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The Race - Mark Hughes: The title fight F1 could be having
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Mark Hughes is back with the latest edition of his weekly column, The Long Run, which is exclusive to newsletter subscribers and The Race Members' Club.
This week, Mark's looking at the five-driver title fight F1 would be having had Mercedes not promoted Kimi Antonelli - and, in the knowledge of that, how competitive each car actually is versus perception.
If you don't receive our newsletters, you can sign up here to receive The Long Run straight to your inbox.
Have you guys taken a good look at the points standings after Austin?
With Kimi Antonelli at 123 points clear and needing just two points to clinch the championship, there is only a nine-point spread between second and fifth between drivers from three different teams. Second place is perfectly feasible for any of George Russell, Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen or Charles Leclerc. Or even Lando Norris, who's 22 points further back.
Which begs a little what-if. We all love a good what-if, don't we? Hoody guy at the back says no he doesn't. OK, get out.
Dunno if he's coming back. It was only a joke.
Anyway, let's imagine Antonelli hadn't been promoted through the ranks by Mercedes so quickly and he was currently racing at Williams as the 2025 Formula 2 champion. Instead, in the Mercedes seat alongside Russell was, say, Esteban Ocon. Just keeping Antonelli's seat warm like Valtteri Bottas did for Russell.
We can imagine a scenario where Russell is overall almost always slightly quicker than Ocon and the clear team leader. The W17 is quick and Russell dominates the early part of the season.
But as Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull catch up, so Russell, while very much in contention for the world championship, is not dominating it. In fact, it's a fantastically close season between Russell, Leclerc, Hamilton, Norris and Verstappen.
There would be absolutely no reason to believe the Mercedes was the dominant car, merely a competitive one.
Which begs the question of whether there are other cars more (or less) competitive than they look. The perceptions could be stratospherically wrong.
For next week I'd like you to write an essay on where you believe the reality to be. Tell hoody guy he can join in if he wants.
Mark Hughes is back with the latest edition of his weekly column, The Long Run, which is exclusive to newsletter subscribers and The Race Members' Club.
This week, Mark's looking at the five-driver title fight F1 would be having had Mercedes not promoted Kimi Antonelli - and, in the knowledge of that, how competitive each car actually is versus perception.
If you don't receive our newsletters, you can sign up here to receive The Long Run straight to your inbox.
Have you guys taken a good look at the points standings after Austin?
With Kimi Antonelli at 123 points clear and needing just two points to clinch the championship, there is only a nine-point spread between second and fifth between drivers from three different teams. Second place is perfectly feasible for any of George Russell, Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen or Charles Leclerc. Or even Lando Norris, who's 22 points further back.
Which begs a little what-if. We all love a good what-if, don't we? Hoody guy at the back says no he doesn't. OK, get out.
Dunno if he's coming back. It was only a joke.
Anyway, let's imagine Antonelli hadn't been promoted through the ranks by Mercedes so quickly and he was currently racing at Williams as the 2025 Formula 2 champion. Instead, in the Mercedes seat alongside Russell was, say, Esteban Ocon. Just keeping Antonelli's seat warm like Valtteri Bottas did for Russell.
We can imagine a scenario where Russell is overall almost always slightly quicker than Ocon and the clear team leader. The W17 is quick and Russell dominates the early part of the season.
But as Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull catch up, so Russell, while very much in contention for the world championship, is not dominating it. In fact, it's a fantastically close season between Russell, Leclerc, Hamilton, Norris and Verstappen.
There would be absolutely no reason to believe the Mercedes was the dominant car, merely a competitive one.
Which begs the question of whether there are other cars more (or less) competitive than they look. The perceptions could be stratospherically wrong.
For next week I'd like you to write an essay on where you believe the reality to be. Tell hoody guy he can join in if he wants.
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