Q: (Leonid Kliuev – Grande Premio) Question to all three. Imagine you’re Graham Lowden, Team Principal of Cadillac, and you have four candidates for next year: Checo, Valtteri, Felipe Drugovich, and Mick Schumacher. Who would you choose and why?
TW: They all have pros and cons. I think what Cadillac went for is something you can understand. They went for experience. I don’t know how many wins and podiums there are between Valtteri and Checo, and I think for that stage of the project, it is understandable they did that.
JV: With all these things, we only have part of the information. You need to understand what else comes as part of those packages. But I agree with Toto – their first year is going to be tricky and difficult, and I think experience may guide the way in where they’re going.
FB: The same as Toto. Nothing else.
Q: (Ivo Pakvis – Panorama) Question to Toto. Loyalty has been a very important factor in your team under your leadership. In a world that demands constant flexibility and adaptability, how do you maintain that flexibility in the context of that loyalty?
TW: Flexibility and loyalty – I think what’s most important in our job is to be transparent. I think Flavio’s always shown it – he says what he means. With drivers, it’s the same with us. Once you decide to embark on the road, this is what you do. You are open about it. For us as a team, integrity and loyalty are key factors. But that doesn’t mean you’re not flexible. Sometimes you need to readjust, recalibrate. There’s a change of circumstances. But most important is within the team to have an open conversation about these things.
Q: (Jon Noble – The Race) To Flavio. Renault’s got a new CEO who’s just come in recently. How have your conversations with him gone? What kind of targets have you laid down together? And do you still see this team on the roadmap to fight for podiums next year and potentially the championship in ‘27?
FB: The new CEO for Renault – I think Renault in the last thirty years, it’s not new. He was number two to Luca DeMeo. The new CEO is very enthusiastic about the Formula 1 programme. Renault wants to stay in Formula 1. I believe François [Provost] is in Monza for the first race. I know him very well. And really, the programme is the same. The chairman, [Jean-Dominique] Senard, is very supportive of Formula 1. We need better results – this is what we need for next year. But this year is very complicated for us. We put a lot of effort into the 2026 car, like Toto said. But it’s not easy to interpret the rules. Maybe we made a mistake by not having any steps from the beginning of the season to now, and we pay for that. As well, in this moment, two or three tenths, it’s ten or 15 cars. We know we have a big handicap with power – with the engine. We hope to forget this year and be happy in 2026. That’s what we hope in this moment. I hope as well that the new chairman of Renault is very supportive. And for the moment, in the Renault Group, there’s no drama, no change. Everybody’s happy.
Q: Is the objective for 2026 podiums?
FB: Yes. Because if it’s you need to change the job. I change the job – maybe you give me a job! I have a job with Toto.
Q: Luke Smith (The Athletic) Toto, I have a question for you on Valtteri. Dan Towriss said that you guys have spoken a lot through negotiations, and you were still going to chat further about what Valtteri’s availability would be through the remainder of this year. What are your thoughts on that? I know Valtteri will be on-site as reserve for the rest of the season, but how much freedom will he have to make a head start with Cadillac ahead of next year?
TW: As I said before, maybe sometimes I’m being a bit naive, but I want to do the best from a racing standpoint – the best for Valtteri whilst not compromising the Mercedes status quo. So, I think it’s pretty easy. Valtteri continues to be our reserve and third driver until the end of the season, and he’s giving it all. I’ve zero doubt that he’s going to do it with the utmost integrity. At the same time, I have no problem that he’s starting his job in Cadillac. It makes it easier that the regulations are totally different for next year. I’m happy. It was no problem for us to release Valtteri for the announcement and events that Cadillac did in order to present the drivers, and it will continue so during the year. I think Graham and Dan, with support from GM, this is a very strong and ambitious project – good for Formula 1 – and that’s why we want to do the utmost for them to showcase what they will be doing. And therefore, if we need to give Valtteri as a driver for events or for these purposes, no problem.
Q: Toto, would that include a test program for Cadillac in the second half of the year if that materialises?
TW: I haven’t heard of any test programme so far because they haven’t got a car. As it stands, we will always be supportive of Valtteri because those cars are so different next year.
Q: (Stuart Codling – Autosport) A question for Toto. Flavio has just shot the idea down, but the rumours don’t go away that perhaps Flavio, Christian, and Bernie [Ecclestone] might unite to buy the Alpine team. What would you make of coming up against a team potentially owned by Flavio, Christian, and Bernie? One of them a very old adversary and presumably it would be logistically quite difficult for you to live in all of their heads rent free?
TW: That would be an exciting story, I guess, and would create lots of buzz around Formula 1. I think we need that. Formula 1 has always been about the best racing, with exciting drivers and great personalities. And when you look back at the grand era of team owners and team principals – Frank Williams, Ron Dennis, Flavio, [Luca Di] Montezemolo, and a few others – maybe we need to work on that. And if there was such an exciting project, these three guys coming together – all of the mafia reunited – that would give good content, I guess.
FB: The sharks. The shark mafia.
TW: Three sharks.
Q: (Dan Lloyd – Racecar Engineering) A question for James. How confident do you feel that Williams can recapture some of its early season form based on what the Belgium update has been telling you and the team’s response to the cooling issues you had mid-season?
JV: I don’t think we’ll be back to where we were at the start of the season. Ferrari have developed at a really strong rate. Mercedes, you can see, developed at a strong rate. The midfield now is incredibly tight. Sauber – well done to them – and Aston as well. It’s really tight in that range. Whereas, at the beginning of the season, there was a little bit of a gap that we managed to push ourselves into. I think that’s unrealistic now. What is realistic is – Flavio described it well – two or three tenths separates fifteen cars near enough. It’s making sure we’re at the sharp end of that, which allows you to pick up points.
Q: (Jack Smith (Motorsport Monday / MotorsportWeek.com) A question for Toto. Helmut Marko was quoted recently as saying that Kimi has been placed under a bit too much pressure perhaps by making his F1 debut with Mercedes. What is your response to that? And also, will the choice of third driver/reserve driver to replace Valtteri be based on how well he can help Kimi, given how much Kimi has said that he’s helped him?
TW: I think we have put Kimi under maximum pressure, to be honest. Looking at it now, I felt it was a great idea to have him in FP1 in Monza and present him there. That was maybe a mistake – not because he wasn’t capable of driving the car, because if he would have finished that lap without crashing, it would have been sensational and it would have built the confidence. That’s why. He’s in a Mercedes, he’s very visible, his results are very visible, his team-mate is great and is maximising the car. Therefore, he feels himself under the magnifying glass. The team – we just continue to believe in him. He needs time. We’ve embarked on this route, so you can say, “Was it right to put him under so much pressure by putting him in the team?” We’ve taken that trajectory; we’ve taken that route. We are fully on the mission, and single race weekends or a session like we had before is not going to change our opinion. Yeah, short term, we’re going to say, “that’s not good,” but Kimi is a long-term investment.
Q: Third driver?
TW: We haven’t figured it out yet. It’s super difficult to replace Valtteri. I mean, he ticks all the boxes.
Q: (Jon Noble – The Race) Flavio, you made a driver change earlier on in the season bringing Franco in. Are you now set until the end of the campaign with Franco? Is there a chance Mick could come back? And what was the thought process into 2026 for your second car?
FB: We make not so many changes. We changed, bringing in Franco Colapinto. And maybe Colapinto – the same problem as what Toto said – too much pressure to be in Formula 1. Last year, he had two or three races with James, where he did very well. But maybe to be in the team with a good driver like Pierre, and always in competition with the team-mate, maybe we put too much pressure on him. I think we need to consider that. Sometimes we believe… the driver is a human being and we need to understand what’s going on in the heads of these kids. These are young kids – 19, 20, 22, 23 years old – and I think it’s out mistake to underestimate the human part of the driver. We’re always looking at the timing. Maybe I missed something in the management of the driver, Colapinto. For the future, honestly, I don’t know.
TW: You can see the younger drivers in smaller teams, they perform, because it’s a totally different environment. The expectation is so low that you can only outperform. They are all high potentials for the future. But this is a big difference – being under the magnifying glass and the pressure that’s been created, and the expectations that are being set. It’s different.
Q: James, can we bring you in on this and the performances that Franco put in in the second half of last year?
JV: I think Toto and Flavio summed it up well. You have to remember – if something goes wrong with the Williams in a session, even though we’re fifth in the championship, it’s not really covered. But we have teams around us – Mercedes is one of those – where everything is in the limelight and the spotlight. So that’s change number one: the pressure goes up immensely. When the pressure’s not there, you’re able to get a lot more out of the driver because they’re not concerned about an immediate performance having an impact. Therefore, they can let go. A good example is Franco – the first time I put him in at Silverstone, he thought it was his only chance ever to get there. My message to him beforehand was, it’s nothing to do with lap times. It’s about you relaxing and enjoying the moment because this may never come back to you again. And he did a stellar performance. I don’t think you can do that in Monza, in that circumstance, in a Williams. No chance you can do that. Second change is, again, what Flavio described – three tenths now separates the grid. So when you make a small mistake – and a small mistake is a tenth – you’re last. That’s a different world to where you were before, where frankly, you could be a tenth off your team-mate and no one would know about it. So I think you’ve got two changes that are making this more difficult now.
Q: (Luke Smith – The Athletic) Toto, George spoke yesterday and he’s still very relaxed about his future and getting the contract sorted. He said you guys were willing to work through the summer, but he said, “I’d rather just take that time off.” There’s no rush, I assume. Where are you at with all of that? And do you just want to get everything right and dot the I’s and cross the T’s?
TW: Exactly like you say. George is a Mercedes driver since his junior years and Mercedes management. We clearly know what we expect from each other, what we want. It’s a formality. But at the same time, it’s important to discuss even the slightest details – how can we extract the most performance out of George? What is it we need to optimise on marketing days, for example? And it’s not the amount of marketing days, but it’s simply talking about a structure that helps him to perform at his best. These are the things. We haven’t discussed them over the summer because we felt we needed to just get out of each other’s face for a while, and we’re going to pick these discussions up. We have already picked up the discussions.
Q: (Jon Noble – The Race) Toto, there are some comments you made recently that have carried a bit of traction. Are you saying next year’s cars could top 400 kilometres per hour? Is that literally what your simulator’s saying or was it more just a figure of speech – a nice round number?
TW: Sounds good, no? Everybody’s talking those engines down, so I had to figure out – is there anything positive? And that is, if you were to deploy – obviously it sounds sarcastic – but if you were to deploy all the energy on a single straight, you could make those cars go 400 kilometres an hour. I don’t know if somebody got afraid by it, but you could. But there wouldn’t be much electric energy left for the few other corners on a circuit.