Lewis Hamilton, second at the time, congratulated Max Verstappen on Grand Prix win number 50.
OPINION
Everything in Texas seems to be larger than life.
When it comes to doing things big, Texans do it better and bigger than most. That same adage could easily apply to triple world champion Max Verstappen. Despite starting the USGP at the Circuit of the Americas (Cota) in Austin, Texas in sixth place after his best qualifying time - which would have put him on pole - was deleted for narrowly exceeding track limits, Verstappen wouldn’t be denied in the race.
One by one, he picked off the five cars starting in front of him, and in the end had a margin of just over two seconds ahead of Lewis Hamilton at the finish line, with Lando Norris a further eight seconds back in third.
But some time after the race, Hamilton’s Mercedes car, along with the Ferrari of pole-sitter and sixth-place finisher Charles Leclerc, was disqualified from the results because following scrutiny, they were both found to have planks (car flooring) less than the mandated thickness of nine millimetres. The FIA is especially tough on cars that fall outside the accepted limit due to ground-effect aerodynamics performing better when cars run close to the ground.
Mercedes tried to argue the excessive plank wear was “probably a result of the unique combination of the bumpy track”, but the FIA stewards note the “onus is on the competitor to ensure that the car is in compliance with the regulations at all times during an event”.
F1 is, of course, a highly regulated and technical sport, and that same philosophy is carried down through the various grades of motorsport. Over the years, there have been a number of disqualifications, but none that have ever taken a championship away from a driver or team. Verstappen retained his world champion status after the sprint race in Qatar, and he could be disqualified from the remaining four races, but only be deprived of the silverware. For Hamilton, disqualification from second place hurts his chase of Red Bull driver Sergio Perez for second place in the championship, but the seven-time world champion wasn’t going to let a DQ next to his name shatter his and the Mercedes team’s confidence regarding closing the performance gap with Red Bull.
“Of course, it’s disappointing to be disqualified post-race,” Hamilton said, “but that doesn’t take away from the progress we’ve made this weekend.”
“We had good pace and I was feeling great in the car. It was tough racing those around me as they were so quick, but we can be happy with many things. I feel positive we’re moving forward, even if reflecting on it, we could have possibly won.”
Hamilton was closely bearing down Verstappen with fresh medium tyres - versus Verstappen on older, hard tyres - but the race finish came a couple of laps too soon. And with the benefit of hindsight, had he overtaken Verstappen, the result wouldn’t have stood.
Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff was philosophical about the disqualification.
“Set-up choices on a sprint weekend are always a challenge with just one hour of free practice - and even more so at a bumpy circuit like Cota and [while] running a new package,” Wolff said.
“In the end, all of it doesn’t matter; others got it right where we got it wrong, and there’s no wiggle room in the rules. We need to take it on the chin, do the learning and come back stronger next weekend.”
‘We can take a lot of positives from the car performance. We hate coming so close to winning and falling short.”
For Verstappen, it was win number 15 of the season, equalling the new record for wins in a season that he himself set last year. More significantly, it was Grand Prix victory number 50, a remarkable achievement given he is only 26 years old. That is 50 wins in 181 starts, a winning average of just over 27 per cent. The best average is still held by Juan Manual Fangio at 47.06 per cent, a percentage which may never be bettered. Alberto Ascari is second with 40.63 per cent, and Jim Clark is next with 34.72 per cent. What is notable is those drivers raced in the ‘50s and ‘60s, when there were initially only six races.
Hamilton heads the all-time winning list with a mind-blowing total of 103 wins, with Michael Schumacher next on 91.
In the post-race press conference, Verstappen was reminded that he is now one of only five drivers with 50 victories or more, the other two being Alain Prost (51) and Sebastian Vettel (53). He will surpass both Prost and Vettel if he wins the remaining four races this season.
“That’s incredible, to win my 50th Grand Prix here,” Verstappen said, acknowledging what he has achieved. “I’m very proud, of course, and we’ll just keep on trying to push for more.”
Verstappen did note that while 50 is a great number, he acknowledged the man sitting to his right in the press conference, Lewis Hamilton, has a lot more. Asked how his race had gone, Verstappen said he had struggled with the brakes despite winning.
“I think the whole race, I was struggling a lot with the brakes. And around here, there are quite a few braking points, and I couldn’t really have the same feeling as yesterday.”
With Hamilton’s disqualification, Norris saw his McLaren move up to second place, his sixth runner-up result. Norris led for the first third of the race, but that first win remains elusive. “I was leading the race, I could control it a lot, but just not enough today,” he lamented. “But I’m happy, it was good from my side. We knew our struggles; we knew what was going to be difficult today, and it was the degradation.”
“We are getting there - progress, progress every weekend, just some more steps needed.”
Leclerc, of course, was disqualified from the race, but was critical of the team’s race strategy, being on a one-stop compared to two for teammate Carlos Sainz. The latter was promoted to third with Hamilton’s disqualification, and felt his fourth-place finish across the line was “the best we could do. Unfortunately, the competitors ahead were faster and we couldn’t quite reach them”.
If there was any lesson to learn from the Austin race, apart from making sure barge-boards are compliant post-race, it was to not bring upgrades to the venue. Haas and Aston Martin both arrived with significant upgrades that simply didn’t work. Ironically, both teams opted to make changes after the sprint race, which meant they started from pit lane for the race.
Nico Hulkenberg finished 11th and Kevin Magnussen was 14th for Haas. The Aston Martin drivers looked like they would both be in the top 10, until Fernando Alonso retired with floor damage after running as high as seventh, while Lance Stroll finally got his first points on the board since the Belgian GP back in July with a ninth place finish that became seventh with the Hamilton and Leclerc DQs. Also benefitting from the DQs was Williams driver - and homeboy - Logan Sergeant. He now has his first F1 point!
In the aftermath of the disqualifications for Hamilton and Leclerc, Sky Sport commentator Martin Brundle has questioned whether it was fair to check planks and skids for just four cars - those driven by Verstappen, Hamilton, Norris and Leclerc.
“At a bumpy track like Austin, and with only one practice session, setting a ride height for the duration of the event is quite a challenge with regard to performance and driver and car tolerance, and of course plank-wear legality, especially with a full fuel tank,” Brundle wrote in his column.
“If they simply raised the car to be cautious, they’d lose so much performance, they may as well pack up and go home. The next big question, however, is that if 50 per cent of the tested cars failed, then shouldn’t all the finishers have been checked? The answer must surely be yes.”
We may never know the answer to that, but what we do know is that as he heads to Mexico City this weekend for the Mexican GP, Verstappen should be nicknamed “Unstappable”.
At the age of 26, which is how old Max is now, Hamilton had won 17 Grands Prix. Assuming Verstappen races to the end of his Red Bull contract in 2028 - another five seasons - and averages 10 wins per season, he will join Hamilton in the 100-win club. That’s how good he is, racing to the max as always, and in the top five drivers of all time, based on the number of wins.
Firefighters are keeping a close watch to ensure the piles of debris do not reignite.