Ad-free F1 pod: Mexican GP review
Added 2024-10-28 06:42:54 +0000 UTCEdd Straw is joined by Scott Mitchell-Malm and Mark Hughes to dissect the Mexican Grand Prix - a race in which Max Verstappen was penalised by the stewards for another on-track run-in with title rival Lando Norris. The guys explain why Verstappen was punished this time out (when he wasn't in Austin) and also look at the wider championship implications, with Norris finishing second and Verstappen only sixth.
Carlos Sainz's excellent weekend and run to victory is also analysed, along with Sergio Perez's nightmare home outing, Mercedes' mixed run to fourth and fifth, and Yuki Tsunoda's opening lap crash. Plus, Edd, Mark and Scott answer another load of questions from The Race Members' Club.
Comments
I've been thinking about this same situation as well recently. Sure, the deliberate Schumacher crash that cost him the season is an extreme example and any penalty like that is not at all realistic in the situation we are in at the moment. But grid penalties or even a race ban (plus the repeat offender tag that comes with it) would absolutely be in the realm of possibility. I've started to see this as sort of a prisoners dilemma. Everyone keeps getting out of Max's way too avoid crashes because it is the reasonable thing to do in this specific moment. After all, you win nothing by crashing and ruining your own race. But because everyone just goes by this short-term logic, we end up in a long-term situation like the one we are in right now, where Max can just bully people. All it would really need is one or two people to actually hold their ground, not get out of the way and yes, let Max crash into them and ruin their race if necessary. I'm of the belief that if there was contact in some of these recent incidents, we wouldn't end up with crashes that look like unfortunate racing incidents, but with ones that would look terrible for Max and where the recklessness and dangerous trying would be on clear display for everyone. It would only take a few of those for penalties to rack up and for him to be forced to adapt his driving and potentially be less effective as a result of that. But of course this would require F1 drivers being willing to "take one for the team" and we all know that this is not how they are wired.
David Trippler
2024-10-28 18:40:25 +0000 UTCHaha no worries at all I wasn't complaining in the slightest :-)
Thomas Knights
2024-10-28 15:12:29 +0000 UTCHa - apologies. I lost track of the name somewhere in the process of compiling but was determined to find it! Edd
Edd Straw
2024-10-28 15:06:32 +0000 UTCGreat review as ever, also I like being the one with no name :-P
Thomas Knights
2024-10-28 14:58:38 +0000 UTCYour comments around disqualification; would your opinion have changed if there was contact, Lando went into the wall and would have sustained an injury preventing him racing in Brazil and more? I can’t help but think that they only gave a 10s penalty based on outcome. There was absolutely no intent on making that (high speed) corner. Whilst i don’t agree it was a Jerez 1997, I think it was closer to that than a 10s penalty.
Oliver
2024-10-28 13:49:46 +0000 UTCPerhaps this is straying a bit too much into BBV10 hypothetical territory, but what do you think the outcome would have been if either of the Max/Lando incidents had taken both cars out of the race? It would be most Schumacher-esque of Max to risk it all knowing a double DNF for the two protagonists helps him and hurts Lando. Do you think anything more than a grid penalty for Brazil would have been considered?
Ian Gallagher
2024-10-28 13:43:56 +0000 UTC
