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Mercedes endure Brazilian Grand Prix nightmare as Max Verstappen wins again
Just when you thought Mercedes might be getting their act together. An absolute horror show of a weekend for the Brackley team ended with Lewis Hamilton admitting Red Bull were so far ahead they were likely to remain unbeatable for at least the duration of his new two-year contract.
Toto Wolff, the Mercedes team principal, meanwhile, was if anything even more despondent. The Austrian described the weekend bluntly as Mercedes’ “worst for 13 years”, even comparing the maddeningly inconsistent W14 to a three-wheeler at one point.
Wolff did not specify Del Boy’s Reliant Regal but Hamilton and team-mate George Russell must have felt like fools during Sunday’s Brazilian Grand Prix. Hamilton finished a distant eighth, over a minute down on the day’s winner, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who cruised to his 17th victory in 20 races this season. Russell did not even finish, retiring from 11th place due to overheating oil in his power unit. “Inexcusable,” Wolff said.
It was all a far cry from the optimism that accompanied the team during the first two legs of this marathon triple-header in Austin and Mexico. Hamilton finished second in both of those races, although he was later disqualified in Austin due to excessive plank wear. And it was again the new upgraded floor of the car which was the main talking point after this race.
Hamilton described it as the biggest improvement he had felt in the car in the ground effects era when he drove it in Austin two weekends ago. Here, it was a complete disaster. Mercedes had to run the car with too much wing, meaning it was “draggy” on the straights, to use Hamilton’s description, and unstable through corners.
Wolff apologised to his drivers. “Lewis survived out there,” he reflected of a race in which Hamilton briefly held second spot before plummeting down the field. “I can only feel for the two driving. It is a miserable thing. The car is on a knife edge and we have to develop it better for next year because it can’t be in seven days where you have one of the quickest cars and you are nowhere and finish eighth. The car almost drove like it was on three wheels and not on four.”
The race itself started in chaotic fashion, and that was just Martin Brundle’s gridwalk which saw him abort a bizarre interview with rapper Machine Gun Kelly.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc crashed on the warm-up lap, his hydraulics failing. And when the race did get going it only lasted a few seconds before mayhem broke out, with Alex Albon tagged by the Haas of Nico Hulkenberg, which sent him flying into the second Haas of Kevin Magnussen, taking both cars out of the race and sending debris flying. AlphaTauri’s Daniel Ricciardo was nearly decapitated by a loose bouncing tyre. The Australian admitted afterwards that he was thankful to be unhurt.
“It [the tyre] was coming at me like a Frisbee through the air. I remember ducking my head. I didn’t feel anything hit me, but I checked my mirrors and saw my rear wing was pretty much off.”
At the front, Verstappen had successfully held on to the lead from McLaren’s Lando Norris. And after a safety car, followed by a red flag period while they cleared up the debris and mended the barriers, he did the same again at the restart. Norris nearly made it past him on lap 8 but there was always the feeling that Verstappen was toying with him, goading him into shredding his tyres in a futile attempt to pass. Norris eventually backed off and settled into a rhythm, comfortable taking second place at eight seconds. Fernando Alonso in the Aston Martin took a magnificent third in what must have been one of the closest finishes F1 has ever known, by just 0.05sec from Red Bull’s Sergio Perez.
Behind them, Lance Stroll (Aston Martin), Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) and even Pierre Gasly (Alpine) all comfortably passed Hamilton before the finish. “It is a setback,” admitted the 38-year-old. “But as a team we will just come together and try to push forward. There will be a lot of analysis after today to ensure that we learn lessons.”
They will not have long to crunch the data. The next race is coming up fast, in Las Vegas in less than a fortnight’s time. Hamilton said for all he knew the W14 could be back to its best in Sin City, but he was not betting on it. “You never know with this car,” he concluded. “Ultimately all I can do is try to remain optimistic. But the Red Bull is so far away, they’re probably going to be very clear for the next couple of years.”
Max Verstappen wins Brazilian Grand Prix: As it happened . . .
Miserable day for Russell
“Clearly we got something wrong this weekend, still we’re not too sure what that is as yet, but the pace just hadn’t been there. We thought yesterday may have been a one off, but clearly it wasn’t, so we need to regroup and try to understand it.
“12 months ago this was our strongest race of the year, 12 months later it’s by far our weakest race of the year, so very strange. The car was just slow this weekend. The tyres were sliding around and I think what we were doing was the maximum. Something doesn’t quite add up, you just don’t suddenly lose a second’s worth of performance and go from a podium fighting car to just fighting for points.
“We really need to sit down and understand, but clearly a massive one off this week.”
The rest, including six DNF's
11. Logan Sargeant (Williams)
12. Nico Hulkenberg (Haas)
13. Daniel Ricciardo (Alpha Tauri)
14. Oscar Piastri (McLaren)
DNF. George Russell (Mercedes)
DNF. Valtteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo)
DNF. Zhou Guanyu (Alfa Romeo)
DNF. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)
DNF. Kevin Magnussen (Haas)
DNF. Alex Albon (Aston Martin)
Fraught radio message at Mercedes
Engineer: “George, we need more management. Turn 11, on throttle.”
George Russell: “Do you want me to race or concede positions? With more management I will go backwards.”
Engineer: “We do need to make sure these tyres make it through the stint. We do want to race but we want to make it through the stint.”
Will Piastri and Ricciardo take the restart?
This is from the FIA:
“Any cars that were worked on in their garage during red flag period would be permitted to leave the pits with the field, but instead of going to the grid must return to, and take the restart from, the pit lane.”
Which means if Oscar Piastri and Daniel Ricciardo can take the restart, they will start from the pit lane. It looks like with this delay both drives will be able to continue in this race, which would not have been possible without the red flag.
Ted Kravitz on Sky Sports; problems for Gasly and Russell?
“During the national anthem, this sidepod of Pierre Gasly’s car was all the way off and they were ferreting around the radiators. A little fixing came loose, so only now have they managed to put that sidepod on and get Gasly ready to race.
“On George’s car, there was a problem front-right brake. It over-heated, they saw it on the laps to the grid and they had to change some sensors to make sure his brakes will be alright for the race.”
Ferrari team boss Fred Vasseur on Sky Sports
“With the regulations were allowed to change configuration [on cooling] and I think we are on the safe side for today.
“The most important is to have clean air and a proper stint. Yesterday we were fighting more in the field and you damage your tyres.
“I hope with Charles it will be a bit more clear.”
Weirdness of the gridwalk
We have just been blessed by an interview between Martin Brundle and Machine Gun Kelly, which was interesting to say the least. Martin refused to do air piano whilst Machine did air guitar. Not sure that will go down as one of the most enthralling interviews of all time! Bless Martin, he tried his best!
Brazilian footballer Marta speaking to Sky Sports
On the grid Sky Sports’ Martin Brundle has just been speaking to Brazilian great Marta:
“For me it’s a huge pleasure to be here and wave the chequered flag.
“When you are here, in a place like this, you just think about Senna because he was the big icon here in Brazil. He still is, he’s big forever.”
Sky Sports' Martin Brundle
Lewis Hamilton has got the better this season of his teammate George Russell and Martin Brundle has been talking about Russell’s rough run:
“He’s up against one of the greatest of all time, and many people will say Lewis Hamilton is the greatest of all time.
“But he’s had a bit of a rough run, and sometimes if your chin drops a bit and if it’s not running with you, you tend to be a little bit tight in the car, or you just get unlucky.
“I think George has been through one of those patches where he’s made a couple of mistakes, a couple of errors of judgement, but he’s got all the speed, all the confidence and all the talent he needs to be in the business for a very long time.”
Lando Norris speaking to Sky Sports
McLaren’s Lando Norris starts sixth for today’s race after he along with his teammate were caught out by conditions in Q3 on Friday. He started yesterday’s sprint on pole and finishes second, showing very good pace. After a disappointing qualifying for today, Norris is confident that the pace is in the car, shown by yesterday’s display:
Verstappen wins sprint
The sprint race yesterday was won by Max Verstappen. He overtook McLaren’s Lando Norris, who started on pole for the sprint, into turn one and finished around four second clear of Norris. Verstappen’s teammate, Sergio Perez, finished third.
Verstappen spoke about the challenges of tyre management in the sprint.
“Initial getaway wasn’t that fantastic but the second bit was very strong and I could get alongside. Twenty-four laps around here is all about tyre management. Just incredibly difficult around here. Last year we were struggling with that already in the sprint and that’s why I was a bit careful.”
Norris also spoke about the hurdles of the sprint but was content with the pace of his car.
“It’s a tough circuit. You don’t feel like you can push anywhere. You do two laps and then you have no grip. You’re managing, you have one little wheelspin and it costs you 0.2-0.3secs.
“But it’s a positive race. We weren’t expecting to be anywhere close to the Red Bulls here. Today we were good compared to everyone except Max.”
Race preview
Max Verstappen will start today’s Brazilian Grand Prix at Interlagos on pole. In qualifying for today’s race on Friday, Verstappen and Red Bull got the strategy call correct as they made sure they were out early before the heavens opened towards the end of Q3.
Verstappen spoke after qualifying about the challenges of the whole qualifying sessions, especially with a storm on its way.
“The gaps were very small between everyone. Q1, Q2, you could see everyone was using a lot of tyre sets. It made it quite interesting.
“We lined up for Q3 and you could see the sky was just black. I was like: ‘Well, if that rain hits, it is going to be a lot.’
“We went for the lap. The first sector felt all right and the rest felt shocking. The rain was coming in. It was not hitting the track yet but the wind increased a lot and changed direction to a tailwind in the middle sector.
“I was shouting on the radio saying: ‘What the hell happened?’ We were nowhere, but the team said everyone was struggling. I have never seen such an influence on car balance.”
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc will start on the front row alongside Verstappen. The Aston Martin duo of Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso start third and fourth respectively.
Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton starts fifth but his teammate George Russell will start eighth instead of sixth after receiving a two-place grid penalty for impeding Alpine’s Pierre Gasly in the pitlane. Gasly himself as well as teammate Esteban Ocon also received penalties for the same offence.
McLaren were caught out by the conditions, with Lando Norris only qualifying seventh, which has become sixth after Russell’s penalty, and Oscar Piastri tenth, who spun at Junção, which caused major issues for Red Bull’s Sergio Perez who had to slow down under yellow flag conditions and starts ninth today.