Why Monaco will stage a sprint race and other F1 questions answered ahead of Baku
BBC F1 correspondent Andrew Benson answered readers’ questions on 22 September 2026 ahead of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku, where Formula 1 will run a rare Saturday race this weekend. His Q&A covered the decision to stage a sprint at Monaco, the virtual safety car, recent strategic calls and incidents from the Madrid race.
Kimi Antonelli goes into round 15 of the season with an 81-point lead over Mercedes team-mate George Russell, and Benson said the Monaco sprint debate has been heightened by Formula 1’s announcement last week that the 2027 calendar will expand sprint events from six to 10, with Monaco included. That choice has drawn criticism from some fans who question staging two races on a circuit where overtaking is already extremely difficult. F1’s justification, Benson reported, emphasises the impact on qualifying rather than the races themselves: two sprint-driven grid orders could produce more weekend variability.
Benson explained why a sprint could change how Monaco weekends unfold, noting the circuit’s demand for drivers to build up progressively toward the limit so they know how the car will behave. He said asking drivers to go straight into a qualifying session after a single practice is a “really difficult challenge” that is likely to increase mistakes and on-track incidents, and that while a sprint at Monaco is “likely to be a procession” it introduces extra jeopardy to the weekend because teams still make setup changes before grand prix qualifying.
On calls to alter the virtual safety car (VSC) rules, Benson said the VSC was discussed at the FIA sporting advisory committee last week but that sources reported no consensus, and it was on the agenda at the F1 Commission meeting on Monday without significant developments. He referenced Lando Norris’s post-race comment in Madrid that drivers had previously discussed with the FIA the idea that “the VSC should be out for a minimum of a lap so this sort of thing could not happen,” and outlined the counterargument that the VSC exists to deal with relatively small-scale incidents without the lengthy disruption of a full safety car.
Addressing Mercedes’ two-stop strategy for George Russell in the Spanish Grand Prix, Benson recounted that a VSC on lap 14 in Madrid left the team hamstrung after it had split tyre choices: Kimi Antonelli started on mediums while Russell began on hards. The VSC timing coincided with the pit window for those on mediums, forcing Mercedes to choose between staying out or pitting because rules require the use of two compounds in a dry grand prix. Charles Leclerc, who also started on hards and was running ahead of Russell, stayed out, and Mercedes elected to pit Russell to try to beat Leclerc; Benson said the hard tyre proved “comfortably the best race tyre in Madrid,” leaving Russell unable on mediums to close the gap to less than a pit-stop time. Toto Wolff said: "He said the tyres were not in a great shape, the mediums. We didn't think they would go to the end. (We thought) the better opportunity was not to hang out and wait for a red, but to change the tyres and get on with it." Russell added: "Maybe I could have stayed out with Leclerc but I would have still finished behind him. Maybe I could have not pitted on to the hard again but everything I would have done would have brought us to the same position."
On the issue of drivers being told to give back positions, Benson noted the Madrid case in which Max Verstappen was ordered to yield to Lewis Hamilton and did so, and also had to let Kimi Antonelli back through after initially passing him on lap one. He reported that timing screens and television coverage later displayed the message "no further action" because Verstappen had returned the place; otherwise a penalty would have been applied. Benson added that if an offence requires a driver to cede a position, the driver must do so even if other cars have come between them, and he cited two historical examples from Fernando Alonso’s career — the 2005 Japanese Grand Prix incident with Christian Klien and the 2010 Silverstone case involving Robert Kubica — describing how race director interventions and subsequent events led to penalties and Alonso finishing 14th at Silverstone.
Benson’s answers framed these controversies and rule questions in the context of the upcoming Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku and the title battle, with Antonelli heading into round 15 holding an 81-point advantage over Russell as teams and the FIA continue to debate sprint scheduling and VSC procedures.