Why F1 shouldn’t be hiding its most interesting characters

An opinion piece published on August 11, 2026 by Oleg Karpov for Autosport argues that Formula 1 is failing to capitalize on compelling human stories by restricting media access to key figures. The article uses Lewis Hamilton's new race engineer at Ferrari — described by Hamilton as his 'Italian Bono' due to a relationship reminiscent of his bond with Peter Bonnington at Mercedes — as a prime example of an untold story. The engineer previously worked with Kimi Räikkönen in 2018 and has not given interviews or podcast appearances, illustrating F1's broader gatekeeping problem that runs counter to modern sports storytelling trends.