🫢🫢I Have No Words For That Race

Good morning. I don’t know how to put that race weekend into words. I break down some of the most highlight-able moments in the newsletter but do yourself a favor and watch the entire weekend if you find the time. In one sentence, this weekend was a pivotal moment in the championship.

The story was the major points swing in the driver’s championship between Norris and Verstappen but the drama throughout the weekend makes me want to invest in a full F1 commentator box for my living room. Think about it, 6 ish TV screens hung on the wall all showing different feeds. Even six may not be enough. I just want to keep up with the whole field. The radio communications, the track data, the international feed, the weather. There’s just too much to keep an eye on.

This may be a race that I rewatch a couple of times.

-Jake Williamson

📊 Standings

🏎 Brazil: Too Much To Go Over

Quick Rundown

This was a chaotic race weekend. Almost too chaotic to give you everything, so I will hit the highlights. The sprint race went swimmingly for McLaren with a tidy 1-2 finish that tested the papaya rules. Piastri gave up P1 to his teammate to help chip away at the points gap to Verstappen in the driver title. But, quali is where the wheels fell off. A torrential downpour delayed qualifying on Saturday so long that the race director had to postpone the session to Sunday morning. In addition, they moved the race up to avoid more torrential rain. What followed can only be described as a melee of tires and spray.

There were 6 red flags in quali and a host of yellow flags as the drivers tried to figure out the fastest way around the wet track on the intermediate tyres. Norris and Russell topped the charts and Verstappen was eliminated in Q2 due to an ill-timed red flag.

The race was just a longer version of the quali chaos. Drivers were slipping and sliding on those inters just trying to find grip while also contending with excessive bumpiness.

Winners

The obvious one is Verstappen. Did he get lucky, or did he drive like a legend? I think its both. To return from P17 to take the top step in the wet is nothing short of glorious.

Alpine had a 2-3 finish that wasn’t on anyone’s bingo card today so good for them!

The mechanics are the real heroes this weekend. Not only did they have to get up to be at work at 4 am, but they had to repair a heap of car wrecks in the 4-5 hours between quali and the race. They earned their paycheck this weekend.

Losers

Norris had a rough go of it this weekend. He caused a multi-car investigation for starting a rogue formation lap during the aborted start, had some bad luck under red flag conditions, and completely messed up the restart after that red flag. This was a huge blow in his championship run and probably handed Verstappen the world title.

Stroll wrecked his car on the formation lap. It looked like a brake issue but the image of him watching his colleagues roll by from the gravel is sad.

Surprises

Verstappen is the biggest surprise for obvious reasons

Piastri seemed to come alive in quali on the intermediate tyres during quali but quickly fell off during the race. Maybe this is due to a lack of race experience in the wet?

Williams had three crashes this weekend that will cause a huge blow to the team and their budget.

My Predictions

• P1 - Norris ⛔

• P2 - Leclerc ⛔

• P3 - Russell ⛔

• P4 - Verstapenn ⛔

• P5 - Piastri ⛔

I guessed Verstappen would get another penalty - ⛔

I also had Williams and Haas in the points - ⛔

So, I was wrong all the way around. I blame the rain.

🌎 Are Teams Wetting Their Tyres?

Red Bull seems to be on a witch hunt this year. As the Austrian team has experienced persistent struggles with their car designs and setup, other teams have found significant pace, which has made the whole field sort of bunch up. Since Miami, Red Bull has been in defense mode to prevent damage to its run at the two world titles.

Christian Horner has made his feelings about the 2024 increase in rival pace clear. He recently stated, “ -I've never in a season seen a swing so exaggerated. Obviously we have to get on top of that. We have to understand it.”

Red Bull has already lost two places in the constructors championship and, until Brazil, was in danger of losing the Driver Championship to Lando Norris.

In the latest attempt to uncover untoward behavior from other teams, Red Bull claims that some teams are using water or an otherwise “unspecified liquid” to cool the tyres from the inside. This claim was made after the Singapore GP where some rims were spotted with liquid on them after the tyre was removed.

Of course, McLaren is included in this drama since the rivalry has centered around their meteoric rise. McLaren was lambasted by Red Bull for a “mini-DRS” in Baku and Red Bull was outed for having a moveable front bib by McLaren. So, this wet tyre thing only seems to be another addition to the saga.

Cooling the tyres with liquid from the inside is forbidden by the FIA because it would allow teams to extract more pace and/or more life out of the Pirelli compounds.

So far, Pirelli and the FIA have not identified evidence of cheating after closer inspection of the tyres in Brazil.

🚀Headline Sprint

🆘Nico Hulkenberg received the first black flag since 2007: Nico Hulkenberg had a moment into turn one in lap 27 that led him to spin off and creep close to the barriers. As one of many cars that went off during this insane racing spectacle, Hulkenberg could not have returned to the track without help from the Marshals. Maybe the Marshals didn’t know the rule, but once a driver receives outside help to return to the track you get the instant black flag. A black flag means an automatic disqualification. Black flags are rare these days because the drivers are supposed to get a “right of reply” to explain the situation, but that didn’t seem to happen this time.

👍The Audi seat for 2025 seems to be decided: There’s been a contentious battle for Audi’s open seat alongside Nico Hulkenberg for 2025. Valtteri Bottas already drives for Kick Sauber (the team that will become Audi in 2026) and claimed that he was in advanced talks with the team to resign with the team. The other driver option is a younger driver, Gabriel Bortoleto, who is part of the McLaren junior program. The young Brazilian won the 2023 F3 title and is leading in F2, so he is a great choice for any team. Audi was faced with choosing a driver with experience (Bottas) or a fresh face who could set up a long-term strategy (Bortoleto). After some speculation about Bottas and even new phenom Franco Colapinto, it seems the team is just ironing out details with Gabriel in time for a Las Vegas announcement.

🤬Charles Leclerc fined for swearing in Mexico: Charles Leclerc found himself in hot water with the FIA after letting the F-bomb fly in a post-race press conference in Mexico. This resulted in the FIA wagging their finger at the Monagasque driver but didn’t seem to land him in hot water like it did for Max Verstappen several weeks ago. A point That Max pointed out for being unfair. Max can stop complaining, though because Charles was given a 10,000 euro fine for the inchident. Most of this fine is held back if Leclerc doesn’t repeat the offense within the next 12 months. This was still a less significant punishment than Max’s “public service,” which the stewards said was because Leclerc was “immediately apologetic”.

🛞 Verstappen Slams Red Flag Timing

You will be forgiven for not remembering that Max Verstappen was knocked out of Q2 after a legendary drive to make up 17 positions on Sunday. But what put him in P17?

For those who are uninitiated, your lap times dictate your place in the qualifying session. The fastest times move to the top of the leaderboard and the slowest move to the bottom. Pretty easy so far. The qualifying round is broken up into three sessions, Q1, Q2, and Q3. The slowest five drivers in Q1 and Q2 get eliminated from qualifying altogether. This leaves the top 10 drivers in Q3 to compete for the fastest lap times. The entire purpose of this is to set the starting grid for the Grand Prix. This is why Quali is so important; sometimes, the person who starts first on the grid wins the race. Not always, but it’s the best place to start. Therefore, Max Verstappen getting ejected in the second round of qualifying is a big deal.

An ill-timed red flag ended the 3-time world champion’s run at getting into Q3. With about one and a half minutes left in the second session, Lance Stroll crashed his Aston Martin. Usually, this “red flags” the session which would pause all running on track as long as there is enough time to restart the session. This is what frustrated Max.

It took 40 seconds for race control throw a red flag. So, for about 40 seconds there was only a yellow flag in the sector that hosted the crash. This allowed a few drivers to finish their fast laps before the red flag was brought out. Unfortnuately for Verstappen, he was in the middle of his fast lap when the flag ended the session so he was relegated to P12. This converted to P17 with his 5 place grid penalty for taking a new engine.

This caused outrage at Red Bull purely because a crash should be an immediate red flag. Christian Horner said, “You have to focus on the safety, it’s not about letting cars finish laps. It should be an immediate red flag. You can’t just say ‘let people finish their laps’ - Lance Stroll wasn’t trying to get that car going again. It was screwed. It’s a red flag.”

The frustration here is reasonable. Almost every other crash throughout the weekend resulted in immediate red flags but it does require the car to be completely stopped with no hope of getting going again. Stroll took some time to troubleshoot before giving up, so this can be chalked up to bad timing.

🏎 Should Teams Get Free Tyres Under Red?

Brazil joins Monaco as the second race this year that permitted teams to change tyres for free under red flag conditions. This unfortunate timing probably cost Russell and Norris their race. Will we see the rules change to address “free pit stops”?

A red flag stops a race. The cars must return to the pits and await a race restart. Under the current rules, teams can basically do anything to the car during the red flag. So, not only can drivers hop out and go for a bathroom break or get a sandwich, but teams can effectively rebuild the car as long as it is to the parc ferme specifications. Damaged front wing? No problem; just replace it. Wonky side pod? Replace it.

Replacing parts is one thing, but the point of contention is the ability to change tyres. Under current rules, it makes sense to allow for tyre changes. But, many drivers and teams are calling for a change in the red flag regulations to prevent the “free pit stop” that comes with a red flag.

Pit stop strategy plays a big part in formula 1. Deciding when to pit and what tyres to swap onto a car can make or break someone’s race. If you take this away, the race order is effectively decided by the qualifying order as was the case in Monaco this year. Sergio Perez had a crash with Kevin Magnussen on the first lap. The resulting red flag allowed everyone to swap onto fresh medium tyres. Since the Monaco circuit is nearly impossible to overtake, everyone finished the race on those mediums in the order they left the pits.

So, what’s the downside of allowing these repairs and tyre changes? Well as we saw in Brazil this weekend, Russell and Norris took advantage of the safety car that preceded the red flag to get what’s known as a “cheap pit stop”, meaning they minimized the time lost while pitting because all cars slow down behind a safety car. Norris and Russell came out behind the new race leaders which would normally be ok since those race leaders still needed to pit, meaning Norris and Russell would overtake for the race lead after the track went green again. However, the track went red and all cars had to stop for the marshalls to clean up the wreck. That meant all cars got to swap on new tires, which count as your mandatory tire change. So, the red flag tyre change rule punished the drivers who strategically took advantage of the safety car.

In a hypothetical situation, the red flag rules would also allow the perpetrators of a crash to swap on fresh tyres and replace the damaged parts of the car. This basically rewards an offending driver for causing a red flag. Yes, there are penalties for such things but you get the point.

After Monaco, teams and drivers have called for a review of these rules. Some suggestions include not counting the tyre change under red flag as part of the mandatory stops and forcing cars that take major repairs to get grid penalties or have to start from the pit lane as if they violated parc ferme. Changing the rules would most certainly have unintended consequences but it may be worth it.

💨 Hot Laps

The restart that led to the investigation of a rogue formation lap

Papaya rules were on full display this weekend. A swap of position in the sprint race and the Grand Prix could foreshadow internal conflict at the Woking team.

Max Verstappen raced with emotion in the Sprint race, which led to a penalty under Virtual Safety Car. It didn’t spoil his Sunday, but it shows a less calculated side of the Dutchman.

Hot Wheels is taking a page from Lego’s book and collabing with Formula 1 on a line of model cars. Pre-order your special edition and keep an eye out for the full lineup.

🛞Marbles

Random links from the authors not always car related

✅Read: This isn’t for everyone, but this site can give you personalized book recommendations for a small donation.

✅Random: Here is a giant animation complete with iconic fictional characters from movies, books, and TV shows.

✅Coffee: In honor of the Brazilian GP this weekend, I did a deep dive into coffee and found this site that explains everything regarding caffeine juice.

🤯Brain Food

Who was the last driver to receive a Black Flag?

📖Answer

It was two drivers: Felipe Massa and Giancarlo Fisichella at the 2007 Canadian Grand Prix. Both drivers left the pit while the pit light was still red.

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