive change over the years and to wonder if these leagues will ever draw a line in the proverbial sand.

I wish there were an easy answer to this question. Perhaps an unintended result of the increased popularity of F1 around the world will open the door to other nations being allowed to host races, and perhaps a rotating schedule of sorts would allow the sport to move away from some of these nations with troubling records of human rights abuses.

As I type this, the world is getting ready to come together for the 2024 Summer Games. There was a time when the Olympics would serve as a reminder of our shared humanity, and offer hope of a brighter future for all.

That, too, is a vision that is perhaps too naive for our current world.