Ryan's Lil' F1 Blog

The United States Grand Prix was a good race. Not quite in the top tier, but fun battles, varying strategies and a Ferrari 1-2 all bolstered the entertainment last weekend. COTA is one of the better F1 circuits, with a steady flow of varied corners that promote battling and unconventional moves throughout the laps. A race at the Circuit of the Americas is often an entertaining watch, so when the result is also to my liking, I receive a welcome boost to my dwindling serotonin count.

Lando Norris delivered a great lap in qualifying to earn pole position after George Russell crashed during the final laps. But as fans have witnessed throughout this season, a Lando Norris pole usually results in someone else leading after the first lap. This time Lando had a woeful start, failing to cover the inside line from Max Verstappen despite having the space to. When you Verstappen an inch, he takes a mile, as he lunged into the first corner, pushing Lando off the track in the process. Whilst this worked for Verstappen, it resulted in the door being left wide open and Charles Leclerc wasted no time in waltzing through that door to take the lead. From there, in the car that showed the most race pace throughout the weekend, Leclerc was never at threat of losing the lead. Lando’s sloppy start placed a win straight into Ferrari’s hands.

Despite a relatively embarrassing start, Lando can take pride in not being the driver who humiliated himself the most at COTA. That goes to Lewis Hamilton. Lewis, the seven-time world champion, qualified in nineteenth, behind his former teammate Valtteri Bottas in the slowest car. If that wasn’t enough, Lewis then spun out on his own on lap three. This was an uncharacteristically terrible performance for a driver of Lewis’ calibre and by the time his career has ended, this may go down as his worst weekend. Whilst this sounds harsh, it’s only because Lewis is a driver who is rightly rated so highly that this performance is notable. I’m not devoting an entire paragraph to Zhou Guanyu’s equally embarrassing performance, since I expected it from him.

Throughout the race the Ferrari’s easily dominated. After Carlos Sainz undercut Max Verstappen to take second, Max’s only worry was finishing behind his closest championship rival, Lando in the McLaren. McLaren recovered from their poor track position relatively well, pitting much later than their rivals to hunt down Verstappen towards the race’s conclusion. When Lando Norris caught up to Max Verstappen, they had a cinematic battle, with Max judging his car positioning perfectly to ensure that Lando had as little chance as possible of finding a way past him. This battle was thrilling to watch, if only it wasn’t ruined by the stewards.

As Lando finally got a good run on Max Verstappen, he looked to make the move around the outside of turn 12. Yet, Max, ever the expert at pushing to the edge of the rulebook, completely outbraked himself, pushing himself and Norris off the track. Lando proceeded to still make the overtake outside the track limits and McLaren were convinced that they would not receive a penalty as Lando had nowhere else to go. Yet, the stewards had a different interpretation, arguing that since Max was ahead of Lando at the apex of the corner, that it constituted an illegal overtake by Lando. I feel that this was a poor argument, as the only reason that Verstappen was ever ahead at the apex was because he had no intention of making the corner. Yet for this, the stewards punished Lando with a five second penalty, pushing back behind Max at the race finish. This is an example of bad stewarding that fails to let the drivers race each other without risking a penalty. Even more infuriating was the fact that there were multiple very similar incidents throughout the weekend, yet the stewards came to completely different, inconsistent decisions each time. This is not good enough.

However, the bad stewarding didn’t stop me from loving another exciting win for Charles. Beyond that, the fantastic performances from Franco Colapinto and Liam Lawson made the case that the crop of young drivers we have coming into F1 is going to make one of the most talented fields we have ever seen. The race was exhilarating, and the result was what I wanted to happen, so I’m happy with the US Grand Prix.

1. Lando Norris-

This may be the best performance of Lando’s career yet. He took a commanding pole position and proceeded to drive away from the rest of the field. It was a truly dominant and faultless display, one Lando has proven he is capable of. If Lando became a more consistent driver and delivered on this potential every weekend, he’d easily be championship material.

2. Max Verstappen-

It feels odd to sing Max Verstappen’s praises for coming in second, so used we are to seeing him dominate the rest of the field. But, in a car that has not been performing well at all in recent races, Max got the absolute maximum out of it, qualifying just behind Lando Norris and finishing comfortably ahead of every driver not named Lando Norris.

3. Fernando Alonso-

Fernando had a quiet but commanding performance in Singapore to finish at the top of the midfield. These performances are becoming common in 2024 and whilst I wish that Aston Martin was closer to the podium, Fernando is still one of the most consistent drivers in the sport.

4. Nico Hulkenberg-

Nico Hulkenberg is probably regretting leaving Haas at this point in the season, because his stint with the US outfit has really revitalized his career. And yet again, Nico maximized, qualifying in sixth and finishing the race in ninth place to take two more points for the team. Haas is slowly catching up to RB and will probably catch them with a few more point finishes.

5. Franco Colapinto-

Franco Colapinto is continuing to impress in his rookie races for Williams. He made a fantastic divebomb at turn one to put himself into the points, after only being narrowly outqualified by his teammate. Whilst strategy made it so that Franco missed out on consecutive points finishes, he only finished just outside of the points in eleventh. For his third race, the hardest race of the year, this performance was fantastic.

Tally:

1. Max Verstappen- 9
2. Charles Leclerc- 8
3. Oscar Piastri- 7
4. Lando Norris- 7
5. Yuki Tsunoda- 6
6. George Russell- 6
7. Nico Hulkenberg- 5.5
8. Carlos Sainz- 5
9. Alexander Albon- 5
10. Kevin Magnussen- 4.5
11. Lewis Hamilton- 4
12. Fernando Alonso- 4
13. Esteban Ocon- 3.5
14. Pierre Gasly- 3.5
15. Sergio Perez- 3
16. Franco Colapinto- 3
17. Lance Stroll- 2
18. Daniel Ricciardo- 2
19. Oliver Bearman- 1
20. Zhou Guanyu- 1