The Mexicans certainly know how to put on a show, the stadium zone pre-race was as atmospheric as anything I’ve experienced in Formula 1.
I really enjoyed racing both F1 and Sportscars there in the 80s and 90s, even if the road traffic and air quality can take the shine off the experience. The racing can be a little tame if teams and drivers must heavily manage car and tyre temperatures in the high altitude, but this year’s race was dramatic.
Carlos Sainz was the star of the show in both qualifying and the race, navigating his Ferrari from a fine pole position to a largely untroubled victory. It’s understandably bittersweet for the departing Spaniard as he’s now just four races and two Sprints away from handing his car over to Lewis Hamilton. Actually, more bitter than sweet I suspect.
The race created an intriguing twist in both the drivers’ and constructors’ title battles. After Austin the weekend before, the driving combat guidelines, driver behaviour and in-race penalties saga raged on in the days leading up to the race, and then significantly escalated on Sunday.
The spectacle of both championships being on course to go down to the wire, with a closely packed field performance-wise – along with bulletproof cars which will tolerate a fair whack both wheel and suspension-wise, added to superb safety protection for the drivers and sympathetic run-off zones – means constant and fiercely fought track position throughout the field is the new normal.
The rules of engagement are melded together from the International Sporting Code, The F1 Sporting Regulations, the race director’s supplemental notes from any given event, and the F1 Driving Standards Guidelines I majored on in last week’s column. Most incidents or crashes will have unique aspects, and as with any sport there will have to be a referee’s interpretation and opinion.
The multi-billion dollar world of F1, unlike most global sports, surprisingly does not have a professional body of ‘referees’ duly trained and rewarded. We have a variable group of stewards throughout the season, slimmed down in more recent years but always including a former driver, at each race. They are unpaid volunteers on expenses only and overall, they do a fine job.
It’s a role I wouldn’t want for all the coffee in Brazil, given the pressure they receive from teams and drivers, especially on race radio calls and post-race interviews, and the poison delivered on social media where they are accused of bias, almost always by fans with a heavy bias themselves.
‘Verstappen could have received more severe penalty’
They were certainly busy in the race, and both Red Bull drivers were on the receiving end. Sergio Perez was a relatively long way forward of his starting grid box and took a five-second penalty, which was indisputable. His otherwise excellent start and run down to the first corner was wasted.
Max Verstappen took two 10-second penalties within four corners, and with decisions that clearly indicated a new firmness from the stewards, which is welcome. The first was in Turn Four against championship rival Lando Norris who was passing around the outside. Norris was deemed to be ahead at the entry, apex and exit and so was entitled to racing room rather than being shoved off. It could have been a five or 10-second penalty but it was deemed that there were no mitigating circumstances and so he got the standard 10 seconds.
Norris went across the grass, bizarrely taking the lead from Sainz but of course immediately handing that back into Turn Six. Then shortly afterwards in Turn Eight, unquestionably not a usual overtaking place, Verstappen, presumably feeling that Norris had passed him off the track, simply threw his car up the inside of the McLaren.
He must have known this could have instantly taken them both out of the race but Norris was ready for it. It was another 10-second penalty for leaving the track and gaining a lasting advantage, but frankly it could easily have warranted a pit lane drive-through for dangerous driving.
It was quite a shocking move which took them both way off the track and allowed Charles Leclerc through for a Ferrari one-two at that time. That delay for Norris, and subsequently having to follow Verstappen until the Dutchman pitted on lap 26, possibly cost him victory given his pace in the final stages of the race.
I know that Max doesn’t care what anybody thinks, but it saddens me when he drives like that. He’s a multiple champion, has more driving talent in his little finger than most of us ever had, but his legacy will be tainted by this sporting attitude and that’s a shame.
‘Lawson and Colapinto will learn the hard way after collisions’
Norris would go on to pass Leclerc, who mentioned that having missed the first free practice due to the rules obliging teams to run a rookie in each seat once per year, and the second practice being largely taken over for Pirelli tyre testing, that he was playing catch up for the rest of the event.
Out front Sainz was serene, and he won by 4.7 seconds, as Ferrari passed Red Bull for second in the Constructors’ Championship and moved ever closer to current leaders McLaren.
Fourth and fifth were the duelling Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell having quite the battle between themselves, albeit eventually three-quarters of a minute behind the winner. It was hard racing but fair and clean, and Mercedes were in no mood to ask their next team leader Russell to yield to the departing Hamilton.
Verstappen would work through his 20-second penalty to finish sixth, meaning that he lost 10 points to Norris. More worryingly for Red Bull, they lacked race pace once again.
Oscar Piastri, from a largely self-inflicted 17th on the grid had a solid race in his McLaren to move up to eighth place, sandwiched between the two remarkable Haas cars of Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg. Haas, under the guiding hand of Ayao Komatsu, have taken over the mantle of the old Force India team (now Aston Martin) for making every pound count with positive upgrades. Impressive.
Liam Lawson and home hero Sergio Perez had a fierce battle which eventually damaged the floor and sidepod of Perez’s car, the very car which Lawson hopes to be driving sooner rather than later. It was deemed a racing incident, although I thought Lawson moved over rather too much in the Turn Four braking zone, and the next two corners were all rather clumsy between them.
I do admire how much confidence the likes of Lawson and fellow newcomer Franco Colapinto have, even if they both ended up clashing in the closing stages, with Colapinto penalised.
As we all did, they will learn the hard way that you can’t throw heavy and powerful F1 cars on very sticky tyres around in quite the same way you can in the junior formulae.
It’s immediately onto Interlagos in Brazil for this weekend, a track which often throws up drama and surprises aplenty, and I don’t expect this year to be any different as the season builds towards a crescendo.
Sky Sports F1’s live Sao Paulo GP schedule
Thursday October 31
4pm: Drivers’ Press Conference
Friday November 1
2pm: Sao Paulo GP Practice One (session starts at 2.30pm)
4.30pm: Team Principals’ Press Conference
6pm: Sao Paulo GP Sprint Qualifying (qualifying starts at 6.30pm*)
Saturday November 2
1pm: Sao Paulo GP Sprint build-up
2pm: Sao Paulo GP Sprint
3.30pm: Ted’s Sprint Notebook
5pm: Sao Paulo Qualifying build-up
6pm: Sao Paulo GP Qualifying
8pm: Ted’s Qualifying Notebook
Sunday November 3
3.30pm: Grand Prix Sunday: Sao Paulo GP build-up
5pm: THE SAO PAULO GRAND PRIX
7pm: Chequered Flag: Sao Paulo GP reaction
8pm: Ted’s Notebook
*also live on Sky Sports Main Event
Formula 1’s Americas triple header concludes this weekend with the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, with every session live on Sky Sports F1. Stream every F1 race and more with a NOW Sports Month Membership – No contract, cancel anytime
