Every so often a Formula 1 video drops that does more for the human side of the sport than a thousand TV interviews. F1's Fill In The Blanks series, where current drivers answer questions about their teammates and rivals, did exactly that this spring — and the off-track picture that emerged is one of the more candid snapshots of the modern paddock.
The headline reveal, in a sport that loves to celebrate its own legends-in-waiting, was about a driver who is not a championship contender at all. Pierre Gasly, the Alpine veteran, was named without hesitation as the man who quietly picks up the cheque at the annual drivers' dinner.
"Pierre got the driver dinner last year. Pierre paid the bill last year, very kindly," one driver said. "Big up Pierre. That was a big bill and he did pick it up. So, well done."
Lewis Hamilton, in keeping with the late-career elder-statesman role he is increasingly occupying at Ferrari, was credited for being similarly generous in recent months. "Lewis, probably Lewis. He's been very — he's been paying lately. Lewis is always generous," another driver added.
The more strategically interesting answers were about leadership, communication and life after racing. Asked who messages most in the drivers' WhatsApp group chat, the grid converged on a single answer with one important caveat — George Russell does work in the chat, not just talk.
"I would say that's George, but also because he's doing stuff for the GPDA," the driver explained. "So in our chat, like, he actually does work."
That hint at Russell's role as a working GPDA director is one of the rare confirmations that the Grand Prix Drivers' Association functions in 2026 the way previous generations of drivers — Sebastian Vettel, Romain Grosjean — quietly ran it: not on paper, but in the group chat. Asked who else always has an opinion, the answer was Carlos Sainz, with George Russell again named in the same breath. "It's a toss-up between George and Carlos. They always have an opinion," another driver said.
Carlos Sainz's name also surfaced when the question turned to which current driver is most likely to transition into a team principal role after his racing career. The grid's answer was telling.
"I would say Carlos in that regard. I do think he would be — I could see him being more involved in it," the driver said. "I think he enjoys that part of it."
With Audi searching openly for a new team principal after Jonathan Wheatley's surprise exit, and with Sainz now in his Williams chapter while James Vowles works on a long-term project there, the answer reads less as a future hypothetical and more as a paddock observation already in motion. Sainz has openly engaged with team-political questions throughout 2026, from public criticism of Verstappen's driving in the midfield to fronting Williams' upgrade narrative.
The lighter answers were no less revealing. Esteban Ocon was named as the driver most likely to sleep through his alarm — "I'm going to say Esteban Ocon because I know he has actually slept through his alarm once and he got to the track like 30 minutes before the session," one driver recalled. Franco Colapinto, in his first full Alpine season, was identified as the perennially-late one for the fan forums. And Fernando Alonso, predictably, was nominated as the ideal companion for being stranded on a remote island.
"Fernando could be quite a good choice there, because he'll want to get off the island," one driver explained. "Feel like he's quite quite smart and wily, so I'll go with Fernando. Might be a bit quiet, but I reckon we'd get off the island."
For a sport that spends most of its public hours inside a press-conference choreography, the Fill In The Blanks footage is a rare glimpse of how this generation of drivers actually sees each other. The portrait is more collegial than the grid politics suggest: Gasly the generous one, Russell the GPDA workhorse, Sainz the future team principal, Alonso the island survivor, and Hamilton — even at 41, even at Ferrari — still picking up the bill.
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*Originally published on [Formula 1 News](https://newsformula.one/article/f1-drivers-group-chat-russell-gpda-sainz-team-principal-gasly-bill-fill-blanks). Visit for full coverage.*
