Heroics Into Saint Devote

Hello and welcome back to the Heroics Into Saint Devote weekly newsletter! Where we cover all the news from the big racing series’ around the world. On the agenda today are new drivers, crashes and smashes, championship hopes and teams looking to turn their fortunes around. So where shall we start?

Formula One.

In the aftermath of the Spanish Grand Prix, it became apparent that Max Verstappen was nearing a race ban, with 11 penalty points currently on his superlicense. The Dutchman was given 3 penalty points for his contact with George Russell at turn 5 in the dying laps of the race, which saw Verstappen tumble from 3rd to 10th after a 10 second penalty was awarded. Fortunately for Verstappen, two of the 11 points he had will expire on the 30th of June. Last year, he was handed 2 penalty points for causing a collision with Mclaren’s Lando Norris in Austria, which lead to Norris retiring and Russell taking the win after Max pitted with a puncture.

He then has 2 more points expiring in October, which were awarded to him in the dramatic Mexican Grand Prix in 2024, when he defended for his life against Norris, forcing both drivers off the track. Up next is a single point, which expires on the 2nd November. The World Champion was awarded a single penalty point of a Virtual Safety Car infringement in the sprint race which saw him exceed the maximum delta time on the restart in the heat of the championship fight with Norris.

With 8 of his 11 points accounted for, the ninth point comes from Qatar in 2024, in which Verstappen was penalised for driving too slowly in Q3. Briton George Russell had protested this with the stewards and, in my opinion, been overly dramatic both in media interviews and in the car. Both cars were not on hotlaps, and Russell had plenty of time to see Verstappen going slowly. But Russell did not lift, and swerved to avoid Verstappen dramatically. Either way, Verstappen was stripped of his Pole Position and handed a single penalty point and a single place grid penalty.

Verstappen’s final penalty points of 2024 came in Abu Dhabi, due to his lap 1 contact with Mclaren’s Oscar Piastri, which saw the Dutchman turn the Aussie around at turn 1 in what seemed to be an uncharacteristic and clumsy mistake from the usually-precise World Champion. That makes 11. Since then, Verstappen has kept his nose mostly clean.

With all those accounted for, it’s safe to say Verstappen has to behave himself for a few races, or he will risk a race ban, which could easily unravel his season and make challenging for his fifth world title a monumental feat. Verstappen is currently 49 points behind leader Oscar Piastri, and with Mclaren’s pace undeniable, it already looks like a challenge.

In other news, Alonso is on the board for the 2025 season. According to Reddit however, 2025 has been Fernando’s worst season since 2001, after failing to score points in the first 8 rounds of the year. But it was by no means glorious, with the Spaniard scraping by with a single point on home soil, which was doubled to two points after Verstappen was penalised.

Indycar.

Last weekend was the Motor City Grand Prix in Detroit, where Championship leader and reigning champion Alex Palou was looking to rewrite history and win the race after he won the Indy 500 for the first time since Juan Pablo Montoya, 26 years ago. But it came crashing down on the tight streets of Detroit when contact from behind from the 4, AJ Foyt racecar of David Malukas, nudged Palou straight into the wall. This incident also ends Palou’s season-long podium streak, recording no points for the first time this year.

It was Colton Herta who took the pole and controlled the early stages of the race, and Palou who started a little out of position on the fourth row. But Herta’s race began unwinded after his first stop, where Mclaren’s Nolan Seigel forced his way past on the outlap, allowing race-winner Kyle Kirkwood to also get by his Andretti Teammate. But the first Full Course Yellow came out soon after, after Meyer Shank driver Felix Rosenqvist had a spin and a nudge into the barrier at the penultimate turn. It appeared the Swede locked his rears on the bumpy street circuit before going into the barrier on the outside of turn 9 backwards. Will Power also put on a show, getting up to second and splitting the Andretti cars, before the caution flags made another appearance, with Callum Illot’s front left coming loose after a pitstop, and throwing the Briton into the wall with his Prema car.

But after this caution, it was a trio of drivers at the front who had yet to record a win in the NTT Indycar series. Lead by the 14 of Santino Ferrucci, followed by the Chip Ganassi of Kyffin Simpson and Meyer Shank of Marcus Armstrong. After the restart, Kirkwood soon passed Armstrong, but suffered wing damage when passing Simpson, but this didn’t seem to slow the Andretti car down, which went on to pass Ferrucci and went on to win the race on the 100th lap. This means Both Kirkwood and Palou are the only race winners this year, and Honda have swept every race, including Chevrolet’s home race, which saw Detroit Lions president Rod Wood give the command.

British Touring Car Championship.

Where to start with this huh? Well. I never got the time to sum-up the Snetterton weekend, so I’ll do my best now. Even after the highs of Brands Hatch Indy, WSR’s fortunes once again turned for the Snetteron 300 weekend. Practice went well for the BMW team, but qualifying on Saturday saw their weekend begin to unwind. With none of the 4 cars breaking into the top 10, it looked like it could be another tough weekend of the team. But after Sutton faced issues with his car in Qualifying, it was Dan Cammish who took the pole for NAPA, from Vertu’s Tom Ingram and teammate Dan Rowbottom. Fourth was a bit of a shock, with Mikey Doble putting his Power Maxed Racing Astra into the top 4.

Race 1 saw a good scrap at the sharp end between Ingram and Sutton, but ultimately saw Cammish win ahead of the pair. But it also saw two BMWs not be classified after Hill was t-boned into a hairpin by one of the Toyota Gazoo Racing Corollas. Aiden Moffat was DQd from the results, meaning two BMWs did not finish. Daryl DeLeon and Charles Rainford, our newest race winners were at the small end of the points in 10th and 12th respectively.

Race 2 saw Rowbottom take the win ahead of a pair of Vertu cars in Chilton and Morgan respectively, after Ingram had a shock crash-out. Sutton only finished 10th, giving Hill a chance to claw back some good points in the championship. Though this did not avail. Hill finished 11th behind Sutton, with Rainford being the best-placed BMW in 9th.

Race 3 was another shock winner in Mikey Doble, allowing BTCC to boast 8 different winners in as many races. Doble fended off Sutton well, who took second ahead of Josh Cook, who took One Motorsport’s first podium of the season, denying a hard-charging Tom Ingram from the back of the grid. And what of Jake Hill? Hill recorded his best result of the weekend in 9th, but still slipping further back in the standings, while Rainford continues to impress with another best-finish of the BMWs.

And what about this weekend? Well the ever-effervescent Touring Car Paddock heads to Thruxton, the fastest circuit in the United Kingdom. Once again, it’s WSR looking to turn their fortunes around in what’s expected to be yet another thriller weekend. But it’s a change in the Vertu stable, with Michael Crees stepping aside early and making way for the returning Senna Proctor. Proctor is a returning race-winner to the series, who has recorded two race wins in the series 143 races, as well as 2 pole positions. This change was expected from the start of the season, with the only question being when would Crees step aside?

IMSA Sports Car Racing.

IMSA was one of the support races for the NTT Indycar Series last weekend, which saw Porsche Penske being defeated for the first time this season. The number 7 of Nick Tandy and Felipe Nasr were going well for the majority of the race, leading into the dying stages, however a move from the 93 Acura of Rengervande Zande and Nick Yelloly saw the 7 fall behind both the 93, the number 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac of Filipe Alberquerque and Ricky Taylor and it’s teammate, the 6 Porsche Penske of Matthieu Jaminet and Matt Campbell. As mentioned, this is the first race of the season which saw anything other than a Porsche Penske machine on the top step of the podium, and Acura taking the spoils.

NASCAR Cup Series.

After the disappointment of the failed-double, Kyle Larson was looking to bounce back at the Nashville Superspeedway, but did not avail. It was Briscoe in the number 19 Toyota who took the Busch-Light pole, just beating out Denny Hamlin and William Byron.

But more on Larson. Larson continues to lead the regular-season standings with 3 victories. and despite Denny Hamlin taking the spoils in Nashville, Larson’s Charlotte heartbreak doesn’t seem to be much of a player in the standings yet. Larson was attempting the double last weekend, completing 1100 miles raced in one day with the Indy 500 and the Coca-Cola 600. But Larson wound up crashing out of both races, with nobody but himself to blame. Larson downshifted in turn 1 of the Indiannapolis Motor Speedway, causing him to spin out of control and collect two cars in the process. Then fast forward a few hours to Charlotte for the Coke 600, and Larson led in the early stages, but after a clip with the fall, Larson began to struggle, making multiple dives for the pits for changes to his Hendrick racecar. Then on lap 246, Larson was caught out by a wreck infront of him, leading the young American to limp his wounded Chevrolet Camaro Cup Series car back to the pitlane and into the garage. Thus was the disappointment of the day for Larson, who failed to complete both races.

I would like to once again, return to the comments made by Larson, in which he stated he was a better all-around driver than Max Vestappen. This is simply not true.And this has been shown at the weekend.

A Little Something Extra.

Formula E driver Dan Ticktum has hit back at Mercedes AMG F1 Driver George Russell, who made some scathing comments against an unnamed driver in the Formula E paddock. In the post-race interview, Russell was asked if he thought there was “any other driver in the world, other than Max, who would do that?” to which Russell responded “Not in F1. Maybe in Formula E. Maybe one British Driver in Formula E.” To which Dan Ticktum posted a video to social media, claiming it was clear Russell was talking about him. Ticktum began by saying he’d had a ‘very nice evening with his team and a few guys from Porsche in Shanghai.’ He went onto say that Russell’s comments had come to his attention via Twitter. Ticktum said “a certain driver in F1, not to name names, but his name is George Russell has made some rather choice comments about a certain Formula E driver. He hasn’t named names but it’s quite obviously pointed at me.’ Primarily, he thanked Russell for the free publicity, with the belief that any publicity is good publicity. Then went on to say ‘while what Max did today [the contact in Spain] was a little bit skeptical, to be likened to him at any point in my career is positive, if you ask me.’

Ticktum is a former Red Bull Junior driver who’s career derailed in 2015, when he deliberately crashed into a rival under a safetycar at Silverstone in F4. Ticktum was handed a 2-year ban with a year suspended after he overtook 10 cars under safetycar, only to crash into championship rival Ricky Collard. It was here he began to be known as one of the more notorious and infamous drivers.

In 2018 in Formula 3, Ticktum finished as a runner-up to Mick Schumacher in the championship. After the weekend, Ticktum took to social media to express his frustrations, claiming he felt robbed, and resorted to namecalling. He said that those who disagreed with him had ‘micropenises’ and called Schumacher fans ‘butthurt’. It was soon after this that Red Bull Racing released Ticktum from their academy.

In 2021, Ticktum was in the Williams rest and reserve position, with the hopes of one day securing a seat in the Williams f1 car alongside Nicholas Latifi. But Ticktum once again let his mouth get him into trouble, when in jest, he sang a song on livestream which had the lyrics “doobie doobie doo, Latifi is poo”. It’s cannot be understated that Ticktum really does have quality in his locker when it comes to Formula Racing, but even when applying his trade in Formula E, Ticktum has become the nemesis of his rivals for both his attitude and the way he races.

And that’s all we’ve got time for folks. As normal adult-life is calling my name, I have been acutely aware of the time and know I have a shift at work starting soon. I’ll add some pictures and get this out ASAP.

Once again, I apologise for the lack of content last week, but I hope I can get back to the near-daily content uploads. Plans for the podcast are well underway, and I’m just waiting on a bit more hardware before I can record quality content. Enjoy the relaxed weekend folks.