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F1 2024

47 point difference, 4 races left. 12 points per race.

It's not going to happen, but races like today keep it interesting - a DNF for Verstappen (in a race that Norris wins) does put the title back in Norris' hands. I'd love it if it was a tussle with Hamilton that brought about the DNF...
 
47 point difference, 4 races left. 12 points per race.

It's not going to happen, but races like today keep it interesting - a DNF for Verstappen (in a race that Norris wins) does put the title back in Norris' hands. I'd love it if it was a tussle with Hamilton that brought about the DNF...

There's too much dominance these days.

I remember when Keke Rosberg won the F1 Drivers' title. He won one race and had one pole position all year...

Oh, happy days.
 
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So Checo in a Red Bull is the last to finish, behind Zhou in a Sauber. Seriously, he's just stealing a drive at this point. Even Stroll could do more with that car.🫣

RB were trying to nick the fastest lap point, though it was desperate given Perez car had lost performance due to the floor and side
pod drama.

Anyway, about time the stewards issued Max with penalties, what he did today was dangerous. He's been reminiscent of 2021 - under pressure?
Gets way too aggressive. I do worry his going to cause a big accident, not sure he'll take the right lessons away from this race.
 
Well, shake my caipirinhas, it's Brazil this weekend.

It's the final stump in the Americas racing wicket. The gold medal following silver and bronze. The solid after liquid and gas. The dinner after lunch and breakfast.

And it's one of those fancy-schmancy egg-and-spoon weekends. Here are the UK telly times:

Fri 1 Nov
FP1 - 14:30
Sprint shootout - 18:30

Sat 2 Nov
Sprint - 14:00
Qual - 18:00

Sun 3 Nov
Race - 17:00

I imagine the stewards are already practising their push-ups, leg-bends and isometric exercises, in readiness for a busy race. May their multiple-second time penalties be swift and deep. Amen.
 

Max Verstappen set for Brazil Grand Prix grid penalty​

Max Verstappen looks set to take a grid penalty for the Brazilian Grand Prix in a boost to Lando Norris’ title aspirations. Norris kept his chances of winning the Formula 1 championship alive on Sunday by finishing ahead of Verstappen in Mexico and narrowing the gap in the standings to 47 points. With just four races to go, it seems very likely that the drivers’ title will go the way of the Dutchman, though Norris’ McLaren team are leading the constructors’ championship ahead of Ferrari and Red Bull. The Brit will need big results in the remaining grand prix this year if he is to complete the most unlikeliest of comeback triumphs and it seems he will start this weekend’s race with an advantage over his rival.

Red Bull have all but confirmed that Verstappen will take an engine change before the end of the season which will result in a five-place grid penalty. Such a penalty is very likely to take place in Brazil given that the Interlagos circuit provides the best overtaking chances of the remaining four tracks on the calender, meaning the penalty won’t be so harshly felt. Red Bull chief Helmut Marko confirmed the news on Monday, saying engine issues had affected Verstappen in Mexico, where he finished sixth after being twice penalised for forcing Norris off the track, with the Brit coming home second. ‘We were nowhere near the two front teams, and I guess part of the problem is that Friday, we couldn’t drive because of the engine problems,’ Marko said. ‘We have to do something, that’s clear. We also will have a change the engine because we had been so slow on the straight. This engine, which was in the car, was not supposed to be in the car, so most likely Brazil could happen. The engine we had in there was no longer intended for the race, and the older an engine gets, the more its performance diminishes. The penalty would be five places. That wouldn’t be so severe in Brazil, for example, where you can overtake relatively easily. But we saw that we were missing three to eight km/h on the straights.’

Meanwhile, Norris, who had labelled Verstappen’s driving in Mexico ‘dangerous’, said he hoped to have ‘good but fair battles’ with his rival moving forward. The 24-year-old said: ‘I go into every race expecting a tough battle with Max. It’s clear that it doesn’t matter if he wins or second, his only job is to beat me in the race. And he’ll sacrifice himself to do that. But I want to have good battles with him. I want to have those tough battles, like I’ve seen him have plenty of times. But fair ones. It’s always going to be on the line. It’s always going to be tough with Max. He’s never going to make anyone’s life easy, especially mine at this point of the year. But I think today was just… It was not fair, clean racing. And therefore, I think he got what he had coming to him.’
 
Don't know why I bother to watch the sprint qualifying, it's hardly ever worth watching. They should do something different with it to keep it interesting.
 
LeClerc has been fined 10 grand for dropping an f bomb. If they're going to persist with treating drivers like children, maybe sticking him on the naughty step and no PlayStation for a week would be a more appropriate punishment? 🙄
 
There is a very strong rumor that Audi will be selling their ownership in Sauber to a middle-east consortium. Word is it will be going public during the Abu Dhabi weekend.
 

F1 2026 rule tweaks will open door for "different concepts"​

The recent changes to Formula 1's technical regulations for 2026 will give teams more freedom to explore different design concepts, says Williams chief James Vowles. Recently, the rules prescribing F1's new car designs for 2026 have been tweaked following concerns that the new generation of cars would be too slow. The new cars, which will be paired to overhauled engine regulations with a bigger reliance on electric energy, will have significantly less drag and wake turbulence to improve the racing, but the latest version of the rules has increased the amount of downforce they will generate to bring cornering speeds closer to current levels.

The FIA relaxed limitations around the front wing area and the front floor, with scope to add bargeboards, and the size of the diffuser has been increased compared to the draft that was presented to teams in June and received mixed reviews. The changes were welcomed by the teams, not just because of the increase in performance but because there will now be more freedom for designers to explore different concepts. That could lead to cars that are visibly much more different across the grid compared to the current generation of ground-effect-based machinery, where teams soon converged on very similar concepts.

"We now have more freedom where you could see a different direction that you're going in," Vowles said. "So there's more flow controlling devices in place, which lead to downforce, but differentiation between teams. What's been really positive as well is there's still some small areas of improvement around the diffuser. What's great to see is teams in F1 working hand-in-hand in order to improve that, because every time you make a change like that, it has some consequences. I think what you're going to see now is instead of all teams working in the same few millimetres, there'll be some different concepts. I personally think that is good for the sport."

Vowles' McLaren counterpart Andrea Stella also felt giving engineers more freedom will lead to a bigger spread of designs. "With the recent release of the car geometry, especially from an aerodynamic point of view, basically two main things have been achieved," he explained. "One is a much higher downforce level, and the second one is more freedom. We welcome both. We welcome more freedom. I think this will give teams the possibility to just use their knowledge, use their methodologies. The knowledge that has been accrued over the years, even if with different regulations, is a way of creating some differentiation. So, we've always been advocating this kind of approach and we welcome the fact that there will be more freedom."
 

Wild driver rumours from Brazil with Carlos Sainz off to Red Bull​

Never mind Franco Colapinto to VCARB, the Argentinean will be Red Bull’s “number two” next season when he partners Max Verstappen. No wait! He’ll remain a Williams driver as Christian Horner’s chat with James Vowles in the Williams hospitality on Friday was about Carlos Sainz, not the super sub.

F1’s silly season went a bit crazy in Brazil
Added to that, Colapinto will be joined on the F1 2025 grid by fellow Formula 2 driver Gabriel Bortoleto, who has signed with Sauber in a “done” deal. These are the rumours doing the rounds in the last 24 hours as Formula 1’s silly season took off as the Brazilian Grand Prix weekend got underway. With Sergio Perez looking increasing likely to lose his Red Bull seat at the end of the season, Red Bull are in the midst of a game of driver jenga as they weight up who to remove and who to keep.

Having already dropped Daniel Ricciardo after the Australian racer failed to grab Perez’s Red Bull, Red Bull are auditioning Liam Lawson, who so far has impressed. He scored a point on his return at the United States Grand Prix, out-qualified Perez in Mexico before tangling with the Mexican driver and will start Saturday’s Sprint in Brazil eighth on the grid. That’s five places ahead of Perez.

While it has been said that his audition will determine Perez’s fate in that if he’s good enough he’ll take the under-fire driver’s Red Bull seat, it could also impact Colapinto’s future as the Williams driver would then take the VCARB seat. One rumour doing the rounds in Interlagos is that he’s already signed. Another though, claims yes he has signed, but he’s signed for Red Bull and not VCARB. According to former Argentinian racing driver Rubén Daray, who broke the news that Colapinto would replace Logan Sargeant at Williams, Colapinto “is already Red Bull’s number two driver for 2025”. Fuel was thrown on the VCARB/Red Bull fire when Horner was seen leaving the Williams hospitality on Friday at Interlagos. Williams team principal James Vowles was quizzed about this in the Friday press conference and confirmed Williams are “actively working with teams” to find Colapinto a 2025 race seat.

But then came the twist in the tale…
According to Brazilian journalist Orlando Ríos, Horner was not speaking with Vowles about Colapinto, he wants Carlos Sainz as Verstappen’s team-mate. Colapinto would then remain with Williams as Alex Albon’s team-mate. Red Bull were reportedly in the running to sign Sainz earlier this season when he sought a new team for 2025 after being dropped by Ferrari but opted against putting him in the car due to the tension between Jos Verstappen and Carlos Sainz Snr. when their sons raced for Toro Rosso.

But at the time of Sainz’s signing with Williams, it was rumoured there was a clause in his contract that should Mercedes or Red Bull come knocking, he could leave Williams even before driving a single lap for the Grove team. Williams denied this.
 

Just 17 cars on sprint race grid as trio choose to start from pit lane​

Only 17 cars will line up on the grid for today’s sprint race as three drivers have chosen to start from the pit lane. The trio are taking advantage of the opportunity to change their car’s set-ups before the race. All three drivers were eliminated in the first round of qualifying for the sprint race yesterday. Fernando Alonso will give up 16th on the grid, while Lance Stroll and Zhou Guanyu qualified on the back row.

The FIA confirmed Aston Martin have changed the bodywork specification and suspension set-ups on their drivers’ cars. The team reverted to an earlier version of its floor this weekend in a bid to get on top of the handling problems both drivers have complained about in recent races. Alonso said yesterday the team intended to treat today’s 24-lap race like a practice session, echoing his remarks from the previous sprint event in Austin.

Sauber has also made changes to the suspension set-up of Zhou’s car. He was unable to complete his final run in qualifying as his team sent him out too late and the chequered flag had fallen by the time he reached the timing line. His team mate Valtteri Bottas reached the second round of qualifying and will start 15th. The drivers’ penalties will promote Esteban Ocon to 16th on the grid ahead of Yuki Tsunoda.

F1 changed its sprint event regulations this year by moving the extra race to the first session slot on Saturday, before qualifying for the grand prix, and allowing teams to change their cars’ set-up between the two. However teams appear to be increasingly willing to forfeit poor starting position on the sprint race grid in order to test set-up changes to their car before committing to them for qualifying. Today’s race is the fifth of six sprint races this year. Of these, only the first in Shanghai saw all 20 cars take the start from the grid.
 

Sao Paulo GP: F1 Sprint Results​

PosNumDriverTeamLaps/Diff
14Lando NorrisMcLaren24
281Oscar PiastriMcLaren0.593
31Max VerstappenRed Bull Racing1.497
416Charles LeclercFerrari5.656
555Carlos SainzFerrari7.224
663George RussellMercedes12.475
710Pierre GaslyAlpine18.161
811Sergio PerezRed Bull Racing18.717
930Liam LawsonRB20.773
1023Alex AlbonWilliams24.606
1144Lewis HamiltonMercedes29.764
1243Franco ColapintoWilliams33.233
1331Esteban OconAlpine34.128
1450Oliver BearmanHaas35.507
1522Yuki TsunodaRB41.374
1677Valtteri BottasSauber43.231
1724Zhou GuanyuSauber54.139
1814Fernando AlonsoAston Martin56.537
1918Lance StrollAston Martin57.983
027Nico HulkenbergHaas5L
 
Earlier this week, Audi’s owners the Volkswagen Group announced the closure of three factories in Germany. This is because VW’s economic situation has deteriorated. I believe this is why the rumours they could be about to sell their F1 team are starting. Audi have completed the buyout of Sauber so they are full owners of the team so the VW group can sell.
 

Verstappen penalised for virtual safety car violation​

Red Bull's Max Verstappen has been demoted to fourth in Formula 1's Brazilian sprint race due to a five-second penalty for a virtual safety car infringement. Verstappen climbed from fourth to third in the 24-lap sprint on Saturday after passing Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, whom the Dutchman had been stuck behind for the majority of the sprint race. But immediately afterwards Verstappen was flagged by race control to the stewards for a potential infringement under the late virtual safety car, which was called for Nico Hulkenberg's stricken Haas.

Verstappen was deemed to have been below the mandated delta time having drawn alongside the second-placed McLaren of Oscar Piastri on the entry into Turn 4. A hearing between Red Bull and the FIA stewards confirmed that, and Verstappen was handed a five-second penalty which drops him back to fourth, behind Leclerc, in the updated classification. Verstappen has also received a penalty point on his licence, bringing him up to seven points over a 12-month period, with 12 points leading to a race ban.

"The Stewards heard from the driver of Car 1 (Max Verstappen), team representative and reviewed positioning/marshalling system data, timing, telemetry evidence," the FIA verdict read. "Article 56.5 states in part 'All cars must also be above this minimum time when the FIA light panels change to green.' The driver was 0.63 seconds below the minimum time at VSC end when the FIA light panels changed to green. This indicates a sporting advantage gained under VSC."

Verstappen, who was joined by Red Bull sporting director Jonathan Wheatley in the hearing, reportedly explained that he was aware he was under the delta time, but was too late to correct it by the time the track went green again. "The driver explained that as he was awaiting VSC to end and he got the notification that he was below the minimum time, he attempted to correct the error but failed to do so by the point that the panels turned green," the statement continued. "This is a breach and the standard penalty is applied for the advantage gained at that time. The net effect of this put the driver ahead of where he was at the start of the VSC and not as a result of the car in front falling back."

McLaren took a one-two win in the race, with polesitter Piastri giving way to team-mate Lando Norris late on as the latter fights Verstappen for the drivers' championship.
 
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