Race 19 - United States GP 2024 - Circuit of the Americas

[Matthew]

F1 is returning after a 3-week gap with the US Grand Prix.

18 Oct
Practice 1: 12:30 - 13:30
Sprint Qualifying: 16:30 - 17:14

19 Oct
Sprint: 13:00 - 14:00
Qualifying: 17:00 - 18:00

20 Oct
Race: 14:00

[F1nKS]

F1 is returning after a 3-week gap with the US Grand Prix.

18 Oct
Practice 1: 12:30 - 13:30
Sprint Qualifying: 16:30 - 17:14

19 Oct
Sprint: 13:00 - 14:00
Qualifying: 17:00 - 18:00

20 Oct
Race: 14:00

I am surprised that Mclaren looked off coming out of the break. Will be interesting to see if Max can hold off Russell in the sprint.

[airshifter]

McLaren did look a bit out of sorts. I'm not sure if the wing changes were the cause or if everyone else just did better at catching up during the break.

Sergio tanks again, but Max looked fairly solid.


And I can't speak for anyone else, but the entire ride height thing was a giant nothingburger in my opinion. A device which RB had for years suddenly becomes a controversy with accusations of cheating, coming from "other teams".


But overall it should still be an interesting race. I don't think that having four manufacturers in the top four positions is just driver effort. And Haas..... both cars in the top 10 with Hulk in 6th! Both Yuki and Colapinto representing the younger drivers up in the top 10 as well.

I like the new sprint format much better than the old one. The sprint allows them to better gauge race pace vs qually, and adjust accordingly. With the old format once you had it wrong it stayed wrong. Now they have a chance to improve and change the course of the cars through the weekend.

[airshifter]

I think Lando owes George Russell a beer for that qualifying mistake!

[Nitrodaze]

We have hookers galore going on with the site today. What is all that about eh???

[Nitrodaze]

I hear Hamilton offered his car to Russell so that he can start in 6th where he qualified but Mercedes refused and chose to start Russell from the pit lane. Weird isn't it?

[Nitrodaze]

Lando's championship quest seems to be going up in flames as Verstappen now showing great form in both the Sprint and the main race.

[Nitrodaze]

The stewarding at this race was crap l felt. Double standard. Verstappen gets away with everything. It is so clear he did not make any attempt to give a car width. George Russell gets penalized for exactly the same thing that Verstappen did passing Bottas. It just gives the impression the stewards are in Redbull's pocket.

[N. Jones]

That was a good race.
I don't think Max pushed Lando as it looked like Max had the corner.

What a win by Charles. Will they be even better next year?

[N. Jones]

Four races to go and I don't see Ferrari winning either championship.

[Nitrodaze]

That was a good race.
I don't think Max pushed Lando as it looked like Max had the corner.

What a win by Charles. Will they be even better next year?

If you get a chance to watch the footage from the overhead camera, you would see that he did not make any attempt to go around the corner with the intention of staying ontrack or giving a cars width to Norris. He intentionally ran Norris wide and clean of the track causing himself to exit the track as a consequence.
The issue here is the very clear inconsistency of how the Stewards apply the rules. Over the sprint and main race, they were consistent in applying penalties to other drivers that caused similar outcomes that resulted in other drivers being run off-track. Max does twice in the same race and there was no action from the stewards. Makes you wonder, are they scared of Redbull or are they in Redbull's pocket?

How l see that incident was that firstly, there was fault of running a driver off the track which should have been looked at and penalized according to the rules; as was done for Russell Vs Bottas. Secondly, there was track violation by both drivers. Thirdly, overtaking while being off-track should only apply if the driver being overtaken is on track while the overtaking is happening. Where the driver being overtaken takes the fight off-track and is overtaken while he is off-track, it should be viewed as fair racing, since the driver being overtaken would be getting a double unfair advantage by racing off-track and getting the benefit of not being overtaken while off-track. A driver should not be entitled to the protection of the rules while they are committing an infraction of the rules. Simple!!!

That said, what a robust defending by Verstappen for 15 laps. This race shows that the opportunity of winning the driver's championship by Norris may slip away from Norris due to a lack of aggression while defending as we saw from Verstappen. Norris is fast but in my view not in the league of Hamilton, Alonso and Verstappen. That may come in the future, but time is running out.

[N. Jones]

I'll have to try and watch a replay of the move.

[Nitrodaze]

I'll have to try and watch a replay of the move.

2021 all over again buddy.

[airshifter]

Overall an interesting weekend, and the new sprint format seemed to make things better.

Leclerc was rock solid in the race. Once he got into clean air he kept his margin without issue. I kinda feel bad that he didn't get hardly any coverage... it was a lonely race up front. Carlos did well to get Max and consolidate the 1-2 for the team. Everyone else brings updates, Ferrari didn't and then walks away with the 1-2 finish.

Plenty of good mid field action throughout the race. With things tighter and everyone fighting for points, it made for some good viewing. I'm still not quite sure why 'Nando had issues with Lawson, but in the end Lawson didn't back down and had a good finish. Another good race by Colapinto as well, and he is making a name for himself fairly quickly I'd say. Perez was his usual lately... finishing behind George that started in the pits. All things considered George did well to move up to 6th. A bit of a lonely race for Piastri as well, solid but seemed to spend much of the race running out by himself with no real challenges to speak of.

Lando once again came alive once on the harder tire, but just can't attack in a quick and decisive way. Losing at the start didn't surprise me, as COTA has that wide turn one that leaves the door open for cars behind. But later in the race he got schooled, and Max showed him how to defend against a faster car. Until Lando ups his wheel to wheel game he is going to suffer at times. Not to say that he's bad at it, but he's just not matching the best on the grid yet.

As for the penalty, another nothingburger in my opinion. Max knows the rules well, was ahead at the apex, and drove Lando off. And despite all the hand waving and whining of the detractors, he is allowed to do it. I'm not sure if McLaren are actually just clueless enough that they thought Lando had the apex first, or just towing the party line in hopes that Lando could pull enough time to overcome the penalty. In the end it didn't work out for them and Lando lost a podium finish.



On to Mexico!

[Nitrodaze]

I'll have to try and watch a replay of the move.

Actually, after a second look, the penalty was correctly applied to Norris.

[Used to be Starter]

Everyone else brings updates, Ferrari didn't and then walks away with the 1-2 finish.
Every once in a while the update winds up being a back date. ;)

[The Black Knight]

Actually, after a second look, the penalty was correctly applied to Norris.

Got to disagree here buddy. Norris was the lead car before they entered the corner. The responsibility is then on Max to overtake without pushing another car off. You can’t run a car wide to gain position.

[Nitrodaze]

Got to disagree here buddy. Norris was the lead car before they entered the corner. The responsibility is then on Max to overtake without pushing another car off. You can’t run a car wide to gain position.

That was my initial thought if you read my earlier post. It turns out that the stewards only look at who was ahead at the apex. Norris braked early which allowed Verstappen to be ahead at the apex. Thus, Verstappen had right of way per se. While the penalty on Norris was right from this perspective, the stewarding was still poor as they did not take every factor into consideration l felt.

For instance, they did not take into consideration that Verstappen ran Norris off track which was punished when Piastri did it in the sprint and when Russell ran Bottas off track in the main race. So there were still inconsistencies. I felt a fairer outcome would have penalized both of them. Verstappen for running Norris off track and Norris for overtaking while off track. The amount of time penalty would have been at the steward's discretion. Hence, if they had given both drivers a 5 seconds penalty, the race outcome would turned out the same as it did in the end. And nobody would have criticized the stewarding. This incident only served to re-enforce the suspicion that the stewards are biased towards Redbull and Verstappen

After l reviewed the entire thing with hindsight of-course, it is clear to see McLaren was partly to blame. They should have asked Norris to give the place back, seeing how clear the infraction was. Norris himself has himself to blame for a very poor defence off the line at the start. He spent the whole race watching how defending is done by Verstappen. He was schooled big time.

[Steve Boyd]

They should have asked Norris to give the place backI agree and then they should have complained incessantly to the stewards that they'd been run off the track by a car that couldn't make the corner - that's what the Bulls would have done in their place.

[Nitrodaze]

The new interesting dynamics is the fact that Ferrari is now 8 points behind Redbull and 48 points behind McLaren with five races and 125 points on the table. The constructors championship is still wide open. Ferrari has a realistic chance to win the constructors championship based on their current form.

It would be an "Egg in the face" situation for McLaren if they miss out on both championships.

I think MccLaren has covertly taken Piastri out of the fight with Norris to give him a chance to fight Verstappen without the added bother of his team-mate. At the end of this season, Norris would have newfound respect for Hamilton and Verstappen. Winning F1 championship is not an easy business.

[Steve Boyd]

This incident only served to re-enforce the suspicion that the stewards are biased towards Redbull and VerstappenTime to start a rumour that Michael Masi has changed his name and has joined the F1 Stewards panel. :)

[Nitrodaze]

Time to start a rumour that Michael Masi has changed his name and has joined the F1 Stewards panel. :)

Ha ha, with a beard, spectacles and an odd limp, no one would be wiser it is him. To be serious though, a lot of people are not comfortable with the current steward arrangement in F1. So it is not a conspiracy theory, it is a situation where it is perceived that the stewarding decision may be unfairly impacting the driver's championship outcome in subtle but obvious ways. We saw this a lot in 2021, so we know what we are looking at don't we?

[Nitrodaze]

Read this article to see why the steward's decision was correctly applied to Norris.
https://medium.com/motor-racing/the-verstappen-manoeuvre-0fac2f0fbab5

[Steve Boyd]

Ha ha, with a beard, spectacles and an odd limp, no one would be wiser it is him. To be serious though, a lot of people are not comfortable with the current steward arrangement in F1. So it is not a conspiracy theory, it is a situation where it is perceived that the stewarding decision may be unfairly impacting the driver's championship outcome in subtle but obvious ways. We saw this a lot in 2021, so we know what we are looking at don't we?Looks like Massi had the weekend off for Mexico!