Luke’s Weekend Review – Brazilian GP 2023

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2023 Brazilian GP: Senna's Legacy, Ferrari Heartbreak, and Verstappen's Victory

Brazil GP 2023 4

The Brazilian GP has come and gone and what a race we had on our hands full of drama, overtakes, last minute podiums and some unfortunate retirements. The 2023 Brazilian GP also marked the 30th anniversary since the last win of Ayrton Senna at the Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace.

The drama didn’t take long to start as on the formation lap the drivers went and half way through the middle sector the heartbreak set for me and all the Ferrari fans as we see Charles Leclerc in the barriers which is a very rare sight but his Ferrari lost hydraulics and his car spun leaving him with no power steering throwing him in the barriers. The damage was extensive enough to retire the car and Leclerc was heard over the radio very frustrated saying how unlucky he is, and I for one, fully agree with him.

After a slight delay on the start to clear Leclerc’s car, the green flag was waved and off they went. Max Verstappen got a great start and managed to keep everyone behind. Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton both had a great start as they both leapfrogged the Aston Martins of Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso slotting in 2nd and 3rd respectively. Further back there was more drama before we got to Turn 1, we see Alex Albon spin into Kevin Magnussen taking both cars out of the race. After a review on the replay, we see that Albon actually collided with Nico Hulkenberg first where Albon’s rear tyre hit Hulkenberg’s front tyre which broke his rear tyre and losing control of his car. This was noted down as a racing incident as no one really done anything wrong just a lack of space on the track. This brought out the Safety car due to the amount of debris on the track.

Among the chaos we see that both Oscar Piastri and Daniel Ricciardo picked rear wing damage as Magnussen mid spin went into the back of Piastri and Albon’s rear tyre bounced on the track onto Ricciardo’s wing. Both drivers were called into the pits to retire the car due to the extensive damage however a stroke of luck came to the pair as the session was Red Flagged which meant that the teams were able to repair the cars under Red Flag conditions and both cars will be allowed to go back racing. While the session was red flagged we see a few of the replays and one that stayed with me was Carlos Sainz on the start saying to the team that the clutch on his Ferrari need to be binned when they are back in Marinello as he had a very poor start, later in the race as well Sainz complained he had no downshifts as the paddle was being unresponsive however he was able to finish the race with no issues and with decent pace as well.

Once the Red Flag was coming to an end the FIA announced that any constructor who worked on their car in the actual garage not on the pit lane will have to restart from the pits which meant that Ricciardo and Piastri had to start from the pitlane given that both teams rushed to get their cars fixed and back in the race. The strange thing was that given that both Piastri and Ricciardo pitted just before the Red Flag it meant that they were a lap down and the FIA didn’t allow them to unlap themselves meaning that they were a lap down on the remaining 15 drivers ahead of them.

With Max on Pole and Norris in 2nd place for the restart it meant that we had a role reversal from the sprint but once the lights went out Max was able to stay ahead by Turn 1, Hamilton had a great restart and by Turn 1 he was side by side to Norris, however he was on the outside and had to back out and slot back into 3rd. This did put Hamilton out of position as by Turn 4 Alonso was able to pick up the slipstream and get past Hamilton into Turn 4. On Lap 7 we see that Norris had some decent pace as he was right on Verstappen’s Gearbox and had DRS, however after 1 lap of actually attacking, Max realised he didn’t like it and actually put his right foot down and in 1 lap he was able to get 2 seconds clear of Norris. That 30 seconds of hope was welcomed by everyone I would say and was good while it lasted.

Mercedes Struggles in São Paulo: Russell and Hamilton's Tense Battle with Red Bull

Mountainous cedes it was not a pleasant race at all, towards the early stages of the race we hear George Russell come onto the radio asking for Hamilton to help him out with DRS as he will not attack Hamilton but use the DRS to help him defend against the Red Bull of Sergio Perez, this was in Hamilton’s best interest to do so as well as the longer Perez is behind Russell meant that he would not be able to attack him. Hamilton was able to keep Russell in DRS for a while, however after a few laps Russell was out of DRS range which meant it was open season for Perez. After a few laps, on lap 14 Perez was able to get past Russell into Turn 1 and against Russell’s best efforts to get back at Perez into Turn 4, he was not able to attack him back. Russell was not at all pleased with his teammate Hamilton for not helping him more than he did. This was the start of Mercedes’s downfall in the San Paulo GP, by lap 18 Perez was able to get past Hamilton as well and from this moment onwards it was driving backwards for Hamilton as he was easy picking for most of the mid field. His teammate Russell was the same as Hamilton, but it was slightly worse for George as on lap 58 Mercedes call Russell into the pits to retire the car due to high oil temperatures which posed an imminent threat to the engine exploding.

Mercedes wasn’t the only team with bad luck as Alfa Romeo had a double retirement for their cars as we see Zhou Guanyu retire on lap 24, while Valtteri Bottas was called in lap 40 for similar reasons which weren’t confirmed in the race, but it was suspected to be engine issues for both drivers.

With many battles on track there was also the battle of the pit stops where drivers were pitting to try and undercut the driver ahead of them, on lap 19 Hamilton was the first of the front runners to pit starting a bit of a wave where drivers followed suit in the coming laps. Russell followed his teammate on lap 20 and came out much closer to his teammate than he was before the pits, but a few laps later we found out that this was due to Hamilton’s that his front left tyre was steering right. The undercut however worked as once Perez pit on lap 21 he was once again behind the 7-time world champion, this however was short lived as after Hamilton was able to keep Perez behind on lap 23, one lap later Perez managed to clear Hamilton and get on his way. Alonso who was running in 3rd at the time comes in on lap 26 to attempt the undercut on Norris who was in 2nd, however he was a bit too far behind as once Max and Norris pitted on lap 28, Norris was able to still come out ahead of Alonso.

While all the pitstops were happening we missed some on track action as Stroll was able to get past both Mercedes drivers to get into 5th on an Aston Martin that was behaving much closer to what we saw earlier in the season as Aston Martin reverted back their upgrades and both drivers were happier with the drivability of the car.

Alpine was another team who had a very good race, the French pair started the race in 14th and 15th due to penalties they received on the Friday Qualifying, however their pace was very good and we seen some great overtakes from both drivers, especially Esteban Ocon who had a 3 stop which meant he needed to way more overtakes in order to finish in a good position. On lap 45 Pierre Gasly had a bit of a scare as he came on the radio saying that he thinks that he had brake issues after an overtake on Russell on lap 43, luckily this was not a lasting issue as Gasly was able to keep going and the Alpine pair were able to both finish in the points.

All eyes however were on the battle between Alonso and Perez in the closing stages of the race as it all starts with Perez pitting on lap 47 and Alonso coming in on lap 48 to protect from the undercut. By lap 55 Perez cut down the gap and he was now in DRS range on Alonso, but this is where Alonso put his World Champion pants on and gave Perez a masterclass in defending. Alonso was making that Aston Martin as wide as he could possibly do and placing it in all the right spots. Perez was giving it his all, but Alonso was recharging and using his ERS in the perfect spots. After a 15-lap battle Perez was able to get past Alonso in Turn 1 on lap 70 and Alonso gave it his all to get back at Perez into Turn 4 and despite being ahead of him in the braking zone, he had to slot behind Perez who had the inside line. Alonso admitted after the race that his podium chance had gone but on the final lap Perez went wide in Turn 1 which meant he was out of position for Turns 2 and 3, because of this Alonso was able to get past him this time at Turn 4 which meant it was going to be a drag race to the finish line. Perez gave it his all on the final stretch, but Alonso managed to clinch 3rd place by 0.053 seconds getting his first podium since the Dutch GP.

Max Verstappen wins the race followed by Lando Norris, Fernando Alonso, Sergio Perez, Carlos Sainz, Pierre Gasly, Lewis Hamilton, Yuki Tsunoda and Esteban Ocon form the top 10. Max Verstappen managed to extend his world record of most wins in a single season from 15 to 16, and in my opinion will be 18 wins with 2 races left by the end of the season.

Norris had quiet but amazing race up in Brazil as he was keeping up with Verstappen’s pace for most of the race, managed to get the fastest lap of the race and bagged the driver of the day award for the 3rd time in a row which gave him the Hatrick. That said I think Alonso deserved that award in my opinion with his stellar defence against Perez and a world champion drive from start to finish.

Who do you think was the biggest winners and the biggest losers of the Brazilian GP? We now head to a week break before we head to Las Vegas for the maiden street race of Las Vegas GP in Nevada.

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