What does Antonelli need to do to turn fortunes around?

Formula 1 takes to the streets of Baku for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix this weekend, with McLaren on the brink of clinching the constructors' championship.

They will retain the team title if they outscore second-placed Ferrari by nine points, while not being outscored by Mercedes by 12 points or more, and Red Bull by 33 points or more.

Before round 17, BBC Sport F1 correspondent Andrew Benson answers your latest questions.

There has been a lot of talk about Mercedes seemingly being ahead in the development race for the 2026 engines. What are the expectations for Red Bull and Ford, as they begin their new partnership? - James

Ford is returning to Formula 1 for the usual reasons - marketing exposure and technology transfer.

For the US giant, it's also about differentiating themselves from the mainstream in the rapidly changing global car marketplace, and emphasising the role of electrification in performance road cars.

The rule changes on engines for 2026, and the increase in the amount of power provided by the hybrid element, made it a "natural time" to enter, chief executive officer Jim Farley told BBC Sport in an exclusive interview.

Farley added that an F1 involvement has other benefits that were not realised at the time the decision to enter was made.

"Performance has turned out to be a much bigger thing for the company than I thought four or five years ago when we started this journey," Farley said.

"At the time, Red Bull was an irreverent team with an irreverent driver. And we liked that as an American company. We didn't want to be part of the establishment.

"But Formula 1 turns out to have a good foundation for our differentiation in the world of Europe, where the Chinese are becoming increasingly dominant in the EV world, and cars become more of a commodity. Ford wants to walk the opposite direction.

"It's very clear, at least in our eyes, that high performance will be partially electric, not fully electric and not fully ICE (internal combustion). So this mixed combustion has turned out to be much more important than when we started to go into the sport."

Since they took the decision, Christian Horner, with whom Farley negotiated the deal, has been sacked as team principal.

It's well known that Ford were uncomfortable about the allegations of sexual harassment levelled by a female employee at Horner, which he has always denied, and which two internal investigations dismissed.

Farley picked his words carefully on the topic when asked whether he was relieved it had ended the way it had.

"Christian did a lot for Red Bull Racing," Farley said. "Did so much for the industry, the sport. I don't think we would use those words to be 'relieved'.

"But any successful motorsports programme always has stability. Stability of the talent. Stability overall.

"So any time there's controversy in any motorsports, it can disrupt the stability. And over time, that's not good for any business.

"So I would say we feel like, going into '26, we have a stable situation from a talent standpoint, sponsor standpoint, driver standpoint. And I think that's what we expected when we went to Red Bull. That's what we expect at Ford."

Farley referenced some recent comments from Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff, who said that setting up a new powertrains company for the 2026 regulations, as Red Bull have done, is "like climbing Mount Everest".

Farley added: "We have a lot to do, but so does he. So does everyone."

Kimi Antonelli finished ninth in the Italian Grand Prix after receiving a black-and-white flag for persistent track limits offences and a five-second penalty and penalty point on his licence for running Williams driver Alex Albon off the track

Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff appears to be losing patience with Kimi Antonelli. What does he have to do to turn things around? - Jon

The question refers to Toto Wolff's remarks after the Italian Grand Prix, which were the first time he had been openly critical of Antonelli since the start of the Italian's debut season.

Wolff used the word "underwhelming" four times in one answer about Antonelli's performance at Monza, which certainly made an impact, even if he professed that it "doesn't change anything on my support and confidence in his future because I believe he's going to be very, very, very good".

Wolff's remarks were at least partly provoked by the fact that Monza was the second race weekend in a row on which Antonelli had crashed in Friday practice and disrupted his preparations.

The 19-year-old's season started well. He steadily built his confidence in the car, and that led to his outstanding qualifying performances in Miami, where he took pole for the sprint race and out-qualified George Russell for the grand prix as well. He took a maiden podium in Canada, where Russell won.

But a change to the Mercedes rear suspension that made the car more nervous knocked his confidence, and his form has not really recovered since the team reverted to their previous design from Hungary.

It's worth pointing out, though, that since Canada, Russell has been on the podium only once.

There is no immediate threat to Antonelli's position - he will be a Mercedes driver next year. But he certainly needs to settle down and steadily build again.

Asked in Monza what Antonelli was missing, Wolff said he needed "a clean weekend", expanding his answer to refer not only to the error in practice but also his unimpressive race.

"It means almost not to carry too much trauma of previous mistakes into the next session or into the next weekend because that is baggage," Wolff said.

Asked what the process was to get Antonelli up to scratch in 2026, he replied:

"Just freeing him up. He's a great driver. He has this unbelievable ability and natural talent. He's a racer. It's all there. But we need to get rid of the ballast."

Now that both Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas are spoken for, who do you consider as Alpine's best option for their second seat? - Stuart

Alpine have three obvious options for their second seat alongside Pierre Gasly next year - Franco Colapinto, and reserve drivers Jack Doohan and Paul Aron.

Australian Doohan started the year in the car, but was replaced by Argentine Colapinto after six races this year.

Executive adviser - and de facto team boss - Flavio Briatore was clearly not that impressed by Doohan, and he does not seem to have been overly enamoured of Colapinto's efforts since he took over, either.

Briatore gave some rather opaque answers when asked about Colapinto at the Dutch Grand Prix last month. Asked what he needed to see from him to keep the second seat, Briatore said: "I see everything already. I don't need to see anything any more.

"For this driver, it's very difficult to cope with this car. These cars are very, very heavy, very quick. And for a young driver to (be) put in Formula 1, maybe it was not the timing to have Franco in F1. Maybe he needs another year or two to be part of F1.

"He tries very hard. He tries very hard with the engineers to please them in everything, but it's not what I expect from Colapinto."

That sounded pretty damning, but Briatore went on to say in another answer that "maybe we put too much pressure on him", adding: "Maybe I missed something in the management of the driver, Colapinto. For the future, honestly, I don't know."

There are signs of progress from Colapinto - he has out-qualified Gasly in two of the past three races

As for Estonian Aron, he was quick in Formula 2, and is said to have looked good in testing.

The feeling is that Alpine would prefer a driver with experience, hence the interest in Bottas. But now there is no one obvious available.

Of the unproven talents, perhaps the most exciting at the moment is Irishman Alex Dunne, who has been very quick in his first season of F2 this year.

But Dunne is under contract to McLaren, who rate him highly.

Can you explain the concept of the 'racing line' in detail? Is it the same for all drivers and how accurately do they have to follow it? Is it a matter of millimetres? - Daniel

In simple terms, the racing line is the shortest - and therefore fastest - route around a corner.

This typically means cutting in from the outside of the track on entry to a point on the inside in the middle of the corner - known as the apex - and then accelerating from there to the outside of the track on exit.

These fundamentals apply across the board. However, there are nuances that mean each individual driver might approach corners in a slightly different way.

Some like to turn in a bit earlier, some a little later. Some steer more aggressively, some more smoothly. Some prefer a car to have a little understeer, some prefer a loose rear end. Some excel on street circuits, others on high-speed road courses.

What we can say is that the very best drivers are usually the most adaptable ones, who can tailor their style to the demands of the car. Or who can bend the car's limitations to their wishes.

And the best of the best do this intuitively, almost without thinking about it - it just happens.

Ultimately, lap time is dictated by how much speed a driver can carry into the corner while not sacrificing their exit speed. And that comes down to skill and talent.