Five Formula 1 Winners & Losers: Brazilian Grand Prix

Photo by: Steven Tee from Getty Images

With just three races left in the F1 season, there’s one hand on the championship trophy.

But it is not the hand I thought it would be.

Here are the winners and losers from a chaotic weekend in Brazil.

Losers

5. Aston Martin

There were moments this year where Aston looked like they might have just figured things out and found some pace.

But it turns out that was short lived, and the pair of Aston Martin drivers had a brutal weekend in Brazil, both of them finishing outside of the points.

4. Yuki Tsunoda

Yuki is fighting for his seats next year in Formula 1, and even though reports of Red Bull’s resurgence may have been premature, there still needs to be something better than getting knocked out in Q1 and finishing 17th.

Just not good enough.

3. Gabriel Bortoleto

The first home race for Brazilian born Gabriel Bortoleto could have gone better.

After a horrific crash in the sprint race, he followed it up with an early crash in the main race.

I’m sure he was looking for a better homecoming, but at least he came out uninjured.

That sprint crash was brutal.

2. Ferrari

Ferrari are battling Mercedes and Red Bull for second in the constructors championship, and Brazil frankly couldn’t have gone any worse for the prancing horses.

Both Ferrari’s didn’t finish the race, while Mercedes brought home 30 points and pulled far away from the Italian’s.

Now, they have to dig themselves out of quite the hole.

1. Oscar Piastri

Was Oscar’s dive bomb into turn 1 risky? Sure.

Was it his fault it caused a collision? I mean, technically sure though I feel it was a racing incident.

But the stewards gave him a ten second penalty, dooming him for a 5th place finish and falling far behind his championship rival.

But the stewards aren’t the issue here.

The issue is Piastri was, once again, comprehensibly beaten by his teammate and main championship rival, and keeps making errors like crashing out in the sprint to bring home no points.

The last quarter of this season for Piastri has been absolutely horrific, and it might be too late to repair it.

Winners

5. Racing Bulls

While both Red Bull cars were getting knocked out in Q1, the Racing Bulls pair came home and finished 7th and 8th, giving them a nice buffer over Aston Martin for 6th in the standings.

4. Oliver Bearman

The rookie Haas driver has been on a tear recently.

After some struggles and some unlucky finishes the first half of the year, Bearman has four straight points finishes for a total of 24 points.

He is finding his groove, and it is awesome to see.

3. Max Verstappen

It was shaping up to be a horrible weekend for Verstappen, but he showed on Sunday once again why he is the driver that he is, coming from a pit lane start all the way to 3rd, and maybe just a few laps short from finishing 2nd.

He really is the best on the grid, regardless of what the standings say.

2. Kimi Antonelli

Antonelli was always incredibly talented, but man oh man he was a man possessed in Brazil this weekend.

Excellent qualifying performances, pushing Lando Norris during the sprint, holding off Verstappen to come home 2nd in the race.

He had a great weekend.

1. Lando Norris

Lando has completely taken over.

After an engine failure in Holland, Norris turned it up to 11 and has been completely better than Piastri and has taken total control of the championship.

All he needs to do is keep things clean the final three weekends, and he will have his first ever championship.

And considering his past few weekends, he deserves it.