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The fight for the 2018 Formula 1 championship, which resumes in Belgium this weekend, is perhaps one of the most intense we have had for a decade. There has been little to separate Mercedes and Ferrari as each has seized the initiative at various points of the campaign, with neither able to pull itself clear at the front. What has perhaps been really fascinating is that the teams, with very different car philosophies, have been split by such small margins each weekend. Here, ahead of the title battle getting going again, we look back with the help of Giorgio Piola's exclusive illustrations to reflect on their development progress and look at what could be the key factors that make the...

Formula 1 teams were willing to pay the price for having draggy cars in their pursuit of 'dirty downforce' for the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend. The Hungaroring is a challenging place for both drivers and engineers alike, and is often described as 'Monaco without the walls'. It is indeed a high-downforce circuit, very much like other street circuits, but it rubbers in much more like a traditional track. To further add to the complications, temperatures are often high and that means cooling the brakes and the power unit become a critical factor, resulting in aerodynamic efficiency being sacrificed. It is a track where extra grip pays off more than straightline efficiency – which is why teams focus more on finding...

They might not be direct rivals on track in Formula 1 right now, but this hasn't stopped Red Bull from taking cues from McLaren in the latest design of the RB14's floor. Max Verstappen’s ability to take Hockenheim’s Turn 1 flat out during qualifying – and being the first man in Formula 1 to do that – shows just how good Red Bull’s chassis is. But the team has not rested on its laurels at all, and has been aggressively developing the car in a bid to try to keep Mercedes and Ferrari on their toes. At the German Grand Prix, Red Bull followed a design path that was initially trodden by McLaren and then followed by Renault and Ferrari in changing...

Formula 1 mirror designs will be under the spotlight next week when technical chiefs meet with the FIA to discuss potential changes to help improve driver visibility.   As revealed by Motorsport.com, the FIA wants to move the mirrors so that a drivers' view is not obstructed by the top edge of the sidepods and wider wings, as has been increasingly happening. Although an attempt by the FIA to stipulate a new location on safety grounds was redacted for procedural matters, the proposal does show what the governing body is trying to achieve. As Giorgio Piola's exclusive drawings show, the location that was originally put forward by the FIA is higher and further out than mirrors currently are.    Mercedes...

Red Bull's long-standing power deficit to rivals Mercedes and Ferrari has often forced it to be aggressive with its wing settings in a bid to ensure it does not lose too much time on the straights. The team has often tried to trim out its wings, and it has not been unknown for Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo to experiment with wildly different wing levels to try to discover the best performance. The high-speed characteristics of Silverstone, with the flat-out corners effectively being treated as straights, meant that Red Bull had to go pretty extreme last weekend through. Both Mercedes and Ferrari ran with the low-drag style wings that were used in Baku, which forced Red Bull to try to go with an even smaller angle....