“You’re not a real fan” if you don’t appreciate dominance Verstappen
Max Verstappen says that “you’re not a real fan” if you don’t appreciate Red Bull’s domination, and instead see it as a negative for the sport. In Singapore on Sunday, the Dutchman’s run of ten consecutive wins came to an end when he finished fifth.
Prior to Carlos Sainz’s victory there had been a lot of talk about Verstappen’s run of success being bad for the sport and TV viewership, with Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei also expressing such sentiments.
Asked by Motorsport.com in Suzuka if he could see a bigger picture of Sainz’s win being good for F1, Verstappen made it clear that he didn’t agree. Saying, “Honestly, I have zero interest in that. For me, it was just we got beaten, in a very clear way. I don’t think about what is good for F1.”
“I don’t think it’s necessarily bad what was happening to F1, because we were just better than everyone else. And if people can’t appreciate that, then you’re not a real fan. But yeah, that’s how it goes. That’s why I was also super relaxed about it because we didn’t perform. Other people did a better job than us, then of course they deserved to win”
We know when you have one team dominating the sport, whether that be Ferrari in the early 2000s, Red Bull in the early 2010s and now, Mercedes in mid and late 2010s, that interest tends to drop off.
Asked about his feelings after missing out in Singapore, he said: “No emotion. I mean, we stopped winning for one race. Shit happens. We won ten in a row before that. Of course, I would have liked to win there as well. But I also know that there is always going to be a day you have that weekend where you’re not winning, or things go wrong.”
One of the questions in the remaining races is whether Red Bull’s full switch to 202 creates the opportunities for others to win races. However, Verstappen is convinced that he can win all the remaining races.
Asked if he was surprised that other teams haven’t closed the gap significantly as the season has gone on, he said: “I was more surprised at the start. We all I think at the team expected it to be very close. And it wasn’t in the beginning. So then, of course, throughout the year, I think it’s quite a normal thing that people start looking around and start developing their own ideas, and start to get closer.”
“Something (will be) up,” if Red Bull doesn’t bounce back
Lewis Hamilton says “something (will be) up,” if Red Bull is not back at their normal level at this weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix. Red Bull failed to win for the first time all year last weekend in Singapore, where Carlos Sainz won.
Hamilton said, “I would think if they are not thirty seconds ahead like they have been in the past then something’s up. It was a difficult weekend, the last one, but their car should be phenomenal here. They have been phenomenal all year.”
Max Verstappen, who finished fifth in Singapore, believes his team will face a challenge from McLaren at the demanding, high-speed Suzuka circuit, a favourite with all the drivers.
Verstappen said, “It should be a good track for us. Nut McLaren have been making great gains and they are normally quite good in the high-speed as well. So they can be quite strong here, I think.”
Asked whether he thought McLaren could challenge Red Bull in Japan, championship leader Verstappen said: “Yeah, I think so.” McLaren are seen as the most improved team following their upgrades in Spielberg, and as George Russell put it, Suzuka is similar to Silverstone where McLaren were strong.
Russell said McLaren’s Lando Norris was the “favourite” to win “a close fight” between McLaren, Mercedes and Ferrari for best of the rest. Russell said, “If you look at Silverstone, in the 230km/h region corners they were exceptionally quick. They were 0.2-0.25secs quicker than the majority of the field in each of those corners, 0.1secs quicker than Red Bull.”
Russell also echoed and amplified Hamilton’s comments about Red Bull’s competitiveness. He believes that McLaren will be best of the rest but also Singapore was a “one-off” in terms of Red Bull’s drop in performance. But he added, “If they’re not that will be a lot of question marks being raised if they have another weekend like last week, but I don’t expect it.”
The Mercedes drivers alluded to the theory that Red Bulls drop in performance could have been down to a directive by the FIA clarifying the regulations restricting the use of flexible bodywork and floors.
There was speculation in Singapore among the teams that Red Bull’s drop in performance could have been caused by this change, which targets the use of aeroelasticity of parts to enhance performance.
Piastri extends contract with McLaren
McLaren have extended their contract with Oscar Piastri until the end of 2026. The twenty-two-year-old has impressed in his debut season alongside Lando Norris, joining the club of drivers to watch for the future. Norris is contracted to McLaren until the end of 2025.
Piastri’s highlights this year include finishing second in the sprint race at the Belgian Grand Prix and qualifying third at Silverstone. He has also impressed with his calm, laid-back, down-to-earth approach. The Australian joined McLaren after a ruling from the FIA following a contractual dispute over his future with the Alpine team.
Piastri said: “I want to be fighting it out at the front of the grid with this team and I am excited by the vision and foundations that are already being laid to get us there. The welcome that I have received and the relationships that I have built make this feel like home already.”
“The team’s consistent commitment to me has made me feel incredibly valued and the desire from the team for me to be part of its long-term future made this an easy decision.”
Lando Norris said of his teammate: “He’s performed and done everything he’s needed to and exceeded most people’s expectations. He’s pushed me a lot. It’s not a nice thing. It’s not what I want, but he’s done a very good job.”
Team principal Andrea Stella said keeping Piastri, who is 11th in the drivers’ championship, was an “easy decision for the team to make. Oscar constantly impresses with his performance, work ethic and attitude.”
Stella says that early on, Piastri found his feet and was quick enough in some corners to provide a benchmark for Norris.
McLaren Racing chief executive Zak Brown said: “He’s an incredible talent and an asset to the team so it’s fantastic to be committing to each other in the long term. Oscar is already proving what he can do out on track and has been instrumental in the turnaround we’ve had so far this season.”
McLaren started the season poorly but mid-season car developments have put them right in the fight behind Red Bull along with Ferrari, Mercedes and Aston Martin.
Ferrari’s unchanged weaknesses – Sainz
Carlos Sainz says despite his victory on Sunday in Singapore, Ferrari’s car weaknesses are still unchanged. Sainz converted the pole into the first non-Red Bull win of the season, despite that the team still found it hard to replicate single-lap pace into race pace.
But while taking the first non-Red Bull win of the season was a much-needed tonic for Ferrari, Sainz cautioned that its SF-23 hasn’t actually changed and still displays unpredictable handling traits ahead of a clean slate design for 2024.
When Motorsport.com asked him if Ferrari had managed to cure its unpredictability. Sainz replied, “No, honestly there is nothing fundamental that has changed on the car since the beginning of the season. The car is still obviously not great in some areas, very good in others and there’s certain tracks like Monza and Singapore that the car has adapted to very well, while there are other tracks like Zandvoort, and Silverstone where it was very difficult to drive.”
“It’s still a tricky car and we’re still trying to find the right set-up. We’ve been working hard to try and find the sweet spot and probably we still haven’t found it yet. That’s why every weekend I try something different in the car and it seems to be working, we seem to keep finding little ways to find a better pace.”
I think Singapore was a unique situation, Red Bull were off the pace all weekend and in the battle between Ferrari, McLaren and Mercedes they just had the edge. In the closing stages, Mercedes and McLaren all looked to have a chance of winning, Sainz was in my view, looking vulnerable on his tyres allowing George Russel before he went too hard to close the gap.
Sainz also drove an intelligent race to maintain his lead, using DRS to keep Lando Norris and George Russell behind. But its not something they can use everywhere, they still need to understand the trend they have of being quick in qualifying and struggling a bit in the race.
Russell insists he will not repeat mistakes like Singapore
George Russell insists he will not repeat mistakes like the one which cost him a podium at the Singapore Grand Prix when he and Mercedes are in a world championship fight. The Mercedes driver crashed out in the closing stages after clipping the wall in the fight for second with Lando Norris.
But Mercedes believed that once past the McLaren he could chase eventually winner Carlos Sainz, thanks to the bold strategy to run longer into the race on the medium tyres. And during those closing laps was looking like the driver to beat. Speaking to Sky Sports, he said “Sunday night, (Andrew Shovlin, Mercedes trackside engineering director) gave me a phone call and he basically said ‘look, don’t worry about it, the only reason we were there and had a chance of victory was because of the amazing job you did the whole weekend, the qualifying performance and the pace you showed.”
“I knew that myself, to be honest. I knew that myself and I take pride in that. We went all in for the victory. We’re pushing ourselves above and beyond every single lap, we’re going against the best drivers in the world and on a circuit like that, you’ve only got to make a mistake by a couple of centimetres and you’re off.“
Russell says he got distracted when it happened, that possibly caused by Norris touching the wall ahead of him.
Russell finished in the top five in nineteen of the twenty-two races last season in his debut season with Mercedes but has only six top-five finishes so far in 2023. He explained how he and Mercedes have been taking more risks this year in their bid to secure an elusive victory which has accounted for more errors.
Saying “When I look at my championship-winning years in junior formulas or karting, I was very much the driver of just keep on getting results. If you have to compromise one position just, it’s a long game, keep on getting those results. And that was very much my mentality last year – just keep on getting those results and it paid off well.”
He also says Mercedes has been rolling the dice and going for those big results, but Russell believes its been his best-ever season on pure performance, but he says he has lost sixty points for a number of different reasons.
Russell says he will learn lessons from the crash but says he would have been similarly disappointed had he backed off on the final lap and it resulted in team-mate Lewis Hamilton overtaking him.
But the target hasn’t changed to finish best off the rest in the constructors saying “It was quite clear this year from the beginning that we weren’t going to be fighting for a championship.”
Talking Points Suzuka
Max Verstappen is the favourite to bounce back in Suzuka following Ferrari’s victory last weekend in Singapore. the Singapore defeat was likely more a blip than a cliff-edge drop in form.
After that race, Verstappen revealed the car had been tough to set up on the simulator even before the team arrived at the track, and he also revealed that the same car, on a ‘virtual’ Suzuka, had “felt amazing.” But the feeling is that the weekend was an anomaly rather than a suddenly lost some of its dominant pace.
In the last five races, Verstappen has only been on pole once (in the Netherlands) yet he is still the favourite this weekend. Past form backs that up, as last year Red Bull topped every part of qualifying and the Dutch driver ended up on pole. Following the Q2 knock out last Saturday just half a tenth split the Ferraris with the top five (two Ferraris, two Mercedes and Lando Norris), covered by just over half a second.
Heavy rain can often cause havoc at Suzuka but although it did so last year, Verstappen still came through the spray to beat team-mate Sergio Perez to victory by almost half a minute. This year, however, the sun is due to shine. Lewis Hamilton is the most successful driver in Japan with four wins at Suzuka and one in Fuji.
Suzuka, like Silverstone and Spa, has some high-speed corners that could cause tyre wear issues. Ferrari struggled with that early on this year but seem to have overcome it and both drivers admitting the team still has the same issue. McLaren has been good at these types of circuits and Lando Norris was second in Singapore.
There could have been an all-British podium in Singapore, with Norris, Hamilton and George Russell all in contention in the closing laps.
Tsunoda hints Alpha Tauri will choose Ricciardo
Yuki Tsunoda has hinted Alpha Tauri will choose Daniel Ricciardo to drive for the team over Liam Lawson. While the Red Bull-owned team are yet to confirm their 2024 line up it is likely the that the Japanese driver will be retained, they have to decide between the experienced Ricciardo or his stand-in Lawson.
Since stepping in following Ricciardo’s injury at Zandvoort, Lawson has given Red Bull a headache over its second team, the New Zealander finished ninth at the Singapore Grand Prix to underline his credentials. Ricciardo is likely to return in Lusail in a fortnight’s time at the earliest.
Asked by Sky Sports who he would prefer to have as his team-mate in 2024, Tsunoda said: “Both perspectives it’s positive. Daniel brings more experience and he showed a lot of feedback. He can definitely tell more details about how the car is behaving.”
“I think the engineers like it, especially how he talks and helps the development side. If the team wants to develop the car more to be competitive, maybe Daniel. But, at the same time, Liam showed in the first three races immediately he showed a good performance and is probably still progressing.”
I think this is a big fundamental question for Red Bull, is it a B-team as has been the line for the last two years or is it still for developing drivers, engineers etc, the answer could be both. But in the long term are Red Bull going to want four cars effectively in the championship fight? Alpha Tauri, however, are never going to have the same resources as Red Bull.
The driver who misses out on a racing seat is expected to be offered a reserve driver role for Red Bull and AlphaTauri next season. Lawson will have another chance to impress this weekend at Suzuka, a track he drove at earlier this year in Super Formula, and has made it clear he doesn’t want to spend a year on the F1 sidelines.
He said, “I wouldn’t be happy to go back to being reserve. Obviously, I know how hard it is to get into Formula One and I understand that that can be really difficult sometimes. So obviously, what will happen, will happen, but these things I just haven’t really thought about too much. I’m just trying to make the most of this.”
But Lawson says, as you would expect, he was doing everything he could to prove he belongs in F1 while Ricciardo is injured.
Vettel causes a buzz at Turn Two
Sebastian Vettel and all twenty drivers launched the four-time champions biodiversity project at Suzuka. The drivers all unveiled painted ‘insect hotels’ inside Turn Two, dubbed ‘Buzzin’ Corner’ with special black and yellow kerbs instead of the usual red and white.
Drivers from all the teams helped add sticks and other materials to the wooden structures, with each team painting their own. Vettel wrote on Instagram, “I’m very, very excited, we are launching a new project. We are racing for bio-diversity.”
Adding, “I want to with this project create awareness around the importance and the subject of biodiversity. Hopefully, this is just the beginning of an initiative and projects around the world leading to more yellow and black kerbs at racetracks and more habitat and space for insects, standing up for bio-diversity…”
His long time rival and more recently allie on environmental and social issues, Lewis Hamilton, who recently signed a new contract with Mercedes at the age of 38 and has used his platform to campaign for social and racial justice and promote diversity, welcomed his old rival.
Adding “It’s great, firstly, to have Seb back this weekend. He sat down and told all the drivers of his plans. It was great to see that he’s found his purpose… I always just hope that with the things that he’s doing, for example, that he inspires the other drivers to do something along, maybe, in their own lane.”
The Weekend Ahead
Round fifteen brings F1 to Suzuka, the possible last time this race will be held in September/October. The big question is whether Red Bull had a blip, as many think they did, in Singapore where they were beaten by Ferrari. This circuit is another circuit where Max Verstappen is going to be the driver to beat.
But as the difficult weekend highlighted behind the battle behind between Ferrari and Mercedes was thrilling, they have closed the gap but in normal situations its hard to see them beating Red Bull. I think it will be interesting to see how George Russell bounces back from his crash in Singapore, does it suggest he can instantly recover, that’s key for if he challenges for titles in the future.
Suzuka is another high speed and downforce circuit, which requires more downforce but without compromising the teams on the straight in Turn One and then through the Esses you need downforce it’s a circuit about getting the balance right. This is an old circuit which means it carries the risk v reward factor when it comes to overtaking, that can lead to safety cars if drivers get beached in the race also about strategy as overtaking can be more difficult.
The midfield battle we know changes on a race-by-race basis, Zandvoort shares the same designer, Aston Martin looked to be the stronger team their. But this iis a race where anything can happen we get plenty of action as mistakes can lead to safety cars as this is an old circuit with grass an gravel. Overtaking is possible but not without risks, it’s also aa hard circuit on the cars given the high speed and huge braking zones. Reacting to events is key.
Yuki Tsunoda home race, and Red Bull and Alpha Tauri’s engine supplier Honda, this year he hasn’t looked as strong but we know how competitive it is behind Red Bull, so can he pull out a surprise?
