“Incredibly emotional” debut win for Russell
George Russell said it was “incredibly emotional” to claim his first F1 victory after being put under “so much pressure” by teammate Lewis Hamilton in the closing stages of the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
The Englishman took victory from pole position after taking winning the sprint, giving Mercedes their first win of the season following a difficult season for the eight times championship. The win highlights the turnaround by Mercedes since the start of the season and his performance as he leads teammate Hamilton by twenty-four points.
Russell told Sky Sports, “It was incredibly emotional. It has been such a journey my whole family have been on since the beginning. Then since getting into Formula One, through Williams, the struggles, the highs, the lows there.”
“Then joining Mercedes and the struggles we had at the start of the season. This is a victory to be taken and I am so happy to cross that line and I am so proud of the whole time and the work we have done this season.”
Russell had a faultless drive and a comfortable advantage over Hamilton in the closing stages and following a late safety car caused by Lando Norris stopping on track, was able to keep the seven-time champion behind him in the closing stages. While Mercedes gave the ‘no team orders’ order, Russell was able to fend off Hamilton.
Russell added, “It’s definitely not sinking in. So many emotions crossing the line. I guess you dream of this moment. Floods of tears were coming out within five seconds of crossing that line and I think it’s also because those last 10 laps, Lewis put me under so much pressure.”
The Englishman nearly won on his Mercedes debut in Sakhir in 2020, which fell apart because of a pit stop error followed by a puncher, this race was almost a repeat performance in the way he controlled the race. His control was from a driver who has long looked a world champion in the making and has more than proved that status this year, his first in a top team.
Russell had been expecting to fight for the championship this year, but Mercedes produced their worst car for a decade, and he and Hamilton were set for a trying year helping the team work out how to fix it. Maybe it was luck, as internal tension at Red Bull and Ferrari boiled over between their drivers coupled with a weekend where Mercedes looked as if it was championship-winning ways again.
The Americas leg brought upgrades making the car lighter and adding downforce, and since then Mercedes have fought for victory at all three events, in Austin, Mexico and now this win in Brazil. Russell’s win I think was down to luck, hard work and progress by Mercedes.
Verstappen won’t explain reasons for not helping Perez
Max Verstappen has “reasons” why refused to help his teammate Sergio Perez in his championship battle with Charles Leclerc when he refused team orders to give up his place and allow the Mexican to pass him at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
The world champion said he was reacting to “something that happened in the past”. He refused to elaborate. Verstappen’s refusal led to an icy atmosphere between the men, with Perez saying over the team radio: “It shows who he really is.”
Speaking to the media, the Mexican said the incident was “disappointing”. On Spanish-language television, Perez said: “If he has two titles, it’s thanks to me.”
Going into the final ten laps, Perez had allowed Verstappen to pass to allow him to try and gain positions on Fernando Alonso’s Alpine. He didn’t manage to do so, as would be common in that situation, Red Bull asked Verstappen to allow his teammate to pass, he kept accelerating, crossing the line 0.4secs behind Alonso and four seconds ahead of Perez.
His actions deprived Perez of two points as he seeks to beat Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc to second place in the championship, which Verstappen won three races ago. The two are tied on points going into the final race of the season in Abu Dhabi this coming weekend.
Verstappen, who had a meeting with Perez and the team bosses before speaking to the media after the race, said: “I understand from Checo’s side he is disappointed. But I also gave my reasons why I didn’t do it, about something that happened in the past.
“That’s why we all sat together and talked about it. As a team, we understand, and we have to move forwards. We go to Abu Dhabi and if he needs the help there to finish ahead of Charles, I will help him.”
Pressed for an explanation as to his reasons, Verstappen said, “No. It is not necessary to talk about it, but it is important that as a team we talked about it.”
Asked if it was because of Perez’s crash in qualifying in Monaco, which ensured the Mexican started ahead of Verstappen and prevented him challenging for pole, Verstappen said: “I don’t need to say.” Perez went on to win in Monaco after Ferrari made a strategic error with race leader Leclerc.
Team principal Christian Horner said: “The drivers discussed it. They were very clear. We will go to Abu Dhabi to get Checo the second place and Max will support that. We won’t talk about what happens internally but the drivers shook hands on it.”
He added, “We work as a team, we race as a team and our priority is to help Checo get second in the championship.”
Speculation about Binotto’s future “without foundation”
Ferrari say reports claiming team principal Mattia Binotto will be sacked are “totally without foundation”, following speculation in the Italian media that Alfa Romeo’s Frederic Vasseur is being lined up as a replacement.
The Italian team appeared to be in contention to end its long wait for titles after a strong start to the season, but they have failed to win a race since July. Now going into this weekend’s final race they are at risk of losing second in the constructors’ championship to Mercedes at the final race of the season.
The second half of the season has been plagued by a lack of reliability and strategy errors. This has lead to questions asked over Binotto’s future with the team, and after he wasn’t present at the previous two races in Mexico and Brazil, a report from La Gazzetta dello Sport claimed that Ferrari chief executive John Elkann has decided a change is necessary.
However, the team firmly denied those rumours, saying in a statement on Tuesday: “In relation to speculation in certain media regarding Scuderia Ferrari Team Principal Mattia Binotto’s position, Ferrari states that these rumours are totally without foundation.”
Binotto’s time as team principal has been plagued by poor reliability, bad strategy decisions and the occasional driver. At the start of the season the decision to focus on 2022, after a 2020 season which was the worst finish for the team in four decades, appeared to pay off.
ahead of Ferrari’s home race at Monza in September, Elkann said he had “great faith” in Binotto but insisted all elements of the team’s performance needed to improve.
Ferrari has failed to win since then, with Max Verstappen and Red Bull dominantly going on to seal the drivers’ and constructors’ title, while Mercedes’ recent improvement, which was punctuated by George Russell leading home team-mate Lewis Hamilton for a one-two in Brazil, will leave the Italian team going into 2023 as many onlookers’ third favourites.
Ferrari stopped development after reaching cap limit
Ferrari has revealed that the decision to stop developing its 2022 car was forced on it because it had hit its spending limit under the budget cap. The Italian manufacturer started the season strongly, but found itself out developed by Red Bull as well as strategy errors cost it points.
More recently, Ferrari has also found itself edged out by Mercedes, which has recovered from its poor start to the campaign to turn its W13 into a race-winner. Ferrari openly admitted that the competitive picture at the front has been partly clouded by the fact that it called a halt on updates to its F1-75 over the second half of the campaign.
It was believed at the time the decision aimed at simply allowing it to better divert resources to next year, it has now emerged that it was a financial call. But following Sunday’s race in Sao Paulo team principal Mattia Binotto said Ferrari had no choice but to stop development for this year because it had hit the circa $144 million spending ceiling for this season.
He explained, “It was not a choice; we simply finished the money for the budget cap. So simply we were at the cap. [There was] no more opportunity of developing the car, so we simply stick where we were.”
With the lack of progress, the team has made has allowed Mercedes to overtake Ferrari in terms of pace, but Binotto does not think that it necessarily sets a trend for the 2023 season. He also says that they have still been continuing to think of new ideas for next years car.
Adding, “But certainly we decided to stop the current one, because, on top of this normal development on the current [car], you will need to produce the parts to bring them on track. And that was the extra costs that we couldn’t afford.”
Ferrari has not won a race since July’s Austrian Grand Prix and has seen Mercedes emerge as title-winning Red Bull’s main threat in recent Grands Prix.
Asked by Motorsport.com if he was surprised that Mercedes won a race, Binotto said: “It’s not a surprise. I think that they were fast in Brazil. It’s not surprising because, if I look at the last races, maybe with a different tyre choice, they would already have won races. And I think that they simply didn’t win because they missed the right choice of tyres.
Hulkenberg set to replace Schumacher at Haas
Nico Hulkenberg is set to replace Mick Schumacher at Haas in 2023, according to the German publication Bild. The announcement is said to be made at this weekend’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, which will allow the German to drive for the team at the tyre test which follows the season finale next week.
Hulkenberg has not had a full-time F1 drive since 2019 but four appearances since as a COVID-19 super-sub. He impressed on his two appearances for Racing Point in 2020, before stepping in for Sebastian Vettel at Aston Martin at the start of this season.
The German has made a hundred and eight-one race starts following his debut in Bahrain in 2010. But the move if confirmed will leave Mick Schumacher who is no longer a Ferrari young driver, without a drive or a young driver programme.
Although he scored points at two races this year, Schumacher has been involved in a costly series of accidents in his time with the team, which are believed to have been a major reason for the team not continuing with him for a third season.
Haas is understood to have favoured experience for their next driver pairing, with Hulkenberg set to partner Kevin Magnussen. The team struggled with rookie duo Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin in 2021, although the latter was replaced by Magnussen, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The Danish driver claimed Haas’ first-ever pole position at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix last week. The fourteen points Magnussen scored in the opening four races of the season have also helped the team keep up with AlphaTauri in the fight for eighth in the championship this season, highlighting to senior management the importance of an experienced driver line-up.
Norris admits illness made finishing unlikely
Lando Norris feels he would have struggled to make it to the end of the Sao Paulo Grand Prix after feeling unwell all weekend. The McLaren driver missed the media day on Thursday with food poisoning before taking part in Friday’s practice and qualifying before feeling unwell after the sprint.
He was given the all-clear for Sunday’s race, but he conceded that he was in some ways “lucky” to have retired with an electrical issue on the 51st lap of the 71-lap event, having started to struggle after losing nearly 4kg in body weight over the course of four days.
when asked by Motorsport.com about his condition, he said, “I got to a point where I did start to struggle a bit physically, but then my race was over. I’m okay, I’m getting better every day, just the last day took a big toll out of me.”
“Especially from Thursday. I didn’t eat for two days, I didn’t drink for two days, I lost three and a half, almost four kilos in weight. I really struggled a lot. Everyone thought I was fine after Friday, because I just did a good job, and we were quick, But it was quite the opposite. So I just need to recover for next weekend.”
Asked if he was helped when the adrenaline kicked in the race, he said: “I mean already today I was a little bit better. I could have a bit of food in me before the race today, I could get some fluids in me, which is probably the most important thing on such a hot day.”
Norris says he believes that if he had made it to the end of the race he would have been in bad condition. He also says that there were points in the weekend where he feared that he wouldn’t be able to take part in the race, and the Briton was thankful for the support he had received from the medical staff treating him.
Saying, “If I was like I was on Thursday throughout the weekend then I probably wouldn’t have raced for sure. I made a little bit of progress into Friday, not a lot, but luckily it was just qualifying, and qualifying I could survive with.”
