Heroics Into Saint Devote

Well that was a weekend to remember! For the first time in 15 years, we’re leaving a Grand Prix weekend with an Australian driver leading the World Driver’s Championship. In only his third year, Piastri has come up with 3 Grand Prix wins, bringing his total level with Mclaren team-mate, and much more experienced driver, Lando Norris, at 5 wins a piece. But it was far from a crushing victory like it was in Sakhir for the Bahrain Grand Prix. Piastri won, only by 2.8 seconds at the chequered flag from reigning World Champion Max Verstappen, after Verstappen was handed a controversial 5 second time-penalty in the early stages of the race. Completing the podium finishers in 3rd was Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. Leclerc exhibited great pace on his long first stint on the C4 Medium compound tyre, and successfully held off the recovering Lando Norris, who had to settle for 4th. It was by no means distant though, Lando got himself within a second of Leclerc by the flag, and had he had one more lap, I’m sure he would’ve got Leclerc. A further 18 seconds back and we reach the Mercedes of George Russell who dramatically lost pace toward the end of the race. He was very worried about the state of his front-left tyre, though the team encouraged him by saying they had no concerns. 7.4 behind him was teammate and rookie sensation Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who’s really excelling this year in the W16. Behind him was the driver he replaced, Lewis Hamilton. Hamilton struggled to find a balance with his SF-25, finishing around 30 seconds behind his Scuderia Ferrari teammate. 8th and 9th went to the Williams pair of Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon. Williams had a really good race, with a little DRS team work to lock in the double-points finish for the Grove-based outfit. Completing the points finishers was in-form Isack Hadjar, only half a second behind Albon’s Williams.

In 11th came Fernando Alonso in the lackluster AMR25, almost 9 seconds off a points finish behind Hadjar. 12th went the way of Liam Lawson. More of him later. Just behind him was Oliver Bearman in the Haas, who’s also been rather impressive of late, disregarding his Australia weekend. 20 seconds behind him was Haas teammate Esteban Ocon, with Nico Hulkenberg of Sauber 6 seconds in tow. Just behind Nico came Lance Stroll. Who infamously became the driver with the most Q1-Exits since the format’s introduction in 2006. Behind Lance came the highest-placing Alpine of Jack Doohan, and despite Gasly’s early sign of pace in the weekend, it seems it was more of a glory run than true pace. But after a drag-race out of turn 27, Bortoleto missed out by 0.042 of a second. Both Tsunoda and Gasly recorded their first DNFs of the season after a racing incident on Lap 1 at Turn 4. Clumsy, but a racing incident nonetheless. So. Let’s review the race shall we? Chronologically sounds good to me.

Lights out! Piastri got an absolute rocket launch compared to the Red Bull of Verstappen. They both barreled into turn 1, with Piastri getting the better of Verstappen. And we were milliseconds from the controversial incident. Piastri, while he got to the apex of turn 1 first, ran deep out of the corner. Verstappen, who was bravely trying to hang it around the outside of Piastri, had to dive for the run-off and took the position from Piastri, despite going off the circuit. Let’s analyse this incident shall we?

Verstappen’s Onboard at the time of the incident seems to clearly show Verstappen ahead at the Apex of turn 1, depending on where you define the apex. When reading the FIA’s document on the incident, they state: “The Stewards reviewed positioning/marshalling system data, video, timing, telemetry and in-car video evidence and determined that car 81 had its front axle at least alongside the mirror of Car 1 prior to and at the apex of corner 1 when trying to overtake Car 1 on the inside. In fact, Car 81 was alongside Car 1 at the apex.” Which is true. But they go on to say that based on the Driver’s Standards guidelines, it ‘was car 81’s corner and is entitled to space’. And this is where my first issue really comes up. Verstappen was handed a 5 second time penalty for breach of article 33.3 of the sporting regulations which reads as follows; “33.3 – Drivers must make every reasonable effort to use the track at all times and may not leave the track without a justifiable reason.” Though, credit to the FIA, they deemed the usual 10-second time penalty would be too harsh for a lap 1 incident, and only awarded a 5-second.

Now I wouldn’t pretend to be an expert, or a steward for that matter. I imagine they’re all level-headed, well trained, consistent, competent, entirely diplomatic in their decisions and never allow their personal biases to get in the way of their job. However, I have an issue with how they’ve handled this incident. See, it states the driver “may not leave the track without justifiable reason”. Is a Mclaren-shaped wall pushing you wide not a justifiable reason? Looking at Piastri’s onboard, he himself barely remained on the track, let alone leaving racing room for Verstappen behind. Had Piastri slowed down more and allowed space for Verstappen to go side-by-side, I would have no issue with the penalty, but because that’s not the case, I really take issue with it.

The snapshot of the onboard from Piastri above shows the majority of his car being off the circuit whilst his two left tyres remain on the white line. To the letter of the rules as they stand, Piastri has ‘done no wrong’. He’s remained ‘on the circuit’, regardless of the space he has not left for Verstappen. However, some further research later and I have discovered that cars on the inside are no longer obliged to leave space on the exit of the corner, should they be attacking. In Lusail, Qatar last year, drivers met with the FIA stewards to discuss the rules. Director George Russell was advocating for the rules to be changed. In an interview with racingnews365.com, he stated “Currently, the rule states that the driver on the inside must leave space for the driver on the outside, but this part will be scrapped. Just like in karting, if you’re on the inside and stay within the track limits, the driver on the outside cannot complain. The driver on the inside has the right to the racing line.” Thus meaning, any car who sends one down the inside and makes the apex before the car defending can shove them off the track with no repercussions. There issue I have has been seen time and time again. Whilst it is not illegal to the letter of the regulations, it’s not the spirit of racing. Drivers can simply lift off the brakes, get to the apex first and push the other car off-track. This is wrong. This is not how we should go racing. This is not how any series should go racing.

So now I turn my attention to Touring Car Racing in the UK. Their standards on overtaking are clearly laid out as follows: “The onus is on the overtaking car to pass safely – the driver should not expect the vehicle in front to give way if the car attempting to overtake has not gained (without contact and whilst under control) sufficient overlap. Sufficient overlap will usually be deemed to be that the vehicle attempting to overtake is at least 50% alongside the car being overtaken. If the two cars are overlapped, or side by side when entering a corner, each competitor must give racing room so both can take the corner without contact. The overtaking vehicle must be completely clear of the overtaken car before attempting to move back in front.”

In short, this means any cars involved in an overtake MUST give eachother space, regardless of who is ahead at the apex. This is how racing should be. BUT. I digress. Back to the Grand Prix.

Also on lap one, came an incident between the Red Bull of Yuki Tsunoda and the Alpine of Pierre Gasly. Barreling into Turn 4, Tsunoda held the inside line, and was a nose ahead of Gasly. Pierre then went audacious and hopeful on the brakes and attempted to float around the outside of Tsunoda. And credit where credit is due, they almost made it. But in getting on the power after the apex, Tsunoda understeered a little wider than he would’ve ideally wanted, and thus his front right made contact with the rear left of Pierre Gasly’s car. Gasly came off worse after the incident, with the rear-right, as well as the rear wing of his car being demolished by the concrete barrier.

Tsunoda survived the initial impact with what appeared to be a minor scrape at the rear of his car. And the Japanese driver limped back to the pitlane, though the Red Bull mechanics deemed the damage to his car to be irreparably damaged and could not continue the race. Both drivers recorded their first DNFs of the season respectively, in a clumsy lap 1 incident. In a meeting with the stewards on the incident, it’s reported that both parties, Yuki and Pierre, agreed it was nothing more than a Lap 1 racing incident, and should only be viewed as such. The stewards agreed with the diagnoses of the two drivers and no further action was taken against either car. Though this incident brought out the safety-car, maintaining the Jeddah Corniche Circuit’s record of having at least one safety-car intervention on every visit we’ve had since the circuit’s inaugural Grand Prix in the devastating 2021 season.

Under the guidance of the Aston Martin Vantage, adorned in it’s gorgeous British racing green and bright orange lights, the drivers were allowed a moment of rest-bite as the marshals worked efficiently to remove the wounded Alpine from the racetrack. Though under the helmets, both Verstappen and Piastri we’re fighting their case on the Turn 1 incident. Max was pictures saying “he [PIA] pushed me off, no intention to make the corner.” But in the MCL39, the ever-calm Oscar Piastri was stating “he [VER] needs to give that back, I was ahead.” Regardless of the driver’s and teams views though, Verstappen was ultimately handed a 5 second penalty. With the exception of Tsunoda, who boxed to retire the car, Doohan, Ocon and Bortoleto also pitted under the safety car and swapped their mediums for hards in a bid to undercut the entire grid. Everybody else, with the exception of Norris in 8th, Hadjar in 11th, Stroll and Hulkenberg in 14th and 15th respectively, all of the grid we’re on the medium tyre, going for a one-stop strategy.

The safety-car’s intervention also gave viewers a moment to relax and take note of their favourite driver’s current position on-track. Lando Norris made a decent start and climbed up from 10th to 8th, Albon from 11th to 9th, with teammate a car-but-one ahead in 7th. Hadjar also made gains from 14th, and now ran 11th in the queue. As soon as the safety car came in, Verstappen was already stretching his advantage with a good restart, pulling a few tenths shy of a second of Piastri. But as soon as he crossed the line, we were notified of the penalty he was awarded. Verstappen was also notified by race engineer Gianpierro Lambiase. Who’s quoted as saying “information. You have been given a 5 second time penalty for the incident at turn 1. Head down.” When Max responded with “well that is **** lovely”, he was cut off by his engineer who said “no comment, thank you.” This is great engineer work from Lambiase, who was attempting to keep Max calm at the helm of his rejuvenated RB21. But soon, Max’s frustrations were rising again when he was informed that he “had 1 strike for track limits for the incident at turn 1.” Verstappen protested by saying “I thought they didn’t count? We discussed it in the briefing.” It is not yet clear whether this was the FIA determining that his track limits infringement stood, or just the Red Bull garage counting it as a matter of safety from further infringements and penalties. Down the grid though, Lando Norris was slowly carving his way through the pack with a well-executed move on the Williams of Carlos Sainz. And that was the status quo for a few laps, but Russell was being dropped at a rate of knots by the two Championship protagonists at the front. By lap 7, George was 2 seconds behind Piastri, but running in a podium position nonetheless.

It was around now we began noticing where drivers were stronger or weaker compared to others. For example, it was clear Verstappen was much stronger in the first sector of the track, consistently extending his gap by 2-4 tenths through the first sector alone. However, Piastri was able to claw 2-3 tenths of that advantage back through the second and third sector, either implying the Red Bull car was set up with more downforce, or the MCL39 is a cruise missile in a straight line. Lap 12 and Norris is tucked up behind 7-time-World Champion Lewis Hamilton, as he “struggled to gel with the Prancing Horse under his control. The compatriots shared a thrilling battle on the track, with the pair exchanging positions three times before Norris made it stick. Norris overtook Hamilton into turn 27, though Hamilton was playing DRS games, and easily blew by Norris into turn 1 right after. This happened twice before Norris was told “strat 8, play the game” by race engineer Will Joseph. Norris then stayed behind Hamilton trhough Turn 27, and blew by him down the pit-straight, thus completing the move.

Lap 16, and the leading pair were 6 seconds ahead of the W16 of Russell, and stretching further by the lap. Norris however, was right up behind the teammate of Russell, Kimi Antonelli, looking to claim 5th place as his own. Lap 18 saw the first green-flag pitstops for hard-charging Oliver Bearman, who swapped his Mediums for a set of the Hard tyres, which set the trend for everybody else. Piastri was next, boxing at the end of lap 19. Though the usually-flawless Mclaren crew had a slightly slower stop than they would’ve wanted, servicing the 81 car in 3.4 seconds, and sending him out on those shiny new hard compound tyres and after the RB21 of VER. But in the cockpit of the RB21, Verstappen was being coached by his race engineer, saying things like “Push, Max, push” and “Everything you have now, Max.” We haven’t seen Verstappen being coached like this for a few years, especially considering the dominance that was 2023. Verstappen pitted lap 21, and had a slight tyre offset to Piastri, with his Hard compound Pirelli P-Zeros being 2 laps younger than those on the MCL39.

Russell was also considering his strategy calls in his Mercedes, telling the team to “consider plan B, see how far these tyres go.” Meanwhile, Verstappen was overtaking ex-teammate of Russell, Lewis Hamilton around the outside of turn 27, releasing himself after Piastri. At that point, the gap stood at 3.7 seconds. Though Piastri was pushing on, and pushing hard, setting the fastest lap twice in a row, extending his gap to 4.5 seconds at the mid-way point in this grand prix. Down the order however, Alonso had a close shave with the Sauber rookie of Gabriel Bortoleto and the concrete wall on the outside, on the entry into turn 1. Bortoleto attempted to rejoin the racing line after attempting to defend his position from Lawson into turn 1. Alonso stayed on his line behind, but the gap he was going into was rapidly closing when Bortoleto unpredictably moved back toward the racing line, almost pinching the Spaniard between his Sauber and the wall. Bortoleto was handed a black and white flag for driving standards after the incident.

Back at the front, ahead of the Mclaren pair of Norris and Piastri came Charles Leclerc, who was extending his stint lap by lap. One might guess he was hanging for a Safety Car, which would’ve put him in the box seat for a race win, though sadly for the Scuderia, nothing came of it, and Leclerc peeled into the pitlane at the end of lap 29, releasing Norris. Though even with this clean air, Piastri was gaining on his British Teammate. By lap 32, Piastri was only 2.8 seconds behind Norris, and Verstappen a further 4.7 behind Piastri. Oscar was informed by his engineer, Tom Stallard, that Norris was extending “target plus 4”. When Lando did eventually box on lap 34, surrendering the race lead to Piastri, Oscar didn’t look back from there, and slwoly and methodically worked his way around the circuit traffic for the remaining 16 laps. Russell re-inherited his trademark P3, but by lap 37, he was coming under fire from the charging Leclerc, who inevitably overtook Russell and claimed P3. Four different constructors in the top 4 positions of this race as things stand. But Russell began to struggle. Beyond this point, he was becoming increasingly worries about his tyres. He radioed his team and told them he could “see a band opening up on the shoulder of his front left” though this was met with “we have no tyre concerns” from his team. Norris got by his compatriot and secured what looked to be a 4th place finish if he couldn’t do anything about the Ferrari 4 seconds up the road.

Around now, Norris was bizarrely noted for a pit-lane infringement. When he entered the pitlane, the British driver went outside the white lines in the chicane on the pit entry in an attempt to slow his car down enough to not exceed the pitlane speed limit of 80 kilometres an hour, around 50 miles per hour for us normals. Though nothing came of these infractions. Lap 42, and Norris was really beginning to close in on Leclerc ahead, with the gap dipping under 4 seconds. Verstappen was also pushing on and beginning to close in on Piastri, with no threat from the Ferrari behind, who ran over 6 seconds in tow. By lap 47, the gap was down to 3 seconds, and despite Verstappen’s best efforts, there would not be enough laps left to mount a charge this late on. Aside from an uncharacteristic mistake from Piastri, he was locked into second. But just behind, Norris was now under 2 seconds behind the Prancing Horse, and getting visibly closer every corner. Though, like Verstappen, there simply wasn’t enough laps left for Norris to mount a challenge for the final podium place, forcing his hand and making him settle for a P4 finish. At the line however, he was on the cusp of the DRS advantage, and maybe one more lap and Norris would’ve got Leclerc.

After the race, a fortune’s-worth of fireworks were set off in celebration of Piastri’s commanding victory, his third of the season. But for Verstappen, there were no celebrations. Whilst cooling off and removing his HANS-device and helmet, Max was approached by FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem. Fans had to speculate what was said to who, but it appeared Max was visibly frustrated, with his body language saying more than his words. Fans speculate that the FIA President was telling Verstappen not to speak on the penalty he was awarded. Now time for my opinions to get in the way of things. Mohammed Ben Sulayem is a mildly controversial figure within the F1 paddock. Since Singapore in 2024, he has been heavily disliked by fans and teams alike, especially since his inception of the “kerb swearing” initiative he started. He was criticised by Lewis Hamilton for being “stereotypical” in his justification for the no swearing rule. Mohammed stated that he didn’t want F1 drivers to speak like “rappers”. Ben Sulayem said: “We’re not rappers, you know. They say the f-word how many times per minute? We are not on that. That’s them and we are us.” This came under fire from Hamilton as he said that Ben Sulayem used stereotypes and racially-charged language to justify his cause. Hamilton said: “Saying ‘rappers’ is very stereotypical. If you think about it, most rappers are black. So when it says: ‘We are not like them’, those are the wrong choice of words. There is a racial element there.” Since this, the FIA has not responded to a request for a comment, as per BBC Sport.

But in telling Verstappen he cannot express his frustration with the poorly-written rules of the sporting regulations, Mohammed is attempting to dictate what drivers can and cannot say, especially when it may involve criticising the FIA as an organisation, or him as the President of such. This is wrong. The drivers should be allowed to express their feelings on the race, incidents, penalties or anything else that affects them or the sport without the fear of being slapped with sporting penalties, fines or worse, race bans. The way I view it is this. Think of the 2021 season. How it came down to a ‘winner takes all’ scenario in the final race. Now imagine if either Verstappen or Hamtilon had been given a race ban earlier in the season and that affected their shot at a Driver’s World Championship. It doesn’t seem right does it? And with the recent resignation of Ben Sulayem’s right-hand man in Robert Reid, it leaves more questions than answers. More info on Robert Reid’s resignation can be found in my Bahrain grand Prix Weekend Preview post.

But now we look ahead. As the F1 travelling circus packs up in Saudi, we move on to Miami in two weeks time. What does the script have in store for us there? Can Piastri pick up where he leaves off this weekend and extend his championship lead? Does Verstappen or Norris have an answer for him? Will we see another team enter the fight? What about Ferrari? Mercedes Even? All that and more will become clear in a fortnight’s time after the conclusion of the Miami Grand Prix. Goodnight Race fans.