2024 Las Vegas GP: Post Race Analysis

No shortage of passing at the Las Vegas GP. The cold temps shook things up with horrible graining on the tires which forced the two stop strategies, which also aided in providing an entertaining race.

Mercedes landed in the sweet spot with their car. Evidently, cold temps work for them. George Russell was incredible all weekend. No bad luck and no mistakes meant he controlled the race start to finish. Lewis Hamilton had a fantastic race. He claims it would have been an easy victory had he qualified top 2 and its hard to argue that.

Ferrari had a solid race, good points for the WCC, but we all felt they would be fighting for the win. Carlos was again very fast and deserved his place on the podium. However, he should have received a penalty. Nobody has yet to explain or make sense of why no penalty was given for not pitting after committing to the entry. It reeks of the FIA/Liberty sticking their noses in to extend the constructors championship into the final 2 races. Leclerc was possibly the fastest Ferrari driver, but he couldn't keep his tires under him to really make use of the speed. Ferrari of course remind us they are clowns on the pitwall. That order to swap when Hamilton was tucked behind Leclerc's rear wing. The poor communication with Sainz on the radio. The extremely late "stay out". And of course the excuse being they were not ready. Come on guys. Do better.

Red Bull celebrate with Max Verstappen becoming a 4 time world champion. On some levels one could argue it's his most impressive title considering he drove the 3rd or 4th best car for more than half a season. His biggest strength was maximizing points each and every race, despite not having a car capable of winning. Perez had a strong race. Relative to his teammate, you could say he got more out of himself than Max did. Sure it's only 10th, but did anyone expect him to score points?

McLaren must wonder how they failed to get more out of the races when they had the best car. Vegas probably wasn't a perfect track for their car, but at one point it didn't matter what track they were on, their car was great. Neither driver really shined in the race and the team once again loses points to Ferrari. They will need to step up if they want to hold onto the WCC.

Haas back in the points with Hulkenberg. Those points could be massive for the championship as tens of millions of dollars are on the line. KMag managed to finish on a one stop strategy but it was only good for 12th, so perhaps not the right choice.

RB also in that tight fight in the WCC. Yuki showing he deserves to be the #1 in the team and delivered with points. Lawson, as always, getting into some battles and some very close calls with the wall. However despite the action he failed to get a decent result.

Aston Martin have fallen to nearly the worst team in F1. Impressive how badly they have failed this season. Yet Alonso nearly got points with that piece of junk. Absolutely one of the drivers of the day. Stroll on the other hand was below average as usual.

Sauber perhaps was even better than AMR this race. Zhou performed particularly well. One of his best races of the season. Bottas looked particularly bad. One of his worst races of the season.

Williams need a vacation. Golden rule, don't wreck the car. After Colapinto destroyed another car in quali, surely that team had to place it safe to some to degree just to avoid more damage. Sadly Albon had a mechanical failure that will require repairs. But at least they didn't bin the car into the wall due to silly driver error.

Alpine sadly could not make anything out of Gasly's incredible qualifying. Honestly after one or two laps, it looked like it was going to be a long race for them anyways. You know it's a bad day when Ocon misses his pit box and has to make another lap. Ouch.

Driver of the Day: Lewis Hamilton. Looked like a man on a mission. Had the best car yes, but made the most of it. More difficult that it looked when you factor in the tires would grain up so badly, they could only push so hard for so long.

 

Thanks for the clarification

 

Mercedes had the best car in Vegas, but McLaren had the best car most of the season.

 

I think the mentality that drove Lando off the track twice in one lap in Mexico is a big reason why Max didn't really lose any points to Lando since McLaren had the best car. I believe Max not only is looking to maximize each and every race, but he knows his target was to beat Lando each and every race. Obviously he went over the line at times, but to him he will do whatever it takes to beat Lando every single race. Seems like he is willing to take a DNF or penalty in the process if it nets an overall gain or doesn't net an overall loss. At times it can be dirty but it's also impressively calculated.

Lando on the other hand also had questionable moments. His go to move was the dive bomb and also drove people (including Max) off the track. It got brushed off as good racing by the British media and the Lando fanbase, but it happened. I think back to Austria when Lando was driving over the line lap after lap and it resulted in a collision with Max. Lando's car was extensively damaged but he quit immediately without trying and Max went on to score points. Go back to Hungary 2021 when Max got bulldozed by Bottas and the floor was wrecked, a hole in the sidepod, etc. In a time when teams claim minor damage to end plates or chips on the floor edges cause significant performance loss, that damage was enormous and yet Max went on to score points that in a way won him the championship.

 

I agree that all the top 4 teams shuffled around during the year which is why it was such an entertaining year.

Though I think while McLaren was generally the best car and sometimes the dominant car, Ferrari and Mercedes had their moments of being the best car in that time-frame but also swapped around between being 2nd or 3rd best quite often. Whereas Red Bull was 3rd or 4th best car in those same races. Max could bring the car up to 2nd best from time to time but never was the car the best since they lost their dominance. It's crazy because Red Bull started off more dominant than they were in 2023.