Max Verstappen
50th career win, plus the 15th this season and thus setting his own record – even from sixth place on the grid, the defending champion cannot be beaten. After the hat-trick of victory in Austin, the world champion was asked how he rated his anniversary and he quickly described his general aversion to record books: “Compared to Lewis, I’m still just a rookie.” Hamilton holds the lead with 103 Grand Prix successes. The Dutchman dealt with another heated radio dispute with his engineer Gianpiero Lambiase in a similarly calm manner. He annoyed Verstappen twice by saying something when braking and was then told not to speak by the driver. “I was polite,” claimed the winner with a grin, “and said ‘please’.” The Italian already knows this, and there will probably be another reconciliation dinner between the two soon.
Lewis Hamilton
Second, very close to the highest step of the podium because the Mercedes was suddenly the fastest car on the Circuit of the Americas. “Driving on an equal footing with Red Bull gives me hope,” said the record world champion. And three and a half hours after the end of the race, I was bitterly disappointed again. His racing car was a few millimeters lower than permitted, which, like Ferrari, automatically resulted in a disqualification. The team captain tried to put the team’s mistake, not the only one of the day, into perspective: “It’s obviously disappointing to be disqualified after a race like that. But for me that doesn’t detract from the progress we made this weekend.” Incidentally, the underbody in question was the part of the Silver Arrow that ensured the new high performance. Of all things.
Lando Norris
Papaya is the trend color of the season in Formula 1, McLaren surprised again in Austin. The British team experienced its best race on the challenging slope. At the start, Lando Norris immediately overtook Charles Leclerc, who had started from pole position, and moved into the lead. The 23-year-old enjoyed the feeling of being the front runner, even if the deteriorating tires didn’t allow anything more. After his 100th Grand Prix and promotion to second place, he sees the future in orange: “We are making progress from week to week. Now all we need is a few steps.”
Charles Leclerc
With the Monegasque and the racing luck this season it just doesn’t seem to work out. Pole position in the sprint in Austin – he ended up third. Pole position at the Grand Prix on Sunday – in the end he only finished sixth. Or so he thought. The Ferrari, which was too low, earned him a disqualification. There was already a lot of dissatisfaction with his team beforehand: in the early stages of the race he almost ran into his colleague Carlos Sainz Jr. collided, later he had to let the faster Spaniard through, which led to another dispute with the command post. And the tactic of leaving Leclerc on a one-stop strategy also backfired. But they don’t like public criticism in Maranello, and even team boss Fred Vasseur, Leclerc’s mentor, became slightly annoyed. Things went better for Sainz, Hamilton’s disqualification enabled the Spaniard to move up to third place.
Mohammed bin Sulayem
If that isn’t a great financing option for the International Automobile Association Fia. Not only is FIA President Mohammed bin Sulayem increasingly committed to respect and morality in Formula 1, but now he and his motorsport world council have also quickly increased the maximum penalty for individual offenses by racing drivers and racing teams to up to one million euros. The sport has developed so well financially that the previous 250,000 euros were no longer enough. A completely new way of compensating for inflation, although so far no one knows exactly for which misdeeds the penalty can be imposed – nor where the money will then flow.
Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc has no idea about it either, but he notes: “Some drivers in the field earn less than that…” Hamilton thinks out loud about the message such sums send to spectators. Fernando Alonso specifies the danger: “We are already perceived as a very elitist sport.” Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff can only agree and recommends a “reality check”.
Nico Hulkenberg
Team boss Günther Steiner announced the biggest upgrade in the history of the Haas racing team in full-bodied Netflix style for the home game at the US Grand Prix. Something that Nico Hülkenberg had been looking forward to for weeks because the returnee was almost tired of driving his heart out and never having a real chance apart from a few decent qualifying laps in the race.
Things haven’t necessarily gotten any better with a rear end that’s very similar to that of Red Bull Racing. To be honest: after the failures in the sprint on Saturday, they rebuilt the car and had to start from the pit lane as a punishment. But it remained the same for the man from Emmerich: fighting, with the others and his own car – and then, despite two disqualifications, coming away empty-handed in eleventh place in the World Cup points. He wants to give the upgrade another chance: “I’ve seen a few positive signs.”
Michael Andretti
The fronts remain hardened when it comes to the approval of an eleventh racing team for Formula 1. No matter how many charm offensives the candidate Michael Andretti and his US team, which operates under the Cadillac banner, can launch in the paddock, the establishment simply does not want to share the billion dollars in profit distribution with the potential newcomer. Time is running out for the ex-racing driver. If he doesn’t make it into the starting lineup in 2025, there will be a new number behind the entry ticket in the next framework agreement. So far, a guarantee amount of $200 million is due, and the amount could triple. Andretti is therefore trying to create facts and wants to try out a racing car with the current status of the 2023 season in the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne this week. “We’re going full throttle,” says Andretti defiantly. He is very familiar with headwinds.