The Belgian Grand Prix put the new engines back in the spotlight, though not in a positive way.George Russell suffered a deployment problem during the opening lap, and his race came to a quick end when he collided with Lewis Hamilton, who received a five-second penalty for the incident.Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff revealed after the race that Russell wasn’t the only driver with a Mercedes-powered engine who faced a lack of energy out of Turn 1, though the Briton was affected more.While Russell faced the heartbreak of another blow to his title fight, Kimi Antonelli further extended the points gap to 50 between the teammates as the Italian driver won his sixth race of the season.Behind Mercedes, Charles Leclerc brought Ferrari a second-placed finish when the team “expected to be very far back, maybe to the extent of four or five tenths” on Thursday. The Prancing Horse is slowly putting more pressure on Mercedes in the constructors’ championship, the gap sitting at 73 points heading into the final race before the summer break.
Before racing action kicks off at Hungaroring, let’s unpack some of your questions from the Belgian GP. Here’s our latest F1 mailbag.Editor’s note: Questions have been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.Which team is the Spain of F1: calm, cool, unquestionable team buy-in, patient, detailed, and anchored by a very young star(s)? — Karl S.An excellent World Cup-themed question. Thank you, Karl! I managed to get back from the track to find a restaurant in Spa on Sunday night just in time for kick-off. As I wrote in a piece over the weekend, F1’s soccer fandom has been on full display in recent races.For this question though, there’s a very easy parallel to draw. A seamless team performance being spearheaded by a 19-year-old who is already one of the biggest stars? That applied to both Spain and Mercedes on Sunday.Lamine Yamal and Kimi Antonelli probably share a lot more in common than their age and the fact they got to lift a big trophy a few days ago (Antonelli’s Belgian Grand Prix silverware being somewhat less iconic than the World Cup). They’ll have an appreciation for the intense scrutiny on their performances, even at such an early part of their careers.They’re also getting their heads around tasting success at an incredibly young age. Yamal is already a world and European champion, while Antonelli could this year become the youngest F1 world champion if he keeps up his form.
