🌴🌴End of a Triple, Does Ferrari Stay Hot?

Good morning. The triple header comes to a climax in Brazil this weekend. The track famous for being the home race to some of the most talented drivers to ever grace the grid with their presence, Interlagos is sure to deliver. The Carnival like atmosphere, the passion for racing, and the ramifications of this race on the championships should make this an exciting one.

For those of us based in the Americas, this is not one to watch on repeat. Set your clocks and grab some snacks so you can witness the showdown at the front of the field. Will Norris sneak more points from Verstappen? Will Mercedes come back for an epic 1-2? Will we see another fantastic finish by Haas?

Whatever happens here may determine the trajectory of the remaining races and very well could be a sneak into the 2025 season.

-Jake Williamson

🏎 Brazil Breakdown

Track

Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace, otherwise known as Interlagos, is a pre-WWII track that held its first GP in 1973. Like most pre-war tracks, Interlagos features heavy banked corners and a much older track surface. Only 15 corners and 2 long DRS zones means this 71 lap race is quick. The lap times should be in the low 1 minutes teens.

The older track surface, elevation changes, and hot temperatures means higher tyre degradation and more potential for big moments late in the race.

Last 3 winners

2023 - Verstappen

2022 - George Russell

2021 - Lewis Hamilton

Pit Stop Strategy

According to Pirelli this is likely a two stop race with teams opting for either a S-M-S or a M-M-S strategy. With the battle for points in the middle of the field, it wouldn’t surprise me if some teams put each of their cars on distinct tyre strategies.

Predictions

• P1 - Norris

• P2 - Leclerc

• P3 - Russell

• P4 - Verstapenn

• P5 - Piastri

I don’t have the Ferraris dominating here because the McLaren’s seem to love the medium-high downforce twisty stuff so we should see a strong performance there.

I also think Verstappen gets another penalty at this track considering the amount of passing that happens here.

Finally, the Williams and Haas teams should finish in the points this weekend

🌎 Is Broadcasting in F1 a problem?

Everyone has been focused on the title fight between Max Verstappen and Lando Norris lately. A fight that has been embroiled in drama since Austria this year. Norris has proven that he wasn’t expecting a fight with Max, and Max has proven that he can’t abide by someone trying to get past him.

Whatever you think about the drama between these two drivers, you can’t deny it makes for great television. Fans can no longer claim that F1 is boring or has become the “Max show” because so many teams have caught up to the front of the pack. But, just as fans are glued to their television screens, so are the stewards during the race.

This is where it gets interesting because the stewards rely on the live broadcasts on TV channels and on F1TV to make calls during the race. So, if Norris and Verstappen get into it at turn 12 in Austin, the stewards rely on the live broadcast and the replays of them to make their calls. This paints a completely different picture of the TV broadcasts. If decisions are being made based on these feeds, it becomes more important to have the right angles on the cars.

This became an issue in Austin when stewards were making a decision regarding Verstappen and Norris and the departure from track limits, which gained Norris a position over Max. Apparently, during the live broadcast of said incident, the front-facing camera on Norris’s car was being used while the rear-facing camera was in use on the Red Bull. This made for a great viewing experience but didn’t provide stewards with all relevant angles.

Another example is Leclerc’s little incident in Mexico that grant Norris the P2 finish. The feed from the Ferrari was only the rear facing camera which prevented us from seeing Leclerc’s glorious recovery in the runoff perilously close to the barriers.

The issue here is that F1 is trying to put on a great show. Like any great movie, an F1 race requires careful direction to highlight the drama on track. While F1 is concerned with entertainment, the stewards are concerned with making accurate calls during the race. Since they rely on the live feeds, there must be a way to strike a balance here.

Luckily, the FIA has agreed. Talks are underway to make the front-facing camera a constant live feed available to fans and, most importantly, stewards during the race.

There are other ways to adjudicate these incidents involving race officials reviewing tape and assessing all angles of the cars. However, this must be done after the race and by then the damage is already done. A penalty can be handed out after a race, but accurate decisions made mid-race allow for timely resolutions. Then, the drivers would get the time to make up for any infractions or mistakes. For example, if Norris was told immediately to give back the position gained at turn 12 in Austin, he may have been able to take another run at overtaking Max before the end of the race. Instead, the Brit just received a penalty and ruined his chances at chipping further away at the driver’s championship deficit.

This doesn’t effect the fan directly, but this surely means we should see more accurate incident resolutions from 2025 onward.

🚀Headline Sprint

🎲Colapinto could be offered a reserve role at Alpine: Franco Colapinto is becoming a spicy commodity this year after a phenomenal debut for Williams after the Grove team sacked Logan Sargeant. Colapinto has recently been linked to the only open 2025 seat at Sauber/Audi, as well as a potential seat at VCARB if that team does some restructuring at the end of the season. The latest news is that Colapinto is being courted by Alpine for their reserve driver program. This sounds silly for a driver who already has a reserve role with Williams, but it sounds like the Alpine contract would come with a guaranteed 2026 F1 seat.

😡Marko has strong words about Perez after Mexico: There is just no way that Red Bull isn’t considering ending Checo’s contract early at this point. After another horrible run in Mexico, Sergio Perez must be having tough conversations with management over his future prospects. Of course, Checo brings big money to the team through loyal sponsors, but your poor performance can only be smoothed over with money for so long. It seems Helmut Marko is over Checo. Speaking of the disappointing start to the Mexican GP, Helmut said, “The fact that a man with his experience would then position the car incorrectly in the starting box is incomprehensible and a real shame. Because his start was sensational. Checo received a five-second penalty for the starting offence.” He then goes on to lament about the fight with Lawson and the poor qualifying effort.

🤮Alonso missed his media duties due to another illness: As part of their contract, drivers must speak to the press at events. In a typical GP weekend there are pre race press conferences, driver meetings, qualifying interviews, and post-race press events. The drivers are usually obligated to join all of these events. However, Fernando Alonso had a doctor’s note for his media duties before the Gp this weekend. Alonso missed these last week as well. Apparently, the Spanish driver had to fly to Europe to see a specialist which prevented him from being in Brazil on Thursday. Aston confirmed that Alsonso will be driving this weekend.

🛞 Can Ferrari Remain Fast?

Ferrari is now second in the constructor’s championship and only 29 point behind McLaren for first. This is an unexpected development for fans after a cinematic 1-2 finish in both Austin and Mexico recently but it doesn’t seem to be a surprise for Ferrari.

For the first half of the season it seemed Ferrari would be the team in second place with strong finishes leading up to Hungary, albeit far behind Red Bull. But like the Austrian team, Ferrari started struggling with their upgrades. They upgraded their floor geometry for the Spanish Grand Prix (similar to Red Bull) and things started to fall off for the team.

While McLaren seized this opportunity to rocket the two papaya cars to the front of the grid, Ferrari went back to the drawing board on development. As a short term solve, Ferrari ran their pre-Spain floor at Silverstone and then brought a major aero upgrade to Monza.

As we talked about in previous newsletters, Fred Vasseur told fans to be patient with Scuderia because the major performance upgrades brought to Monza would not show their true colors until Austin because Monza, Baku, and Singapore were not “normal tracks".”

Fred was right, Austin showed off the success of the Ferrari engineers that ended in a 1-2.

The one weakness that Ferrari was dealing with up to Austin was the entry into slow corners. They couldn’t seem to generate enough downforce on the nose to attack these corners properly. A problem that McLaren seems to be dealing with now.

To solve this, Ferrari had an ace up their sleeve. They were waiting for the FIA to rule on the flexible bodywork that was creating drama among other teams before introducing their own flexible front wing. Since the FIA was happy to let these “flexible” body parts stay on the cars, Ferrari installed a new bendy front wing that has allowed them to set up the car properly for the various tracks.

This may be the secret to Ferrari’s latest success. But does it mean they will stay dominant? Probably not.

F1 teams are now catching up to the front of the grid thanks to rules that prevent overspending and overtesting, so the grid is growing more competitive by the day. This is to say that no team may dominate the remainder of this season or 2025 for that matter. What’s more likely is track domination.

Ferrari may still suffer in high-speed corners at tracks like Qatar, while teams like McLaren do well there.

This is all good news for fans. We get to watch the best drivers in the world drive at the ragged edge for championships that will likely be very close until the new regulations come in 2026.

💨 Hot Laps

Leclerc let the F-bomb fly in the post-race press conference after Mexico. Apparently he doesn’t get the same community service as Max.

Formula e has canceled its pre-season testing in Valencia, Spain, due to the deadly flash floods that devastated the area.

Verstappen will have to take an engine penalty at some point since Red Bull are running on tired engines. This swap may come this weekend.

What is fair racing, and has F1 evolved to allow too much wheel banging?

🛞Marbles

Random links from the authors not always car related

✅Watch: For anyone who grew up in the US, you probably remember the famed computer game “Oregon Trail.” Now, Apple is working on a movie adaptation.

✅Snack: Apparently it took 6 months to develop the gummy core in the middle of the Nerd Clusters.

✅Car Search: I am on the hunt for a company vehicle for Racing Recap and my budget is tiny so I found a fun article that explores the best sports cars under $5k.

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