In the round-up: Esteban Ocon says Alpine needed wet conditions to score a good result with their uncompetitive car.
In brief
Alpine “better in the rain” – Ocon
Alpine were ninth in the constructors’ championship heading into the Brazilian Grand Prix. Second place for Ocon and third for Pierre Gasly leapfrogged the team to sixth in the standings.
Ocon said the wet conditions were crucial for the team to produce such a good result. “I think we are normally better in the rain,” he told media in the press conference on Sunday. “It’s difficult to be worse at times than where we are in the dry, especially lately. Don’t laugh, please!
“But it’s definitely great to be able to execute such a race. The team have been spot-on on strategy calls, tyres, and when everyone is on a level playing field, we can play and here we were.”
Piastri accepts Lawson collision penalty
Oscar Piastri did not argue with his 10-second time penalty for colliding with Liam Lawson on Sunday.“It was deserved,” he told the official F1 channel. “I didn’t get far enough up and tagged his left-rear. So I apologised [during] the red flag, just one of those days, I would say.”
Piastri was also given two penalty points on his licence, his first within the last 12 months.
Tsolov leaves Alpine
Formula 3 driver Nikola Tsolov has confirmed he is no longer part of Alpine’s young driver academy.
“I would like to thank Alpine Academy for the past three successful years working together,” he wrote in a social media post. “We’ve dominated in F4 and stepped up to F3 with great results.
“It’s been an incredible journey with a lot of learning and progress. I wish the team all the best and I’m sure they will have a lot of further success in the future.”
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Links
What makes Verstappen as brilliant in wet as Schumacher and Senna (The Telegraph)
Gary Anderson: 'This is all about feel and natural talent and that is hard to learn. Verstappen clearly has it in abundance as he proved with his crushing victory.'
Nasr set for Penske IndyCar test at Thermal (Racer)
'Porsche Penske Motorsport’s newest IMSA GTP champion has gotten the nod to head west for the November 19th test at The Thermal Club, where Felipe Nasr will join Team Penske on the growing list of drivers to conduct single-day evaluation runs for their respective teams.'
Ferrari explains background behind number 51 car penalty (Sportscar 365)
'The team respected the 26-tyre limit. However, because of a mistake, during the race they used the tires fitted to the car for the grid formation instead of those scrubbed during qualifying and intended for the race.'
Fornaroli on his F2 preparation with Invicta (F2)
'The workshop is nice, it’s not super big but all the essential things are there – two cars and the offices where the engineers are working.'
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— RaceFans (@racefansdotnet) November 4, 2024
I’ve actually not seen Max that excited to win a race in quite a long time.
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Comment of the day
The race director should have paid attention to the drivers’ warnings about the conditions on Sunday, says David:
When multiple drivers are saying it’s too wet for any tyre, and dangerous, the race director needs to take heed.
We had two or three laps there where the track wasn’t safe for any kind of racing. Frankly lucky that the two or three crashes we had during that phase of rain weren’t more serious.
David
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Adam Dennehey, Amadis, Somersetracefan, Sonia Luff and Giggsy11!
On this day in motorsport
- 35 years ago today Thierry Boutsen won a drenched Australian Grand Prix as Alain Prost withdrew and Ayrton Senna crashed into Martin Brundle
Derek Edwards
5th November 2024, 0:52
I don’t think that Alpine have actually leapfrogged to third in the standings, unless they have been up to more, erm, “creative” accounting…
satellite
5th November 2024, 1:28
Maybe leapfrogged 3 teams?
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
5th November 2024, 10:26
Sorry about that error – sorted now.
Edvaldo
5th November 2024, 1:17
Great race by Ocon by the way. Led from Max with authority after the red flag. Was caught sleeping at the last restart but it would be very difficult to hold Max behind anyway.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
5th November 2024, 1:40
That was a wet race, adelaide 1989, I watched a bit of it recently and noticed there were actually puddles on the track, was impressed by how fast senna was in those conditions.
Grapmg
5th November 2024, 7:33
I still remember that race very well. Although Senna was dsq in Japan he had to win that race to be WDC that year in case his dsq would be withdrawn (wich was never really an option I guess). So I watched it as if it was a championship decider. That rain proved to much and Senna just skid of on the straight just like many others
Jungle
5th November 2024, 11:08
Think he ran up the back of someone completely unsighted on the straight. Brundle?
Grapmg
5th November 2024, 20:43
Yes he ended the race after hitting Brundle. But before that he had a massive spin and could continue. Post didn’t want to race and stepped out.
Jere (@jerejj)
5th November 2024, 6:59
Unquestionably, but unfortunately for them, only fully dry rounds remain this season, so inevitably normal service will resume in Las Vegas.
James Price tweet: That was definitely partly about his lengthy victory drought.
COTD: The rain wasn’t truly too severe for racing at any point, though, so those drivers somewhat exaggerated. The matter would’ve been different had the race start time remained as originally scheduled.
notagrumpyfan
5th November 2024, 7:24
The RD is fully aware that a lot of the feedback from drivers is driven by their self interest, which is not just safety.
Further, he could see that most cars were still on Inters (‘self interest’ not having to stop twice when it dries out), and IIRC there were actually no incidents during the wettest part of the race.
Riccard
5th November 2024, 8:40
It’s tough, because even without the red director red flagging the race,
1. If they all keep driving on inters then sometime will crash, and
2. If someone will crash (and then yellow/red flag) it isn’t worth changing for wets. Just make sure you aren’t the one who bins it.
Unless we can reduce the need for red/yellow flags in case of crashes, it’s hard to see the situation changing.
MichaelN
5th November 2024, 8:46
It’s pretty easy to solve, actually. Keep the safety car, close the pitlane, and mandate Full Wet on the restart so everyone without a set has to stop on the restart and lose 30+ seconds. That’s an incentive F1 teams understand.
notagrumpyfan
5th November 2024, 9:44
That’s just as ridiculous as the current rule: imagine a driver is 1-2min up the road and he hasn’t changed to full wets yet (just picture your hero driver to have the race of his life), and all the others changed to full wets.
SC, Red Flag, restart, and then the ‘hero’ is obliged to pit for full wets even after losing all his on track advantage. And he was able to cope with the track as it was anyway?
Why not go straight for reverse grid and sprinklers with bonus point for best spin.
I agree though that tyre changes, and other changes/repairs, should not be allowed on the pit fast lane during a Red Flag without some consequences.
The only way to solve the general (not just in the wet) unfair advantage of pitting under (V)SC is and Red Flag is to make the lost pitstop time under normal circumstances shorter. Increasing the speed in the pitlane is probably not the answer, but maybe cut our the final corners when entering te pitlane. But I guess this would only work on paper and on some tracks.
Carl Parker (@mysticarl)
5th November 2024, 12:58
Simpler would be to not allow tyre changes for free unless the red flag was for debris – you can change them but it’d be to the tail of the field.
notagrumpyfan
5th November 2024, 13:48
But then you should stop closing up the field for Red Flag (and SC) as well.
It will never be ‘simple’ and even less so ‘fair’ according to everybody.
PS I think it is ‘fair’ as long as the rules are the same for all, implemented the same for all, and no unnecessary changes within a season.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
7th November 2024, 21:57
@mysticarl This very red flag was for a crash that caused debris, that many drivers had to go through to reach the pit lane.
Your proposal changes nothing, either for this or for the most common causes of red flags.
Ray West (@raynaud2211)
5th November 2024, 7:41
What a drive from Ocon. He really showed his skills. To bad he is so stubborn as a teamplayer. Otherwise he don’t loose his drive at Alpine
Jere (@jerejj)
5th November 2024, 8:37
His impending departure was a mutual decision rather than him getting sacked per se, but otherwise, I agree.
notagrumpyfan
5th November 2024, 9:47
Yes, like all those ‘mutually decided to part ways’ on company notice boards ;)
It’s indeed mutual; one decided, and the other accepted the compensation to not object.
Simon
5th November 2024, 21:34
@notagrumpyfan
+1
baasbas
5th November 2024, 9:19
@raynaud2211
Peckett Okay, understood. Do you feel you need a new set of intermediates question?
Ocon No!
Not making the mistakes others have while still extracting enough pace from the car and the situation. That is good. But also, that is what you have to expect from any F1 driver if we’re being honest.
For me, what made it a great drive is doing what you’re supposed to, but also making the correct decisions.. reading the race. And that radio sample shows to me he knew exactly what was going on, while Norris dropped the ball and was asking for a pit
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
8th November 2024, 17:29
You might think Ocon isn’t a team player, but from the interviews I saw last year, or maybe the year before its obvious there are guys trying to sabotage him on that team. People hate weakness, and maybe, just maybe hes a better team player than you might think, and F1 is a dirty game.
Keith Campbell (@keithedin)
5th November 2024, 9:48
Alpine has looked more competitive in general after their most recent upgrades. Gasly qualified well in a couple of rounds and has scored some points. I think they should be in the mix for points in the last few rounds, although maybe Vegas will be a struggle with their power unit deficit.
N
5th November 2024, 11:07
“Ocon said the wet conditions were crucial for the team to produce such a good result.”
That’s weird, there’s some people that seem to think the car means nothing in the wet and it’s all just driver skill.
It’s almost like having a compliant car in wet conditions is even more important in slippery conditions than it is when its dry.
Jungle
5th November 2024, 11:10
From the on board shots I really loved the sound of the Renault!
JJ (@jjfrazz)
5th November 2024, 21:37
Speed traps in the dry tell the story of which cars will run better in the wet.