“At least we tried.” From Max Verstappen’s words just after he crossed the finish line in Brazil, you would not immediately hear that he had an impressive catch-up race – started from the pit lane, finished third. But it is also understandable that Verstappen is not immediately overflowing with joy.
His other advance, that in the World Cup standings, was stopped this weekend. He lost thirteen points to leader Lando Norris, and saw his chances of extending his world championship shrink from unlikely but not impossible to minuscule.
And if Norris continues to drive for the rest of the season as he did in São Paulo, Verstappen can easily turn that ‘miniscule’ into ‘zero’. Norris dominated every session from Friday to Sunday. Pole position for the sprint race, win in the sprint race. Pole for the grand prix, and victory there too.
With three races (and one sprint) to go, Norris is 49 points ahead of Verstappen, who is third in the World Cup standings. In other words: only if the McLaren driver retires twice and Verstappen wins everything, he can still become champion.
Disastrous weekend
The fact that Verstappen’s deficit did not increase much further on the Interlagos circuit, located in the far south of the Brazilian metropolis, is astonishing when you consider how his weekend went until Saturday afternoon. In a word: disastrous.
In the sprint race it wasn’t too bad. Verstappen benefited from Norris’ teammate Oscar Piastri crashing out of the race; the Dutchman finished fourth, after starting from sixth place.
It was clear then that Verstappen’s Red Bull was no match for the McLarens. The car slid in all directions in the corners, especially in the twisty middle part of the circuit. The setup that Red Bull had devised in advance for Verstappen’s car turned out not to work; a problem that has cropped up frequently since last year, but which the team could hope had been resolved thanks to Verstappen’s series of victories and second places in recent weeks.
Red Bull and Verstappen decided to take a “risk”, as team boss Laurent Mekies put it to British TV. Before qualifying, a few hours after the sprint, they completely changed the setup of Verstappen’s RB21. It backfired. Verstappen set the sixteenth fastest time and was able to drop out after the first part of qualifying (‘Q1’). It was the first time in his ten-year career that he was stuck in Q1 purely on speed.
“I have no idea how it could be so bad,” said Verstappen after qualifying. The Red Bull had even less grip than before. And in order to keep all the resulting slipping and sliding to a minimum, he had to take it easy everywhere. That cost him a few tenths of a second – disastrous, now that there was barely a second between the head and the tail of the field.
While the mechanics of the other teams went back to their hotels, Verstappen’s continued to tinker. Actually, according to the rules, they are not allowed to touch the cars after qualifying, but Verstappen and Red Bull really wanted to try a new setup and immediately install a fresh engine. As punishment, Verstappen had to start from the pits.
This gamble turned out well. Judging by the decisiveness with which he immediately started overtaking competitors left and right after the start, he now suddenly felt very comfortable in the RB21. He suffered a flat tire early in the race and was lucky to be able to change it while a speed limit was in force due to a stranded car on the track. Furthermore, he drove faster lap times than Norris for most of the race.
Penalty seconds for Piastri
It just wasn’t enough. His failed qualification and pit lane start saddled Verstappen with a disadvantage in advance, which turned out to be just too big to overcome. On worn soft tires he finished just over ten seconds behind Norris, and also a blink behind Italian teenager Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who finished second.
Norris is now the big favorite in the title fight. Piastri, who led for most of the season but has been out of form since the summer holidays, had another bad weekend. Not only because of his crash in the sprint, but also because he brushed aside Antonelli and Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc in the grand prix. It earned him a ten-second penalty, meaning the Australian only finished fifth. He saw Norris expand from 1 to 24 points ahead in Brazil.
While things already look bad for Piastri, Verstappen knows that he needs nothing less than astronomical amounts of luck when the Formula 1 season continues in two weeks – of all places in a location that derives its right to exist from all-or-nothing: Las Vegas.
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