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2024 Miami Grand Prix Race Analysis

My analysis of the Miami 2024 Grand Prix. There is a lot to cover so let’s not waste time with introductions.

Table of Contents Race Start Ferrari -Charles -Carlos: His race + Oscar -Data Analysis Mclaren -Lando: Safety Car -Oscar -Data Analysis VCARB Red Bull Mercedes -Lewis Haas -Kevin -Nico Williams -Alex -Logan: DNF Final Thoughts

Race Start

We finally have a spicy turn 1 (really a race start) incident to talk about! I have to start with this because this did set the stage for the entire first stint of the race, and really the second half as well because of Oscar’s placement.

At the very start of the race Checo barreled forward basically trying to cut ahead of both Ferraris. He went way too fast and almost hit Max going into turn 1.

It’s actually just impressive that he didn’t hit anyone and that Charles and Carlos didn’t have a crash either with each other or with Checo. Checo dropped from P4 down to P5 with that maneuver.

He was way too ambitious with this start. Obviously he had to come out aggressive and the ultimate goal would be to get ahead of both Ferraris, but trying to jump them both? Way too much all at once and that is what cost him. He should have stuck with simply trying to pass Carlos, then he’d have been able to work on catching Charles. But instead he overshot, lost places and Oscar was the one who benefited greatly from it, jumping from P6 to P3.

So Oscar was the main winner of the whole situation, and the two drivers who lost places were Checo and Carlos.

There are two main reasons this wasn’t penalized. 1. It was the race start and turn 1 and the stewards are always more lenient with first lap messes like this. 2. It didn’t cause a collision. If a collision had occurred Checo would have been at fault, but everyone was very lucky, so no penalty.

With the stage set let's dig in to what went down with all the teams.

Ferrari

Charles

Charles had a very impressive weekend. After missing all of free practice due to spinning out(due to losing traction on a turn) he then went straight into sprint qualifying and pulled off P2 which he held in the sprint. He then qualified P2 again in the race and finished P3. All of this without having any free practice to get his setup optimized for the track. This really speaks to the SF-24 base being reliable as well as Charles’ overall skills on track.

He actually had a very clean race all things considered. His pace was not as strong as Oscar so he lost that place pretty early in the race and dropped to P3 behind Oscar and Max and he kept that place for the rest of the race. He pit early because the medium tyre was good on the SF-24 this weekend. They pit Charles early to undercut Oscar(which they did, and that was needed as Oscar was faster on the mediums) After that his hard tyre management was insanely good, He finished in the top 3 with the oldest set of hard tyres. He was able to keep pace with Max on tyres that were 4 laps older. And considering this is still the base SF-24 while the RB20 has already been upgraded is a really strong showing from the car itself.

Overall a very strong weekend from Charles and the SF-24 again showing that the Ferrari base is strong.

More on his race performance in the data section.

Carlos

Carlos qualified P3, finished the race in P4 and was dropped down to P5 after he was given a 5 second penalty for making contact with Oscar. Obviously this was his worst result so far this year, it isn’t 100% his fault, the race order changed in such a way that was not in his favor and there wasn’t much he could have done there. So the loss of one place was not his direct fault, just unlucky. The other palace due to the penalty that was at least in part his fault and I will get into that more in the section going over his battle with Oscar.

So after we saw qualifying results I said that the best strategy for Ferrari was for Charles to attack Max and Carlos to defend against Checo who was behind him in P4. Well Checo made that impossible with the race opening. Not much Carlos or anyone could have done about that, so it would have been a good strategy but Checo had other plans. Cannot fault him for that, good thing he was able to get out of the way to avoid a collision. I am suspecting Checo was super aggressive to try to counter that potential Ferrari strategy. But yeah Carlos couldn’t have done anything to stop Checo from doing that.

But also this is to say that right out of the beginning of the race Carlos was set up for a very different race than I think he was anticipating. I’m sure that defending against Checo was probably what Ferrari had prepared him for, but that race opening really changed the order and altered his strategy for the rest of the race.

I’ll just briefly mention Carlos’ radio message near the beginning when he came up behind Charles. He said he felt like he had the better pace, and Ferrari didn’t give any orders. This is mostly just talking. And I think it’s also fine for a team to just let it be. If he had better pace he’d be able to get ahead. He didn't, thus it wasn’t an issue. I feel like any team staying silent when a driver says something like this is like “okay you have better pace prove it” and we saw how that went. He and Charles were very close on pace with fresh tyres. But the difference became clear as the tyres aged. Charles stayed ahead and Carlos steadily dropped off. I don’t think it’s a big deal, normal for a driver to say they have better pace, normal to ignore it unless it’s actually true.

I don’t really care about radio messages unless they actually lead to something changing about a race. Driver’s talk all the time, only if it leads to results does it really matter so I don’t think any of it is worth covering.

Carlos VS Oscar

I am going to ask both Carlos and Oscar fans to take a deep breath going into this section.

One of the main battles on track this race was between Oscar and Carlos for P4. Oscar gained track position pretty early in the race when Checo did that crazy move in turn 1. He was able to jump up to P2 and passed Max in the pits to take P1 for a while.

He lost the positions in the pits and then the safety car for Logan made it odd to try to regain, which put him one place ahead of Carlos. Then Carlos overtook and got behind Oscar. This is when the battle began and where trouble cropped up.

Oscar and Carlos were pretty much matched on pace. Carlos was slightly more consistent in pace, but they were very close. Which is what made this a tight battle. It’s what allowed Carlos to catch up to Oscar and what made Oscar able to defend.

So this was always going to be messy. And it did in fact get messy.

I think that most of what happened between Oscar and Carlos falls under the "good hard racing" category. I think there is an argument to be made that neither were deserving of a penalty. But if you want insight into why the stewards made the calls they did then this is it.

First I will cover the move that Carlos was handed a penalty for by the stewards. On lap 39 turn 17 Carlos missed the apex, braking late which caused him to slightly lose the rears of the car. This resulted in his tyres hitting Oscar’s front wing. This was not something Carlos could have done intentionally, and was instead a result of slight loss of control of the car. He didn’t do it on purpose; it was a result of driver error on his part. So yes he was at fault but it was not due to him intentionally trying to cause Oscar damage.

Going into the turn Oscar has the outside line, Carlos has the inside, Carlos is slightly ahead here just so we are clear.

They start the turn, there is space between them. However this is where Carlos started to turn a little too late.

And here is where the contact came. Carlos broke too late and when he needed to take the apex he missed, slowing too quickly caused him to lose the rears slightly, and thus he turned into Oscar's rear wing. Oscar was driving under the assumption that Carlos had not misjudged the apex and that he would keep control. So there wasn't anything Oscar could have done. But also I want to highlight that this isn't a move that could have been done on purpose. It was an error on Carlos' part yes, but it was not intentional.

I would also argue that Oscar turned in too sharply, or didn’t react in time to Carlos’ error on the apex. Had he not been so close he wouldn’t have been hit. I think this is the reason the stewards only gave a partial penalty to Carlos. I do agree that Oscar was too close. But he ultimately isn’t at fault.

I think this looked worse than it is because both drivers were racing very hard against each other up until this point so it’s easy to believe that one or both did something intentional. I think it was a result of them battling closely and slight error on Carlos’ part.

Causing contact is deserving of a penalty.

Now let’s look at the incident where Oscar forced Carlos off the track. Going into the turn Oscar came up the inside and pushed Carlos out and Carlos ended up with all 4 wheels off the track. However there is nuance here so let’s take a look at the footage.

Going into the turn Carlos has the clear outside line, Oscar has the inside. Oscar is ahead.

This is where the beginning of trouble started. Oscar still clearly has the inside line. Carlos has plenty of room on the outside, but he turned in more.

And then continue to turn in to squeeze Oscar giving him nowhere to go is why Oscar had to fight back and push Carlos out. The fact they didn't have damage here is impressive really.

But Oscar was on his line, he was ahead had the inside line and defended it. Carlos ran wide as a result of this defense. Oscar did not push him all the way off the track just because.

Both of these are hard racing moves and I think that because they both were very pushy with each other was the reason no penalty was given to Oscar.

Personally I am on the fence about whether this is deserving of a penalty on Oscar’s part. He did force Carlos completely off the track. He had the inside line and he’s allowed to protect it, but was this too far? It falls in a gray area for me. I think that Carlos closing him off in that turn didn’t give him much choice so I am not going to be too mad no penalty was given. But I can see why someone would make a different call as well.

Now I think this is a penalty that could be debated. However, regardless of the actual penalty, what I do not love is the half measure from the stewards, reducing Carlos' penalty down to five seconds when the new rules say this kind of thing should be 10 seconds. Is he at fault or not? It should be a 10 second penalty or no penalty, I don’t like this very situational precedent this is setting. As a Ferrari fan I am biased toward no penalty. But I think we can all agree that this was an odd choice and doesn’t inspire any confidence in the stewards’ decision here(not that they had much good faith to begin with)

I read their reasoning and I don’t think it’s strong enough to warrant splitting the time. If Carlos is at fault(and based on their decision in their eyes he is) then it should be a 10 second penalty.

My hope is that this kind of ruling does not come up again in future races.

I want to quickly dispel some narratives forming around this battle between them.

“Carlos ruined Oscar’s race, he admitted it!”: Yes and no. Was Carlos responsible for Oscar’s damage and him dropping all those places? Yes. But did he do it on purpose? No. Carlos is notoriously unreliable in interviews. I have no idea why he thought it was a better look to imply he did it on purpose than to say he made a mistake in the turn and lost the rear slightly. So no he did not intentionally turn into Oscar with his rear tyres to cause Oscar damage. “Oscar should have got a penalty”: There is a case to be made for that. I am not the stewards so I can’t change that. They decided not to give a penalty. You really have to take it up with the FIA as it’s not Oscar’s fault he didn’t get a penalty. It’s certainly a fringe case with arguments for the case for a penalty on both sides.

As far as Carlos overall race goes he was quite fast(in the race), he was competitive against the other fastest car and again he was just showing how strong that SF-24 base is. He was able to fight with Oscar who was faster and in an upgraded car. So even though his race looked messy there was a lot of promise there and he showed again that the SF-24 is doing good things for both our Ferrari drivers. I was impressed to see him keeping up on pace like that.

Data Analysis

I have a lot of comparisons to make as far as both Ferraris go. There were a lot of interesting on track battles in terms of pace and tyre management. All looks really promising for Ferrari.

First a quick look at Oscar’s fastest lap Vs Carlos.

Very close. They were essentially matched on pace in the first two sectors. Where Carlos lost the time to Oscar was on the low speed corners in sector 3. This has been an area where the SF-24 has been underperforming, so this isn’t a surprise. But this mainly shows why the battle between them went on as long as it did, and also why things came to a head on those low speed corners. That is where Oscar had the edge on pace and is also a place for overtaking. So Carlos had to push more and Oscar obviously was still able to stay within striking range.

The main battle for Charles in this race was against Max. And pace-wise he was matching him. The reason that Charles didn’t close the gap further was because he had some bad laps and Max was slightly more consistent in his second stint lap time wise. Overall pace was practically identical to Max in the RB-20 which is what we want to see, especially since Red Bull has already upgraded Max’s car and the SF-24 is still the base.

Here is Charles full race pace against Max. This is the closest they have been all year. Very promising to see. Especially on the hards. Charles was on older hards but still beating Max on pace.

It is worth noting that Max was not 100% comfortable in the car so he was not in top form this weekend, but that just shows that the RB20 is not infallible, the operating window for the car seems narrower, and Max also isn’t perfect.

Overall Charles was stronger consistently and that put him ahead of Max in performance on many laps. If Max hadn't had track position he likely would not have been able to catch Charles.

Now here is a look at the race pace for the top 3.

The top 3 very very close in pace, like the difference is negligible, especially considering Max and Charles were on slightly older tyres (and Max had some slight damage due to the cone) but this is very close and means very good things for Ferrari as it’s the only car here that has yet to bring any upgrades. If upgrades bring what Ferrari expects then Red Bull and Mclaren should be nervous.

Here is a fastest lap comparison for the top 3. Lando had the fastest lap of the three, but the difference between him and Charles was by one tenth, and Charles set his fastest lap on significantly older tyres. Max was the furthest off by 3 tenths to Lando and 2 tenths to Charles.

The reason Max was ahead of Charles was because of track position. Charles was faster, but the pace difference wasn’t enough for him to catch Max for the overtake. But this is a good sign for when Charles does have track position over Max. And again that is against the upgraded Mclaren. The SF-24 is such a solid base.

Also let’s look at Carlos against all of the top 3 as well. He actually had the fastest lap of this grouping(fastest lap of the race was Oscar) He was faster than Lando by a few hundredths which is close, but he was faster. One thing to really highlight between Carlos and Lando is that the only points where Lando is faster is those low speed corners. Something the SF-24 must address to catch Mclaren in the future. But also notice how those same low speed corners are where Charles was better compared to Carlos as well.

And finally adding Oscar for the full Ferrari to Mclaren comparison as well as Max.

Oscar really did have a great lap, and it was on those fresh medium tyres which is why his time is faster by 3 tenths than the others. While the other four were on older tyres for their best laps. However the most interesting thing to note is how Ferrari and Mclaren are extremely close. The overlap is everywhere and the gap is so fine. The car who is the odd one out is the Red Bull and that’s very promising for the rest of the season as far as Ferrari is concerned. The highlight here is that Ferrari and Mclaren were the fastest cars this weekend and it was close, way closer than the race results might suggest.

Now let's talk about tyres. Charles finished his race on 38 lap old hards. The oldest of the other top 4 drivers.

Here is the first stint pace on the medium tyres for the race. This is when the tyres were most subject to the same conditions and you can see the pace that was the most similar was Charles and Max. Not only that but they were the two drivers reducing their laps times, instead of steadily increasing. This is where you can see why Carlos fell away behind Charles, and also why Lando was not making much headway in catching Checo.

Charles had improved by roughly 7 tenths to a full second of pace by the time he pit. Max stayed on pace similar to Lando. So again we see Charles pulling off negative tyre deg(minimal but still noteworthy) compared to his direct competition as well as his teammate. Lando's laps were very consistent, that obviously came up in the second half of the race. Carlos pushed hard but dropped off on pace(as we'd expect to see with normal deg) He really pushed but he'd already lost the time to Charles in the middle of the stint and wasn't able to gain it back. Still one of the better tyre performances we've seen from Carlos as well. The fact that both Ferraris are the strongest here is again due to the SF-24 and the way the car treats the tyres.

The main reason Ferrari pit Charles after this was to try to undercut Oscar, it was not due to a drop off in the tyre performance. Since he was pushing I don't think they'd have lasted as long as we've seen in the past from Charles, but there was more in them. The pit was strategic not due to a loss of pace on Charles' part.

It was not possible to really correct for the mess that was the safety car and to correct for the age of the tyres. At least not in a way I was satisfied with. Each of the top 4 drivers were in different places when it came to those hards. The best comparison is to Max and Charles was beating him on pace in older hards(see Charles vs Max race pace graph above). And Charles was pushing in those tyres so he wasn't even driving 100% to preserve them, because of the safety car Ferrari had to balance pushing to keep ahead and also to save the tyres. Charles pulled this off beautifully. Taking this stint on the hards from the race re-start on lap 33 after the yellow flag.

I will show the raw data for the top three to see the over all tyre deg but I wanted to make sure that everyone considers context. I did not include Carlos here because he was battling Oscar so his times are going to reflect that more than his tyre management.

The thing to note is Charles lap consistency has not fallen off, even when compared to the other two top drivers, especially Lando who was on 10 lap newer tyres. Charles final lap was off Lando by one tenth. You would not know he was on tyres that were 10 laps older. An insane showing in terms of tyre management from him yet again. So far in 2024 I can say with confidence that Charles has been the best in tyre management. The SF-24 has been amazing in this area and that ability in the car is only highlighted when Charles is behind the wheel.

Overall this race showed just how strong the SF-24 base is yet again, it was able to keep up with both Max in the RB20 and the Mclarens which had brought big upgrades to this race. Both Carlos and Charles were competitive against the fastest cars and this is very promising for what the SF-24 is set up to do once it is upgraded. Overall Ferrari was the second fastest car this weekend and that was by a very fine margin. Exciting things for both Ferrari drivers and for the car base itself.

Not Ferrari’s strongest weekend obviously, but the data gathered gives a lot of valuable insight, and also both driver’s secured placements to keep Ferrari in a comfortable P2 in the standings, and for Charles to be P3 in the WDC behind the Red Bulls.

Mclaren

Before we get to the Mclaren section I would like to remind you dear reader that this is a Ferrari blog, my bias is very clear, do not expect me to celebrate a Mclaren victory. I will analyze the facts fairly, but do not come at me for not being excited or hyping things up. I am not the person for that. Our teams have a long standing rivalry and I have made my place in that rivalry very clear.

With all that being said let’s talk about Mclaren.

Lando

Lando Norris won his first grand prix after taking the lead of the race as a result of a safety car deployment on lap 28. He started P6 and finished P1.

Now this win was due to a few factors. First Lando had the fastest pace of the race(on the hard tyres), and second he was the only driver who benefited from that safety car. He was ahead of the pack and on newer tyres compared to every competitive car behind him(Max, Charles, Carlos, Oscar). He drove well and his pace was fastest by a fine margin, but we have to account for the fact that a good amount of luck put him at the front of the field.

He was behind Checo in P6 having made no places up in the race, then Checo pit, and Carlos and Charles pit, then Max pit, and Oscar pit the lap before him. He gained every place through the pits. Then on lap 28 the safety car was deployed in front of every car behind him. Since he pit lap 27 he effectively got the benefit of a safety car pit which can see gains of 5 - 7 seconds, and if we look at the margin he ended up winning the race by this is reflected, yes his pace was better but it wasn’t create a magical 7 second gap better. In fact due to that lucky pit timing he got the benefit of a full safety car pit without having to serve the time in the pits. Not his fault he was lucky, but that does account for his placement and the gap he finished with, has nothing to do with pace.

This win was mostly on the fact that he was insanely lucky both on the timing of his pit, and the timing and placement of the safety car. He didn’t take any of those positions. And I am fairly confident that had that safety car not been deployed at that time he wouldn’t have. He may have come in P3 but he was not on track to be able to overtake all of those cars in front, even with faster pace. The only thing that can be really said skill wise for this drive was he did have the fastest pace(the second stint is due to the fact he was on much newer tyres than the two cars behind) and that he didn’t crash or spin out after he was given the lead of the race. A win is a win but this was mostly due to an insane amount of luck that has nothing to do with the actual race craft. He was on fresher tyres so of course he got a better start at the race restart. It’s not as hard to defend against a car that has been damaged and two cars on older tyres.

I would have liked to get to see how he fared trying to overtake Max, but maybe we will see that in a future race. I also am sure he wouldn’t have been able to overtake Charles. Lando was also faster in Australia, by a similar margin in fact, and he wasn’t able to catch Charles, let alone pass him. So to assume just because he had the slightly faster pace that he would have won without that insane luck is very misguided.

Without the safety car I am not convinced he would have won or even been on the podium(but speculating isn’t really too helpful there is no way to be sure) I will note that since Max was struggling more for grip and thus pace this weekend I actually think that had the safety car not occurred the P1 battle might have been Piastri vs Leclerc. Because guess what, being the fastest car does not automatically mean you win the race, yes he was fastest but he was stuck behind Checo for 17 laps and made no progress overtaking. So that speed wasn’t really doing anything for him back there(of course he was subject to dirty air) but if he couldn’t overtake Checo the second Red Bull it is reasonable to assume he was not going to be able to overtake Max. We know with a similar pace match up he couldn’t take Charles either. If the safety car hadn’t happened there Oscar would have had the leading Mclaren position, and we did see that he can pass Charles, and he would have had a better chance against Max. I entertain this just to highlight that the speed can be there all it wants but the race craft skill was not there this weekend and it certainly did not play a significant role in the win.

But again it’s impossible to say. Speculating is only so productive. However I think it is interesting to see how things might have played out taking the need to overtake into account.

The positioning was due to the safety car. The reason he stayed in P1 was because he could keep the gap to Max(who was on older tyres) and Charles(who was on even older tyres) His pace was faster, but by on average of 2-hundredths of a second to Max and Charles. That is not really enough for him to have won the race without gaining that P1 position with the safety car. And that pace gap does not explain why he finished with a 7 second gap, that was the safety car.

And here’s the thing, wins happen like this. He absolutely had the winning pace but that was due to being in P1 due to the safety car(he would not have been there otherwise) and thus he had newer tyres than the cars directly behind him, which on this track in the heat was a big advantage. A win is a win so putting it all in context should not be an issue. We aren’t here to celebrate, we are here to see what happened.

Winning a race usually does have some elements of luck, being able to pull off a win is being able to take advantage of that luck when it happens. That’s what happened with Lando. He got very lucky with some elements of the race and was able to drive to take full advantage of that.

All in all an interesting race for Mclaren.

Oscar

I already covered Oscar’s battle and contact with Carlos in the Ferrari section. So this is just going to cover the other elements of his race this weekend.

Tyre deg has been Oscar’s main weakness when it comes to overall pace in his driving. This weekend he was driving pretty hard and still managed to have good speed which means he’s improved and also the car has probably improved to account for that as well.

He set the fastest lap from P19 which was pretty entertaining to see. The reason he was able to do this was due to the fact he had to pit for a new nose after the contact with Carlos damaged his front wing. He got fresh medium tyres and was able to really set a good fast lap. He also set it without DRS so that speaks to his speed this weekend(and looks promising as far as the car upgrades he did have go).

The fact that the damage he took happened so late in the race meant he just didn’t have the time to climb the field. He made up some places but there just wasn’t enough time. Had this happened earlier I have no doubt he would have finished in the top 10.

Oscar raced well and his speed was very good, he was very unlucky that the damage to his car required a pit at a very bad time in the race.

Even though this result is obviously disappointing, I do think it showed what Oscar can do, and we are going to see a lot more battles and speed from him in future races.

I will finish this section with the fact that to me the most impressive bit of driving from a Mclaren driver all weekend was Oscar managing to take full advantage of the chaos Checo caused in turn 1 at the race start and jumping up 2 places. Like he saw the line and took it. As far as actually racing against other cars goes in a Mclaren, Oscar has been showing to be stronger in this area. He overtook Charles and that is impressive. If Max hadn’t pitted when he did we might have gotten to see if Oscar was able to take him as well. Lando had the pace(by a small margin to Oscar only on the hards, Oscar's pace on mediums was better than Lando), but I think Oscar is winning in terms of managing his on track battles. The data for Oscar is also skewed because he was stuck fighting with Carlos and then took damage so the statistics of his pace show him being much slower than Lando, when on that first stint Oscar was faster. Without the bad luck on his part I think he would have finished ahead of Lando in the race.

Data Analysis

So I first want to do a teammate comparison. It is of course important to note that Lando had the full Mclaren upgrade package and Oscar only had half. How that really affected their results is still hard to say.

But here is their race pace. I really think we can only compare the first stint on the mediums, because after Oscar’s battle with Carlos hindered him, and after he took damage his pace was really not going to be its best.

That first stint Oscar is actually consistently faster on pace until around lap 18 when Lando passes him in that department. I think this comes down to tyre management. Lando is better than Oscar in that area, but pace wise Oscar had it on the mediums for the race start, and he was showing it with the passes he was making.

The takeaway for me is two-fold. The Mclaren upgrades have added speed. And that I think a head to head of Lando vs Oscar in the right conditions Oscar may have the edge. If he continues to work on his tyre management we may see him pass Lando on pace altogether. Remains to be seen. But overall this is very close for both of them, so they were both getting a lot of good performance out of that car this weekend.

Here is a comparison of their fastest lap.

I want to note that Oscar set this after getting a fresh set of mediums after he took front wing damage. He still showed that he was the strongest I think in all of sector 3 all race. That is where the Mclaren car was beating the Ferraris and the Red Bulls, and that is also where Oscar was outperforming Lando. Lando was on much older tyres, so he didn’t have as good of a chance to be able to set a really clean lap this race. But I think that before Oscar was dealing with Carlos and was damaged he was still faster so I think he still would have set a faster lap to Lando in equal conditions this race.

VCARB

Probably VCARB’s best weekend overall as a team. With Danny bringing in his first points of the season coming in P4 during the sprint and Yuki coming in P7 in the race they got a good chunk of points for the team. And in the midfield that means a lot. They have really cemented themselves as the top of the midfield by a pretty good margin.

Danny of course got the best result we’ve seen so far, with that P4 in the sprint, he defended against Carlos in a Ferrari the entire race and scored his first points of the season.

Now he started P20 in the race because he had to serve a 3 place starting grid penalty from China. He qualified P18. So you might be wondering why Danny was seemingly on fire for the sprint and sprint qualifying but then seemed to be slow again in the race qualifying. The answer is that changing a car from sprint set up to race setup can be pretty big and if they don’t get it right it can be costly. We saw the same thing with Lewis in China, P2 in the sprint and then back to the middle of the pack during the race.

Were it not for that grid penalty he likely would have finished the race just outside the points. Danny started P20 and finished P15 so he did make up some good places.

Yuki had a good weekend, coming in P8 in the sprint and getting that single point and then P7 in the race with another 6 points, he is still very much the more consistent of the two drivers in the VCARB car as far as bringing in the points goes. Like he is now in P10 in the driver standings with 14 points, behind Lewis Hamilton who is in 9th with 27 points.

All in all a good weekend for VCARB and I must say they did have the nicest looking car on the grid as well.

Red Bull

This was Max’s worst actual race so far this year. In Australia he had to DNF due to a mechanical failure, nothing to do with his driving. Here he for sure made some mistakes. Some of that was due to car setup, and some of that was some error on his part. Either way it’s his weakest performance since Singapore 2023. Still to say this and have him still be in P2 and P1 in the sprint shows just how strong of a driver he is.

What cost him the most was when he didn’t have grip going into turn 16, cut the corner and took out the bollard cone. This cost him time, and some slight floor damage. Due to an error, as well as the lack of grip the RB-20 was struggling with all weekend. I think he’d have been a little faster were it not for this damage.

To come in P2 as a weak showing with a car that was clearly not setup well all weekend just shows how fast the RB-20 is and also speaks to Max's skill as a driver.

Checo’s race wasn’t great. That start was way too much, but after that he kept his head down and didn’t cause more trouble. He finished P5 but jumped up to P4 after Carlos received that 5 second penalty. His weakest race so far this year as well.

All in all for Red Bull both their drivers were not in top form this weekend. That does indicate that the RB-20 was not performing as well on this track and in these conditions. Interesting to see and promising for any team hoping to catch up to them in the standings.

Mercedes

This was Mercedes second best race of the season. Lewis was finally comfortable in the car and came in P6 after starting P8. George started P7 and finished P8. Not George’s best race or performance, but as a team this result this is overall the second best points wise since Bahrain.

Lewis especially put in a great showing. His overtake on Nico was a memorable moment, just a textbook Hamilton overtake, smooth, just great to see him racing after that car has been letting him down so much this season.

Also this is the first race where Lewis outperformed George. He obviously did in the China sprint, but this is the first Grand Prix where he was ahead of George. This may be a sign that he has found some solutions to the issues he’s been facing with his car setup, or possibly conditions were more favorable for him on track. He’s Lewis so I am thinking this is part of a slow but steady comeback to doing the best possible in that car. Make no mistake the current Mercedes car is limiting both drivers. But it’s had moments of getting to the top 5 or at least not far from the top 5 so there is more to unlock in that car.

Haas

Haas in the sprint was funny. I’m sorry the strategy was the same as Jeddah, Kevin commits crimes and doesn’t care about penalties so long as he holds up the field to protect Nico so Nico can get points. It worked in Jeddah. Worked in the sprint, and worked in the race. It’s certainly an interesting strategy.

Now with all the penalties Kevin has collected this weekend and the rest of the season if he gets one more he will have enough penalty points to be suspended for a race. Obviously not great for him or for Haas but he doesn’t seem too worried about that.

Haas has been working well as a team and really taken up all the minor points at the tail end of the field. The teamwork has really paid off.

Is completely sacrificing one driver and letting him run rampant across the track a good long term approach? Probably not. But there aren’t any rules against it. If Haas are willing to do it to get points then I guess fair play. It’s mostly just really entertaining to watch. Yes it has messed up a lot of driver’s races so far this season, but you cannot deny it has made for entertaining moments and battles.

His most egregious crime was when he made contact with Logan during the race causing Logan's DNF. Obviously the penalty was deserved, he did not have position going into that corner and Logan was powerless to do anything about it.

I will agree with Kevin and say “All of the penalties were well deserved”

I do have the theory that Kevin is going for an all time record for most penalty points accumulated during a single race, a single season, and all of F1 history, and he’s actually on track to get at least one of those records. So if he wants to be remembered for his crimes on track this is certainly a way to do it. Best of luck to him in that endeavor!

Kevin Magnussen was the most entertaining driver of the weekend. Love him or hate him he had your attention.

Williams

Williams had the worst race as a team. Alex was struggling in the car all weekend including during the race getting one of his worst placements finishing P18. The Williams car has been bad all season, we knew that, but on this track the race setup they went with was also not great.

Logan actually got Williams best result all season with that P10 in the sprint race. No points, but given how the car and team have struggled showing that the car can get into P10 is something.

However during the race Logan DNFed due to a collision with Kevin. Kevin was at fault, he charged through the turn and forced Logan off the track. Logan had the line and hadn’t done anything wrong. Kevin was just being reckless and took that turn way too sharply.

Logan was sent into the barrier and had to retire. Extremely unfortunate considering it was his home race. His radio messages indicated that he was injured, likely biting his lip or his tongue during the crash. Hopefully he recovers quickly.

It was a shame because Logan was on pace to have his best weekend of 2024, and it was ended through no fault of his own driving.

Final Thoughts

This was another very interesting race. Some spicy on track battles, a maiden win for Lando, and Ferrari was strong on track against the other two top teams.

All in all an entertaining race.

See you all at Imola!

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