Hulkenberg’s eighth place put Haas back ahead of Alpine
Nico Hulkenberg says he wants to “go out strong” by helping his Haas Formula 1 team to secure sixth place in the World Championship before he leaves at the end of the season.
Having recently overhauled VCARB in the battle for sixth Haas lost the position to Alpine in Brazil when the Enstone team logged a double podium.
However Hulkenberg’s eighth place finish in Las Vegas, achieved by a crucial pass on Yuki Tsunoda in the closing stages, saw Haas regain the position.
“Every point matters, for sure,” he said when asked by this writer about the significance of the Las Vegas result. “For now, I’m just happy that we maximised the opportunity today.
“We had the pace, but it was certainly a tough and challenging race with the tyres, and with graining.
“I guess at least everyone in the midfield had the same symptoms and difficulties. But I think we managed it well.
“We offset our strategy a bit, decided to delay the stops, to have fresher tyres at the end. And that worked well and paid off, so happy.”
In the late stages Hulkenberg had to fend off Fernando Alonso while also trying to find a way past Tsunoda.
“Obviously we know that we have a bit better pace than Aston at the moment,” he said. “And he had quite old tyres compared to me, I think his tyres were more than 10 laps older.
“He was there, but I knew that I probably always could control him. It was more about managing my tyres in Yuki’s dirty air and managing the battery in the right moment to get him.”
Hulkenberg says he’s relishing the challenge of trying to secure sixth place for Haas.
“I enjoy myself very much in the team,” he noted. “I’ve said that many times. And obviously I want to go out strong. And I think we’ve done a really good job over the winter and all this year.
“And I would like obviously to celebrate with the team in Abu Dhabi Sunday night. It’s two to go, it will go down to the wire. Nobody else is going to hand it to us. So we have to earn it, and do a good job in the next two.”
Zhou is well placed to land a reserve job with Ferrari
Zhou Guanyu is still awaiting a decision on a future Formula reserve role, with Ferrari currently favourite to secure the services of the Sauber driver.
Zhou is well known to Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur, who was his team boss at the then Alfa Romeo outfit in 2022.
The Chinese driver has a had a difficult 2024 season with an uncompetitive car, and has often been behind team mate Valtteri Bottas on upgrade specs.
However his three seasons of recent race experience makes him an obvious candidates for any teams requiring a reserve driver for 2025, with the 24-race schedule ensuring that it’s not a one-man job.
“We are talking to several teams, and of course Ferrari remains one of the teams really interested in me,” he said of his future.
“And yeah, we need to see. Obviously, there’s a lot of things coming up in the next few weekends for us to make a decision, but it’s clear that we are going through all the options we have, and then to see where we are.
“But of course, from my side, obviously, I don’t want to be committed to the future just yet, because I need to making sure everything is set down and it’s clear, and I have a massive commitment to the next project. So hopefully something will be happening or decided soon.”
Regarding the timing he said: “I think it will be somewhere around the next few weeks, I’ll have a clear idea. But when would I announce, I don’t know.
“At the moment, I haven’t signed anything. You need to find the right time, so nothing has been fully [agreed] until the details are right. But we’re working on it, and we’ll see what’s the future.”
Zhou had one of his best weekends of the season in Las Vegas thanks to a successful upgrade package introduced for the last three races. From 13th on the grid he had a solid race to 14th at the flag.
“I think that’s the best we’ve be in a while, since the summer,” he said. “First of all, I’m just really happy obviously with the upgrades working, and the team gave me a car that I can finally fight with, and feeling of finding the confidence back, which is a main topic I’m extremely happy with.
“It’s been very positive this weekend in terms of that. Today’s race was clean, but not a lot happening ahead, so we can’t really make much more than what we were.”
He added: “We have a new package, and I think it’s been a while that both cars are having that. And also for me, this weekend it’s good to be finally trying that, not just having something new straight away for a sprint race weekend like we did in Sao Paulo.
“It’s good to at least test that, and finding this rhythm, this balance we needed before qualifying to make it work. So clearly, I think this direction for next year is in the right way, this new package. But a bit late than I hoped! But I’m just going to try to enjoy it as much as I can.”
Zhou admitted that the car’s poor form had not helped his efforts to secure a seat for 2025.
“It’s been one of bitter disappointment this season obviously,” he said. “And especially the second part, not having the upgrades we wanted to have, and always having the old package. So it forced me back a little bit while it was a very important timing for my future.
“But in another way, like I said, I’m very relieved and looking forward for the next two races and together with the next chapter. So I want to make sure I give the guys as much credit as I can for the remaining races, and to see where we are.”
Alonso was running 10th until he was passed by Perez with a few laps to go
Fernando Alonso was left frustrated in Las Vegas on Saturday evening after being edged out of the points by Sergio Perez in the closing laps.
Having started only 16th the Alonso driver was running 10th behind Nico Hulkenberg and Yuki Tsunoda when Perez demoted him.
The Spaniard has now endured a run of four race weekends without scoring for the first time since early in his 2022 season with Alpine.
“I think every point is gold for us at the moment, even if we are not fighting for many important things,” he said when I asked him about his frustration.
“I think it’s good to give something back to the mechanics and to everyone in the team, after all the struggles.
“But as I said yesterday, only two races left this year, but there is a lot of trust in the team, and a lot of new people and new ideas that will come in the future. So looking forward.”
Alonso was the only driver in the field to start on the soft tyres, and while he initially gained two places he quickly slipped back down the order, and was last by the time he pitted.
“We were different, but I don’t think that it made really a big difference,” he said. “We just stopped very early, which we could have done it also with the medium, if we started with those.
“So it was not a big benefit on lap one or the start. And then we committed to stop very, very early.
“But the pace was much better than the race. We were in the points until three laps to the end. So to finish so close to Red Bull, Haas, Tsunoda, it was a little bit of a surprise.
“Obviously the taste is not great now, because there is no reward for P 11, and I think we deserve it. We did a very good race to put the car in P11. So hopefully in Qatar, we have another chance.”
Regarding the balance the said: “It was just a little bit happier today, the car, than yesterday. It seems maybe with fuel or something, already the laps to the grid, the car felt a little bit better than yesterday.
“It was a difficult weekend to understand the balance, this super low grip level as well.”
“We have to review the weekend. There are some things that we learned for sure, on the car. I think today as I said the strategy was great. The pace was better. Pit stops were very, very fast. I think we did a decent race.
“So if we started a bit further up in Qatar, Abu Dhabi, the points are possible. So that’s the target. We have two possibilities in Qatar with a sprint, obviously one Saturday, one Sunday.
“So right now, looking forward for Qatar, because you want to jump in the car again and try.”
Charles Leclerc admits that the early tyre graining he suffered in the Las Vegas GP was “my bad” after he pushed too hard while fighting George Russell.
From fourth on the grid Leclerc jumped past Pierre Gasly and his Ferrari team mate Carlos Sainz to claim second place.
He then pushed leader Russell hard in the early laps, just failing to go around the outside of the Mercedes driver on the fourth lap.
However soon afterwards front graining became so severe that he let Sainz past, before also losing a place to Max Verstappen.
He eventually finished fourth after what was a difficult race for Ferrari to manage.
“I felt like I had everything under control,” said Leclerc of the early laps. “But then from one corner to the other, I lost three seconds per lap, which was absolutely crazy. So yeah, that took me by surprise, and we lost quite a lot there.
“But then on the hard we were strong. But obviously it wasn’t enough to do anything better than third and fourth.”
Leclerc admitted that the graining in the opening stint was made worse by his battle with Russell.
“I think so,” he said. “It didn’t affect him too much. It did affect me, though. Being in dirty air, you pay a lot the price of this.
“So that was difficult to manage for me, but I just went a bit too much, I just put too much stress on the tyres in the first stint. So it’s my bad.”
He added: “When I started to feel the medium going at lap 6, I was like, ‘Oh, that doesn’t look great for the rest of the race.’
“But then with the hard everything felt a little bit more in line with what I expected, and then we were in a good place. I think if you had told me that we’ll finish fourth after the first stint, I probably would have taken it.”
Leclerc expects McLaren to have the upper hand in the title battle at the next race.
“It’s going to be until the very end,” he said. “I think they are going to be very strong in Qatar.
“So we’ve got to have a good weekend, and I will be very surprised if we recover points from them, but we’ve got to. So we’ll do our best, but I expect it to be tricky.”
Pierre Gasly says his retirement from the Las Vegas GP was “a slap in the face” for his Alpine Formula 1 team after he stunned the pitlane by qualifying third.
The Frenchman lost places to quicker cars in the early laps, but he was still set for a healthy haul of points.
However he felt a PU issue even before the team spotted it on the pitwall, and he had no choice but to stop the car with just 15 laps completed.
The retirement had special significance as Alpine’s double podium finish in Brazil had propelled the team from ninth to sixth place in the constructors’ championship.
With Gasly dropping out Nico Hulkenberg scored four points for Haas and put the US-owned team back ahead in sixth place, while RB also closed the gap to Alpine thanks to two points earned by Yuki Tsunoda.
“It’s a tough one to swallow, because obviously we had such a high yesterday,” said Gasly when asked by this writer about the costly retirement.
“Going into the race we were very optimistic that we’ll be able to fight for some good points. I think the first stint was good, and as we expected with Norris, Max and Lewis overtaking us – but we knew they were quite a few tenths faster than us.
“I think we were on for a good fight for best of the rest with Yuki. We were ahead of him, and he jumped us in the pits. But then I think we’d have taken the fight on track.
“So we know there were big points on the table. It was such a good weekend so far that it’s frustrating just to end up having to retire after only a few laps.”
The team is still investigating the cause of the PU issue.
“We need to review exactly,” said Gasly. “But for me, it was pretty clear when it happened. I just lost all the power, I could not achieve downshift.
“I don’t want to go into too much detail because I’m not too sure, but when we know how important these points are, especially in the championship, it’s going to cost us big time today.”
Gasly is hoping that that he won’t face any grid penalties: “I think I have quite a few PUs in my pool, so I think I should be fine. You never know.
“But obviously this season, I had quite a few problems, quite a lot of races which didn’t take part in. And it’s just a tough one to have another one, starting from P3.”
He conceded that his strong qualifying result did give the team some reward from the weekend.
“I think there are definitely a lot of positives,” he said. “It’s obviously a lot of disappointment right now. And there is obviously a lot of positive looking at yesterday, it was definitely a fantastic qualifying.
“There is some performance. We know we’ve got work to do in some areas, but I think we are in a position to take the battle, the new battle that we sort of gave ourselves after Brazil.
“And it just feels a bit tough now going from such a high in Brazil, such a high in quali yesterday, and it’s like a bit of slap in the face right now. But anyway, we have two more chances.
“It’s going to be a matter of executing strong weekends. Unfortunately, we don’t score points for qualifying, but for the races, and we didn’t get it right this weekend.
“So we’ve got to learn from it and make sure we get last two good weekends in Qatar and Abu Dhabi to finish on a high.”
Ferrari Formula 1 boss Fred Vasseur admits that the Italian team was in “a bit of chaos” as it tried to juggle the interests of Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc in Las Vegas.
Both drivers suffered badly with tyre graining and swapped places several times over the course of the race.
At one stage Sainz was asking to come in and change tyres, and when he did head for the pitlane he was told at the last second to stay out.
Sainz also had to let Leclerc past without also letting the closely following Hamilton by as well.
Vasseur acknowledged that graining had made life difficult for the team.
“It’s really depending of the pace that you want to have,” he said. “And I think Charles was behind Russell, and when he tried one lap to push and to overtake Russell, he blew up everything.
“It’s really on the edge always. And they have to trust their feeling also. And it’s not an easy one, but it is like it is.
“It’s true that at the end of the first stint in four or five laps we lost something like 10 seconds. And then you can’t pit also, because you are in the shadow of the mid-pack.
“And if you pit at this stage, you have to overtake everybody. You have to wait for the others, and it’s what happened with Carlos. You have to wait that the others are pitting to pit yourself. And it’s a tricky situation.”
At the chequered flag Sainz was in front of Leclerc, who expressed his anger about how the race had unfolded over team radio.
It was not the first time in 2024 that there has been some frustration in the camp over strategy choices, but Vasseur played it down.
“We’ll have to discuss this,” he said. “Because at this stage of the race we were discussing with Carlos for the pit stop, what I was explaining, that he was in the shadow of Lawson, Tsunoda, perhaps.
“And he wanted to pit, we wanted to keep him on track. We were discussing like this, and on the top, we had to swap. It was a bit of chaos. When they are into the car, they have their own vision of this. But don’t worry, we’ll discuss it later today.”
Regarding Leclerc’s anger he added: “I’m not worried at all. Again, it’s always the same story that they have to make comments, or they don’t have to make comments, but they are doing comments on the in-lap, and they don’t have always the full picture. We will discuss together, and it won’t be an issue.”
Vasseur admitted that it isn’t easy to manage the tyres in Las Vegas.
“I think the conditions in Vegas are more than extreme for tons of reasons, the level of grip, the track temperature. For sure, it’s not something that we’ll have until the end of the season. It will be different stories.
“And as it’s a completely new situation each time that you are coming to Vegas, and it’s a very fine tuning. It’s not easy to predict, and even on the race I think if you have a look, we struggled a lot on the first stint, but the last stint was okay, it’s not that you are miles away.
“So it was true for us, but true for other teams. It means that you are not completely out of the scope. It’s just a fine tuning.
“And perhaps the fact also that we did a long stint on the hard before the weekend, but when you long stint the medium, you did three push before, and the graining is already open, it means that it’s putting all the team in a tricky situation. But again, it’s not an excuse.”
Wolff says that Mercedes has to learn lessons from Las Vegas
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff says that the cold conditions in Las Vegas put the W15 in a “sweet spot” that allowed George Russell and Lewis Hamilton to secure a surprise one-two finish.
In addition the team managed to avoid the tyre graining that hampered the race of main rivals Ferrari.
Russell won from pole, while Hamilton was able to charge through the field from 10th on the grid.
“It’s cold,” said Wolff when asked about the team’s strong form. “I think clearly you can correlate where we’ve been strong. We’ve been strong in Silverstone, we’ve been strong in Spa, and then here in Las Vegas.
“And I think it’s just keeping the car in its sweet spot, the tyres in the optimum window. It clearly shows that the car can be very, very quick.
“We were two seconds quicker than our competition at times when George was pushing, and for the rest of the day, he was just managing his pace.”
Wolff acknowledged that avoiding graining was a key factor in the race.
“It’s strange,” he said. “We were capable of pushing whenever we wanted to, and there was no graining appearing, neither on the medium, nor on the hard.
“You could see Charles [Leclerc] attempted a few times to put pressure on George, which he defended great. I don’t know what the outcome would have been of that, but the driving was exceptional.
“And Leclerc after a few laps couldn’t hold the pace, fell off. We didn’t hit a single sign of graining, nor degradation.”
Wolff had an intriguing theory about why things worked out for Mercedes: “It kind of spirals into the bad zone, if you break traction, and then it’s hot. You kind of swing out of the window all the time.
“And when you break traction here, that was actually helpful to keep the temperature at the time. So clearly, there is a pattern that some teams really love the cold, and extract a lot of performance.
“And there are some teams that have been so strong when it was hot – in Singapore, the McLarens, for example – and then they have dominated in the way that they just controlled it in the way they wanted. So it would be important to find a balance for next year.”
He added: “This one is a really important result, because you have fluctuations over the weekend, and then normally you can say we’ve been good here, then we’ve been not too good in that session.
“But here, every single session, we were ahead. So lots of good data that allow us to say, well, at least we know where the sweet spot is, this is where we need to be, and then trying to find out how we can get that target more often.”
Horner has praised Verstappen for his work behind the scenes
Red Bull Racing boss Christian Horner says that Max Verstappen has been “outstanding” in 2024 on his way to a fourth World Championship – and has been inspiration to the whole team.
Verstappen dominated the early races but as RBR stumbled and rivals McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes caught up the Dutchman had a much tougher time.
However he managed to maintain his lead and his recent win in Brazil opened the door for him to secure the title in Las Vegas on Saturday night.
Horner compared the achievement with Verstappen’s first success, achieved at the Abu Dhabi finale three years ago.
“I think this was, together with 2021, the toughest,” he said. “This one, we started the season very strongly. But by Miami, it was clear that McLaren had made a significant step.
“But Max, when you look back at the season as a whole, and you think back to the races, he won in Imola and Barcelona and Montreal that were all very tough, closely-fought races.
“Through the summer months when we were struggling a bit with a car he was still second in Silverstone, he was second in Zandvoort. He was still picking up big podiums and results.
“And behind the scenes, was putting a massive amount of effort in with the engineers and designers and on the simulator, more than any of the previous years.
“And I think he’s been outstanding this year, not only what he’s done in the cockpit, and I think he’s inspired within the cockpit, but out of the cockpit as well, the way he’s conducted himself, the way he’s worked with the engineers and all the technical staff has been phenomenal.”
Horner agreed with Verstappen’s suggestion that for 70% of the season RBR did not have the fastest car.
“I would say it was about right,” he said. “Since Miami, I would say that was a turning point. And the car was difficult to drive.
“It was very difficult to drive, but he was able to adapt and get the most out of it. I think we’ve improved it in latter races, but certainly around Monza time, it looked like the championship was slipping away.”
The team hit at low at the Italian GP in September, where the RB20 was uncompetitive, and Verstappen suggested that he wouldn’t win if that form was continued.
“Monza, there’s still a long way the championship to go,” said Horner. “And we had a significant disadvantage to McLaren, Ferrari and even the Mercedes at that point.
“And I think the engineers have worked tirelessly, and the men and women behind the scenes have worked long hours, early mornings, weekends to keep getting performance to the car.
“And for me, a real turning point was Austin, getting the sprint race victory there, getting on the front row for the Grand Prix, the podium that he scored there.
“And then of course Brazil was really the crowning moment. In many respects, it was such an outstanding drive that provided the match point here, and he converted it relatively straightforwardly.”
Horner admitted that this success means a lot given that it was achieved during what was a difficult season for the team.
“I think this one is a very special victory, because obviously, there have been challenges this year,” he said. “But I think that Max has scored more than double the amount of race wins than any other driver.
“He’s won it with two races to go. He’s been head and shoulders, the best driver on the grid in F1. And I think what he’s really done this year is absolutely cement his position amongst the greats in the sport. And I think that both statistically and on the way that he’s driven, that’s unquestionable now.
“He’s been inspirational from within the cockpit because weekend-in, weekend-out, he’s been delivering, and he’s driven brilliantly this year, and that obviously inspires the rest of the team.
“You only have to watch the out lap at the beginning of any Grand Prix weekend to see the level of confidence, the level of self-belief that he has in himself.
“And I think he’s driven with real maturity this year, because we haven’t had the fastest car at every race, and on the days that we haven’t had the fastest car, he’s made sure that he’s extracted the absolute best out of it and scored big points.”
Hamilton managed to charge from 10th to second in Las Vegas
Lewis Hamilton says that he had “one of the most enjoyable races” as he charged from 10th on the grid to second in Las Vegas after a frustrating qualifying session on Friday.
Hamilton didn’t set a competitive time in Q3 after making mistakes on both of his runs with what was a difficult car, stranding him in P10.
By the second round of stops he’d worked his way up to seventh, and then he spent the last stint chasing Mercedes team mate and race leader George Russell.
“Great, great performance,” he said. “It’s not that I didn’t think I could do it. So, yeah, I’ve had many races like this, but I’m generally happy to have had the recovery.
“It’s a new day and I just tried to approach it with a positive mindset, and to be able to have a car underneath me today, and be able to push and overtake people, was such a great feeling.
“That was honestly one of the most enjoyable races. Yeah, if I’d started pole and just led all the way, it wouldn’t have felt as much fun, for sure.
“Of course, winning a Grand Prix is always a great thing, but when whoever it is faces adversity and has to battle through, it just feels so much better when you do succeed.”
Asked about what might have been had he not had a difficult Q3 Hamilton downplayed any frustration.
“It doesn’t really matter, really, does it?,” he said. “At the end of the day, George did a great job, did everything he was supposed to do, and I’m happy for him and I’m just grateful I could get back up there to support the team with a 1-2.
“I had a great time. When you’re progressing and moving forward, it’s always a great feeling. It felt very much like my old days at Rye House, starting at the back and coming through, so it was great.”
He added: “We got a really good balance in the car today. It felt a lot better than it was yesterday, particularly Q3 yesterday. But yeah, just phenomenal for the team.”
Hamilton says he doesn’t know how the car will perform in the final races.
“I have no idea,” he said. “I don’t think anyone in the team knows why we were as quick as we were this weekend. And everyone will be happy about it. But I think often in the hotter conditions, we struggle more.
“Maybe Qatar is not so bad because it’s a little bit cooler there. And the track is very smooth. So maybe we’ll not be too bad at that track. I think we were OK there last year. Abu Dhabi, maybe less so. But we’ll see.”
Vegas didn’t go to plan for Ferrari. Picture: @tinnekephotography
Carlos Sainz said that “no one’s happy today in the team” after he and Ferrari colleague Charles Leclerc finished third and fourth in the Las Vegas GP.
The pair suffered from more tyre graining than had been anticipated in a race that proved difficult for the team to manage as the pair battled on track.
Sainz challenged his team on pit strategy and was also caught out when he was heading into the pitlane and was told at the last second to stay on track as the crew was not ready for him.
In so doing he lost extra time as well as having to complete one more lap on tyres that were past their best.
Leclerc expressed his frustration how the race unfolded with a sweary rant on the radio on the in-lap.
Sainz could not challenge George Russell and Lewis Hamilton up ahead, and insisted that graining and an overall lack of pace relative to Mercedes were the main issues.
“More challenges, more things going on than maybe what we expected,” he said. “I think today Mercedes was just the quicker car, the quicker package. I think George and Lewis drove a very good race.
“At the same time that us, we just struggled too much with graining, more than what we were anticipating. And yeah, it meant that we couldn’t push on the tyres.
“We were having to save so much that we couldn’t use the pace of the car. And yeah, we were just simply not fast enough. So yeah, not our day.”
Regarding how strategy played out he admitted that the team had made mistakes.
“We just simply didn’t execute in general,” he said. “We just didn’t execute a very good race. I think we stayed out one lap too late on mediums, two laps too late on hards.
“And by the time I was going to pit, we had this messy radio communication in the pit entry, which probably made me lose that lap that I was completely grained, and I had to let pass Charles plus the two or three seconds that I lost in the pit entry.
“That means a lot of race time that maybe would have meant we could have ended up fighting Lewis. But yeah, it just shows that in this sport, you need to do things perfectly week in, week out.
“We’ve been doing things really well in strategy and on race management all year around. But today wasn’t our day. We just didn’t do things well, and we will have to learn from it and make sure we come back in Qatar stronger.”
Expanding on how the race unfolded Sainz made it clear that he wasn’t happy with some of the calls.
“I think he grained the medium tyres and I managed to get ahead before the pit stop on mediums,” he said.
“Then I did grain my hards and he was coming quick behind me and me anticipating what was going to be a situation, because Lewis was straight behind Charles at the time, and I was pretty sure the team was going to ask me to let Charles by because he was quicker at the time.
“As I was on grained tyres, I asked the team two or three times to box me, to get me out of the way, and get me a new set of hards to make sure that I wasn’t losing a lot of race time by having to let Charles by and then having to fight Lewis at the same time.
“For some reason we didn’t box, and I ended up having to let Charles by a lap later than was planned and losing a lot of race time. And by the time I was going to box, then we didn’t even box.
“So I guess he’s not happy, but I’m also not happy with the way things were handled at the time.
“And yeah, I think no one’s happy today in the team because we all expected a bit more. I’m on the podium, so at least I got that for the team. But at the same time, I don’t think we could have finished much better than P3 and P4 today.”
Adam Cooper F1 