Chasing Victory – A Closer Look at the F1 Austin Race Weekend.
After fifty-six thrilling laps around the Circuit of the Americas, Max Verstappen claims victory after starting sixth on the grid, the first time a driver has won in Austin from behind the front row since 2012! It has been an action-packed weekend, so let’s break down the key moments from the weekend and look ahead to Mexico GP…
Verstappen took two wins from the sprint and main race, with teammate Pérez picking up 5th in both. Verstappen extends the gap between himself and Hamilton in the fight for P2 in the Driver’s Championship; the Mexican Minister of Defence is finally proving he can score a decent result if the team need it, on the rare occasion Super Max can’t. The Red Bull gang saw good points at AlphaTauri, too. Yuki Tsunoda secured the fastest lap at the end of the race on Sunday, – not to mention a cheeky P8 for a further 5 championship points.
It was a nightmare weekend for fan favourites Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton this weekend. While a successful sprint saw Ferrari score nine points, the Tifosi’s dreams of Charles scoring a win were quickly shattered. A(nother) poor strategy call from Ferrari meant that Leclerc’s pole advantage wasn’t enough to even keep him in the top 5. The SF75 is hardly known for its amazing tire degradation, yet the Scuderia saw it best to see Chuck on a one-stop pit strategy. Alas, Leclerc was left with much less pace than those around him towards the end of the race. With Carlos Sainz driving to P4, Ferrari were able to salvage a good result – until the FIA paid a visit…
TECH TIME: WHAT THE F@£& IS THAT ON THE CAR?
Each Formula One car is equipped with a long plank on its floor, but why? This “wooden” plank, actually made of a wooden-resin composite known as Jabroc, is otherwise known as a skid block. It’s used by everyone’s favourite governing body, the FIA, to measure how low a car is running to the ground. If they find that a millimetre has worn off the block after conducting a random check, the car is disqualified from the race. The cars are not allowed to run too low to the ground to prevent teams taking advantage of ground effect for handling, as well as a safety precaution.
The FIA conducted random checks on Leclerc and Hamilton’s cars and found plank wear on the block, which saw them disqualified from sixth and second respectively. While Sainz grabbed a sneaky podium spot, Charles went on to like tweets expressing his frustration with the race outcome. Are you a fan of Ferrari? Do you enjoy the mental anguish every weekend rooting for a team that finds any and every way to mess it up? Vent your anger out in our Instagram DM’s @LboroLable, we are here for you <3.
Alpine and McLaren have been butting heads in the championship battle for the past few years now, but this translated to a race-ending on-track incident between Esteban Ocon and Oscar Piastri on lap one of Sunday’s race. Estie Bestie, who scored an incredible P3 in Monaco this year, expressed confused about his lack of pace across the weekend relative to his French teammate and former rival Pierre Gasly. Despite Ocon’s woes, Pierre snuck two points in the sprint and eight more in the race, allowing Alpine to retain a rather lonely P6 in the standings at exactly 100 points.
Alpine brought a different kind of upgrade to Austin in the shape of star athletes across the sporting world. We’re talking former boxing champion Anthony Joshua and golfing legend Rory McIlroy, and Taylor Swift’s #1 fan Travis Kelce of the NFL. They join the likes of Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenny in Alpine’s investment boom as the UK-based French team forge a path to the front of the field – this time with no ill-fated ‘100-race plan’.
With the Mexico GP just around the corner, will Red Bull take the right line to victory, or will another team divebomb into a win? You can watch the race on Sky Sports F1 or right here at JC’s in the student’s union. Here’s the schedule (times in BST):
Friday:
- Free Practice 1 – 19:30-20:30
- Free Practice 2 – 23:00-00:00
Saturday:
- Free Practice 3 – 18:30-19:30
- Qualifying – 22:00-23:00
Sunday:
- Mexico Grand Prix – 20:00
Check out the Full Throttle Podcast with myself and Theo Silk for a more in-depth breakdown of the Austin Grand Prix as well as predictions for Mexico…
Edited by: Grace Hughes
Designed by: Aaron Smyth
