Is Russell’s ‘outstanding season’ being overlooked?

The final quarter of the 2026 Formula 1 season begins with this weekend’s United States Grand Prix.

There are extra points on offer in Austin with the grand prix being a sprint event, so there is the potential for a significant shift in the drivers’ championship battle between McLaren team-mates Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris.

Is the presidency of motorsport governing body the FIA (and future nominations) a ‘closed shop’ ? – Mike

It’s not meant to be, but it certainly seems to be the case in the run-up to this year’s elections in December.

It emerged last week that, because of a quirk in the FIA election rules, no other candidate seems able to challenge Mohammed Ben Sulayem, who is running for a second term.

That’s because, to be allowed to run in the election, all candidates have to come up with a presidential list – a team of assistants, effectively.

This has to include a vice-president for sport for each of the FIA’s international regions, and those candidates have to be taken from the list of people eligible to serve on the FIA world motorsport council.

The issue is that only one person from South America is on that list of world council candidates. That’s Fabiana Ecclestone, wife of former F1 boss Bernie. And she has already pledged to be part of Ben Sulayem’s team.

With no other South American candidates, it’s impossible for any of the other people who have said they want to stand to compile a full presidential team, and therefore they are ruled out of the election.

So, unless something changes, Ben Sulayem will stand unopposed in December.

It is not clear how the FIA has ended up publishing a list of world council candidates that includes only one from South America.

Nor is it clear how the FIA has ended up publishing a list of only 29 world council candidates when last election there were 40.

With all the talk of Max Verstappen’s highly impressive season, is the job George Russell is doing in the Mercedes being overlooked? Given the correct equipment, does he look a world champion in the making? – Matt

George Russell has driven an outstanding season, including dominant wins in Canada and Singapore.

There has never been any doubt about Russell’s speed – his qualifying lap at the 2021 Belgian Grand Prix, when he put a Williams on the front row in the wet, should arguably be considered one of the greatest of all time.

But a couple of years ago there were questions as to whether he was a little error-prone in high-stress situations.

Last year’s Canadian Grand Prix, when everyone felt the Mercedes was the fastest car, but Russell made a couple of mistakes that allowed Max Verstappen to sneak in for the win, was a case in point.

In fact, there was an episode of the Netflix Drive to Survive series covering 2024 dedicated to the question of whether Russell was demonstrating team leadership qualities.

It was, it has to be said, highly dramatised, not least because there was at the time no question about Russell’s future at the team, as he was under contract for 2025, and the episode made it feel as if there was.

This year, Russell has answered those questions emphatically, as team principal Toto Wolff said after Singapore.

“That’s the step-up he has made also this year,” Wolff said. “That these things don’t happen again. He’s been formidable this year. I haven’t seen mistakes.

“There were weekends that he himself said he could have done more and that it wasn’t a good race. But this happens with any driver.

“You can see when it merges the car being in a perfect space and the driver being on top of things. That becomes the dominant formula and that is what we’ve seen here.”

Russell would be close to the top of anyone’s list of best drivers of 2025.

Earlier this year, when there was some question about Verstappen’s future at Red Bull, Russell looked like he might be under threat at the team.

I have to agree with Carlos Sainz, the television coverage provided by F1 is concentrating too much on the ‘wags and celebs’ during racing. I really have zero interest in who is at a race apart from the teams and drivers. So should the TV coverage concentrate on the on-track action? – Brian

This topic is always going to come down to a matter of opinion. Some people are going to watch solely for the racing action. Others will also be interested in the off-track drama/glamour/politics.

It is the job of F1’s television production team to provide coverage that satisfies everyone, and there is no getting away from the fact that the off-track side of F1 is compelling for a significant portion of the audience.

Let’s be honest, even die-hard racing fans usually want to know about the scuttlebutt behind the scenes, and it’s hard to argue that the glamour of F1 is not part of the sport’s appeal.

It is the case that at the Singapore Grand Prix some on-track action was missed.

In the interview the question refers to, Sainz was talking about his own race, and Fernando Alonso’s pursuit of Lewis Hamilton as the Ferrari driver ran into brake trouble in the last couple of laps.

Other parts of what was a great drive by Alonso were missed – including his fighting back past a group of cars after his pit stop, among them Sainz and Haas driver Oliver Bearman, on his way to an eventual seventh place.

However, it is also true that Alonso was not exactly the main story of the race, and it’s understandable that the director was more concerned with covering the fight between Verstappen and Lando Norris for second place, which of course had ramifications for the world championship.

F1 says it takes all this into account in its coverage. A spokesperson said: “We always focus on giving our fans the best possible footage of the race and never compromise the key focus – the racing on track.

Bearing in mind how difficult it is to overtake in Singapore, as proved again last week in what was pretty much a processional race, what is the rationale for introducing a sprint race at the circuit next year? – Kevin

Overtaking is difficult in Singapore, but F1 believes that it’s possible the sprint could prove to be quite interesting there next year.

Their simulations suggest that a shorter race, factoring in the possibility of differing tyre choices, could throw up some action on a track where the walls are close and waiting to catch out any mistakes.

There is also the question of next year’s new rules – no-one has any idea yet how they are going to affect the racing.

The flip side is that drivers generally race cautiously in sprints because they don’t want to risk damaging their cars when the rewards are so small. The risk-reward balance is different than in a grand prix. And the risk is greater at a street circuit than a road course.

The other thing to bear in mind, though, is that qualifying in Singapore can be thrilling – as it was this year. And having a sprint weekend means two qualifying sessions not just one.

In that case, the argument for a sprint in Singapore is the same as anywhere else – the audience likes sprint weekends because there is more consequential action. Singapore is one of the premier weekends of the year, so why not make it a sprint?