Last Updated on October 21 2024, 10:27 am

Mercedes mostly had a weekend to forget at the USGP despite having topped the time sheets in Friday practice and George Russell coming within a whisker of Sprint pole. During the shortened version of the Grand Prix, Russell fell through the order on fading tyres while Hamilton improved on his P7 start to finish the Sprint in 6th behind his team mate.

Grand Prix qualifying was to go even worse for Mercedes as Lewis Hamilton failed to make it out of Q1. Russell was sixth going into the final runs in Q3 when he inexplicably sent his W15 into the crash barrier at turn 19. The session was red flagged with barely minutes to go but the rebuild of George’s car meant his engineers worked through the night in breach of the curfew which saw Russell penalised and starting the GP from the pit lane.

Having never started outside the top five at COTA, Hamilton had moved up to start seventeenth following other penalties issued. But just one lap into the race he suffered a similar fate to his team mate the day previously, at the same corner too and Lewis’ race came to a swift end.

 

 

 

Mercedes weekend to forget

On the other side of the Mercedes garage, Russell drove a spectacular race to come home P6 having started in the pit lane. Ironically his final overtake of the day was of the hapless Perez who once again proved Red Bull need a better driver pairing given the quality on both sides of the garage of their rivals.

Sergio now stands eighth in the drivers’ title race and is at risk of getting detached from the top seven with the Mexican now 17 points behind George Russell in seventh.

All in all a weekend Mercedes will forget quickly. Toto Wolff had quite a lot to say after the race and much of it was nothing to do with his team or drivers. The Mercedes boss was irked by the FIA’s apparent inconsistency in their application of track limits sanctions.

The race was lost for McLaren and Norris at the very start when Max Verstappen found a way up the inside into turn one duly ushered the McLaren driver to the outside of the corner. The battling Red Bull and McLaren then opened the door for Charles Leclerc to take the lead of the race.

RB boss: Ricciardo chose to go quietly

 

 

 

F1 track limits plague returns

Of course this sparked a debate over the legality of what happened in turn one and given the FIA race stewards are directed to show leniency over incidents during lap one of a Grand Prix, no penalties were issued.

However, this was in stark contrast to what happened in the closing laps between the same pair of combatants. Lando Norris was closing in on Verstappen to take the final podium paying position when the Brit was handed a five-second penalty after the race for ‘gaining an advantage’ while overtaking Verstappen off the track at turn 12.

The move had overtones of lap one turn one with Verstappen ushering his rival again to the outside of the corner. This time both cars left the track but Norris completed the move around the outside of the Red Bull something the stewards took a dim view of.

Norris set about disappearing down the road, but he failed to eek out the five seconds required to nullify his penalty and at the chequered flag the McLaren man was immediately relegated below the world champion.

Verstappen mind games with McLaren

 

 

 

Wolff accuses stewards of being “BIASED”

Of course this was a six point crucial swing from Norris to Verstappen which when added to the extra two points Verstappen collected during the Sprint, saw Max’s grip on the drivers’ trophy this year even stronger. Coming into the weekend Verstappen was 52 ahead of Norris, whilst not insurmountable the gap has grown to 57 points.

One invested by stander appeared to be the Mercedes boss Toto Wolff. Having dealt with his drivers Stella performance from pit lane to sixth place at the chequered flag, Wolff decided to give his views on the stewarding at the USGP.

During the cool down lap George Russell enquired over team radio about the rewarding at the start the race. “Did Verstappen get a penalty for that Turn 1?” He asked.

Wolff replied: “No, he didn’t get a penalty, and at the end, Lando got a penalty for being forced off and overtaking on the outside. I guess it is a bit biased decision-making.”

Hamilton explains F1 shock exit

 

 

 

Wolff rages to Sky TV

And this was to be no incidental debrief between a driver and the team as Wolff continued the theme in his interview with Sky F1. “It is inconsistent. With Valtteri (Bottas), it wasn’t even a race. [In the sprint] we saw a few of those incidents that were exactly the same and weren’t penalised when racing for positions, real positions actually. So receiving that penalty is completely odd and bizarre.

“I think we know why, but I can’t say that on television,” added the Mercedes boss mischievously. Toto stirred the pot even further when asked if the decision was due to over-judicious stewarding.“Sometimes there are correlations. When there is decision-making that is a bit interesting,” he concluded.

Toto has been relatively quiet during the weekend of the USGP and it has been Zak Brown stirring up the anti-Red Bull sentiment with his calls for the FIA to investigate further ‘bib-gate.’

Brown’s latest wheeze is to ask the senior members of the Red Bull team each sign affidavits stating they never used the ‘bib’ control to alter the ride height of the car in parc femme – something they stand accused of by the McLaren CEO.

Marko belittles McLaren protest

 

 

 

Zak Brown put back in his box by FIA official

This weekend’s Formula One drama surrounds Red Bull Racing and the potential for them doing something outside the rules as laid down by the FIA. Prior to the USGP F1’s governing body had issued a clarification over a certain component which all the teams have on their cars.

Of course this ignited the fires of indigence under Zak Brown who has taken the reigns from Toto Wolff as Red Bull Racing’s biggest critic. Brown believes the FIA should launch an investigation to see if Red Bull has used this ride height adjuster during parc ferme which is illegal.

Yet the context of this particular mini spat appears to clearly reveal Red Bull have not in fact been ‘cheating’ given the information provided by the FIA… READ MORE