Hot Topic

Ferrari’s 1-2 victory in Sunday’s US Grand Prix was a brilliant performance which means the Italian team is only 8 points behind Red Bull Racing in the World Championship for teams. They can realistically aim to finish 2nd, which would be a fantastic result for team boss Fred Vasseur and the men and women who work at the team’s Maranello factory. But, with McLaren only a further 40 points ahead, could Ferrari challenge for the title?
The answer is yes so long as they can find consistency, something which every World Championship winning driver and team learns to do. This is the reason why Fred is saying that they are now focusing on outright performance, he knows that unless they can keep the pressure on and repeat the kind of dominance we saw in Austin, championships will remain difficult.

While there has been a lot of discussion about the fight between World Champion Max Verstappen and rival Lando Norris on Sunday, particularly the penalty which was given to Lando when he overtook Max at Turn 12, for me the big news was the level of Ferrari’s performance.

Charles Leclerc drove really well, totally controlled the race and won by over 8 seconds from team mate Carlos Sainz, who had finished Saturday’s Sprint in 2nd place. But it was the fact that Max Verstappen was nearly 20 seconds behind at the end which really stood out. Part of that margin of victory is down to the fact that Max was battling Lando. Driving defensively always costs you time, when you are using all the hybrid engine systems to defend and also position your car to prevent the overtake.

Charles was still going to win by a significant margin, and Ferrari’s race pace was impressive from start to finish. In Sprint and main qualifying we could see that Charles and Carlos did not have enough one-lap speed to match Max and Lando, but when their battle into the first corner of the Grand Prix opened up a gap, Charles made a very confident move to take the lead. I thought Carlos also did a great job, undercutting Max on race strategy to take 2nd, but again this was made possible by having the speed which you need in order to make that strategy work.
Ferrari has often admitted that their biggest challenge is not technical, rather it’s about the team culture, and I think this is where Fred Vasseur is making the biggest impact. He is a real racer, he understands how to get the most out of people and also to get a team pulling together in the same direction. The boss he replaced, Mattia Binotto, admitted that sometimes Ferrari’s internal tensions and pressures where a problem, and for me this is where Fred seems to be making the biggest change.

Ferrari is a team which is looking confident, focused and fast. The other guys team will be watching that closely.

Take Note

The Mexican Grand Prix circuit is one of the shortest tracks on the calendar, only Monaco and Zandvoort are shorter, but it has a long run from pole position to the first corner – more than 800 metres – which makes the fight for Turn 1 really interesting. Because of the very high altitude of Mexico City the air is very thin and this effects car performance, with less power from the engine and the aerodynamic downforce really reduced. Even with high downforce settings you get Monza-levels of aero performance with a very high top speed of over 350kph as a result!

Mika’s Tip

Max Verstappen has won 5 of the last 6 Mexican Grands Prix. The World Champion will be feeling positive after finishing 2nd in Singapore and 3rd in Austin with the kind of consistent performances which are protecting his World Championship lead. My tip, however, is that Mexico should see McLaren and Ferrari fighting for the win, with Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc providing the focus.

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