Sunday’s rain-hit race at Interlagos was won by Lando Norris, but the title picture was already set. Kimi Antonelli had wrapped up the drivers’ title in Mexico a week earlier, and Mercedes sealed the 2026 constructors’ championship in São Paulo. With Las Vegas, Qatar and Abu Dhabi the only rounds left on the calendar, the questions that now matter are the ones that will shape 2027.

Hamilton, Ferrari and the sound of an exit

Lewis Hamilton spent the days before Brazil pushing back at Ferrari in public. After the opening-lap clash with Charles Leclerc in Mexico that cost the team a likely one-two, Hamilton told ESPN he would not be silenced, and said Leclerc had a history of racing him harder than he races other drivers.

By Saturday in São Paulo, the tone had changed. After talks on Thursday evening with team principal Fred Vasseur, Hamilton said the row was settled.

“Me and Charles sat and spoke and we squashed it, and we’re moving on,” he told Sky Sports after qualifying.

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PlanetF1’s Oliver Harden read the week differently in his post-race conclusions. Harden argued that Hamilton, pushing Ferrari into the open, is already talking his way towards the door, and suggested Ferrari should borrow from the Mattia Binotto playbook with Sebastian Vettel and tell Hamilton now that 2027 will be his last season in red. Leclerc’s contract runs to 2030.

Russell: the title is in the car, not around his neck

George Russell finished fourth in Brazil, the weekend his team-mate was crowned champion-elect and the team itself lifted the constructors’. His weekend read more like a man running out of patience than one picking up a trophy.

In wet qualifying he was ordered to abandon a lap seconds before the rain intensified, costing him pole to Norris. His response on team radio was immediate, as reported by PlanetF1.

“Mate, you f***ing told me to back off! What the hell?” Russell said on the radio, before Toto Wolff told him he had still ended up on the front row.

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In the race he spun on the wet pit exit after switching to slicks. Russell told Formula 1 he had “no idea what happened on that pit exit” and admitted he had taken too much risk in a push for the win. He has a Mercedes seat and a team that has just built a championship car around a team-mate. The 2027 question for him is whether the gap to Antonelli is the driver or the environment.

Lawson, Lindblad, Tsolov: three into two

Lawson crossed the line eighth in Brazil and was promoted to seventh after a Leclerc penalty. The six points pushed Racing Bulls further clear of Alpine in the fight for fifth in the constructors’, strengthening the team’s grip on what would be its best-ever finish.

The seat question is not that simple. According to Crash.net, Racing Bulls team principal Alan Permane told reporters in Brazil that the choice for 2027 is between three drivers, not two: Lawson, rookie Arvid Lindblad, and F2 title contender Nikola Tsolov, a Red Bull junior.

“Three doesn’t fit into two, of course, and we’re just going to take a little bit more time,” Permane said, per Crash.net.

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Harden’s PlanetF1 piece frames the dilemma as Lawson versus Tsolov, with Antonelli’s rapid F2-to-championship rise cited as the modern template for backing youth. The counter-argument is the one the results keep making for Lawson, with consistent points finishes this season and a Red Bull cameo already banked. Permane has said a decision is coming in the next weeks.

The next race is the Las Vegas Grand Prix, with the race scheduled for 22 November.

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