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Round eight of the Formula 1 season takes place this weekend in the stunning surroundings of the Styrian mountains in Austria.
Last time out in Barcelona, Mercedes lost their first Grand Prix this year with Lewis Hamilton winning.
The Briton’s first grand prix win for Ferrari, combined with the retirement of Kimi Antonelli late in the race, narrowed the gap at the top of the drivers’ championship to 41 points.
Ahead of Sunday’s race at Spielberg, BBC F1 correspondent Andrew Benson answers your latest questions.
A previous podium for Pierre Gasly. Judgment? Or is it better not to open a can of worms? – Clive
Formula 1 is apparently in a bit of a pickle over pit-lane speed penalties at the Monaco Grand Prix.
The fact is that five cars were fined for pit-lane speeding when none of them exceeded the limit.
The length of the pit lane was measured incorrectly – it was possible to run by 77cm less distance than officials initially realised.
And since pit-lane speed limits are policed by timing passing through a series of timing loops at set distances, that meant drivers were unfairly penalized.
This set off a sequence of events that had a dramatic effect on the outcome of the race.
George Russell was the worst affected next, turning third place into 12th and losing 15 points in the process.
But McLaren’s Oscar Piastre and Red Bull’s Isaac Hajjar also changed their results.
Is it fair that Gasly is relegated to the third place at the flag that he lost because Alpine refused to pay his penalty during the race, while the other drivers’ results were incomplete?
Should the stewards dealing with Alpine’s right to review at the Barcelona weekend leave it at that and the very obvious questions it raises?
In terms of natural justice, the answer to both these questions is clearly no – there are many issues raised by this situation that have not been properly addressed.
McLaren And Red Bull appealed the case to the FIA court. No date has yet been set for the hearing.
Mercedes have withdrawn their efforts to review the results of the race After reaching the conclusion there was no viable mechanism to restore Russell to where he could have ended up, and it would not work to drag anyone down.
As McLaren said in their statement of notice of intention to appeal: “We believe this case raises important questions about the fairness of the sport, regulatory continuity and the integrity of competition.”
The shame is that all this could have been avoided if the FIA and F1 had acted differently before the race.
The teams have warned the FIA that there was a problem waiting to happen with pit-lane speed limits over the Monaco weekend.
Officials looked into it, but their initial conclusion was that the concerns were unfounded. This was clearly an error. None of this would have happened if it had been properly addressed at the time.
In terms of fair play, it is difficult to conclude that the issue should be taken to a complete and proper conclusion.
Will Ferrari make Carlo Santi Lewis Hamilton’s permanent full-time race engineer, or will his role still be considered temporary? – Anthony
The relationship between Lewis Hamilton and his new race engineer Carlo Santi is off to a good start.
Santi was initially meant to be a stop-gap before Hamilton got a new full-time engineer, but a Ferrari spokesman said: “Carlo and Lewis are working very well together and there are no plans to replace him.”
Hamilton found a much more satisfying relationship with Santi than with Ricciardo Adami last year and he has tried to explain his situation in 2025 without being too negative.
Hamilton said in Canada, where he finished second for his best result with Ferrari at the time, that Santi was “absolutely fantastic and I really love working with him”.
At Monaco he went further and compared the relationship with Santi to the one he built up with Peter ‘Bono’ Bonnington during 12 years at Mercedes.
“The driver-engineer working together is very, very important,” Hamilton said. “Last year, Adami and I had a really good relationship. He’s a nice guy. We worked relatively well together.
“Learning to meet the needs of a driver takes time.
“When you’re giving feedback to an engineer, try to describe their understanding of corner balance, their understanding of all the elements that contribute to the struggle you’re having, what it is, your problem, corner by corner, entry, middle and exit where you want to break it down into five categories.
“Having a driver-engineer collaboration, it’s sometimes hit and miss. With me and Bono, we hit it off from the start. He had a good working relationship with Michael (Schumacher). I think Carlo is like my Italian Bono.
“He’s a little OG. He’s an older guy who’s been around the block and he’s very cool. You can hear him on the radio. That’s the detail we’ve been able to get together. Our understanding of the engineering side, that’s something that’s great.”
