F1 Madness

Tag: oscar piastri

  • 2026 United States Grand Prix preview: Antonelli’s title shot, McLaren’s mess and Red Bull’s momentum

    2026 United States Grand Prix preview: Antonelli’s title shot, McLaren’s mess and Red Bull’s momentum

    The short version

    • Kimi Antonelli can clinch the championship in Austin, but only if he wins, George Russell finishes ninth or lower, and Lewis Hamilton finishes fifth or lower. At 20 years and 61 days he would be the youngest world champion in F1 history.
    • Max Verstappen has won the last two races and cut McLaren’s constructors’ lead to seven points. Lando Norris’s sprint crash with Oscar Piastri didn’t help McLaren.
    • There is no sprint this weekend, and the forecast is hot and dry.

    Antonelli: the youngest champion ever, maybe

    Antonelli leads Russell by 102 points, 340 to 238. A title in Austin would make him 20 years and 61 days old, taking the youngest-champion record from Sebastian Vettel, who was 23 years and 134 days when he won in 2010.

    The maths is stricter than the headline suggests. Five rounds remain after Austin, which leaves 125 points on the table. A win takes Antonelli to 365. If Russell finishes ninth he reaches 240, a gap of exactly 125. A tie on points would go to race wins, and Antonelli would have nine against a maximum of eight for Russell. So ninth is the cut-off for Russell. Hamilton, on 229, must finish fifth or lower, because fourth would keep him inside the gap.

    Austin resultWhat it means
    Antonelli wins, Russell P9 or lower, Hamilton P5 or lowerChampion in Austin
    Antonelli wins, but Russell or Hamilton finish higherTitle decided in Mexico at the earliest
    Antonelli doesn’t winCan’t clinch this weekend

    A win would also end the title hopes of Verstappen (119 back), Leclerc and Norris. Verstappen is mathematically alive unless Antonelli outscores him by six or more.

    The catch is that Russell, who is on 238 points, has to have a bad day. He did finish ninth in Singapore, but from the back of the grid after a power unit penalty. Short of a mechanical failure or one of Mercedes’ puzzling weekends, he’s more likely to be on the podium. The most probable outcome is that the party gets postponed.

    Red Bull’s surge

    Verstappen has taken the last two grands prix and the Singapore sprint, and was second in Baku. He was seven points short of a perfect score across that triple-header. He’s fourth in the standings on 221 points, and Red Bull’s recent form has people asking who really has the quickest race car. Mercedes lead the championship but are still working out the upgrade they brought to Malaysia.

    McLaren: how to lose points to yourself

    On the final lap of the Singapore sprint, Norris dived up the inside of Piastri at Turn 5 and the two collided. Piastri retired and Norris limped home eighth. McLaren banked one point from what should have been about nine. The stewards took no action, ruling that both drivers contributed.

    Norris’s reaction took two days to arrive. On Saturday he insisted the move was on. On Sunday, after finishing fourth in the race, he reversed himself. He said he should never have attempted it, even if the move was on, apologised to the team and said he’d been told off in internal talks. Piastri, for his part, said he wasn’t that bothered by a sprint result. The team principal was blunter, calling the damage to the team material.

    Constructors’ points are the cost. The gap to Red Bull was 18 before Singapore, then 11 after the sprint, then 7 after the race. One former technical director estimated the lost points could cost McLaren around $10 million, although how he got to that number isn’t explained, so take it as a ballpark. McLaren are bringing further upgrades to Austin.

    Constructors’ standings and the midfield

    TeamPoints
    Mercedes578
    Ferrari444
    McLaren339
    Red Bull332
    Racing Bulls100
    Alpine68
    Haas30
    Audi23
    Williams12
    Aston Martin7
    Cadillac0

    The top four is a proper fight. Ferrari are 105 clear of McLaren, but McLaren and Red Bull are separated by seven. The midfield is less tight than it sounds. Racing Bulls lead Alpine by 32, and Alpine are 38 clear of Haas. The real scrapping is further down. Haas lead Audi by seven, Williams lead Aston Martin by five, and Aston Martin lead Cadillac by seven. Cadillac are the only team still without a point, and with no sprint in Austin there are fewer points to go around.

    The weather

    After Malaysia and Singapore, Austin should feel like a holiday. Forecasts put highs near 30°C on Friday and Saturday and around 29°C on Sunday. Rain chances are low: about 3% on Friday and 7% on Saturday and Sunday. The only weather problem is heat, which will test tyre management.

    Also in the paddock

    F1 has signed a 10-year deal for a Rwanda Grand Prix, its first African race since Kyalami in 1993. Haas have also signed Rafael Camara for 2027 to partner Oliver Bearman.

    What to watch

    A 20-year-old could be crowned on Sunday. Verstappen is chasing a hat-trick of wins. McLaren have a mess to clean up, and the whole thing starts at 22:00 on a hot Texas evening with no rain in sight. Clear your Sunday night and stock up on coffee.

    Image courtesy Pirelli Motorsport

  • Ferrari strategy in Singapore: a sound plan, a costly call and a trust problem

    Ferrari strategy in Singapore: a sound plan, a costly call and a trust problem

    The short version

    • Verstappen won the Singapore Grand Prix by 7.0 seconds from Charles Leclerc. Lewis Hamilton went from third on track to sixth after staying out under the Virtual Safety Car.
    • Ferrari say they told both drivers to pit. Hamilton says he missed the pit entry, then chose to stay out, and has taken the blame. Both can be true, and the radio that would settle it hasn’t been published.
    • Ferrari already have more points than in the whole of 2025 (444 against 398). That is real progress. At Ferrari, progress is not a result.

    Ferrari strategy has always been a spectator sport, and Singapore added another episode. A split plan, a Virtual Safety Car, a missed pit entry and an apology on the cool-down lap. What it doesn’t settle is the bigger question: when the pit wall and the driver disagree, who is supposed to win the argument?

    How the race went

    Verstappen took pole, Leclerc was second and Hamilton third. Verstappen and Leclerc started on softs. Hamilton started on mediums, Ferrari’s way of covering both bets on a tyre nobody could read. Leclerc had a run at Turn 1, Verstappen closed the door, and Leclerc stayed within a second for the first 15 laps. Then Verstappen pulled away.

    LapWhat happened
    StartVerstappen pole. Leclerc P2 on softs, Hamilton P3 on mediums
    19Hamilton pits from the fading mediums to softs
    25Leclerc pits for mediums, about 9s behind Verstappen
    33Verstappen pits and keeps the lead
    39VSC for Lance Stroll’s stopped car. Leclerc pits for softs, about 17s behind. Hamilton stays out
    FinishVerstappen, Leclerc (+7.0s), Antonelli, Norris, Piastri, Hamilton

    Hamilton’s old softs faded. Leclerc passed him, then Antonelli, Norris and Piastri all followed him past. A likely podium became sixth place.

    The strategy: clever or chaotic?

    Splitting the strategies at the start was defensible. Ferrari were unsure whether the medium or the soft would last, and the sprint, affected by wet running, gave them poor tyre data. The medium turned out to be the worse race tyre, so Hamilton stopped early. That is a plan working as designed, not a plan going wrong.

    The trouble came after. One analysis of the race argues Leclerc’s lap-25 stop dropped him in front of Hamilton, who was quicker at that point, and cost Hamilton roughly two seconds. Reports say Hamilton asked to be let through, and offered to swap back, and heard nothing. Vasseur defended the call. Whichever side you take, the optics are the same: two cars, one team, and a driver asking a question the pit wall didn’t answer.

    The VSC call

    This is the part everyone is arguing about. Vasseur says Ferrari called both cars in for a double stack and Hamilton chose to stay out. Hamilton says the team called him in, he missed the pit entry, and he then decided to hold track position. After the flag he said: “Sorry boys. I let you down today with that strategy.”

    There is also a theory, popular online, that the pit call never reached him. The evidence for that is a gap in the published radio, which proves nothing either way. What is reported, though not confirmed by Ferrari, is that Hamilton had asked for the pace of soft-tyre runners at the end of their stints and was given current lap times. If true, that is thin information to base a gamble on.

    The cost was real. Vasseur said P2 and P3 were on offer. One analysis has Hamilton losing about 2.5 seconds per lap to Leclerc over the closing stint. Hamilton has taken full responsibility, which deserves to be said plainly. Whether the information he had justified the decision is a separate question, and that’s the one Ferrari need to answer.

    Does Hamilton trust the pit wall?

    Three recent races tell the story, and none of them paints Hamilton as a rebel.

    RaceThe situationHamilton’s responseResult
    ZandvoortFerrari didn’t swap him past a slower Leclerc on older tyresSarcastic radio, then compared Ferrari unfavourably with MercedesP4
    SepangPit wall floated an intermediate gamble on lap 5Declined and stayed on slicksP3, 4.9s behind Verstappen
    SingaporeCalled in under the VSCStayed outP6

    Sepang was a week earlier, and it taught Hamilton that overruling the pit wall can work. Singapore taught him it can also cost a podium. Neither race proves he distrusts the team. They show a driver who backs his own read when the information is thin, and a team that has handed him thin information more than once. Zandvoort suggests the communication is the pattern, not the exception.

    Could Leclerc have won?

    Probably not. Verstappen led by about 9 seconds when Leclerc stopped on lap 25 and about 17 when he stopped under the VSC. Leclerc finished 7.0 seconds behind, so on fresh softs he took about 10 seconds back in 23 laps. That sounds promising until you remember Verstappen was managing his race.

    Leclerc himself said Red Bull had too much pace in the opening stint. He also thinks he misjudged Verstappen’s early power deployment problems and didn’t spend battery to force a pass. He doesn’t think that changes the result. Had he got ahead at Turn 1, he would have led with the faster car sitting behind him on a track where passing is hard. That’s a long way from a win. The honest answer is that second was the realistic ceiling, and Ferrari got it.

    The Ferrari tax

    Context matters. In 2025 Ferrari finished fourth with 398 points, with no wins, and Hamilton had no podiums. This year they are second with 444 points, two wins and a seven-time champion who is third in the drivers’ standings. Mercedes have 11 wins, so Ferrari are clearly the second-best team on the grid and clearly not the best.

    That is the Ferrari problem. Anything short of a win is failure, a seven-time champion in red adds extra scrutiny, and every sketchy call arrives with an audience. Sepang’s slick gamble and Singapore’s split-and-pray plan did the team no favours.

    And then there is Vasseur

    Strong rumours have been circulating since late September that Ferrari’s senior leadership has a succession plan to ease Vasseur out after this season. Nothing has been confirmed, and nobody has ruled it out either. Ferrari moved quickly, saying within days that they have full confidence in him. Both drivers backed him publicly: Hamilton called him a fantastic leader and Leclerc said he trusts him. Vasseur says his relationship with CEO Benedetto Vigna and chairman John Elkann is a very good one. Christian Horner, a man with time on his hands, called Ferrari a dream job.

    None of that is confirmed, and Ferrari have publicly backed him. But the story hasn’t gone away for weeks and reappears after every race. Smoke isn’t fire. Still, a team that issues a vote of confidence and then has to repeat it a week later is telling you something. No change has been announced at the time of writing. Austin is next.

    📸 courtesy Ferrari Media

  • F1 2023: Hungarian Gp Review – Red Bull’s Record-Breaking Streak: 12 Wins and Counting!

    F1 2023: Hungarian Gp Review – Red Bull’s Record-Breaking Streak: 12 Wins and Counting!

    There aren’t many superlatives that remain to be espoused in honour of the Red Bull team. So, we’ll give you the stats instead. The latest win in Hungary has taken Red Bull to a record-equaling twelfth win in a row. They share this auspicious record with the 1988 McLaren. The difference in 2023 is that there are still eleven races to be run. There’s no telling then where Red Bull’s record of consecutive wins will end.

    A seventh win in a row for Max Verstappen has also taken him into some elite company. From Ascari, to Michael Schumacher (twice), to Seb Vettel and Nico Rosberg, Verstappen joins a short list of drivers to win seven grands prix consecutively. The outright record of nine wins, is held by Seb Vettel. There is every expectation that Verstappen will blow past this record in relatively short time. This weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix could well be number eight.

    The Saturday qualifying result would have come as a surprise to many given the current run of form. Lewis Hamilton delivered a truly impressive lap to snatch pole position by just three thousands of a second. It was the Brit’s first pole since the Saudi Arabian Gp in 2021, some 33 races ago. The resurgent Hamilton brought with him a real sense of optimism that he could perhaps challenge for the victory. But it was nothing more than a short-lived fantasy.

    A poor start from Hamilton saw him drop behind not only Verstappen but also the two McLaren’s of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. And although he showed a good turn of pace towards the end of the race it wasn’t enough to recover to the podium.

    Formula 1 2023: Hungarian GPAs it were, once Verstappen took the lead, he disappeared into the distance quite rapidly. In fact, the Dutchman was leading by more than half a minute by the time the chequered flag appeared. In second place Norris drove yet another impressive race to hold off Checo Perez for a second consecutive podium finish. Perez, who qualified a lowly ninth, delivered the drive of the day, according to the fans’s vote, to finish third. The Mexican driver unquestionably pitched up on Sunday and delivered a drive that reminded everyone just how good he can be.

    Hamilton’s late charge saw him finish fourth ahead of Piastri in fifth. George Russell, who had to endure a qualifying faux pas, recovered from eighteenth to sixth place. It was yet another forgettable day for Ferrari as Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz trundled home in a lowly seventh and eighth; Leclerc having been demoted from sixth after incurring a five second time penalty for speeding in the pitlane. Aston Martin’s recent drop in performance was underlined too as Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll finished ninth and tenth.

    The returning Daniel Ricciardo was rock solid in the AlphaTauri. He both outqualified and outraced teammate Yuki Tsunoda to finish thirteenth in what has been described as a very difficult car to drive. To deliver a performance such as that after only two days in a completely new car and environment is a perfect start to his return.

    Formula 1 heads straight to Belgium this weekend for a race around the famed Spa-Francorchamps circuit. Regardless of the weather conditions, which is notoriously unpredictable in these parts, there is unlikely to be any genuine threat to Red Bull’s dominance. At this point only unreliability or a freak turn of events are likely to stop Red Bull from owning the top step of the podium once more.

    All images courtesy of Pirelli Motorsport