Max Verstappen’s Dominance (again), Fernando Alonso Grabs Podium, Mercedes Struggles, and Charles Leclerc Misses the Start.
Verstappen Makes In an Even Sweeter 17
In 2023, Max Verstappen continued his dominant streak as he maintained the lead, executed the optimal strategy, and claimed victory.
Throughout the grand prix, Verstappen faced relatively few challenges, and this win marked his 17th victory of the season, extending his career total to 52 wins, bringing him just one victory shy of Sebastian Vettel’s all-time career record.
“It has been a good weekend in Brazil. It was a great race and we had good all-round pace throughout. Again, it was a really long stint on the tyres and it was important to save them throughout as we had high tyre degradation. Lando had a good race and I had to work to defend in the first lap and maintain the gap.”
“He was close to me in stint one and pushed a bit harder on the newer compounds at the start but I stayed calm throughout the race, just relaxed and let the car roll into the corner. He did well and we had some good racing today. It has been quite a long triple header so looking forward to a few days break before preparing for Vegas. I am enjoying the moment and hopefully we can continue this success until the end of the year. ” – Said Max Verstappen
This victory held a certain redemptive quality, considering that São Paulo was the only race in the latter half of 2022 not won by Red Bull.
Chief engineer Paul Monaghan explained the team’s tire strategy, noting, “How we’ve chosen to operate the tires is different from last year, and that’s our own choice, and you can’t see the consequences of our choices—they’re subtle, it’s not a complete overhaul. The nice thing is that the theories surrounding last year’s performance here appear to have yielded positive results.”
Lando Norris of McLaren continued to impress, swiftly advancing from sixth to second, securing his 13th career podium. This achievement put him on par with Nick Heidfeld’s record for the most career podiums without a Grand Prix win, although it is likely that this particular accolade will return to Heidfeld. Unfortunately for Norris and McLaren, their impressive form aligns with Max Verstappen’s historic performance.
The race’s highlight undoubtedly revolved around the fierce battle for third place, with the remarkable Fernando Alonso successfully fending off Sergio Perez’s comeback attempts. In the closing stages, Alonso and Perez swapped positions multiple times, with the Aston Martin driver narrowly holding off the Red Bull by a mere 0.053 seconds at the finish line.
This marked a significant boost for Aston Martin and Alonso, who had been facing a challenging series of races. It was their return to the podium for the first time since the Dutch Grand Prix in August. Lance Stroll, Alonso’s teammate, also played a vital role by quietly and effectively securing a fifth-place finish.
Mercedes’ Wretched
Mercedes experienced a remarkable turnaround in its 2022 season with a spectacular 1-2 finish in São Paulo, with George Russell securing his first-ever grand prix victory.
Fast forward 12 months, and the situation couldn’t have been more different.
Mercedes faced early challenges and grappled with high tire degradation in the sweltering weather conditions, aggravated by their struggles with top speed. Both George Russell and Lewis Hamilton displayed a lack of pace during the Sprint race, and this issue persisted into the Grand Prix. The Mercedes W14 cars appeared to be out of their element, dealing a severe blow to the team’s hopes. This downturn in performance came as an unexpected setback, especially considering the promising form Mercedes had shown in recent rounds, primarily on Hamilton’s side of the garage.
“Mind-boggling weekend to understand,” said Russell. “Had relatively high expectations and just absolutely no pace at all. Same car as the last five races, so clearly we’ve got something wrong with the tyres and in a sprint race weekend when you get it wrong you can’t make amends for those issues. I mean…it’s…so many question marks. It’s the same car we had since Austin, where the car’s been capable of podiums every race – even before then, Singapore, Qatar, capable of podiums. This is clearly a substantial, one-off event. We need to understand what we’ve got wrong because right now we don’t really know.”
Russell retired once outside of the top 10 due to power unit concerns, while Hamilton struggled to finish just eighth, equaling his worst finish of the season.
Hamilton quipped “you never know with this car” in terms of performance and post-race cast doubt over Mercedes’ long-term prospects.
“I think ultimately all I can do is try and remain optimistic,” he said. “The Red Bull, I think, is so far away. I think they’re probably going to be very clear for the next couple of years.”
The Monday morning debrief in Brackley is not going to be a pleasant one.
Leclerc Doesn’t Even Make the Start
Ferrari has not had a good season, and both drivers had to undertake extreme amounts of lift and coast during Saturday’s Sprint to make it to the finish.
They also opted to save their new Soft tires for Sunday’s race, giving front-row starter Charles Leclerc a slight strategic play, but the luckless Leclerc didn’t even make it that far. As he rounded Turn 7 on the formation lap a puff of smoke from the rear indicated a hydraulic failure and he was pitched into a spin that took him into the barriers.
“Why am I so unlucky,” said a disconsolate Leclerc on the team radio—minus a few choice expletives. He attempted to recover the car to the pit lane but swiftly realized the damage was terminal.
Teammate Carlos Sainz made little inroads during the race and had to settle for a subdued sixth.
Despite its low-key race Ferrari managed to trim Mercedes’ lead to 20 points in the battle for second place in the championship.
AlphaTauri Form Continues, But Ricciardo Unlucky
AlphaTauri’s recent encouraging form continued as Yuki Tsunoda claimed sixth in Sprint and ninth in the main race. Those pair of results were sufficient to lift AlphaTauri clear of Alfa Romeo in eighth in the standings and to within seven points of seventh-placed Williams.
AlphaTauri’s day could have been even rosier but Daniel Ricciardo was a victim of a first-lap accident that eliminated two of his rivals. Nico Hulkenberg tagged Alex Albon on the run to the Senna S and he speared into Kevin Magnussen, before hitting the barriers. Magnussen’s trajectory took him into the back of Oscar Piastri while a loose tyre carcass struck the rear wing of Ricciardo’s AlphaTauri. The race was initially neutralised but was suspended after the second lap, but both Ricciardo and Piastri completed only one of those safety car laps due to being in the pit lane for repairs. It meant that the Australian duo had to take the restarted race from the pit lane, already one lap down.
“I saw a tire off the rim kinda Frisbeeing through the air, getting closer, I didn’t feel anything hit me so I was happy, but I checked my mirrors and checked my rear wing was a bit off,” said Ricciardo. “That was obviously frustrating. It’s nice it didn’t hit me but then hopefully there’s a red flag, we can get back in the race, we got back to the pits, team did a great job, ready to go, but then they tell me Oscar and I are starting a lap down.
“All the excitement gets zapped out of you. There was not a green flag lap completed, I don’t know how we started a lap down… frustrating. A bit lame in the rules.”
