“Game Over?”
Welcome back to another DRR double-header for your reading pleasure. Man, I miss the days when Brazil was the season finale on the F1 calendar as it was a track that had a little bit of everything. Good hard racing, unpredictable climate and inevitable drama. And this year’s was no exception – Which makes it feel weird that we still have a triple header to close out 2025 starting a fortnight from now. Crap.
Anyway, here’s what we learnt from a messy Brazilian Grand Prix, and I’m not holding back with the early discussions today!
“Ignore Everyone That Talks Shit About You”
Lando led every single final session across the weekend. He took the Sprint shootout. He won the sprint despite a hard charge from Kimi Antonelli at the end. Took tenths out of the whole field in Qualifying, and then led almost from lights to flag in the race itself and never really looked like losing.
If there was a weekend that could define Lando Norris if he goes on to win this year’s World Championship, it should be this one. I’d go one further and say – It’s time to end this discussion about his “bottler” narrative because Interlagos now has the Brit leaving as odds-on title favourite.
Norris has had to deal with this unfortunate moniker since 2021, when he tried to hold off Lewis Hamilton in Sochi when the rain came down. Because we as F1 fans love nothing more than tearing down the talent we’ve so often built up (I’d argue it’s a British sporting narrative problem across the board). We doubled down in the back end of 2024 when many fans were adamant Lando was just going to beat Max Verstappen for 15 straight weekends and come back to take the title – A task that was always way harder than we made it sound given it’s universally accepted that MV1 is the best driver on the planet. It was never the fairest of fights, and then this very race last year slammed the door in Norris’ face for having to nurse a stricken McLaren home when Max was on fire.
And of course, the first half of 2025. Lando was open and honest the whole time about his struggles with the MCL39 – It was a car built for speed, not ease of use, one of the biggest perpetual myths that go around in F1. The mistakes were there, the Saudi crash in qualifying, the Canada teammate crash, having to grit teeth as Oscar racked up five wins in the first nine races. I still maintain, the biggest reason Piastri inherited that “Iceman” status was because he was the perfect foil to what so many had said about Lando to get to this point.
Not anymore. This for me, marks the sixth race weekend in a row for me he’s been better than teammate Oscar Piastri, and he’s had to dig deep to come back from that crushing car failure in Zandvoort. He’s been 58 points better than Piastri since then, by far the biggest sustained swing in form we’ve had in 2025. And he’d done it by getting his head down, ignoring the noise regarding his temperament, Papaya rules nonsense, and the chasedown of Max Verstappen and just drove as well as he could. And now the wins have come through in response, having just as many as Piastri’s seven on the year.
It’s time for Lando to collect his flowers. He’s earned them, and barring a dramatic final twist, there’s now a better chance he wins the Championship a round early. It’s now out of Piastri’s hands on the numbers, and if anything, the Australian’s looked as ropey as he ever has in an F1 car. Let’s talk about it.
The Iceman Has Melted
Oh, Oscar. While his Brazilian GP wasn’t quite the Baku horror show he had back in September, this felt like the weekend it all just slipped away for the Australian.
The Sprint was more bad luck than a real driver error. Brazil’s outside kerb at Turn 2 of the Senna “S” had a design fault after Saturday overnight rain. They failed to drain the water that the curb was now holding. Lando from the lead goes deep at the outside of the S, he kicks up water onto the racing line, and all three of Franco Colapinto, Nico Hulkenberg and Piastri himself all end up into the Turn 3 wall of poor judgement. Just one of those racing deals unfortunately.
The other issues, I find hard to defend. First up, the poor qualifying form of 2024 returned again. Beaten by Lando by two tenths in the Shootout, and by four in Qualifying. Rumours of a return to form based on practice were exaggerated. The overnight rain likely didn’t help given the open secret that Piastri’s struggles in low-grip conditions and green tracks were the order of the weekend.
But Piastri’s GP was defined by a three-wide lunge into Turn 1 between himself, Kimi Antonelli and Charles Leclerc on the first lap after the Safety Car restart. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but by the rulebook, it’s a slam dunk 10-second penalty and people arguing otherwise I’m starting to think are doing so in bad faith because they want to give Piastri the benefit of the doubt.
It’s been consistently officiated for years in F1, that locking your wheels in the eyes of the stewards is deemed to be “losing control”. In the context of the 2025 rules of engagement, the moment you lose control of the car, you veto the right to the corner. It’s why Carlos Sainz won his right to review in Zandvoort because Liam Lawson locked up, and it’s why Red Bull got spooked by George Russell in Catalunya, and partly why Max lost his rag and hit him in retaliation.
Even ignoring that element, by the rulebook – Piastri isn’t entitled to room because he didn’t have his front axle in line with Antonelli’s wing mirror until after he had already locked up. Now don’t get me wrong, Antonelli following Norris’ line and turning in when a car is coming in probably wasn’t the wisest idea, but by the book, it’s his corner and the onus is on Piastri to back out safely. He didn’t. It’s a stonewall penalty on two separate counts and people want to act like it’s a racing incident.
Now let me make this clear – I HATE THESE RULES. I’ve been screaming since Saudi Arabia that they encourage bullrushing the apex, which is exactly what both Piastri, Sainz and Verstappen have done at various points of 2025. But there is a big difference between not liking a rule, and not enforcing it.
Piastri ultimately finished fifth and was unable to pass Russell in the closing laps, and with it, he now fell 24 points back with just 83 available across the final three weekends. At some point a question has to be asked – Why aren’t we being more critical of Oscar? That was a pass that reeked a bit of desperation. If Piastri still has that 34 point lead from Zandvoort, I’m not sure he sticks it down the inside of a three-wide into Turn 1 off a restart trying to make a double pass. But he did and the execution wasn’t there.
With all the discussion and dialogue being thrust in Lando’s direction as the more experienced driver with the “Tottenham tendencies”, Oscar is getting a bit of a pass for dropping 10 points a weekend for the last six weekends. Are we as an audience being protective over the new title contender breaking the status quo? Or is this the spillover from two sides of the McLaren fandom being at loggerheads? It’s silly stuff, and it’s been grating on me for some time.
Oscar Piastri is a brilliant driver, who led this Championship for 15 straight races for a reason. His potential is limitless. But he has to get better down the stretch if he ever wants to escape the memes his manager left behind…
Schrodinger’s Verstappen
Feels weird reducing Max Verstappen to a tertiary segment, but dear god, what a drive that was. It’s why his moments over the edge feel so frustrating and needless, because when he’s on it, he’s better than anyone in the world and it doesn’t feel close.
Red Bull made a complete horlicks of the setup this weekend. A mediocre Sprint reduced Max to 4th and likely the end of his title defence. But then taking Yuki Tsunoda’s setup for Qualifying was a huge mistake – Max ended up eliminated from Q1 for just the seventh time in his career, his first with a set time since 2016. Might as well throw the house at it, and Red Bull did, changing setup via breaking Parc Ferme and taking a fresh power unit.
It didn’t help early on that a debris puncture led to Max taking an emergency stop under a Virtual Safety Car, costing him 11 seconds, but he made the aggressive three-stopper work to climb back through the field and then go after the Mercedes at the end. He passed Russell with time to spare, but couldn’t get close enough to attack Kimi Antonelli, with the young Italian sealing his best weekend in F1 and a rookie points record with a pair of second places.
It was a breathtaking performance from the World Champion and a reminder of his class. At his best, there’s no one near him in F1 and beyond.
But a fair question – Could he have won? Friend of the show Sian posed a fun question? Could Max have two-stopped and kept track position from the lead and go for the win? Tough one. I’m no race strategist, but it would have been close. The hard tire was a dud so no surprise that Red Bull ditched it via VSC, even if it cost him track position. Pirelli reckoned the Medium was good for around 26 laps at optimal range, with Max needing to go 35 on his final stint to make the two-stop work. Piastri and Lawson were both able to go long on theirs, way past that 35 lap threshold, but I’m not convinced he holds off Norris given he was taking half a second a lap out of Max up until the latter’s final stop. Does he hold off Kimi as well? Pretty likely given Kimi’s deltas on their mediums were far closer.
I totally get why you may wanna take the aggressive strategy, it feels like you have more control over your fate and can push the issue. The only issue with that was, it was a known quantity via the Sprint and the race itself that the soft was good for 20 laps tops, and the degradation was severe, with peak performance only lasting maybe 15 or so. So maybe Red Bull lost out on one place via going for a three-stop strategy. But man was it fun watching them try.
Max Verstappen is going to go down quietly, even if his title defence seems futile. But this was a drive that makes you nod and say “Hell yeah”. Just one question – Why the fuck were you ever taking setup tips from Yuki Tsunoda?!
The Lightning Round
Being a Ferrari fan feels like being hit by a cartoon anvil. Charles Leclerc gave both Kimi and Oscar all the room in the world and he still takes contact and broken suspension, with Lewis Hamilton being knocked out in Q2 again, and then driving into the rear of Franco Colapinto at the home straight, a completely avoidable incident. An immensely frustrating weekend that has Ferrari sink to fourth in the Constructors… behind Red Bull the one car team. Fred, we need to talk.
Lewis Hamilton said he’s been living a nightmare for a while. The red car does that to you Lewis, you get used to it after a while. Signed, Dre, Seb fan.
What a horrible weekend for Gabriel Bortoleto. Losing control of his car at 210mph in the Sprint and a huge 57G second impact that had his car looking like lunchmeat. He had to miss qualifying by a matter of minutes, only for his race to last less than a lap due to an incident clash with Lance Stroll that put him in the wall. In front of his family too. Brutal. But another testament to the safety of these cars that he was able to walk away from a horror crash completely unharmed.
Ollie Bearman in sixth again for Haas, a year on from the weekend he arguably most looked like a rookie when filling in for Kevin Magnussen. Man’s making a late surge for Rookie of the Year. Monster stuff.
An amazing finish to that race too, with seventh placed Lawson all the way down to 16th placed Stroll covered by just six seconds. Was like watching a Moto3 race at the end.
And finally… Please and thank you.
The Verdict: 8/10 (Great) – Quite possibly the best F1 race of the year. Drama from title implications, some great passes (Hulkenberg around the outside of 1? You move me.), and great strategic intrigue as two and three stoppers rose to the surface, with another Mexico-esque double chasedown to finish. Brazil, you’ve done it again. See you for the closing stretch, starting in Las Vegas.
PS: Rest in peace to the great Quentin Wilson. One of the last truly great car journalists we had and a huge inspiration for me becoming the petrolhead I am today.
