Appreciation is unimportant
Max Verstappen became Formula 1 world champion again this season and is riding the record wave, which could possibly take him to third place on the all-time winners list by the end of the season if he wins all the races.
The dominance is totally boring for many Formula 1 fans, some are annoyed and on the one hand Verstappen understands that his competitors are too, but on the other hand the hunger for success predominates:
“Well, it depends on whether you’re the one dominating or not. If you’re not that person, then of course it’s not so nice. But if you are that person, then it’s beautiful. As an athlete, you do everything “Do everything you can to win races, and when you finally have the chance, you obviously do everything you can to keep the race going for as long as possible.”
But whether people appreciate his achievements is completely unimportant to him:
“To be honest, I don’t look at it at all. I don’t care. I just do my thing on the track, then I go home and do my thing there too,” and laughed after this answer.
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The Pole Round
Charles Leclerc really squeezed everything out of his Ferrari yesterday and secured the important pole position for tomorrow’s race in Austin.
Let’s go on board with him again and enjoy this round.
No frustration with Norris
Zak Brown thinks highly of his two drivers Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris. The McLaren CEO knows full well that he has one of the most promising driver duos currently in Formula 1.
But Lando Norris in particular was upset last week in Qatar and yesterday after qualifying in Austin about his own mistakes, which cost him a potential pole and thus his first victory. In the team representative press conference yesterday before qualifying, Brown spoke about whether Norris was slowly becoming more frustrated:
“No, because I don’t think we’ve given him a winning car yet. We’re getting closer and we’re definitely becoming more competitive. I do think he was frustrated in Qatar, but I think it’s a temporary frustration I think it’s no different than any other driver on the grid: when they feel like they’ve left something behind, they get a little annoyed with themselves, but then they quickly recover – and he drove a brilliant race.”
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A big day for Ferrari
On October 21, 2007, Kimi Räikkönen became the last Formula 1 world champion with a Ferrari.
The Finn secured the title #OnThisDay with his victory in Brazil, one point ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso in the McLaren-Mercedes.
Felipe Massa, who would experience his Waterloo in Interlagos a year later, came in second this Sunday and Alonso still managed third place.
A few more fun facts on the side: Ralf Schumacher drove his 180th and final Formula 1 Grand Prix and Rubens Barrichello celebrated his 250th.
You can get more such bits of data in our Formula 1 database, where you can dig around a bit into the illustrious history of the premier class.
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High hopes
The F1 Academy is performing as part of the Formula 1 supporting program in Austin this weekend and will continue to do so next season. This is intended to increase the status of the women’s racing series, put it in the spotlight and the teams are also actively encouraged to participate in the development of the series with dedicated starters in the team colors. Just a few days ago, Bianca Bustamante from the Philippines was announced as a McLaren driver.
Series boss Susie Wolff spoke to our colleagues on site before the season finale in Austin and had words of warning, but also combative ones for the big goal that she and Formula 1 are pursuing here, to offer women a good stage and serve as a springboard for them to serve further promotions up to Formula 1:
“I’m very aware that this shouldn’t be a flash in the pan, something shiny new that then just fizzles out,” said Wolff. “It would be very unfortunate if that happened. Because then there would be no chance for greater diversity in sport. I think if that doesn’t work, nothing will work anymore.”
All the better that the series will now find its way into the mainstream, also through visits like those from Lewis Hamilton, who has also featured the drivers on his Instagram channel.
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The quality in video analysis
Charles Leclerc is on pole for the 21st time in his Formula 1 career, but it was a razor-thin duel against Max Verstappen, who was five thousandths ahead of him but didn’t stick to the track limits and slipped to 6th place.
Our data expert Kevin Hermann and I have the qualifications from Austin on the Formula1.de YouTube channel analyzed for you and talked about why Verstappen has no worries about Sunday, the disappointment with Nico Hülkenberg and how seriously the Andretti take Formula 1.
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Sprint day in Austin
There is sprinting again in Formula 1, today in Austin.
Kevin Scheuren warmly welcomes you to the Formula 1 live ticker on Saturday, which will be more of a marathon, as I will provide you with all the important information, small highlights and of course reading recommendations from our editorial team until well into the night.
If you have any topic requests, questions, suggestions or criticism, please send me anything using our contact form Twitter/X with the hashtag #FragMST or via Instagram. I try to incorporate your input as best as possible.
Here you can read yesterday’s live ticker again.
Have a nice day and enjoy Formula 1 in the USA!
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