FIA Team Principals press conference – 2025 Miami Grand Prix
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: Graham Harris (Motorsport Monday) A question for Toto, but I’d love Christian and Ollie to comment as well. We spoke to Lewis and George yesterday about the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association not being officially recognised by the FIA or having any direct links to the FIA and asking whether that would be productive going forward. As they have no standing, do you as a Team Principal and as a member of thew World Motor Sport Council, as each Team Principal is, is there a route to having the GPDA officially recognised so they can contribute meaningfully? What are your views on this?
TW: Over the years that I’ve been in Formula 1, you’ve had times of a more vocal GPDA and then at times not. And I think now, there’s a few good voices speaking for the drivers that are measured and manage to come up with the right inputs. They are just another stakeholder in the sport and, as such, even if not formally, they’re very well recognised informally. Listening to their opinions is important. We – at least the teams – are very much attentive to them.
Q: Christian, your thoughts?
CH: Yeah, look, the drivers have an important voice. Personally, I’d be very open to them having a seat at the table. They’ve always got an important perspective. So, yeah, why not?
Q: (Nicole Mulder – GP Blog) Question to Christian and Toto: what’s the best advice you can give Max now as a new parent?
CH: He’s going to be a very present father, I’m sure. You’ve got to get involved with the nappies, in the middle of the night, all of that. It’s the most wonderful thing, welcoming a new addition to any family. Life will be very different for him now, in many respects, as a parent. But I’m just thinking – the genes of that child are quite incredible. When you think of Verstappen and Piquet – if it was a racehorse, it’d be worth a fortune! But yeah, it’s going to make life a little different for him.
TW: Yeah, obviously we are all different. For me, a child is born with DNA and I believe in nature, not so much nurture. But he’s been – from what I can see – great with his stepdaughter, and I have no doubt he will be a fantastic father.
Q: (Molly Hudson – The Times) A question for Christian but open to anyone: the topic of the 2026 engines came up again in the recent Commission meeting. Are you happy with the resolution? Do you feel lift-and-coast concerns are gone, or is there still more work to be done?
CH: The regulations are fixed for next year, and that’s what everybody has designed and developed their engines to. The biggest concern is one that is not new – it’s one that’s been flagged from two years ago by all the PUMs is the amount of harvesting there is and inevitably the chassis designers will inevitably outperform the criteria of the regulations, and a consequence of that will be the amount of lift-and-coast that there will be in a Grand Prix. You also have to remember that under the 2026 regs, the car is effectively constantly in DRS mode. As soon as you enter the straight, the wing opens. So, there’ll be no passing mechanism. The FIA have raised this topic that was looked at a little while ago again by the PUMs. If it’s genuinely in the interest of the sport and racing, not to have all this lifting and coasting, then I think it’s something that warrants looking at. It doesn’t change the spec or output of the engine. It’s just the amount of battery deployment maybe at certain Grands Prix.
TW: Obviously, the closer you come to new regulations, the more people act – all of us – in the interest of the team, that’s their duty. Where we’re coming from is we don’t know how it’s going to pan out next year. Are we going to see energy harvesting disasters in Baku or Monza? I don’t know. We hope not. What we’ve signalled is that, rather than act now based on assumptions – like we’ve been great at in previous years and then overshot or undershot – as Christian said, you don’t need to throw the hardware away and come up with something new – it’s within the software and bandwidth of what you can do. We’ll see the final product next year in testing. As a power unit manufacturer, we want this to be a great show. We want to win, but we are also aware that in the sport there needs to be variability and unpredictability. We enjoyed the years from 2014 onwards, but over a prolonged period of time, that’s certainly not the best for the sport. I try to be very balanced between what is good for Mercedes, which I need to do, and what is the right solution going forward. We need to avoid these swings. The FIA proposed this engine; nobody liked it. The 50% electric back in the day was where road cars were going to and it was a reason to attract manufacturers like Audi and Porsche. So, we did that. It’s difficult to change the goalposts, especially for the new ones. Honda recommitted, and Audi committed, and including us, they are not keen on changing those goalposts at this stage. But we need to be open-minded if necessary.
Q: (Jon Noble – The Race) To Toto and Christian: another issue from the F1 Commission was the cost of fuel for next year as sustainable fuels come in. What’s your opinion on that? Is it something that needs addressing for 2027?
CH: It was raised by one of the PUMs. Personally, for us, it’s not a significant issue. There are a lot of development costs in these new sustainable fuels that being introduced. Maybe a certain bracket should be introduced going forward. But fuel is potentially one of the bigger performance differentiators. The fuel companies seem very engaged in that.
TW: From my point of view, what makes it so expensive is that the whole supply chain and energy contribution needs to be green. To achieve all of that, you need a certain specification of ingredients that is very expensive – and it’s coming in much more expensive than anyone thought. So we need to look at whether there’s anything we can tweak to bring the per-litre price down. We want to be open-minded. Petronas has been a great partner of ours. They’re fully committed technically to the project, and with them we’re evaluating is there a regulation that can be changed to make it more financially sustainable.
Q: (Phil Duncan – PA) A question for Toto. Going back to Lewis – his start at Ferrari probably hasn’t been what he wanted. He described it as painful. Have you been surprised by that, and do you think he still has the magic? Or has it deserted him?
TW: I think we saw that magic in the Sprint Race – was it Shanghai? He was completely dominating that race. It’s not like you have the magic in one race and then suddenly you lose the magic in the next one. I very much believe that it’s still there. If he aligns all his performance contributors and feels he is in the right space and the car is to his liking, he will be stellar. I have no doubt. But I’m also not surprised it has those road bumps. He was with us 12 years – the way of operating. He’s been put in a Ferrari, where his teammate has been a long time. And his team-mate clearly is one of the very good ones. So from the outside and speaking to him, it’s a trajectory any new driver needs to go through in a top team.
Q: (Ana Ofelia Cordera – Momentum Racing) To Toto. Mercedes dominated for almost 10 years and is still near the top. What has been the most essential ingredient to accomplishing that?
TW: Hola. Are we on the top? You’re always setting your own expectations. We’re trying to do this without having any sense of entitlement. We set the level for many years, and then Christian and Red Bull came back and dominated in the early years of these regulations. We were on the back foot. Slowly, we’re regaining land. We won four races last year – some were dominant. Las Vegas was clearly our race. We’re part of a group that is competitive, that has cars that are able to win and drivers that are able to win. Most of all, you talk about the team or the company – what is that actually, the kind of structure, and it’s people. People coming together and people trying to do the best job. I believe that this is somewhere where we score. We have a good environment. We have a pressure environment, but pressure channelled in the right way. I love my tribe. I try to contribute, to be helpful and if I don’t [help], understand why I wasn’t. Everyone in a leadership position has that introspection: what can I contribute? What can I do better to outperform our competitors?
Q: (Ronald Vording – Motorsport.com) For Christian and Toto – and Ollie, if you want to add. Also on 2026, regarding minimum weight – some teams have said it’ll be incredibly hard to even get close to the minimum weight next year. Is the minimum weight too ambitious, to give fans the perception of lighter cars, and do you feel together with the PU it will be the main performance differentiator next year?
CH: Naturally, Toto and I are at opposing ends on this.
TW: Have been for a few years.
CH: Yeah, I’m loving the new look. I’m loving the new look.
OO: That’s why I’m Switzerland in this.
CH: Exactly. A number was plucked out of the air for car weight. We’ve got engines that are significantly heavier and a car weight that has become lower. So it will be an enormous challenge for every team to achieve it. Saving weight costs a colossal amount of money. There was a discussion last week about introducing steel skids – maybe that would warrant adding 5 kilos to the minimum weight. But it is what it is. It’s the same for everybody. There will be choices teams make to hit the weight, because weight is free lap time. Every 10 kilos is about 0.35 seconds. It will be very challenging for all teams to get down to minimum weight.
TW: Like Christian said, you make choices as a team. How much lap time do you attribute to weight and ballast? Where do you want to save? You may compromise other performance parts if you want to reduce your weight, or the opposite. It is challenging. The reason we’re doing it is to make the cars more nimble. Is that something that was important? I think it was. We’ve got to start somewhere. That initial step is difficult, but it’s the same for everyone.
OO: I’m in the middle. I’m neutral. I’m happy.
Q: (Ian Parkes – RacingNews365) Question for Christian. You’re on a run of introducing new parts on the car – Jeddah, here in Miami, and I understand there’s going to be a significant upgrade for Imola. Is there any sense that the teams’ championship hopes – and that of Max Verstappen – will rely heavily on the new wing regulations due to be introduced in Spain?
CH: Well, first of all, there is no big update – I don’t know where that’s come from – for Imola. We’re at the stage of these regulations where it’s all incremental gains. The changes at Round 9. It will be a change – how that will affect the different cars with the stiffening of the front wings, who knows how that will play out? We’ve been unhappy at certain races this year with performance, but we’ve still been dragging results out of the car. We’re the only team to have won a race other than McLaren this year. We’ve had a couple of poles as well. We’re working very hard to improve the car and improve that situation. So, being only 12 points away at this stage of the championship – it’s a long, long way to go. This championship is an absolute marathon. I don’t think you can exclude anybody in the top, probably, six at the moment as a potential contender – such is the length. And if last year teaches us anything, things can change very quickly. Who knows how that front wing change will play out? Whether some will benefit, some will lose – only time will tell.
Q: (Ticiano Figueiredo – Diário do Rio Claro) To Christian and to Toto. Now that Max’s daughter has been born, is there any chance we’ll have a second Monegasque driving in Formula 1 in the next few years – and why not a woman?
CH: Yeah, absolutely. Why not a woman? As I was saying earlier, the pedigree of that little girl is quite phenomenal. There’ll be a rush to sign an option on her, no doubt. But yeah – why not?
TW: I see it from two sides. I have an eight-year-old that’s go-karting, and I think Max knows you don’t want to put yourself emotionally through that rollercoaster – at least that’s what he said. But then, we need more girls and women in Formula 1. I’m obviously very biased, seeing Susie and F1 Academy prosper and doing the right things. And that girl – like Christian says – if she were to call herself Piquet-Verstappen, that’s also great for marketing… or the other way around.
