2024 Sāo Paulo Grand Prix - [POST RACE] discussion thread 🏁
FORMULA 1 LENOVO GRANDE PRÊMIO DE SÃO PAULO 2024
Absolute masterclass from Max. Was just leagues above everyone else.
Reminded me a bit of Miami last year where Perez thought he could fight for the championship and then Verstappen just KO'd Perez and left him limping the rest of the season.
Also greatly helped by the free pitstop.
There was a bit of luck involved but given the pace he had, he probably would have won anyway.
He also had to remain accident free while overtaking quite a few cars, in a race where there were crashes left right and centre. Sure he got lucky but he also made his own luck by driving an incident free race.
Say what you want about the guy, his attitude, or on track antics oft times, you cannot take today’s drive away from him. I’m not a fan of any of the former, but I concede, begrudgingly, today’s drive proved him to be one of the greats. The belligerent fastest laps at the end of it all were such a statement too. I can’t; I just can’t 😅
True, but he made the most of the opportunity...
Yeah flawless - well deserved
Just mighty.
I don't get the Safety Car for "teams are on the wrong tires". Some had already switched to full wets. Surely this should be up to the teams to screw up instead of relying on the organizers to save them staying out on inters.
Even if everyone was on full wets, they bring it out for visibility and hydroplaning. I think that's part of the reason no one switched to full wets. They knew if conditions got bad enough to need them, the SC would come out and there might be a red flag too.
From memory, Tsunoda, Lawson, Hulk, Perez, Zhou, and I think there was 1 more. Their strategy was paying off with lap times 3s faster and that was just getting started. Sad to seen a great strategic choice like this turn to shit because teams know the race director will be overly cautious and protect teams from having to make risky strategy calls.
At least four cars had switched to full wets at the time.
How do you even fix that? At this point driving on the wrong tyre is an optimal strategy. Either:
Also I'm not fooled by drivers moaning about how wets suck and have no grip; as long as inters are even 0.1 a lap faster than wets, everyone will want to run inters. I don't think there's place for two wet weather compounds since everyone will pick the 'faster' one regardles of weather.
Still cannot figure out why Stroll thought it was a good idea to drive through the gravel getting beached after he crashed, he could have made a 180 and stay on the tarmac.
Mate it's lance stroll
F1 cars have reverse, which would've gotten him on safe ground. I think he tried a 180 but there wasn't enough tarmac to work with with the barriers being so close, so he beaches himself.
Lando bitching about his luck so much when he had half the race to make progress. Instead he just went backwards.
He lost the lead again and went off a few times and the team topped it off with bad strategy calls (+Lando wanted to come in even earlier) has nothing to do with luck i think.
Yeah and in post race interview he said Red Bull’s strategy “was not talent just luck”. Come on dude why so salty.
It is though? I am in no way disregarding Max's drive, he was brilliant today, but the interview question was specifically about the VSC and red flag, which is 100% luck. Red Bull and Alpine got a free tyre change while every other team lost time and positions for the pit stop.
Plenty of stuff the FIA should fix after this race. They should change the rules to not allow modifications to the car during a red flag in the future for a start.
Edit: You can hear what the interviewer asked here. I don't think he's commenting on Max's drive, just pit strategy. He also did acknowledge the mistakes he made during the race, so there's that.
I mean his team royally fucked him lol I'd be salty too
I enjoyed this race but once again we have bizarre race direction and stewarding.
It's difficult to root for Norris to catch up to Verstappen when he's clearly not up to the task in all conditions.
conspiracy hat on: Red Bull is surely right that other teams are cheating with water in the tires. Look what happens when it's wet so they have no use for it.
... just kidding. Maybe.
So what is going to happen about the mass start infringement¿?
Everyone gets disqualified, except for Sainz as he was still in the pits.
If this happens I will be fucking laughing
Reprimand + €5000 fine for Russell and Norris
Interlagos is love. Interlagos is life
Oscar is so mature. Admitted that he messed up with Lawson and did not blame luck or anything. He will be a future champion if he keeps improving
ABSOLUTE CINEMA
If heaven exists, senna must be smiling - he saw one of the GOATs drive his car in tribute and then saw his spiritual successor drive the race of his lifetime at his hometown track
Just we expected of the powerhouse....checks notes....Alpine with the double podium finish. Yes....lol
Max got his pit stop in under a red flag, and that made all the difference.
17 fastest laps and finishing 19 seconds ahead of Ocon begs to differ. Max would've won even if he had pitted under the safety car and he would've beaten Norris even without a safety car. Nobody had the pace Max had. The red flag made his race easier but it didn't "make all the difference".
While I'm a Verstappen fan I really want this to stop. It's not exciting and as an additional thing it might lead teamsvto leave their drivers out in dangerous conditions hoping to gain track position in case of a red flag.
It just worked out for him. Something like this usually happens during monsoon races. If it makes you feel better, he was able to stay out on ragged tires due to excellent car control. Of course, so did Ocon.
What a race !!
VERSTAPPEN'S 2024 CHAMPIONSHIP
If he finishes ahead of Norris in Las Vegas, he will win the championship
Norris needs to outscore Verstappen by 3 points to avoid it.
It is surely done after this week!
Nice to see Verstappen and Red Bull actually celebrating again instead of it just being a rote victory
Go to Brasil and Brasil things happened.
So, another consequtive four time championship winner.
What a race!
Its getting all a bit ridiculous this F1 circus.
The complaining, the whining, the bitching on the radio, the red flags and lack of sportsmanship.
Are local kart tracks and speedway all like this now or its all drama there too?
WEC doesn't have this circus feeling to me.