Tag Archives: Ferrari

Max Verstappen is adamant that Lando Norris was in the wrong when he was docked five second for gaining an advantage by overtaking off track in the closing stages of the US GP.

The pair were battling for third place when Norris made his move, and having received the penalty the McLaren driver was only able to gain 4.1 seconds on the Dutchman, and thus dropped back to fourth in the final result.

There were contrasting views about what happened, with many people sharing McLaren’s view that Norris was forced wide by Verstappen. However the World Champion was adamant that he was the innocent party.

“I think it’s quite clear,” he said. You can’t overtake outside of the white line. I mean, I got done for it also here in, I think, 2017 or whatever it was. So I lost my podium like that.

“So I just remained calm, tried to do the best I could after that to bring the car to the end, because it was not easy with the tyres and the situation that I was in. But yeah, overall, I still really enjoyed that battle that we had.”

Asked if he had any sympathy for McLaren’s suggestion that Norris was forced wide he said: “No, I don’t. I mean, they complain about a lot lately anyway, but it’s very clear in the rules. Outside the white line, you cannot pass. I’ve been done for it as well in the past.”

Verstappen and Norris had another incident at the start, when poleman Norris was forced wide by the Dutchman, and both lost out to Leclerc.

“There was a gap on the inside, so I went for it,” he said. “That corner is very wide, so it gives you a lot of opportunity of going very wide or try to go really tight. I chose for that option, and I still came out second! Started second, came out second out of Turn 1.

“This time, of course, it was Charles in front. I think it worked out quite well for me because Charles was anyway faster, so he just pulled away. From there, I just tried to do my own race.”

Verstappen made it clear that it wasn’t a straightforward race for him as he dealt with various issues.

“I think today wasn’t the best race for us compared to yesterday, for example,” he said. “Just struggling for balance, for grip. Couldn’t really brake, rotate the car. So yeah, quite quickly onwards, I realised that we’re not going to win the race. But just tried to do my own race.

“I think we did the best strategy we could as a team. And then it was just surviving to the end. And then, of course, Lando arrived. We had some really good battles, honestly. It was really a lot of fun. But yeah, overall, it was still quite a tough race for me.”

Crucially Verstappen beat Norris in both the sprint and the main race, thus extending his championship lead.

“That is definitely the positive,” he said. “I did hope for a little bit more performance today, so that’s what we have to analyse, why today we were just not that good.

“I think everyone was a little bit better or at least the same as yesterday, and it felt like we were definitely worse. So I need to understand why that was, because I don’t know at the moment.”

Leclerc won in some style in Austin after passing the title contenders

Charles Leclerc says he had a “lonely race” to victory in the Formula 1 US GP – and he hopes to reproduce that form in the future.

Leclerc qualified only fourth but he got ahead of team mate Carlos Sainz before jumping Lando Norris and Max Verstappen when the pair ran wide at the exit of the first corner as they fought each other.

Once in front Leclerc soon established a healthy lead that ensure he was never under threat, and later in the race he had Sainz riding shotgun in second.

“It feels really good as every victory feels special for its own reason,” he said. “And obviously from the start I felt really good with the car.

“I was quite confident from yesterday, because even though there were quite a lot of fights yesterday, the car felt great, and we knew that we had a good race pace.

“We were a little bit more sceptical about qualifying but P4 was good. And then after that start, when I got out of Turn 1 into first, I knew that it was all about trying to use the pace of the car that we had yesterday, and trying to take care of those tyres.

“And the car felt great. So from that moment onwards, it was a bit of a lonely race, but it’s a good kind of lonely. And I hope we can reproduce that in the future.”

Expanding on the start he said: “I knew that Max and Lando would be very aggressive towards each other. I mean, they are fighting for the championship. I got a good start.

“I saw that Max was going towards the inside as well as Lando and I was like, ‘I’m just going to prepare the exit of the corner’, which was obviously a winning bet. And from that moment onwards, then I could focus on my own race.

Leclerc admitted that it was difficult to judge the car’s form from race to race.

“I wish I could tell you exactly, but it’s always difficult because we rely on very small gaps that could make a big difference,” he said. “So it’s very difficult to predict where we will be in the next few races.

“However, we’ve said since two or three races in Monza, in Baku, in Singapore, we brought a few upgrades, and we were always waiting for Austin because it was going to be the real test for those upgrades.

“And it seems to be working all good. So that is positive for the future. It doesn’t mean that we’ll be having every Sunday the way it’s been today, but it means that we are working in the right direction, and that can only be positive. So I hope we can reproduce these kind of results more often.”

Ferrari now lies 48 points behind McLaren in the World Championship with five races left to run.

“We’ve got to target winning the constructors’ title,” said Leclerc. “It’s an optimistic goal, but that’s what we are here for. So, yeah, we’ll do the math at the end of the season. Until then, I think the best thing we can do is to focus on ourselves, on our own performance, just like we did this weekend.

“It’s been a really good weekend for the team and for the constructors’ title. And we’ll try and reproduce that as often as possible. And hopefully at the end of the year, when we do the math, we will have won the constructors’ title.”

He downplayed his own chances of winning the drivers’ championship: “I mean, never say never. Let’s say that for the constructors, if we do everything perfect until the end of the season, no matter what McLaren does, if we do better than them, I think we can still clinch that title.

“With the drivers’, I see it a bit in a different way. Even if we do everything perfect, I feel like it will require a little bit of luck inside that to try and get that title, and we cannot really rely on luck. So the drivers’ seems to be quite unlikely. But again, I’ll believe in it until it’s mathematically impossible. But trickier.”

Leclerc is upbeat about Ferrari’s prospects

Charles Leclerc believes that a “race win is possible” for Ferrari in Austin based on the team’s performance in Saturday’s sprint.

However he cautions that Red Bull and McLaren may have improved their cars with changes made before qualifying.

Carlos Sainz finished second and Leclerc fourth in the sprint, and they appeared to have the fastest cars on the track over the full distance.

In qualifying for the main event they earned third and fourth, with Sainz again ahead.

Leclerc acknowledged that Lando Norris and Max Verstappen were out of reach over one lap.

“None of us were capable of going to fight with the top two, they were too fast, but that’s also what we expected as a team,” he said.

“The first sector in qualifying yesterday and today, we knew we have a limitation in our car at the moment, and none of the setup options we thought of would cure that issue.

But in the race, we have a lot less that issue, and so that’s why I’m a bit more optimistic for tomorrow’s race.

Asked if a win was possible he said: “If we see the same race pace as today, I think it is. I think McLaren and Red Bull, most likely will do a step forward in terms of car setup for tomorrow, and we need to see how much of a step forward that is on lap times. But if we see the same race pace as this morning, for sure, the race win is possible.”

Ferrari came to Austin with an unchanged car, and Leclerc suggested that the team is learning more about the updates introduced in recent races.

“I think we did, if I assess what we see and what we feel from the beginning of the weekend,” he said.

“But tomorrow is the real test, obviously, with the whole race, but if we see a similar pace to this morning, tomorrow in the race, I think we did a step forward, for sure, because it’s normally quite a good track to look at all characteristics of a car.”

Regarding potential tyre issues in the race he said: “I think it’s quite balanced. So as a driver, you can play with either you want to have front degradation or rear degradation. So it depends a little bit how you drive. And yeah, we’ll see how everybody manages tyres.”

Norris says he would have been worse off without the latest updates

Lando Norris has no regrets about his McLaren Formula 1 team bringing an update package to a sprint weekend despite struggling to optimise the MCL38 with only one practice session.

Norris insisted that he would be worse off without the new package, which is highlighted by a new front wing, despite admitting that the car was far from optimised for the track.

Norris started the Austin sprint in fourth and ran second for most of the event after making a good start, although Carlos Sainz demoted him to third on the last lap. He thus lost two points to winner Max Verstappen.

Asked by this writer if he would be better off had he had a stable car with no new parts – as is the case with Ferrari this weekend – Norris made his views clear.

“No, I’m very happy we brought updates here, otherwise I’d be even further down the grid,” he said. “The team have done a good job to get the bits here. We’ve had some great races lately, like Singapore and other places, but everyone thought we were easily and way far ahead of everyone.

“And clearly we’re not. Even if you go back to Baku, both Red Bull and Ferrari were quicker than us. I think we’re close. But even when I look at the data comparing to yesterday, we’re a long way off of what Ferrari could achieve, what Mercedes could achieve.

“So, yeah, I think it’s going to be tough. It’s an opportunity for us to improve into qualifying, but these upgrades have made us go quicker, so we’ve been even further down without them.”

Norris said he was happy with the sprint outcome, despite being pipped by Sainz at the end.

“It was as a good start, a good Turn 1, which was nice to have, and immediately behind Max. It was pretty straightforward from that point onwards, George [Russell] was pushing a lot in the beginning of the race, clearly a bit too much, and he paid the price. I didn’t think I would ever be able to get Max.

“We’ve been struggling a bit all weekend, so my chance of getting Max was tough, but I did the best I could to manage my tyres and things like that. But at the end of the race, the Ferraris were at another level comparing to us.

“I did my best to try and hold on but there was that was pretty much zero chance I would ever hold on to second place today. From fourth, happy we moved up, we put up a good fight, but we just didn’t have the pace this weekend.”

Asked what he’d learned from the sprint he said: “Once the front tyres are gone, we’re quite slow! We didn’t get a lot of practice, we didn’t get a lot of running in FP1.

“And it’s hard to judge everything all in one go. And with tarmac being different, and bumps being different is hard to optimise the setup. So we’ll review everything and see what improvements we can make.”

Verstappen finally has that winning feeling again

Max Verstappen says that remaining calm through a difficult spell with the RB20 was the key to the Red Bull Formula 1 team finding its winning form again in Austin.

The Milton Keynes team came to COTA with an update package that helped Verstappen to secure pole for the sprint and then win it with ease.

It was his first victory since the Spanish GP in June, and came after a run of eight race weekends with a victory.

“I think what has been very important for us in the last few races is to remain calm and just work on the problems,” he said. 

“And that’s what we have done as a team. Just focus on ourselves. That’s the only thing that you can influence and control.”

Verstappen made it clear what it mean to return to the front of the field.

“I’m happy,” he said. “It’s been of course quite a few races where it was more like just looking behind, never really being able to attack, and now find the car had definitely had just more performance. I could push a bit harder.

“So very, very happy with today. I mean, looking at the whole race, I think Ferrari was also very quick. But for us, this was already much, much better.

“Of course, always a very hectic weekend like this, to get the car in the right window. But luckily, the last few times that we had a sprint, I think the car was in a good window. So, yeah, there’s a bit more pressure on delivering, but luckily, it’s working out for us.”

Asked if the RB20 was now back where it was earlier in the year he said: “Back where it was at the beginning of the season is difficult to say, because everyone is improving as well. It just feels a bit more together.

“And I think that is what we have been lacking. I mean, over one lap you can mask a lot of issues, but in of course, in the race, you need a balanced car, which was a bit of a struggle for us last year races. And now today, it was definitely a lot better.”

Regarding the rest of the weekend he added: I think over the whole race distance today, I think Ferrari was, was very fast. We’ll look into things to improve going into qualifying. But it’s a bit difficult to tell at the moment how we would be on full fuel.”

Alonso says the Austin updates won’t for make a dramatic change in form

Fernando Alonso has downplayed the significance of Aston Martin’s update package for the Formula 1 US GP and suggested that new parts won’t be a “game changer” for any team.

The Spaniard says that at this stage of the season it will be hard for any teams to find significant performance with their latest upgrades.

Aston’s Austin package includes a revised floor, and is seen as in part as a preview of the direction that the team is taking for 2025.

“I don’t think expectations can be too high,” he said. “We have some new parts, but I don’t think that it will change the full picture.

“I think this part of the championship, the upgrades are quite small. I think all of them are just also in line to what the 2025 car is looking at the tunnel. So it’s more a half-test, half-performance, introduction.

“And for us, it’s important as keeping the good understanding of the car that I think we started to have after Budapest, and that’s probably the main target for this weekend, try to have a good correlation, and see that all the new parts are doing what we expect from them.

“In terms of performance and positions in qualifying of the race, I don’t think that is going to be a game changer for anybody.”

Asked by this writer how vital it would be to hit the ground running he said: “It’s going to be important.

“Sprint weekends are obviously a little bit more challenging, because you cannot really optimise things, and especially when you bring new parts to the car or something, then you have only that that shot in FP1, and then you commit at least for half of the weekend this year.

“But yeah, starting with the right feeling and confidence in the car will be important. That’s why today’s preparation and meetings are a bit more delicate than any other weekend, trying to get it everything right.”

He added: “After Budapest, we understood some of the directions that we took in the past, and why it was not correlated properly on track, and that package was a good sign on what we wanted to achieve, and this is just a continuation of that.

“So I think we are reasonably optimistic that correlation will be good, and tomorrow we will see what we want to see.

“But in terms of performance, as I said, when you are at this part of the championship, all the gains are very marginal. All the other teams, they are bringing as well.

“So even if you bring one tenth, half a tenth, the other ones, they are bringing half a tenth, one tenth, and you keep in the same position. So I think it’s going to be the case of this weekend.”

He agreed that there is an opportunity for Aston to benefit by getting it right in FP1 while other teams struggle.

“For sure, I think more than the specifics of the upgrades, I think it’s going to be more important to get it right straight away. Because if you bring a performance package of one-tenth and you get it wrong, maybe you lose two compared the previous race.

“And if you bring half a tenth and you exploit everything of that half a tenth, maybe it becomes one-tenth when you put it on track.

“So the difference can be quite big if you get it right or wrong. And we have only one session. So it’s one of those FP1s that you want everything clean.

“Last year, remember, we went out of Q1 because we had a very messy FP1, brake problems. We had fire on the brakes. Lance did I think one installation lap in the whole FP1, I did eight laps, and that compromised the whole weekend. So this is a big focus into this year’s free practice.”