A dejected Lando Norris rued his misfortune after seeing his championship hopes all but ruined in the Interlagos rain.
From the McLaren driver’s perspective, he’d taken the effective lead of the race by passing George Russell when the conditions deteriorated, shortly after the pair pitted for fresh sets of intermediate tyres.But ahead of them lay three drivers who had not taken fresh rubber. Soon afterwards the race was red-flagged, they were able to replace their worn tyres, and the trio annexed the podium.
Had they been merely lucky, as Norris claimed afterwards, or had McLaren and Mercedes blown their drivers’ chances to win with needless pit stops?
What really made the difference was the timing of the Virtual Safety Car period. This was the moment fortune smiled on the podium trio, but also where McLaren and Mercedes made race-losing errors.
The rain was already worsening when Nico Hulkenberg skidded off at turn one on lap 27. The Haas driver had the misfortune to become perched on a ridge, and couldn’t drive away. The marshals therefore had to enter the track to recover his car, which meant the Virtual Safety Car was needed.
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Teams are always alert to the opportunities VSC periods and conventional Safety Car deployments offer to make pit stops while losing less time than they would during green flag running. Pitting under normal conditions costs around 21 seconds at Interlagos, doing so in neutralised conditions around half that.
When the VSC period began on lap 28, race leader Russell had already passed the pit lane entrance with Norris close behind. So had Esteban Ocon, who was almost 13 seconds behind in third, followed by Yuki Tsunoda and Verstappen. The second Alpine of Pierre Gasly narrowly missed the opportunity to make it in.
The first two drivers who had the chance to come in under the VSC and fit fresh tyres while losing minimal time did so: Oscar Piastri and Fernando Alonso. Liam Lawson did not, but RB appeared slow to react: They brought both drivers in the next time around. Charles Leclerc did not pit, having already come in a few laps earlier, but Oliver Bearman, Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz Jnr.
Significantly, Red Bull brought Sergio Perez in under the VSC, telling him there was “not much to lose” pitting given the race situation.
As the leaders approached the end of the lap the VSC period remained in force, though it was unclear how much longer it was going to last. Russell and Norris’ teams had the most to lose and faced the biggest dilemma: Would it stay out long enough for them to be able to fit fresh tyres and rejoin, potentially before Ocon and the rest arrived?
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Both teams committed to bringing their drivers in: And got the worst possible outcome. The instant Russell and Norris entered the pit lane, the VSC ended. Their pit stops cost them almost as much time as pitting under green flag conditions.
Should Mercedes or McLaren have avoided their ultimately race-losing calls? Pitting that late in a VSC was always going to be risky. Hulkenberg’s car could be seen driving away on the world feed around the time the leaders were at Juncao. In Mercedes’ case, Russell was lobbying on his radio to stay out.
But the extra 13 seconds Ocon and the rest behind them had meant they never even had to consider whether to come in. Verstappen and the Alpine drivers reaped the benefit of staying out by avoiding the temptation to come in, but to them the price of coming in was always much higher than it was for their rivals.
That might not have been the case had the VSC been thrown more quickly in response to Hulkenberg’s spin. In that respect, the very circumstances Red Bull claimed went against them in qualifying worked in their favour when it mattered most.
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2024 Brazilian Grand Prix
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Kribana (@krichelle)
4th November 2024, 13:49
Pitting should have never been an option. There were barely any overtakes yesterday except for Verstappen’s ones because he had a huge pace delta over most cars. Yet when he reached Leclerc, he had a harder time. These intermediate tyres last so long that you could probably do the whole race on one set.
Riccard
4th November 2024, 18:36
This isn’t accurate. If you look at the lap chart, you can see many overtakes, both with and without Verstappen:
https://www.racefans.net/2024/11/04/how-leclerc-paid-the-price-for-ferraris-bold-but-flawed-strategy/
The rain was causing a lot of people to run off or run wide, which left them exposed on the next straight and next corner. As a few examples, Hulkenberg, Colapinto, Sainz and Bearman all overtook Hamilton; Bearman overtook Sainz; Hamilton overtook Sainz; Bearman and Hamilton overtook Colapinto.
There were overtakes yesterday throughout the field and throughout the race.
Edvaldo
4th November 2024, 13:55
When the race was interrupted, Norris was some 3 seconds behind Max, with much better tyres. As the track was not getting any dryer, and Max still on worn inters, it was a matter of time for a pass.
Nobody would expect a driver to crash that heavily under Safety Car, so, Mclaren didn’t make the wrong decision, it was just unfortunate to happen at that moment.
But why they’re always the ones lamenting their decision was not the best one anyway? They need to take risks every once in a while. Sometimes it pays off.
Grapmg
4th November 2024, 14:42
Really? Norris was 3s behind Max?. Norris lost out to Russel after the VSC restart. He was running 5th so three places behind Max. He had some work to do there.
Edvaldo
4th November 2024, 15:04
They went for tyres and right after, Norris made the pass on Russell and was getting closer to Max, who was 7 seconds off Ocon, who made the pass on Tsunoda and quickly opened this gap.
There was this wide take on ‘Laranjinha’ and while Max was going through it, Norris was already going uphill. Maybe a bit more than 3 secs in wet weather, but he was close.
Edvaldo
4th November 2024, 15:08
correction : he was runnig 4th, he had only Gasly between him and Max.
Grapmg
4th November 2024, 17:27
That is correct Norris past Russel after the stop and maybe he was quicker at that stage of the race at newer tires. But I still don’t get the point. Norris ended up behind Leclerc at the end. He was even running behind Piastri at a certain point of the race. He simply didn’t have the speed and I didn’t see him pass anybody later on. I can’t think of any scenario that would have worked out for Norris to finish ahead of Max.
Edvaldo
4th November 2024, 17:42
He opened a 3 sec gap to Russel in a lap after the pass. How come he didn’t have the pace? Check the data, it was already posted. He had the pace, he (and everybody else, even Max when the rain got thicker) just couldn’t overtake off the dry line.
With newer tyres and continuous rain, i believe he would approach fast, he was already doing that, and make the moves as the others had worn tyres.
Of course, when the race was interrupted, everything changed. My initial point is that Mclaren didn’t make a mistake, they gambled and it backfired because another Norris poor start, getting stuck behind a slower Russell for 30 laps, instead of building a large gap, put them in that position.
Asd
4th November 2024, 15:16
I was fuming when they brought out the first Safety Car for no reason! The conditions were good enough for everybody stay on the intermediate tyres, yet the race control declared the conditions too difficult. That’s so nonsensical.
They should rename the intermediates to rain tyres and stop carrying those useless rain tyres around all over the world.
Ideals (@ideals)
4th November 2024, 15:56
So when you were done fuming and saw the massive crash that happened behind the safety car you surely admitted to yourself that the race director made the right call, right?
F1statsfan (@f1statsfan)
4th November 2024, 16:14
Well I disagree that the race director made the right call.
The right call would have been the red flag – unless there is an accident the safety car should not be used once the race is under green flag.
You could even make the point that safety car increases the risk of an accident for 2 reasons.
1) The whole pack is bunch together which is increasing the risk of folks hitting eachother.
2) The safety car is driving slower than F1 cars would – also in wet conditions – this will reduce tire temperatures and with that the available grip.
PlosslF1 (@f1-ploss)
4th November 2024, 15:36
Can you imagine the wailing and gnashing of teeth about the FIA and fixing things if it was Max who fell fowl of the VSC ending when it did for Norris and Russell :)
Grapmg
5th November 2024, 8:37
Actually Max and Occon didn’t have the opportunity at all. Explained in this article. Norris still benefitted at that moment maybe less but it saved him a couple of seconds. Max sweared on the radio for missing that VSC opportunity.
An Sionnach
4th November 2024, 22:41
They were spared the dilemma because their drivers were more comfortable in the wet.
Leclerc pitted during full racing conditions and ended up in front of Lando.
Biggest injustice of the weekend: since you get black flagged for receiving outside assistance, why wasn’t Senna black flagged for this in Suzuka, 1989? The stewards didn’t even consider it. A little ironic that this was demonstrated in Brazil. At least they found another way to disqualify him so justice was done!
Benhur
4th November 2024, 22:52
Aren’t you forgetting the one and only Cranemaster?
An Sionnach
5th November 2024, 8:34
To be that good you sometimes need a helping hand…
Mayrton
5th November 2024, 11:28
Never mind this. Where is article nr 15 about how Lando got away with a start infringement? We would be up to article 15 by now had it been Max. You know I am right. Everybody would be fuming about the leniency granted to Max.
And where are the detailed and long articles on the VSC timing in the Sprint or the red flag timing during quali. I am sure that would they have benefitted Max rather than Lando we would have had a vast amount of articles on this as well.