Welcome back to Ask Dre, the show where you, the wonderful Motorsport101 Audience, ask me, Dre, your Motorsport themed questions. In this month’s edition, we break down the battle for the #9 seat in IndyCar now Scott Dixon’s heading to McLaren, some of the nuances behind the complicated F1 2026 regulations, and the state of the title picture now the sport is in its summer break. Enjoy!
Unless it’s been announced and I missed it, take your punt – who is taking the No.9 Ganassi seat? – Jonty’s Corner (Question of the Month)
Noy yet, dear Jonty. I think it’s a two-horse race for the biggest prize in IndyCar, the right to peel Alex Palou’s orange slices. Sorry, I mean taking Scott Dixon’s #9. I think it’s between Christian Lundgaard and Rinus Veekay.
There’s genuine pros and cons either way here. Let’s weigh it up.
Christian Lundgaard
Pros: He’s the second best road and street course driver in IndyCar over the last two years. Lundgaard is a machine on tracks that turn right. Third in St Pete. Seventh in Arlington. Second in Barber. Finally getting a win at the Indy GP, as well as at Road America from the back of the field. Second in Mid-Ohio, fifth in Detroit. If you didn’t know any better, you’d think this was Alex Palou’s record. If you want a contender for the Astor Cup, he’s your man. He’s still only 25 as well, so there’s a good 15 years of his prime still to come.
Cons: He’s rubbed people the wrong way at McLaren (Alledgely). A lot of this is conveniently timed hear’say from some big players in the paddock, but it seems Christian’s “lone wolf” persona was a part of the reason McLaren’s bringing back Felix Rosenqvist, who had Pato O’Ward as best man for his wedding, and Scott Dixon, the almighty revered senior figure in the field. And of course, the Ovals. He’s 17th in oval points in 2026, and was 13th last year. As the field becomes more and more 500-specialised, lagging behind in that department could be a difference maker in the boardroom.
Rinus Veekay
Pros: He’s better on ovals, with a genuine X-Factor. He’s got a knack of qualifying really well for the 500. He has 5 Top 10 starts at Indianapolis, three of them from the front row. He’s currently sitting 10th in points in a Juncos, the best season they and he has ever had, so if he wants to sell high, now’s the time. He’s had two fourth places this season at Mid-Ohio and Gateway too. Generally speaking, Veekay’s a bit of an alchemist, making something out of midfield machinery and resources for several years now.
Cons: His road and street racing has improved, but it’s not elite like Christian. The latter has a shot of winning at two thirds of the calendar, Veekay’s best results there have often come from strategy wins rather than pure skill. Of course, there’s an element of risk in pushing Veekay up a tier of car, when Lundgaard’s got a more proven track record at the very highest level. And Christian Rasmussen’s become an elite oval driver (at times), in the seat Ed Carpenter made for him, which makes you wonder… How good is he really?
If I’m Chip, I’m cheating and taking both, moving Kyffin Simpson out of the #8. Why not? But I fear Chip will be cheap and go for the option that saves him the biggest bag. Remember, the #66 at Meyer Shank with the CGR technical alliance, isn’t a bad consolation prize…
Is a Lewis Hamilton 8th World Title push still realistic at this point? – Narendra
I wanna be hopeful here, but the more I think about it, the less likely it sounds.
Hamilton’s best shot here is hoping Mercedes have more reliability gremlins. That’s been their biggest shortcoming in 2026 so far. Antonelli had Barcelona, Russell had Canada, Ferrari’s only really had Leclerc at Monaco as a technical failure, if Charles’ word is to be believed. On raw pace, Mercedes have eight wins to Ferrari’s two, and the latter two’s are split between them. If Antonelli gets a clean weekend without issue, he’s probably winning and Hamilton’s only really had Barcelona where he’s taken full control of a race and won it. Where is he making up 50 points on Antonelli if the formbook suggests the latter keeps winning?
We’ll see, it’s still early days for this era of cars and the development race could play a role in things, but I can’t see a world where Hamilton wins the title unless something major happens.
Obviously Antonelli seems like the most likely candidate for the championship as it stands and especially with just how consistent he’s been, but do you have any picks for who might end up being his biggest challenger for the remainder of the season if Russell doesn’t get his form back? – RoseArtemis
The obvious answer here is probably someone in red. Lewis Hamilton looks a lot better than his 2024 and 2025 seasons and is back to driving at a Top 5 level in the field. Charles Leclerc had a small blip there in the middle of the Spring but he’s looked back to his best in the last couple of weekends.
But I also think Lando Norris deserves an honorable mention here. I feel bad for him in that his World Championship already feels like yesterday’s news but he’s had some really stellar under-the-radar drives this season. I do genuinely think he’d have been in the fight for the win in Spa if he actually got to take his P3 on the grid, and he was excellent in Spain and Miami. McLaren are the team that more than anyone on the grid, learn a regulation set, and then have the best in-season development. Wouldn’t surprise me if they won a race before the year’s done.
Editor’s Note: Whoops – Since I originally wrote this post, it turns out Lando Norris DID in fact win a race. Turns out I was more right than I realised. (I have a terrible knack for this, I really should do something about it. Ha.)
I wonder if Yamaha is going all in for 2027 given the riders they have just signed? – Deckster
Don’t think it’s so much as an “all-in” kinda move, more like, they were forced into losing Fabio Quartararo, and they kinda lucked into the free market around them?
Fabio was almost too loyal to Yamaha for burning a good four years of his prime for a factory that ultimately had no chance of true title contention. He gave them chance after chance and he had no choice but to leave to salvage his career. The one thing Yamaha has in their favour in tricky times like this is money, and they can overpay to lure talent away from the customer teams, who pay their riders peanuts. I suspect that’s how they got Ai Ogura away from Trackhouse, who are the best team in MotoGP right now.
And then on the other side of the garage, Jorge Martin was available. The man who never really wanted an Aprilia, was convinced it was trying to kill him, who forgave him for trying to break a contract mere months after joining, and still chose the first possible chance to leave the team when the chance came. If you’re Yamaha, that’s your birthday and Christmas present rolled into one. He’s a locker room weapon, but he’s still one of the fastest and best bike riders in the world today.
Yamaha’s not appealing to top riders on its own,it’s not a Ducati who can dictate the market and the terms of engagement. Martin and Ogura fell into their roster. It’s still formidable, mind.
How long before the majority of the drivers (F1) have adjusted to these cars and the style of driving they need to start getting the most out of the concept? – ObjectivelyJoe
To be fair Joe, I think the drivers already have that down pat. I think a lot of people actually underestimate just how versatile F1 drivers have to be. To come up from karting, to FREC/F4 machines, to F3, F2, then F1 cars, takes an incredible amount of skill and versatility. And remember, if you’re a veteran, you’ve already had as much as three years at least part-time on the simulator getting used to how these cars feel. As I’ve said before, Max Verstappen spoke about the issues with these cars in 2023, at the peak of his powers. So for most of the grid, they already had a good amount of time with something like these cars for as many as four years.
I think if anything, the adjustments to this era of the sport I think are more on the engineering and teams side. Learning how to be as efficient as possible with a limited 4MJ battery. How regen-happy tracks are. Where to deploy and how much. Where the drivers can override the AI that’s programmed to know best. That will all come in time and I think that’ll happen throughout the 4-5 years we have this regulation set, especially with the deployment ratios of the power-unit changing over the next couple of years. That’s going to be fascinating alongside the natural development path of the power units and these cars in general.
What is the driving argument for F1 not going AWD with its hybrid system? If the problem is complexity then idk how the current energy harvesting and deployment rules is anything but complicated – TueWy
From what I could tell Tue, it seems like classic F1 politics. A lot of these power-unit regulations were formed on a healthy backbone of infighting and placating for the new entrants, because Mohammed Ben Sulayem wanted more suppliers. Why? So that it wasn’t just two or three factories holding the sport to ransom if he didn’t like where the sport was going in terms of direction. (See: MBS wanting Hybrid V8’s for 2030 as his latest agenda because he failed to convince the field that V10’s were a good idea)
For instance, part of the reason the MGU-H was removed was because it was very expensive, it lacked road relevance, and Audi pushed for it to be removed to help streamline their entry into the sport.
In the case of not going AWD with the hybrid system, the other factories were scared that if they added front-axle regen like they had in LMP1, Audi would have a leg up on the field given their wealth of experience in Sportscars. Along with keeping their battery capacity at just 4MJ’s, and the questionable use of machine-learning software to determine when to deploy and when not, it seems the sport’s made a bit of a mountain out of these regulations and the issues have presented themselves loud and clear.
Any reasons to be cheerful over the back half of the F1 season? Any tracks that are potentially good for these cars? Any wild rumours over driver changes? Anything to be hopefully for 2027 over – Alex P
Well, that depends – What brings you joy as an F1 fan, Alex? I’m no mind reader, but I’m going to assume your feelings are based on what you listed in your question!
For tracks that these new cars suit, generally speaking more technical circuits with shorter straights are deemed “energy rich” and we should get less complaints about super-clipping and whatnot. Looking at the rest of the tracks at a glance – Zandvoort, Singapore, Brazil, maybe Qatar and Abu Dhabi (If they go ahead). The problem is, the majority of those tracks don’t typically produce good racing under normal circumstances, so… yeah.
Driver change rumours? Nah, probably not. Esteban Ocon is the only name I’m really seeing in terms of potential movement. The problem here is most of the elite seats are already tied down:
McLaren – Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri until 2027 and 2028, Piastri’s confirmed he’s not leaving
Mercedes – Toto Wolff’s already confirmed no movement within his team for 2027
Ferrari – Charles Leclerc tied down until 2031, Hamilton has driver “options” in his contract for the next two years
Red Bull – Max Verstappen has seemingly nowhere to go, Isack Hadjar has no concerns about a dropping
As for Ocon, there’s rumblings about highly touted F2 prospect Rafael Camara, who’s won two feature races this season in a close title fight with Gabriele Mini and Nikola Tsolov, or maybe Leonardo Fornaroli as last year’s F2 Champion (Even if Twitter thinks his first F3 season in 2023 has now damned him forever). Not convinced anyone’s making a beeline for Yuki Tsunoda as current Red Bull Racing reserve driver, the definition of a replacement level F1 driver.
As for next year – The big one is a likely shift in the regulations. It’s quietened down since Miami, but it seems like we’re going more towards a 55:45 deployment ratio in 2027, with power from the Internal Combustion Engine going up 50kW, while Battery deployment is going down by the same amount. In theory, it should mean less reliance on the battery, less super-clipping and less cars regenerating everywhere. But if I’m being honest, Hungary didn’t fill me with a lot of hope in terms of the other possible problem. As with the 2022 regulation set, engineers will start figuring out how to add more topside downforce to these cars, and generate more dirty air.
Look at F1 2026 like this – The battery and deployment issues are a bandaid for overtaking for these cars because without it, we’d barely see an on-track overtake worth a damn. That comes with its own set of problems (IE: Passes looking artificial in the eyes of some), but that’s the nature of a ruleset that F1 felt under-prepared for.
If this does not spark joy, then I’m struggling to help you my friend!
