🔥🔥SPOILERS: Verstappen deserved a penalty, Hamilton strikes out

Good morning. Austin delivered as it always does. We didn’t see many discussion topics unfold this week, but what we saw was packed with drama. Red Bull led the weekend with their controversial, slightly fishy, adjustable front bib. Lando put his car on pole when he had almost no business being there after a disappointing Friday. Finally, we ended the weekend with some juicy penalty controversy that will likely carry over into the week.

After all of that, we get to look forward to two more weeks of racing in the Western hemisphere so stay tuned for what is sure to be a hot couple of rounds!

In other news, I am going over to the UK at the beginning of November to do my first rounds of testing in the car that I will most likely be racing next season so stay tuned for more on that.

-Jake Williamson

📊 Standings

🏎 GP Debrief

As we discussed in a previous edition, Ferrari was coasting to Austin on old-ish upgrades to see how well the engineers did back in Maranello. You may recall that Ferrari brought major upgrades to Monza and a few additional ones to Singapore. But, the string of three races from Monza to Singapore were not what you would call “normal” tracks. They require special equipment and unique setups. Therefore, permanent performance upgrades can’t be measured by the results of those GPs. After several weeks, Ferrari got an answer to the upgrade question. Their upgrades worked and brought Scuderia a 1-2.

Of course you can watch the race or the highlights from Austin, so let’s go over big winners and losers before diving into how well I did with predictions.

Winners:

• Liam Lawson scored points for his first GP with VCARB after replacing Ricciardo - this will bode well for his future with Red Bull

• Another newbie scores big. Franco Colapinto gets a point for his P10 finish after a wild drive. Someone give this man a seat next season!

• Hulkenberg seems to be solving his tyre management issue - the German scored some points for Haas.

• Russell climbs from a pit lane start, receives a 5 second penalty, and still finishes P6

Losers:

• Hamilton is the big shocker here. His car started to bounce and ended up spinning into the kitty litter out of turn 19.

• Perez finishes P7 behind Russell, who faced a pit lane start and a penalty. This man may need a new profession?

• Norris gains an advantage by leaving the track in turn 12 after being forced off by Verstappen. This kept Verstappen on the podium.

My Predictions:

This may shock you but, none of my top five predictions panned out. I had the Ferraris doing well but I thought Verstappen would manage a better pace throughout the race. Furthermore, if Norris and Verstappen hadn’t gotten into fisticuffs at the start, we may have seen a different podium.

What did I get right?

I guess there would be a safety car and a car off in turn 19. I also predicted a one-stop strategy for the team (medium-hard). All three of these predictions came true, making me feel better about my life.

🌎 Verstappen and Norris Scrap Over Penalties

Track limits were all the rage at the Austin GP. Maybe it was the new pavement. Or, perhaps it was the new AI-assisted track limits detector. Regardless, the drivers were pushing it this weekend, and sometimes they brought others with them.

Yuki Tsunoda, George Russell, and Max Verstappen were all caught up in track limit offenses. But, only Verstappen seemed to get away with it.

What are track limits?

This is when a car has all four of its tyres off the black stuff. If you move your car completely across the white line that delineates the track surface, then you have breached track limits.

What happens when you violate track limits?

This depends on the type of session, but there are two types of punishments: lap time deletion or a time penalty.

Track limits during qualifying and practice result in lap time deletion. During a race, a driver gets three offenses before being officially warned. The fourth violation results in a 5-second penalty, and the fifth penalty results in a 10-second penalty.

All this is great, but what if you violate track limits while racing someone? This is what happened between Verstappen and Norris in the final laps of the USGP this weekend. Verstappen got caught braking late into turn 12 which led to a slight lock up. Norris got alongside Verstappen on the outside at apex but because of Verstappen’s lock up, he went wide on corner exit and sent Norris wide.

Both drivers ended up leaving the track, but Norris got ahead of the Dutchman after the scuffle.

This is where the problem lies. Norris technically gained a position after leaving the track, which is a clear violation of the rules. The offending driver would usually have to give the position back or receive a 5-second penalty. However, Verstappen blatantly forced Norris off the track, which should also warrant a penalty.

In fact, Yuki Tsunoda received a five-second penalty for forcing Albon off the track, and so did George Russell for forcing Bottas off.

Now, Norris received his penalty which forced him back into P4 by the end of the race. But, Verstappen never received a penalty for forcing the Briton off the track event though two other drivers got a hand slap.

A move that Toto Wolff calls, “a bit bias decision-making.”

We will investigate this incident over the next week to see if McLaren appeals this decision to the FIA.

🚀Headline Sprint

😮Hamilton offered Russell his upgrades for Sunday: George Russell handed Lando Norris his pole position on Saturday by crashing his car at the same spot his teammate would crash the following day. Turn 19 was a menace this weekend! Aside from the embarrassment of crashing in qualifying, stuffing a car into a wall before the big race is a deeper issue for a team. A crash will destroy any new upgrades and will require major setup changes after the start of parc ferme. It's the upgrades that cause Lewis Hamilton to sacrifice for his team. Hamilton offered to give up his shiny new upgrades so Russell could be competitive for the feature race. Russell turned down the offer, which turned out to be the correct move after seeing what had happened to Lewis during the GP.

🚦Russell started from the pit lane on Sunday: Speaking of crashes. George Russell had to start from the pit lane for the race on Sunday after his crash in Q3. After the wreck, engineers had to revert the 63 car to old specification parts during the parc ferme. What’s impressive about this is that Russell started from the pit lane and managed to get himself ahead of Perez into P6.

💥Do teams factor crashes into their cost cap? Yes and no. Accidents and subsequent repairs must come out of the team’s budget. You break a part, and that part needs to be replaced. Pretty simple. This can be tough for two reasons: the parts cost money, and they take precious time to rebuild.

🛞 Yuki and Lawson Shootout

This weekend, someone lit the fuse on the Liam Lawdon and Yuki Tsunoda situation. Both VCARB drivers looked great in Austin. Yuki attacked like a champ and defended even better until his spin late in the race. Liam Lawson did even better. The Kiwi driver started back in Dallas after receiving a 60-place grid penalty pre-race but ended up P9 to secure points for the Red Bull sister team.

It seems that something has turned up the heat at VCARB. We suspect it has something to do with some questions about Checo’s future at Red Bull. This was punctuated by Helmut Marko talking about bringing Lawson in for Ricciardo. He said, “we will evaluate how he compares to Yuki Tsunoda and then we will see.”

What’s more, Checo has been surrounded by rumors that he may announce his retirement after the Mexican GP this weekend or that he may be replaced next year due to underperformance. All of these have been dispelled by Checo and/or Red Bull but the performance from the two VCARB drivers is on another level now that the grid gossip has increased.

Even the announcers at COTA were talking about a potential shootout between Lawson and Tsunoda over the next six races. It’s all starting to feel like there’s a secret that we fans aren’t supposed to know: the VCARB drivers are being tested for the seat at Red Bull in 2025.

💨 Hot Laps

Williams signs a very young karting prodigy to their driver academy. Watch for this kid in 10 years.

Toto Wolff has weighed in on Red Bull’s front bib device, calling it ‘outrageous’.

Track management at COTA was called to the FIA for allowing an early start to the fan ‘track invasion’ while cars were still returning to the pits.

Hamilton suspects upgrades brought to Austin were to blame for both his and Russell’s spins over the weekend. He says the car started bouncing mid-corner, and it made the car come around on him.

🛞Marbles

Random links from the authors not always car related

✅Watch: Will Ferrell takes his best friend on a road trip across America in a touching genre change for the comedian.

✅Think: The popular show ‘Shark Tank’ has spanned several iterations of the US economy and watching the seasons gives you a snapshot of how the money making machine has changed over the years.

✅Race: If I could race one thing right now, it might be this beautiful Alpha GTA.

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