Five Formula 1 Winners & Losers: United States Grand Prix
Photo courtesy of Zak Mauger from Motorsport Images
The grandstands in Austin today looked like the old NASCAR prime days of the mid 2000s.
It was absolutely packed. 400 thousand people came to watch a Formula 1 race in America.
Amazing.
But it wasn’t amazing for everyone.
Here are today’s winners & losers.
Losers
5. Pierre Gasly
This was a race where a lot of drivers didn’t do anything wrong, and Gasly is no different here.
The Frenchman had a good weekend, but unfortunately had an engine issue before the race that he couldn’t recover from.
Tough luck.
4. Alpine
Any race where both cars retire with a mechanical problem has to be considered a bad race.
We did get Fernando very excited about a pass that he wasn’t allowed to make though.
That was funny.
3. Valtteri Bottas
Bottas looked like a new man since he announced he wouldn’t return to Mercedes, including a win last race in Turkey.
This week, he had a grid penalty meaning he wouldn’t be having the best race, but he’s in one of the fastest cars and at a track where you can overtake.
And he just couldn’t find a way to get through the field.
In a tough constructor’s championship battle, that’s a bad result.
2. Antonio Giovinazzi
On paper, an 11th place finish in a not very good car is a good result.
But the underlying issue was that he was well behind his teammate Kimi Raikkonen before Raikkonen ended up spinning, and Kimi is 4 races from retirement.
Giovinazzi is fighting for his job. Getting beat by your teammate isn’t going to help things.
1. Lewis Hamilton
Finishing 2nd to the driver leading the championship probably doesn’t seem like a bad weekend.
It is though. I’ll explain why down below.
Winners
5. Sebastien Vettel
Seb looked like he had nothing all day and then just popped up at the end with a points finish.
Not bad!
4. Yuki Tsunoda
Tsunoda has been comprehensively beaten by his teammate this year, which isn’t exactly a big issue considering he is a rookie and Pierre Gasly is a very good driver.
But it was a bit of a concern.
Today, however, Yuki had a great race and finished 9th, especially with lots of great defensive driving.
3. Daniel Ricciardo
Ricciardo got to drive an old Dale Earnhardt car and then had a very respectable 5th place finish.
Not a bad weekend. I’m sure he’ll remember that.
2. Charles Leclerc
Leclerc took some lessons from his teammate Carlos Sainz and decided to have an amazing race that nobody talked about.
Ferrari is fighting with McLaren for 3rd in the constructors championship. That was a big, big help towards that.
1. Max Verstappen
So, Max Verstappen won the race.
But that’s not exactly why he’s first here.
Remember earlier when I said I would explain why Lewis finishing 2nd is actually a big loss?
There are 5 races left in the F1 season. The next two are Mexico and Brazil.
The US Grand Prix has historically been great for Lewis Hamilton. Mexico and Brazil have historically been great races for Red Bull.
So while Max gained points on Lewis at a track Lewis loves, he’s poised to take even more points off Lewis the next two races.
Max could have a very comfy lead heading into the final races in the Middle East.
This was more than just one race win.
This was a statement.
