Q: There’s been lot of discussion about F1 teams having no spare chassis (Williams) or only one (other teams). I define “chassis” as the carbon fiber tub the driver sits in and goes to where the engine ultimately gets bolted to it. From my rudimentary knowledge the tub is made from carbon fiber layers that get autoclaved in an oven. Seems pretty straightforward, and easy to create multiple copies of (say, one extra per car). What am I missing with these teams struggling to have spares? Is it purely a cost cap issue, or is there some technical reason I am missing as to why they can’t easily make more copies for spares?
Jeff Smith, State College, PA
CM: It’s pretty much covered off above here, Jeff, but it’s not just the engine — the suspension mounting points are there, and there are major aerodynamic influences, too. The chassis is actually made up of thousands of components, with the tub being the central part but it’s not just one component baked at once. With the crash test requirements too, they take a huge amount of time to layer up and create.
James Vowles actually covered the direct timeline off really well in Japan, saying, “If you put all of your resource, everything you possibly had within the organization on it, you could be eight, 10 weeks that you pretty much get a chassis done, from freezer to something actually built and out there. And that’s by the time you get to sort of the third chassis. It takes longer for the first ones as you get used to the process.”
Teams generally build four chassis for a season and start the year with three while the fourth is still being made, and that means you are allocating manufacturing resource to it for a spell, but then diverting that to other components at later points. It’s not a 24/7 chassis manufacturing facility you operate, but a carbon fiber facility that works on different parts.
So if you slip behind with your chassis development you are then impacting your ability to make other components, both to race with and spares to have in case of accidents. Add in upgrades, and you want to have as much capacity as possible to just build parts of the car, which leads to a decision to not prioritize the spare chassis in order to have as competitive a car as possible racing, and then hope you don’t have a big crash before you have the spare ready.
Q: Why doesn’t F1 invest in some formula that would deactivate the DRS automatically when that formula shows the speed difference is enough to put the cars side by side? That way it wouldn’t work as a free pass ticket with cars overtaking each other like multiclass racing (even when they have the same pace on track) and we’d watch some more real overtake attempts instead. On tracks where DRS doesn’t work or when they are stuck in a DRS train, nothing would change.
Or maybe that would be something for IndyCar to use to replace the push to pass.
William Mazeo
CM: I’m glad you flagged IndyCar’s push to pass there, William, as it does remind people that such high-performance, aerodynamically sensitive cars are always going to create difficulties in terms of following. It’s the nature of wanting such incredible machines that are so fast and tough to drive.
It’s a good idea, actually, but in many ways I guess that’s what’s being looked at for 2026 with active aero. It would adapt to each situation a bit more, so that cars are able to lose less performance in turbulent air or when racing another car, and then there’s less of a reliance on DRS that way.
The aim has always been to eventually get rid of DRS, but I’m not sure if that’s realistic — you have to have performance differentiation of some kind for passing to be possible.
Q: I’ve heard F1 teams have signed some young European drivers to a development contact at a very early age. Do Formula 1 team have scouts looking for talent in the American open-wheel feeder ranks?
The reason I ask is, there is currently a 15-year-old up and comer (Nikita Johnson) in USF Pro 2000 that looks like the next big thing. Would a Formula 1 team even know who he is? Just curious.
Ken, Lockport, NY
CM: Teams will be looking, but the European single-seater ladder is still seen as by far the best preparation for F1.
McLaren’s signing of young American karting talent Ugo Ugochukwu back in 2020 when he was just 13 is a sign of that. He caught the eye racing karts in Europe after moving from the States after just one year in karts (another area where F1 teams say the U.S. scene doesn’t yet provide the same level of competition (I spoke with one team member about that very topic a few days ago, actually), and McLaren is then guiding him through the single-seater ranks of British, Italian and German F4 so far, with FRECA and GB3 his current program.
The reasoning is the tracks are many of what they’ll race on in F1, the tires as they get to higher levels are Pirellis to help prepare for F1, and racing in Europe allows them to be based at each team’s headquarters. Imagine racing in the U.S. but needing to travel to Europe for your sim sessions, driver coaching, fitness regime, etc. Logistically, it’s not the best solution.
Nikita’s a good example, because he’s coming to race in the GB3 Championship once he turns 16 at the end of May. That will certainly put him on the radar for F1 teams, and I imagine plenty are keeping tabs on him already but it’s what he does in GB3 that will be crucial, and anyone who signs him will almost certainly then take him through European championships.
Nikita already has good representation, as he’s working with Infinity Sports Management in the UK and Europe, who have helped both George Russell and Logan Sargeant reach F1.
Q: I understand Team Penske has an alliance with Front Row Motorsports in NASCAR. Did the alliance with Wood Brothers Racing go away?
Ralph, Indianapolis, IN
KELLY CRANDALL: The alliance with Team Penske hasn’t gone away. Harrison Burton’s No. 21 Ford Mustang Dark Horse is built out of the Penske race shop.