Brazil, a track known to have given us the occasional memorable race in the past, pulled out all the stops and threw down the drama gauntlet to all future F1 races. We had the full "Wide World of Sports" (tm) experience from the thrill of victory to the agony of defeat. There was a point in time over the weekend where the drivers' championship seemed to be Norris' for the taking but at the end of the day, Verstappen emerged all but untouchable. Also, if I'm reading my notes correctly, there appears to be an emerging consensus that Lance Stroll does not possess the appropriate skill level to compete in F1.
We really did see the full spectrum of talent currently competing in F1. Verstappen, facing a grid drop do to an PU change, needed to qualify at the front. The team struggled all weekend with general pace and while he was occasionally fast in qualifying trim he was never a real threat for the front of the grid until the rain came. In the low-grip changeable conditions of qualifying, Max showed he was a real threat. His failure to advance to Q3 was down to luck and timing rather than the pace of the car and come Sunday afternoon, he put on a master class of wet-weather driving and low-grip car control.
The Dutchman drove through the field from 17th to 1st, never putting a wheel wrong while the team judged the tricky conditions perfectly, capitalizing on the mistakes of others and (admittedly) getting lucky with the timing of the safety cars. Max's drive at Interlagos was one for the history books and will remembered as such for a long time.
The Alpines filled in the rest of the podium, scoring more than twice as many points in this race as they have scored the entire year before this. However, it wouldn't be accurate to say this came out of nowhere. They've been showing steady, if slow, improvement since the summer break and have been on the cusp of points pretty much every race since then. There's no doubt they got lucky, but they have worked very hard to be in a position where getting lucky would be rewarding.
On the other end of the spectrum we find Sergio Perez and Lance Stroll. Perez has been on a run of bad form, seemingly all year. His performance have not been up to the standards of his teammate and, quite frankly, his lack of performance is why Red Bull are not going to win the constructors' title this year. The rumors of his sacking have been fast and thick all year, but I don't see how he can retain his seat going forward. Especially with young South American driver Colapinto waiting in the wings. Admittedly, the Argentine driver didn't do very well this weekend. But he was in his 6th Formula 1 race, there's a little more leeway afforded.
There has also been a massive amount of off-track drama, but I just don't have the bandwidth to dive into it.
Overall the weekend was unpredictable and engaging. One of the most entertaining in recent memory. And certainly one of the best of the year.
The Good-
-The stars align for Alpine
-Max's masterclass
-Most entertaining weekend of the season
The Bad-
-Nothing
The Ugly-
-Perez
-Stroll
-Alonso's intestines.
The circus heads to Las Vegas this week. We're not staying up late or getting up early to watch it live so join us for the re-watch Sunday morning at Apex Racing Labs.
