Leclerc “hurt” by Ferrari’s performance in Mexico
Charles Leclerc saw he was “hurt” by the performance of Ferrari at the Mexico City Grand Prix. The Monacan finished Sunday’s race sixth behind teammate Carlos Sainz and both Red Bull’s and Mercedes, underlining how far they have fallen with Sainz over a minute behind race winner Max Verstappen.
While Verstappen looked comfortable out in front and produced a new season record for victories, Sunday’s race completed a challenging weekend for Ferrari. Throughout the weekend Ferrari looked uncomfortable and unable to match Red Bull and Mercedes, with Leclerc crashing in FP2.
After Sunday’s race, the Monacan said, “The thing that hurts is that I feel we’ve maximised everything (on race day) and even though we’ve done that, we are one minute away from Max, a huge difference. We need to look into that and make our bad days better, mostly because whenever we have a bad day on the Sunday it seems to be a really bad day.”
Sainz indicated that the team knew about the ‘compromises’ they would have to endure coming into the weekend though, with the race being held in different conditions to the majority on the calendar. he said, “With the altitude, we knew we were going to lose quite a bit of performance.”
“More than what we expected and we were just off the pace But, I haven’t done a race in a month, so to get back into it and have a full race, pace management, complete the race and learn from the car, I take that as a positive.”
While it wasn’t Ferrari’s first difficult weekend, the team which looked to have the fastest car in the first half of the season, they have not taken victory since July. The feeling of many is that they have been caught or even overtaken by Mercedes in race trim.
Hamilton criticises Mercedes’s decisions in Mexico
Lewis Hamilton has criticised Mercedes decision not to split his and his team-mate George Russell’s strategies, after finishing second to Max Verstappen at the Mexico City Grand Prix.
Verstappen, who started on pole, and his team-mate Perez, along with most of the grid, started on soft tyres at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez on Sunday, while both Hamilton and Russell began on mediums.
Hamilton, who started third, overtook his teammate Russell on the opening lap to enhance his chances of a first victory of the season, but the surprising life of the medium tyre Mercedes had started on ultimately played into Red Bull’s hands. Verstappen’s two-stop strategy saw his tyres hold up better and allowed him to go to take a comfortable record-breaking win.
Hamilton meanwhile could not risk putting on softs – that would likely not have lasted until the end – with his sole pit stop five laps later, and put on harder tyres on which he was unable to remain close to Verstappen. Asked by Sky Sports, whether things could have turned out differently if he had have started on softs, Hamilton said: “I think so.”
Explaining “When I was on the medium tyres there wasn’t really any degradation when they pulled me in, so I think ultimately we should have been on the softs. It’s something that I had asked and questioned.”
“I thought maybe one of us, the two Mercedes, should have a soft to be able to attack. When both Red Bulls, and everyone behind, took their tyres off and had softs, I thought ‘shoot’.”
Despite missing out on victory in Mexico City, it was the team’s most competitive at all stages and comfortably outperformed Ferrari. Hamilton said there were “many positives” to take and the upgrade in Austin “really worked.” But says the team needs to make improvements.”
A frantic opening lap saw Russell drop from his starting position of second to fourth, as he was forced off track in a battle with Hamilton, before consequently losing another place to Red Bull’s Sergio Perez. The poor start scuppered Russell’s hopes of a podium, extending his streak of the rostrum to four races.
The twenty-four-year-old, who has enjoyed a hugely impressive debut season at Mercedes, suggested he might have taken a different approach to the first lap had he not have been battling Hamilton.
He explained “I think the last four races for me have been probably scrappy and going into turn one, I knew I wouldn’t be able to overtake Max around the outside. Then when I had Lewis there, probably if it was anyone else but my team-mate, I’d have just ran him off the road.”
The team accepts that it got its tyre strategy, admitting Red Bull’s eventual running plan “wasn’t even on the radar”.
Wolff added, “We didn’t think that the medium would go to the end. So we just got it wrong. We discussed whether the soft and the hard was a viable one-stop strategy and we thought it was never going to go so soft medium wasn’t even on the radar”
Verstappen “incredibly proud” to break season win record
Max Verstappen feels “incredibly proud” to have claimed F1’s season win record with his fourteenth win of the year in Mexico despite being “never really interested in stats.”
The Dutchman took his second title last month at Suzuka, with Verstappen continuing to dominate the season with his fourteenth win in Mexico City seeing him pass Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel who had previously tied with. Verstappen paid tribute to his Red Bull team for “another great race” after picking up its sixteenth win of the year and ninth in a row.
He said, “It’s just an incredible season for us as a team. I never thought I would be able to win fourteen races in a year. But yeah, of course, I’m incredibly proud.” The win record has been possible for some time given Red Bull’s performance this season, but he has played down that target.
In Austin a week ago when he equalled the record, Verstappen noted the difference in eras and how F1 seasons now have more races. Schumacher’s thirteen haul came in an eighteen-race season, while Vettel matched that number over nineteen races in 2013.
Asked by Motorsport.com after the race in Mexico if his decision to downplay it was a tactic to avoid losing focus, Verstappen said he was unsure but that he was “never really interested in stats.”
Verstappen said, “I just live in the moment. I just try to, of course, do the best I can every single weekend. I try to win the races and that, for me, is the most important. Every single weekend when I go home, and I can say to myself that I maximised or close to that I’m happy.”
The Dutchman repeated his message that he doesn’t care about the stats, saying a lot in the sport depends on the package and he wasn’t interested in every stat. but was happy that he was winning so many races.
Vettel insisted he has no regrets about losing the record that he shared with close friend and mentor Schumacher.
He said “No, I mean every time it’s a bit different. I think it’s great for the team. I still know some people there, so I’m really happy for them and for Max. Well done. I think he’s had a hell of a season, so hopefully he gets sixteen at the end of the year! Everything else will be a disappointment, no?”
Ricciardo talking to team about reserve role
Daniel Ricciardo said he is talking to Formula One teams about a reserve role next year and that taking a break from racing could prove to be “a blessing in disguise.” On Sunday, the Australian finished seventh in the Mexico City Grand Prix and voted as driver of the day, after providing much of the entertainment with a series of overtakes following a ten seconds penalty.
He is set to leave McLaren at the end of the year with nothing lined up so far and no interest in the only seat remaining at Haas. But it looks increasingly likely that he wont be on the grid, which he admitted to Sky Sports over the weekend.
Ricciardo said, “I can confidently say I won’t be on the grid, behind a wheel [in 2023]. But I still want to be in the sport, I want to be working with a team still with the ambition to be back on the grid in ’24. I feel like a bit of time away from a race seat will actually do me good, and then try to rebuild on something for ’24.”
The winner of eight career races, all but one with Red Bull, Ricciardo has struggled to match teammate Lando Norris this year with Sunday a rare occasion where he beat the Briton, who finished ninth. He admits the last t two years had been “quite hard” and stepping away would offer a fresh perspective.
he said, “The way the seasons are it’s pretty relentless, you don’t really get a chance to rebuild. Everyone’s different but I truly believe that will be, let’s say, in a way a blessing in disguise for me … by doing less, I’ll achieve more.”
Ricciardo has been linked to reserve roles with Red Bull and Mercedes, whose CEO and team principal Toto Wolff would welcome him in the role vacated by AlphaTauri-bound Dutchman Nyck de Vries.
That speculation was further fuelled when Wolff was recently photographed wearing a sweatshirt from Ricciardo’s merchandise collection, further fuelling speculation. Ricciardo said, “It’s good stuff, simple as that,”. “I gave [Mercedes driver] George [Russell] a sweater and Toto messaged saying he really liked it … so, freebies.”
Vandoorne joins Aston Martin
Current Formula E champion and Mercedes reserve driver Stoffel Vandoorne is to leave Mercedes and join Aston Martin. The former McLaren Formula 1 driver will share the role with Felipe Drugovich, the 2022 Formula 2 champion who joined in September.
Vandoorne has been Mercedes reserve driver since 2019, after losing his McLaren race seat at the end of the previous year. The Belgian said his new role was “incredibly exciting”.
The move reunites him with his former teammate Fernando Alonso who was his teammate at McLaren in 2017 and 2018. Vandoorne won the Formula E title with Mercedes this year and, following their withdrawal from the all-electric series, is moving to the DS Penske team for the 2022-23 season.
He said, “I’ve watched with great interest how Aston Martin has developed and expanded operationally, and I know how incredibly determined it is to make progress in every area.”
“Joining Fernando, who I already know from my Formula 1 racing career, and Lance (Stroll), to help them develop and improve next year’s car will be a terrific job, and I’m really looking forward to the challenge – and reward – of working together with the whole organisation at Silverstone.”
Signing Vandoorne is yet another sign of Aston Martin’s hopes to move up the grid, its owner Lawrence Stroll has set the team the target of being capable of winning by 2025.
Vandoorne is a highly regarded and accomplished driver who was tipped for a successful F1 career before he joined McLaren alongside Alonso as the team were reaching the bottom of a long decline.
Aston Martin team principal Mike Krack said: “Stoffel has all the capabilities we need for this new and expanded role within the team: he is fast, analytical, hard-working and a fantastic team player, and will fit perfectly into our growing organisation, working alongside our other test driver, Felipe Drugovich.”
Vandoorne and Drugovich replace Nico Hulkenberg in the reserve role at Aston Martin. The experienced German is tipped for a return to a race seat next year with Haas, replacing Mick Schumacher, although the team insist no decision has yet been made between the two.
Vesti Mercedes favourite for Abu Dhabi test
Frederik Vesti has emerged as the favourite to conduct the Abu Dhabi F1 young driver test for Mercedes, according to Autosport. The test in Abu Dhabi will see the teams run two cars one for Pirelli tyre testing with race drivers and second for drivers with no more than two race starts.
Mercedes has a rookie slot available because Nyck de Vries has been released to drive for AlphaTauri, as recently confirmed by Franz Tost, Vesti was announced as a Mercedes junior driver in January 2021, and he is the most qualified candidate in the Stuttgart manufacturer’s programme.
This year the Danish driver has been doing simulator work for the team, and with Stoffel Vandoorne leaving Mercedes it will give him valuable experience of the real car and help with correlation.
The twenty-year-old has an impressive junior career. A star in karting, he progressed quickly through Danish Formula Ford and both the Danish and ADAC F4 series, finishing fourth in the latter in 2018. The following year he joined Formula Regional European Championship in 2019 with Prema, before moving to FIA F3 with the same team in 2020, as teammate to Oscar Piastri and Logan Sargeant.
That season, he scored three feature race wins and finished fourth behind Piastri, Theo Pourchaire and Sargeant.
This season he moved up to F2 with ART. He won the sprint race in Baku and has this far logged four other podiums, including second places in both the sprint and feature events at Monza last month.
He is eighth in the championship with just the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix weekend remaining, and is only nine points shy of fourth place.
