F1. Sao Paulo 2024 Review
0By Gavin Huet, Chelsea Wintle, Aiden McLaughlin and Graeme Woolf
Driver of the day
Gavin – A masterclass from Max Verstappen, starting in P17 due to penalties and a red flag ruining his qualifying, and then ending up on the top spot on the podium. Whilst Lando Norris and others floundered in the wet, the Dutchman showed exactly why he is a multiple World Champion as he carved through the other cars to take the lead and then dominate. One of the greatest F1 drives ever, this will be in the highlight packages for many years to come.
Chelsea – Max Verstappen, and if my cohorts choose otherwise, they’re trolling. I was spoiled for this race due to my default mode of checking X on a Monday morning, and thought it must have been a mistake – winning from 17th in an inferior car? Yet here we are. What a mindblowing drive that was. By the end of the second lap he’d overtaken half the field, and the rest of the race was a controlled, intelligent drive that saw him hold the track where so many others faltered. It could be argued that he had some luck in holding out to pit for the first red flag, but he finished almost 20 seconds in front of Ocon in second. Just astounding. His championship will be well deserved.
Aiden – It’s as simple a decision as I can imagine. Yes, he benefited from the red flag that allowed him a free tyre change, but that performance was Max Verstappen at his very best and showed just why he deserves to pick up his fourth World Drivers Championship. With chaos all around him, he not only held it together to advance through the field from 17th to lead, he set the fastest lap 17 different times and his fastest lap was over a second quicker than the next best driver, Lando Norris. A drive that will go down in the history books and one I’ll recall if I’m still around in 30 or 40 years time, to go along the greatest F1 performances of all time.
Graeme – Without a doubt it has to be Max Verstappen. His race was immense. Starting from 17th on the grid after a horror qualifying and 5 place grid penalty, Max was not a happy man earlier in the day. Come race time he got his game face on and the old Max came out to play. He made up multiple places on the first lap, timed his pit stop well, took Esteban Ocon for 1st place and then taught everyone a lesson in wet weather driving, winning by 19 seconds. Impressive!
Moment of the weekend
Gavin – As the two Alpines cross the line in P2 and P3, the Alpine team are on the pit wall in what can only be described as delirium. Ocon was in the lead for a while and handled the restarts with aplomb, could he have done more to hold Max back and take the win? No, not the way Max drove around the track. Of course the real impact of this result for Alpine is that they are now above both Haas and RB in the Constructors Championship which means more money at the end of the season so this is even more important than just the feel good factor.
Chelsea – There was a lot to see, but my favourite bit was watching the Alpine engineers celebrating their two drivers take the podium behind Verstappen. What a treat for the team and their fans. If they hold their new position in the constructor’s championship, it will mean an additional $50 million in funding for the team for 2025 – sacré bleu!
Aiden – The red flag just before half distance not only helped Verstappen, it also played into the grateful hands of Alpine drivers Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly. They hadn’t pitted for new tyres, but the current rules state that they can change their tyres under a red flag, before the restart, which saved them considerable time as they didn’t have to do a conventional pit stop. Both drove beautifully to take advantage of the situation, with Ocon finishing second and Gasly third. The massive haul of points (33) catapulted them up three places to sixth in the constructors’ championship with three weekends to go. Sky Sports pundit Karun Chandhok estimated that improvement could be worth US$50 million if they can hold onto sixth. Wow.
Graeme – So many! It’s the Red Flag in the race for me. Many teams were looking at the weather and pitting for tyres and just as Norris and Russell pitted, another crash happened and the race was red flagged destroying their races. The big winners were the top 3 finishers of Verstappen and the two Alpines of Ocon and Pierre Gasly. Alpine supporters (are there any here?) must be stoked with the increase of their end of season payday now.
Hot take of the weekend
Gavin – Oliver Bearman stepped into the Haas this weekend to deputise for a sick Kevin Magnusson. In his two previous races, one for Ferrari and the other for Haas, he was assured and confident and looked the real deal, and in the Friday session he was looking the part once again. The rain in Brazil however, had other plans for young Oliver in his first wet race. What a miserable weekend he endured. Spinning around, tangling with other drivers. His immediate future may be sorted but this will have been a bit of a reality check for the rookie.
Chelsea – The topic of teams being allowed to change tyres under a red flag has been debated since the weekend. At Sao Paulo, several drivers cautiously pitted, including Lando Norris – only for Max Verstappen and others to stay out. Shortly after, Franco Colapinto’s race was over and the red flags were waved, giving all drivers the opportunity to change tyres. Is it fair? Maybe not, but it is equal parts strategy and luck, and that’s how it should stay.
Aiden – There are plenty of rumblings that the rule allowing drivers to change tyres under a red flag needs to be addressed as it’s unfair – but I reckon keep things the way they are. There’s plenty of luck involved in all sports and this is another example. Let the dice roll as they may and very once in a while the less competitive cars will get a lucky break and mix things up a bit. I’m all for that.
Graeme – I feel for the Williams team. They had both cars crash in Qualifying and with 2 rebuilds to undertake, they had to admit that Alex Albons car wasn’t going to be ready come race time and he sat out. Franco Colapinto started in his rebuilt car and then he went and stacked it again, that’s twice in a matter of hours. For one of the teams at the wrong end of the grid to have to rebuild 3 cars in one day, you’ve got to feel for them. Fingers crossed the rest of their season is drama free. Did Colapinto crash his way out of a possible drive in 2025 in São Paulo?
Cold take of the weekend
Gavin – The challenge is over for Lando Norris. On a weekend where he needed to step up and take points off Max all he could do was rely on help from his teammate in the Sprint Race and then go from qualifying fastest to being overtaken by George Russell off the line. The rain then put paid to his challenge as the McLaren pit stops did not work out for him. And once again the petulance came to the fore as Lando bleated on about “luck”, funnily enough he didn’t mention that same “luck” that saw Max knocked out in Qualifying. He really needs to mature if he wants to be a World Champion.
Chelsea – Nico Hulkenberg received F1’s first black flag in 17 years after he left the track and received assistance from the marshals to rejoin the race. It’s a pretty clear (and obvious) rule that vehicles can’t receive outside assistance, so what happened? Were the marshals ignorant, or was Hulk trying his luck? Either way, he appeared nonplussed when disqualified, so he clearly saw it coming. Just another oddity in a weekend of oddities.
Aiden – Sorry Lando, the driver’s championship is done, and love him or loathe him, Max deserves it. I think there is a world title in Lando’s future, but there’s still plenty of little things for him to work on to reach the summit. He seems to be the sort of person who knows that and will work even harder in the off season to make 2025 his year.
Graeme – At least the Drivers Championship looks sorted now barring a miracle. Now we can stop hearing about what Lando Norris needs to do to win it. People, McLaren butchered that months ago.
Bonus Pictures of the Week
I am surprised Alpine could remember how to celebrate something in F1.
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