The pressure Lawrence Stroll is exerting on Williams is at least moderately worrying for Kubica fans, though. On one hand, the money flowing into the team as a result of the seat bought by Stroll family money means that Lawrence may have some influence on the team, but on the other, his sway may be limited by the fact that the Strolls can be considered a customer of the team, buying a seat that could otherwise be occupied by a better driver. We speculate there isn't much Lawrence can do to twist Williams' arm away from hiring Kubica; if he were to threaten to pull money from the team, they'd drop Lance for another one of their drivers lined up for a seat. Massa, di Resta, Ericsson, Wehrlein, Palmer...all would be ready to pounce on the opening.

The Stroll family may have some influence, but they ought to keep in mind that despite Lance's two strong performances this year, he's still a pay driver, and hasn't showcased the same results that he displayed in his second year of Euro F3, in 2016.

There is, at least of now, little reason to believe that Kubica will be dropped due to pressure from the Stroll family. Should we hear anything from Massa, or any of the other drivers gunning for Williams' second seat, the dominoes will begin to fall.

“More than anything, the 2018 aerokit really allows you to follow the car in front so much better than this year’s car,” said Servia. “No joke, at Mid-Ohio Turn 1, I have never ever been able to follow someone that close, not at the speeds we’re turning in.

“But in the new car, I was on Montoya’s gearbox – literally, right there – and as we approached Turn 1, I thought, ‘Oh ****, I’ve got to try and do this but I’m probably going to go straight off.’ But no, I was able to stick with him all the way through. Then when Juan followed me, it was the same for him. When we got back to pitlane, we got out of the car saying, ‘Wow, this is awesome!’

The sport's commercial boss, Sean Bratches has revealed that plans are underway for a microphone to be placed on cars' exhausts in order that the sound can be amplified.

He then revealed that David Hill, a man with a "stellar reputation in sports television and broadcast innovation" is working on the idea. "He's working with a German concern to develop a ceramic microphone that we can actually adhere to the exhaust pipe to get the true amplification of sound for fans," said Bratches.

"There is also a rumor going around that the new microphone will count as one of the components that will incur a grid penalty.

If the sound does not match up to the new FIA regulation on exhaust noise volume then the driver will be given the choice of taking a 5 grid slot penalty or having to make up the sound deficit but making the required sound effects over the intercom."

When you have a fast car you don’t need to use the highest modes until Q3 and ultimately if you really want to make sure you aren’t going to break down within the life of that engine you try to use them sparingly and keep the damage down or at least some in your pocket for a tricky day or a close fight in a race. Then when they do ‘turn it up’ it will give them a bigger step than those mid-field teams that have been using the higher end of the range in Q2.

Mercedes are particularly good at this ‘damage’ cycle system and they analyse the harmonics in the engine through its life to understand things like levels of piston slap, blow-by and wear characteristics and so on. Ferrari has also made good gains here.

So the ‘damage’ cycles left on the engine can be really well re-evaluated through the life of the engine. They can consider whether to turn it up for longer than planned at race 2 of its cycle, for example.