The F1x

• The In Lap

  • Perez falls flat and Tsunoda can’t take advantage

  • Lawson flips a finger at Perez

  • Ferrari continue to shine

  • Verstappen penalties

  • Lewis 20,000 Lap Milestone

• Overheard in the Paddock

  • Oscar shuts down Helmut’s rumours

  • Alonso spoke with Red Bull

  • Perez uncertainty

  • Mexican Grand Prix organizers push for contract extension

  • Charles to join Max with community service?

• A Quick Look Ahead

  • Brazil 🇧🇷

  • Verstappen grid penalty?

The In Lap

This race result must be a significant blow to Perez’s confidence. The hometown hero struggled to find pace in his Red Bull during qualifying, and during the race, he sustained damage from a driver who looks poised to take his seat—only to be flipped off by that same driver! Exiting in Q1 and finishing P17 is the exact opposite of what he needs right now. With rumors and direct quotes from Red Bull leadership casting heavy doubt on his future in the sport, the pressure is mounting.

Yuki Tsunoda had a lot going for him heading into this weekend:

• Continued talks of Perez’s uncertain future.

• Reassurance that the team wasn’t sold on him at the start of the season even before this string of bad performances (hence conversations with Alonso’s team confirmed by Horner this weekend).

• Confirmation of his testing in Abu Dhabi at the end of the season.

Perez goes out in Q1 and here was a chance for Yuki to show he is worthy of the top seat at RB. He then proceeds to bin it in qualifying before crashing on his way to the first turn during the race… The ever outspoken and blunt Helmut Marko even called Yuki “unstable” following the qualifying crash.

These are the reasons Red Bull has reportedly been hesitant to promote Yuki, which may effectively end his chances of claiming the top seat. His only saving grace is that Checo continues to underperform, and his seat is certainly up for grabs.

To add insult to injury for Perez after a rough weekend, he was flipped off by the driver who looks most likely to take his seat next year...

Perez and Lawson came together during the race and at a later point while Lawson was making a pass by Perez, Lawson shared a hand gesture across his cockpit towards Perez. When Perez was asked post race about the relationship between him and Lawson he had some some critique for the young driver:

“I don't have any relationship with him. I think the way he has come to Formula 1, I don't think he has the right attitude for it. He needs to be a bit more humble.”

Lawson has since apologized to Checo for the gesture. Considering one of the reasons Yuki has not been seriously considered for promotion is his perceived hot headedness, Lawson might want to keep things a bit more reserved.

Ferrari has now overtaken Red Bull to take 2nd in the Constructors' Championship and could be poised to win it with four races remaining.

Last week, after Charles won in Austin, Carlos expressed his desire to secure one more victory with Ferrari before leaving next year, and he came ready to deliver. From the start, he took the fight straight to Verstappen and didn’t back down when Max tried to assert himself in the opening laps. It certainly helped that Max had his sights set on Lando, doing everything he could to keep him behind.

It’s a shame that Carlos faces a performance downgrade next year through no fault of his own. He has performed admirably all season and deserves high praise—and a race-winning car. If he had stayed with McLaren a bit longer, he might even be in the title fight this year!

Verstappen received 20 seconds in time penalties and still managed to finish P6.

While we all agree the penalties were deserved, we were surprised that each one was 10 seconds instead of the usual 5 we’re accustomed to seeing. Perhaps this is the stewards' way of addressing Max’s overly aggressive defending style.

He tends to ramp up this level of aggression only against title rivals, much like Hamilton did in 2021. With just 47 points separating him and Norris heading into the next race weekend, it may be a long shot, but it’s not over until it’s over.

Lewis Hamilton became only the second driver in F1 history to race 20,000 laps. The other driver is Fernando Alonso!

Overheard in the Paddock

Oscar answered some of our questions surrounding the rumours Helmut Marko put out prior to the weekend saying “it wouldn’t be a week in F1 without some comments from Helmut”

We agree Oscar, we agree.

Christian Horner publicly acknowledged that Fernando Alonso had preliminary talks with Red Bull at the start of 2024 before committing to Aston Martin. Horner stated that this was before Sergio Perez had his contact extended. Even if there was little chance of that mounting in to anything serious, it just adds a bit more uncertainty to Checo’s seat now that we know for sure they at least had talks with other drivers. This means they weren’t 100% in on Checo even before this shocking run of bad form he has had.

Horner had this to say after Checo’s poor qualifying performance:

“We really need to look into it, the gap between the two cars is significant, so obviously massively disappointing for Checo in front of his home crowd. I'm sure he'll give everything he's got tomorrow, but there're a lot of work to do."

And this after the race when asked about if Checo would even finish this season:

“Look, it’s a performance-based business. There comes a point in time that difficult decisions have to be made.”

The Mexican GP contract is set to expire in 2025 and with talks of Perez’s seat being an open market there has been speculation that the Mexico City track might not be as high on the priority list for F1 to continue racing at without a local talent.

But now we know for sure that the organizers are pushing for a contract extension, believing that their sold out race weekends would continue even without a Mexican driver on the grid. Talks have already been ongoing.

Horner brought printed telemetry to argue that Lando was out of line going into Turn 4—this must be a first, right?

Horner mentioned that Red Bull would not pursue their right to review, which raises the question of why he would even present this information if they don’t plan to take any action.

If they genuinely believe they have a case, they would likely protest. It just seems a bit petty. But this is F1, where every driver and team principal can be a bit petty, and we’re usually all for it!

Charles Leclerc let a f**k out during his post race press conference, and not wanting to join Max with community service quickly corrected himself. We hear that he is being “investigated” for the bad language.

A Quick Look Ahead 🇧🇷

We look ahead to Brazil and the Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace! Catch our next edition on Thursday to get caught up on all the news from the week and to learn all about the track.

Verstappen could be looking at a 5 place grid penalty for a new engine in Brazil.

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