Perez had another tricky qualifying session in Las Vegas
Sergio Perez’s difficult recent run continued in Las Vegas when he failed to progress from Q1 and had to settle for 16th place on the grid.
Perez and team mate Max Verstappen both found the Red Bull RB20 unsuited to the street track, with the lack of a low drag rear wing relative to rivals causing a compromise.
However while Verstappen was able to make it to Q3 and qualify fifth Perez fell at the first hurdle.
“We’ve been lacking a lot of pace through the qualifying, and that’s been the main issue, really, for us,” said the Mexican.
“So it didn’t get any better. And in hindsight, we should have used two sets, given that we were not so competitive in Q1.
“The main struggle is really at low-speed with the tyres, that is where the main struggle comes from.
“I think just compromising the low-speed has been quite tricky. And then the sliding – I feel like if I slide a little bit too much one tyre, then I finish it.”
Expanding on his problems he said: “I think we got a fundamental issue at the moment with the car that is just not working for me, and it’s where the whole brain is going, to try and fix it up instead of being compromising.
“And at the moment we come to the weekends and we just explore a lot of things, and then it’s just a difficult one to make it work.
“It’s obviously not ideal. You want to be up there, especially when I know what I can do.
“But when you don’t have that grip underneath you, then it’s really hard, and you’re prone to a lot of mistakes and so on.”
Perez remains hopeful that the RB20 is better over a race distance.
“I think tomorrow is going to be a very tricky one,” he said. “So there’s a long race ahead. A lot of things will happen, and I believe that we are more competitive come races, because yesterday we looked a lot better over the long race than over a single lap.”
Norris indicated that Vegas has shown that the MCL38 isn’t easy to optimise
Lando Norris says that the low grip nature of the Las Vegas circuit doesn’t suit the McLaren MCL38 – and suggests that his qualifying performance showed how hard it is “to get everything out” of the car.
McLaren has had a string of pole positions this season, but in Las Vegas Norris could qualify only sixth, while his team mate Oscar Piastri was eighth.
Mercedes, Ferrari, Alpine and Red Bull each have at least one car ahead of Norris on the grid.
Asked by this writer about the surprise of the team only having the fifth fastest car in Q3 Norris joked about how rivals have talked up the Woking team this year.
“It’s incredible, especially because we have the fastest car by a mile, right?,” he said. “Yeah, weird. Maybe it’s the water in the tyres or something. All of this stuff, they’re right about everything!
“It’s just it’s very low grip, it just doesn’t suit us, doesn’t suit our characteristic of car. We have to drive the car on the perfect limit if we want to be quick. It takes a lot, I think, to get everything out of our car normally. When we do, we can be quick.
“Here it’s just too difficult to get everything out of the car. Every lap there’s another issue or a different issue, and it was just too much of a challenge. It’s been a challenge the last two days, nothing’s changed from yesterday.
“It’s just that others have turned up and gone lower fuel and things like that. Maybe it wasn’t our best Q3.
“I made a couple of small mistakes, but mistakes which were just very difficult to avoid, and it was just too difficult to put a clean lap in, because I’m trying to go quicker.
“But at the same time, I’m trying to not make any mistake. And a mistake around here can easily be one-tenth, two-tenths gone. So just too much of a challenge for us out there.”
Norris admitted that it wasn’t easy to find the right qualifying strategy at a track where it is hard to warm up the tyres.
“We were doing different stuff to what everyone else was doing. I have been all weekend happy with doing out-push. For Q3 we tried something else, and maybe it was not the best. I did the warmup-push, and no magic came our way.
“I don’t think there was maybe a correct one, but I think that wasn’t our issue today. It was more just our car balance and how we have to drive our car, it makes it too difficult.
“That’s our issue. It’s not tyres. It’s not because they’re too hot or too cold or all of this nonsense, or the water. It’s just our car doesn’t see these conditions.”
Regarding Saturday’s race he said: “It could be that we tomorrow, we put on the hard tyre, and things come our way a little bit. Every race this year, we struggled with graining. We’ve not been good on the softer tyres.
“That’s the same now, but it’s almost the case in a in a quali lap, you almost start to grain the tyres already. And we struggle a lot in these kinds of conditions.
“So I’m hoping when you put a medium on a little bit, I mean, they still grain very easily, but when you put the hard on, hopefully things click a little bit.
“It’s just our weaknesses on how the car is with the front tyres. It’s been an issue for a while. We’ve not been able to tackle it as much as what I would have liked at this point. And we’re paying the price for that kind of thing.”
Norris downplayed his battle with World Championship leader Max Verstappen, who has a good chance of securing the title in Saturday’s race.
“Whether he wins or not tomorrow, for me is not going to change anything,” he said. “He’s pretty likely to win the championship. But I’m here to race and do my best in every single race I can, whether Max finishes ahead or not, that’s life.
“He’s only just ahead of us today. I think we have a chance to beat them tomorrow, but I’ll go out and do my best, like I do in every single race. And whatever the outcome is, the outcome is.”
Russell admits that his Las Vegas pole was a surprise… Photo: @tinnekephotography
George Russell says that his pole position at the Las Vegas GP came as “a real surprise” for his Mercedes Formula 1 team – and he’s at a loss to explain why the W15 is so competitive on the street track.
Between them Russell and team mate Lewis Hamilton topped every practice session over Thursday and Friday.
Russell was fastest in Q1 and then Hamilton repeated that feat in Q2. However while Hamilton then struggled and made mistakes in the final session Russell was fastest on his first run despite touching the wall.
After a front wing change he then went even fastest on his second run to secure pole.
“I’d love to tell you, to be honest, it’s been a real surprise for all of us,” he said when asked where the speed came from.
“And it’s something we need to really review because this is an outlier circuit. We haven’t done anything out of the ordinary specifically for Vegas, but for whatever reason, the conditions, the layout, are playing in our favour.
“And I’m kind of scratching my head as to why. You know, we will ride with it for the time being. But as I said, if you’re quick in Vegas, it’s a bit of a one-off circuit. So we need to understand it.
“And of course, one of our other poles was in Canada as well, which is very cold, street circuit-esque conditions too, so there’s a small trend.”
The car’s pace had been apparent from the start of practice on Thursday.
“It’s incredibly satisfying, and especially knowing the car’s been so quick all weekend,” said Russell.
“As a team, we’ve topped every single session. And nevertheless, when you get to Q3, you know what’s happened beforehand has no influence whatsoever. So the pressure kind of is ramped up.
“And it was a little bit touch and go for a moment because we had to change the front wing. I wasn’t sure if I was going to get the last lap. But then it was a super strong lap, especially the first two sectors, and just really, really pleased to secure the pole.”
Russell told his team to ensure that he was last out for the final runs at the end of Q3 to ensure that he had the best conditions, and he only had a few seconds to spare.
Asked how much the track was ramping up he said: “Massively. I think probably between the very first car and the very last car who does their lap, it’s probably over a tenth. It’s probably the biggest track ramp of the whole season.
“So I wanted to put it all on the line. And, you know, it’s high risk. I knew that if there were no yellow flags, then we would, you know, we had the possibility to be on the front row.
“But ultimately, as well, I want to say thanks to the guys in the garage to get the front wing change so quick as well, because, as I said, I touched the wall in the first run and we could have missed that last run altogether.”
Russell is confident that he can hang on at the front of the field.
“I think tomorrow we should have the pace to fight for the win,” he said. “At the same time, there’s too many unknowns to confirm or deny that. A lot of it will be graining, graining limitation, who can control the graining better.
“But even if we might see some teams struggling a lot on medium tyres, then the hard resets everything again because no one’s run the hard. And we know that we are not the best team on hard tyres this season. Too many unknowns to tell, but I’m confident that we can fight for a win.”
Max Verstappen admits that the lack of an ultra low drag rear wing for the Red Bull RB20 has been “a bit of a handicap” in Las Vegas.
The team opted some time ago not to devoted limited resources in terms of both the cost cap and aero testing into making a wing that would only be used at fast circuits like Vegas and Monza.
The team realised early in Thursday’s practice session that rivals had a much more effective package for the street circuit.
Some modifications to the wings of the cars for Friday by trimming away some carbon.
After a difficult start to FP3 managed to find some performance, with Verstappen eventually taking fifth on the grid.
“We know that with our wing naturally you lose top speed, especially with DRS open,” said the Dutchman. “It’s a bit of a handicap. We knew that, and that’s something, of course that we have to deal with on a track like this, a track like Monza.
“But also besides that, I always felt like the tyres were a bit of a struggle for us to get them in the right operating window. I do think that we did the best we could in qualifying with what we had, and then P5 is the result.
“I mean, we got a bit lucky of course with Lewis [Hamilton] not putting a lap in, otherwise it would have been P6. I think we really maximised what we could.”
Verstappen confirmed that the team had made a strategic call not to produce an ultra low drag wing.
“We opted to not make one,” he said. “We don’t have one. So this is already from 2022. I think we just never thought that we would run it that low, and then with the budget cap you choose your priorities.
“Would I have liked to have a lower wing, a lower downforce wing? Yeah for sure, or at least a different shape, a more efficient shape. It’s something that we’ll look at.
“But on the other hand there’s only one more year left with these rules, and I don’t know if it makes sense. For me, at least, it feels a bit like we throw away two race weekends like this, because you definitely lose too much on the straight.”
Verstappen admitted that the wing will make his life harder in the race.
“Naturally of course, the wing is not the most efficient,” he said. “Hopefully with everyone’s DRS closed it’s a little bit better, because when you trim your DRS you have less of a DRS effect. And that’s what is quite painful in qualifying.
“In the race, when you try to pass people, you have less of an effect. So that will be a bit more difficult.
“But yeah, hopefully we’re just decent on tyres. My long runs haven’t been really that good, but we also made some changes to the car, and hopefully that will help the tyres out as well.”
Regarding RBR’s main rivals he said: “Well, hopefully, of course, I can fight really hard. I don’t think at the moment I can fight with Ferrari or Mercedes, they have been too quick.
“And of course, Lewis is starting P10, so he will move forward. And with McLaren, I don’t know, both of us were struggling a bit in the long run, but they made some changes. We made some changes. So we have to wait and see how that will how that will go.”
Valtteri Bottas says that there are “exciting things ahead” after he lost his Sauber seat to Gabriel Bortoleto.
The Finn remained in contention for the drive until the late stages as team boss Matteo Binotto weighed up the pros and cons of taking an experienced driver or a rookie.
Bottas has been linked with a future reserve role elsewhere, notably at Mercedes.
“I think the closer we’re getting to that date, I did definitely figure out that there were other drivers as candidates as well,” he said. “And of course, you start to hear rumours.
“So then in the end, I still thought it’s maybe 50-50 chance. And yeah, I got the call on the Monday. But yeah, at least I know now. I just need to figure out what’s next.”
Asked if he had come to terms with the decision he said: “Yeah, absolutely. You know, life goes on. There’s lots of exciting things ahead.
“And yeah, I’m fine with it. It’s a tricky sport. You know, I think I got into a bit unlucky situation, in terms of hanging on to the last seat on the grid. And when that doesn’t happen, then obviously you’re out for now.
“I was talking to lots of people earlier, because obviously by the end of your contract year you want to figure out but nothing went further and I still always showed my interest for the Audi project. But it just wasn’t meant to be and like I said, a bit unlucky.”
Bottas made it clear that he still feels he has a future in F1.
“The way my active F1 driving career ended for now, it wasn’t the best way that you can’t really decide yourself. I feel like still I have lots to give for the sport and I still love it.
“I love the racing against the best drivers in the world, in the best cars in the world. That’s what I love. So I’m just trying to figure out now what is the next move. So yeah, I don’t really have that much more. I’m taking it day by day. There’s some interesting stuff on the table, and then we’ll see.”
He downplayed the chances of driving in another category in 2025: For me, at the moment, I feel like jumping into a new category comes quite quick. We’re almost in December.
“So yeah, I think that would be more realistic that if I didn’t find a seat in F1 during ‘25 or for ‘26, then probably would be from ‘26. But it’s all these things that I need to kind of try and plan. But the picture is starting to form in my head what is the ideal situation.”
Leclerc says Ferrari is ignoring distractions [Picture: @tinnekephotography]
Charles Leclerc says that the Ferrari Formula 1 team’s collective mindset is the key to the Italian outfit’s strong form in 2024.
Leclerc believes that under Fred Vasseur the team has learned to ignore “outside noise” and work in a more disciplined way.
The team has won five races this season, and is chasing McLaren in the battle for the constructors’ World Championship.
“I think the mindset is a big part of why we are much stronger as a team now,” said Leclerc. “In F1, and especially around Ferrari, there are always rumours, there are always things that are being said.
“There’s obviously very deep analysis on why we are not performing at this race, or why we are really good at this race. And all this outside noise in the past used to affect us a little bit, and in the way we worked.
“And I think since Fred got within the team there’s been a big step forward in that, and I think that helps the whole team to work better, to work in a more disciplined way, without being affected by the outside perception, which is very, very important. So that was a that was a big step forward.”
Leclerc remains confident that Ferrari can still catch McLaren in the championship fight.
“I think the target is to beat McLaren, and we really think that we have a shot at it this year,” he said. “We’ve been particularly strong in the last three races, but we are also aware that we cannot rely on the good results of the last three races.
“We’ve got to focus step-by-step, as I was saying. And the mentality is super important in those times, and not let yourself be carried away with the positive environment we are in at the moment, and just work as hard as whenever we were in a tough time.
“And that’s what we are trying to do, to try and put everything together, to first of all focus on this race and try to maximise everything. There are still lots of points to grab this weekend, but in Qatar, there will be a sprint weekend as well, so quite a lot of points. So we’ve just got to stay on it and stay focused until the end.”
Ferrari is expected to be strong in Las Vegas this weekend in terms of its overall aero and mechanical package.
However Leclerc acknowledges that tyre warm-up could be a problem in the cold conditions.
“I do still think that this could be the case,” he said. “However, we don’t exactly know how much that did change from last year. I mean, it’s very difficult to compare obviously a completely different car.
“However, we know that we are better on tyres, that we are less aggressive on them, which means that the temperature builds up a little bit slower, and on track like this, where tyre warm up is going to be an issue, it was the an issue for everybody last year, I expect it to be a bit more of an issue this year.
“Don’t get me wrong, I still think that is going to be a positive weekend for us. I think on paper, it seems that our car characteristics are fitting this track, and I think we should be fast.”
Gasly hasn’t sustained any damage thus far in 2024
Pierre Gasly says his record of not sustaining any crash damage with his Alpine A524 Formula 1 car this season is “a great stat” and important for the Enstone team.
Damage has become a key factor in the budget cap era as teams have to account for all parts used over the season, and resources put into making replacements can have an effect on car development.
Crashes have had a huge impact on Williams, with the team having five major incidents over the Mexican and Brazilian GP weekends.
Gasly’s statistic became a talking point on social media in recent weeks, and the Frenchman is keen to maintain the record to the end of this season.
“It makes it easier to insure my cars back home!,” he joked when asked by this writer about his feat. “It’s a great stat, and at the end of the day, it’s also a very, very, very important for the team, because this money is also something which goes into the budget cap.
“So it does play a factor in the development throughout the year, and what it offers the team in terms of parts and money available.
“So obviously, we’ll try to keep it that way until the end of the year. You go into every race trying to fight at the limit. And I must say, on a season like this year, I was most of the year in the middle of the pack, so I’m not too sure, but I managed to keep it clean.”
Asked how he’s managed to stay out of trouble he said: “I think you’ve got to have a look at when is it coming from a driver mistake and error from a driving point of view, and sometimes it’s just racing incidents, and you’re not so much involved.
“At the end of the day, since the budget gap came into play, this is something we discuss a lot with the team, because it does play a big factor into the resources of the team. So I think it’s actually very positive and important to keep it that way.”
Gasly noted that Alpine’s double podium in Brazil had had a positive effect on a team that had been struggling in ninth in the championship and has now jumped up to sixth.
£I was very pleased just to see the impact of such a result on the motivation, the energy,” he said. “I spent a couple of days back at the factory, and just the smiles on everybody’s face, and just the feeling of the pride of all the guys of achieving such a result on such a difficult season.
“So big motivation, especially going into next season. I think we needed it after the season we’ve had. And I mu say every single person I came across at the factory was absolutely buzzing. So great to see.”
Gasly qualified fifth in Las Vegas last year, before dropping out of the points with tyre issues in the race. He’s hopeful that that can be addressed.
“I think last year was a fantastic quali,” he said. “The first stint, I was fighting with George [Russell] for top three, and then I fitted the hard and I had a terrible graining on the hard, and I just dropped back the order the last 30 laps.
“So I know exactly what I need to work on for this weekend. It’s a track I like, it’s a street track, it offers the usual challenges of a street track. Obviously we’re coming here with some confidence, and at the same time knowing on my side what I need to really work on.”
Norris has accepted that the title is now a long shot
Lando Norris says he has “less to lose” now that the gap to Formula 1 World Championship leader Max Verstappen has grown to 62 points.
At the last race in Brazil Verstappen won while Norris fell back to sixth place, having started from pole.
The McLaren driver says that with his chances of beating the Dutchman now mathematically much slimmer he can “enjoy a little bit more” the final races of the season.
“I kind of know the position I’m in now, and probably I have less to lose now,” he said when asked about his mindset ahead of the Las Vegas GP.
“For the first time, probably when I’ve looked at the gap myself, and had the realisation of where things stand, and I think post-Brazil was a tough one for me because it was the first moment realistically when I’m like it’s tough to achieve first position now.
“We were on such a good run of form, little by little, you know, it’s hard to get any big points on Max, because he didn’t have any bad races, but I had a tough week, because things just didn’t go our way, and my kind of real fight for the championship was slimmed by the biggest margin of almost of the whole year, so a tricky one.
“But it doesn’t change my approach. My approach has been correct. My approach has been the right approach for the last few weekends. I’ve been performing well. I’ve been doing a good job.
“So from my side, I need to not change anything, but I think I can probably just go out and enjoy a little bit more.”
Norris insisted that whatever happens in this year’s championship he’s proved to himself that he’s capable of fighting for the title in the future.
“I think it’s the first time in the last six years of F1 when we’ve had a chance to fight at the front,” he said. “We’ve not been able to do that for the last six years.
“So this is our and my first opportunity to do so, and my first opportunity to see where I stand. And I definitely was not at the level I needed to be at the beginning of the year, and even the Miami point of the season.
“Since the summer break, I feel like I’ve done a very good job and performed very, very well, by far some of my best performances that I’ve done. So I’ve been very happy, actually, with how the last few months have gone, honestly. I wouldn’t change many things that have happened.
“But I still need to make tweaks. I still need to improve on things. That’s clear. I’m not completely satisfied with how I’ve done. I definitely know I need to make improvements.
“But for the first time, I’m confident to say that I have what I think I need to fight for a championship.
“Doesn’t mean I’m complete, doesn’t mean I’m perfect, that’s for sure. And when you’re competing against drivers who are close to that, like Max, you have to be close to perfect if you want to challenge him, you know, and challenge the teams we’re around.
“So I’m confident and I think the main thing I can take away is I have faith that I have got what it takes to fight for a championship.”
Norris admitted that while McLaren has a 36-point advantage in the constructors’ championship, it is still wide open.
“It’s close,” he said. “I mean, Ferrari have been strong for a long time. They have two very good drivers. They’re a very good team. They’ve clearly improved their car a good amount and found a better direction to head down.
“And they’ve become, probably with us, and some races a bit better, some races a little bit behind, some races the same, as a competitor.
“Red Bull are close at the same time. So it’s more who can just do a better performance on the weekend. But we do know that Vegas is probably a track that will suit the Ferraris a bit more. It suited them well last year. But Qatar we know maybe will be more favourable to us again.”
Franco Colapinto has paid tribute to the Grove staff
Franco Colapinto says that the Williams Formula 1 factory staff are “the heroes of the week” after they manged to get two FW46s ready for the Las Vegas GP following the team’s disastrous Interlagos weekend.
In Brazil Alex Albon failed to make the start after his crash in qualifying, while Colapinto went off in both qualifying and the race.
The damage sustained, which came right after two incidents for Albon in Mexico, left the team scrambling to get two race cars and spares ready for Vegas.
“It was a tough weekend in Brazil,” said Colapinto. “I think over these past six races, I have had five very good ones. It’s been full of new challenges, like every weekend I’ve had something new.
“Brazil was an exception. It’s just that I didn’t really manage well the race. In the wet it’s sometimes like a switch. The tyres were not fully in. There was a lot of aquaplaning, and the situation was always more tricky.
“Unfortunately for the team we left the race with a lot of damage. But the boys in the workshop have been working so hard to get the cars back here in Vegas in the latest spec. The cars are looking great.
“The guys did a fantastic job in the in the factory. So very proud of them. They are the heroes of the week by far. So, yeah, very grateful.”
Asked by this writer about the tight spares situation is he said: “You can imagine that after a triple header, where we had a lot of, a lot of damage in Mexico – Alex had a lot, in Brazil, we had a lot with both cars – it’s going to be tough. But I think the cars are fully ready for it, and the team is doing a great job to get the spares ready.
“And we are looking strong, we are looking strong as a team. Maybe it looks worse than what it is. I think we are in a good position, and we have to be aggressive.
“We lost eighth place in the championship, so we are going aggressive now, and trying to recover points, race to race, and until Abu Dhabi there is always an opportunity, so we’ll try until then to do our best.”
He added: “It is very important that both cars have a clean last few races. It is important always to close the year in a right way, to close the year with points, hopefully.
“You are only as good as your last race. And our last race was not great. So we have to recover from that. I’m sure we can do. We have a good car for this track as well. So looking forward to it.”
Aston Martin experienced a tricky weekend in Brazil
Aston Martin Formula 1 performance director Tom McCullough says that the bumpy nature of the resurfaced Interlagos track contributed to “a difficult race” for the Silverstone team.
Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll both crashed in Sunday morning’s wet qualifying session after showing some good initial speed.
The cars were repaired for the race, but Stroll went off on the formation lap and Alonso finished 14th after struggling with bouncing and a painful back.
“It was a difficult race,” McCullough told this writer. “I think the consistency of the car, it’s not easy to drive, and we’ve seen that for a while now. Both drivers were really struggling.
“So yes, we had some reasonable pace at times with Fernando, but we were also struggling with locking both front and rear, and the very bumpy nature of the track didn’t play to our strengths.
“The track was resurfaced, and was by far the worst-riding track of the year. So we could make the car nicer from a ride perspective, but it costs performance, so we’re always playing that balance.”
Regarding Stroll’s pre-race off he said: “”The rundown to Turn 4 was particularly bumpy. We found that difficult all weekend. We tried working with setups to help that. But the car is struggling in those areas at the moment.
“It’s an old school track, it bites. It was wet, and it bit a lot of people, didn’t it? It’s got walls quite close by as well.”
Things were made more complicated in the race by a switch to an alternative floor spec for both drivers as a result of the qualifying accidents.
The initial pace in wet qualifying did at least provide some encouragement for the team.
“I think throughout qualifying ordering the cars were competitive, which was good,” said McCullough. “We made a lot of changes, and with the understanding of the tyres, and the wet setup that most people had gone to and that we went to, we were definitely more competitive.
“So it was disappointing to finish quali with damage to both cars, but good to get them both into the top 10.”
Regarding the remaining races of the 2024 season he said: “We don’t have any more updates coming. It’s about maximising the spec of the car for the three very different kinds of tracks. And we’ve got to score some points in those three races.
“I think that will maybe play a bit more to our strengths, based on what we’ve seen so far this year. So we go there trying to score some points.”
Adam Cooper F1 