2024 Brazilian GP: Post Race Analysis

Perhaps the best race of the year. Rain always seems to make races so much more exciting. A difficult day for all the teams and mechanics with an early qualifying. Inevitably some drivers were going to crash in the difficult conditions and put extra stress on all the mechanics to be ready for the race. So huge respect to all the effort by the mechanics and engineers within each team.

This entire weekend is proof that just because you have a job doesn't mean you are good at your job. Nearly everyone that runs F1 should be fired. Terrible timing with safety cars all weekend. They go from allowing Hulk to walk just meters off track before throwing a SC to throwing a SC when it wasn't needed. Everyone could see heavy rain was coming, everyone could see what it arrived. The track was properly wet and full wet tires seemed to be the only logical choice. Yet teams opted to stay on intermediates and then complained about no traction and aqua planing. Sorry, but if you choice the wrong tires for the conditions, that's on you. It seems the drivers and teams figured out that by crying that's unsafe to drive, they can avoid the heavy rain. It continues to make the full wet tires completely useless. The old school fans will have seen the conditions were good enough to race in, they have raced in much worse conditions before. Clear violations on the formation/restart and with making changes to the car yet the Stewards can't figure out penalties before the race actually got going, or during the long red flags? There's no reasonable excuses anymore. Moving on...

Red Bull Racing back on top. Max Verstappen not only showed why he's a 3x champ, but why he's the best driver in the world. One of the best drives from anyone over the last 10 years. From 17th to 1st in the 3rd best, maybe 4th best car in super tricky conditions. Was one of the only drivers to make passes without the help from mistakes in front. Then to pull out a 19 second lead in only the final 1/3rd of the race. Of course he got lucky with the Red Flag timing, but still an insane performance. Perez was in a fight all race, too bad for him it was for the last points position and he failed to get it. Of course he didn't help his race by spinning himself out early.

Alpine had a miraculous day. Also benefiting from the Red Flag timing but they had the perfect set up for todays conditions. They had proper pace and the typically faster cars couldn't keep up. To go from 9th to 6th in the WCC in just one race is unbelievable. Remember, Alpine was the worst car to start the season. You have to be happy for them.

Mercedes had an interesting day to say the least. On the one hand, George Russell was fighting for the win. Did the strategy call cost him a win? Hard to say but it didn't help. Regardless he didn't have the pace to even challenge the Alpine's over the last 20 or 30 laps so it's hard to believe he would have won the race. On the other hand, Lewis Hamilton exploited himself as being over rated once again. Unable to adapt to the car or the conditions and another example of not knowing how to set up the car. Supposedly one of the all time best in the rain, no signs of that today. Whatever is going on, he looked terrible while his teammate had a shot at the win. Probably should all be a moot point, as Mercedes broke the rules on both cars by changing tire pressures on the car after the aborted start. Typically these types of violations result in a DQ so perhaps both drivers shouldn't have been allowed to participate. George also had a restart violation so he's in double trouble and surely will drop places if/when it gets figured out.

Ferrari somehow finished ahead of McLaren today. Leclerc didn't have an easy race, the Ferrari didn't look great in any of the wet sessions. He made his share of mistakes but still had a reasonable result. It was strange when Sainz called it quits. The car looked okay enough to continue and just grab a new front wing. Perhaps there was suspension damage we couldn't see, but Sainz threw out his steering wheel almost immediately.

McLaren once again threw away a golden opportunity. At times they looked like they had a dominant car this weekend yet they self imploded. Lando Norris has a lot of talent in a very small window. Yet he makes a remarkable amount of mistakes. Once again failing to lead out of the first corner, going off track multiple times and simply not stepping up and giving a champions drive when it's needed. Simply put, he is not a champion driver. At least not yet. Piastri didn't fair much better. Deserved the 10 second penalty.

RB had a reasonably good day, but a scruffy one at that. Tsunoda had the cleanest race of the two cars, had okay pace and had a solid P7 result. Lawson once again had his elbows out and once again had a tough battle with Perez and even against Hamilton. Plus he got clipped by Piastri so he had a very eventful day it's quite impressive he even finished 9th.

Haas' run of great races comes to an end. Bearman did not look good. Loads of mistakes, bumping and banging into other cars. Just a miserable time out there. Yet he stayed in the fight just out of the points. I wonder if he had a clean race would he have scored some points. Hulk got DQ'd for getting marshal assistance. Long time F1 fans may remember Schumacher getting assistance in 2003 without penalty. Times have changed though.

Sauber were able to get both cars to the finish. Bottas had a pretty darn good race when you factor in he's driving by far the worst car. Zhou looked awful in any wet conditions this weekend. His days in F1 are numbered.

Aston Martin's season goes from bad to worse. Stroll being an absolute joke in qualifying, yet his ace teammate Alonso also stuffed it in the wall. Forcing the mechanics to work had just to get the cars on the grid. Kudos to them. The world joined in laughter as Stroll spins out on a formation lap, only to somehow drive himself into a sand pit and beach himself. So useless. Alonso surely had points on the table, but he made an uncharacteristic self induced error that cost him tremendously. A shame because he did manage to close 16 seconds on Zhou in 15 or so laps. He did have some very impressive pace and surely enough pace to be inside the top 10.

Williams. Almost forget them. Logan must be at home feeling better about himself, knowing he isn't the only one causing millions of dollars in damage. You truly have to feel bad for the mechanics at that team. What's crazy, is both drivers showed good pace in quali and yet they leave Brazil with crippling damages.

Driver of the Day. Max Verstappen. As easy of a decision as it gets. Fans voting 39% is why fans should not be allowed to vote. 100% of any true F1 fans give Max the DotD.