“A Gamble Too Far.”
It’s 6:55am UK time on Sunday morning as I type this intro out and it’s time for the final stretch of the 2025 F1 Season. Three races in three weeks to decide who takes the- Ah, who am I kidding. Don’t let the Sky hype pieces (Shoutout to Cynthia Erivo, a member of royalty) fool you, Lando Norris, even by showing some of his old weaknesses, did a professional enough job to put one hand on the title as the sport heads to Qatar next week, and we got another reminder that the reigning Champion isn’t going to come quietly. Let’s talk about it.
Game Of Millimetres
One of the quirky things about Vegas as a GP venue is the fact it’s run in late November. It’s a desert, so it gets incredibly cold in the Winter, and this year Nevada added storm and flooding warnings earlier in the week. As a result we got a wet to dry FP2 on Friday’s only real representative session and a Qualifying session on Saturday where even light rain led to a total unicorn – The Extreme Wets being used extensively for the first time in years.
I’ve always said on this show that the Pirelli Intermediate tire is too good at its job, displacing so much water while being able to be ran for long distances that it makes driving nearly impossible due to the spray. And if it’s too wet for an Inter, it’s probably too dangerous to race. But with Vegas’ track temperature at just 13 degrees, it was too cold to get heat into the Inter. So the really soft Extreme Wet came into play for Q1 and Q2. And as a result, we got drama with Lewis Hamilton running over a bollard to qualify in dead last, Yuki Tsunoda eliminated in Q1 again, and Oscar Piastri barely getting through Q2 despite a Pierre Gasly jumpscare.
In the end, it was Lando Norris who pissed off everyone by taking pole on his final lap despite losing six tenths of a second in the treacherous final chicane sequence. Tell me readers, does being nine tenths faster than Max Verstappen in Sectors 1 and 2 cancel out being six back in Sector 3 in terms of impressiveness? I’ll let Twitter debate that one.
It was dry for race day, and Lando Norris – After all the glaze I gave him in Brazil, he had an old habit creep back in off the start. It was a mediocre launch at best, then he got over-defensive, bolting across to block Max Verstappen… only to then miss his braking point at Turn 1, run wide, and then let the Dutchman through to take the holeshot. It was a 2024-esque Norris slip-up where for lack of a better term, he got spooked by a threat that I’m not entirely convinced was actually there.
Verstappen had to weather a different kind of early storm when George Russell came through into second place and was within half a second of a pass, but the latter’s Mercedes had a power steering problem that carried over from qualifying, making the car harder and harder to physically turn. Russell tried hanging in there but just didn’t have the pace to match Max over the course of a long first stint.
Russell tried an undercut to maintain track position over Norris, but McLaren love them a tire delta advantage and after the races one and only round of stops, Norris got back in front, five seconds behind Verstappen. But Norris ultimately didn’t have the pace to make any inroads into the lead. As a matter of fact, with five laps to go, Norris starts losing multiple seconds a lap, having to go into an extreme fuel save to make the flag. One lap longer and George Russell is likely back in front for second.
The other fun fight took place in the midfield as Kimi Antonelli went for a bold strategy. He was starting at the back after a poor qualifying and boxed early to get off the Soft tire and onto the Hard. He then had to go 49 laps on it to make the flag, while holding off Oscar Piastri and Charles Leclerc, who were both fighting back from mediocre qualifying results and a poor start from the Aussie.
Piastri tried harder than Mitchell Starc in the first Ashes test, but he ultimately couldn’t get close enough to make a move stick. Antonelli was fourth over the line but dropped to fifth post-flag for jumping the start by the barest of margins. Unlucky, but still an outstanding way of nursing a penalty to actually beat Leclerc over the line by a tenth. Outstanding job from the rookie, maybe his best drive in the sport so far, even with the false start.
At the front though, it was another nearly impervious drive from Max Verstappen, breaking a streak of seven races where the polesitter took the win. Once he got to the front, he was in complete control, managed the tires well, cancelled out Norris in the quicker car and took his 69th career victory. Nice. He probably isn’t winning the title, but he’s not going down easi-
HOLD IT – McLaren have had both disqualified over excessive skid-block wear. As a result, the standings now read – Norris on 390 points, with both Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri on 366 (-24), with 58 points avaliable from the last two weekends, a reminder that Qatar is a Sprint Weekend. A completely needless disaster from Team Orange and it gets Max a slightly shorter long-shot. Lando Norris still takes the title with a double victory next week, but being within a DNF in the Grand Prix is never ideal. We now return to your regularly scheduled DRR…
The Super Lightning Round
I do wonder – With that DQ now meaning Norris has a 24-point lead with two to play, does Zak Brown shut this down? Tell Piastri, we need to do everything to make sure Norris wins in Qatar? Because if Norris does, it’s probably game over. No more fucking around. No more happy fun times. Bring it home. NOW. The fact it’s this close with the team winning 14 races this season is a joke!
Also, is it just me, or has some of the appeal of Vegas already faded? It’s still a big showpiece race, and the sport had a who’s who of A-Listers through the door – Beyonce, Jay-Z, Travis Scott, Gordon Ramsay(‘s Catering Deal), A’ja Wilson, Terry Crews driving the podium car, Sam Worthington doing the podium interviews, Kane Brown, etc… but this whole weekend felt somewhat flat. I know for a fact that those on the Vegas GP mailing list were getting bombarded with last-minute sales to try and fill the grandstands on Friday. F1 put a graphic out saying “Sold Out” rather than an attendance number. Telling.
Remember, this was a GP that split the city in two in terms of local support. Some were excited, many more were concerned over traffic disruption on the streets, views of the race blocking and harming local business, a 5am start being very awkward for most of the European audience, and of course, those $2,000 grandstand tickets when the race debuted. They’ve tried to pivot since then, but when boots on the ground are saying the weekend felt quiet, that’s not a good sign. The novelty wearing off means F1 will now face its true battle to promote a venue they’ve invested over half a billion dollars into on a 10-year plan. Good luck…
…And on the uglier side of that world, some grim people were invited to this race. Including Elon Musk, the friendless billionaire as a guest of Cadillac (Including a deal with his AI firm, not the one he rewrites to tell him how great he supposedly is), Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, the company making 11 billion in revenue while committing to 1.5 TRILLION dollars in spending commitments, and Kristi Noem, the secretary of the US’ Homeland Security and director of ICE, the Gestapo masquerading as immigration control, standing next to Stefano Domenicalli as the National Anthem played. Fucking horrible all round, a stark reminder that sporting events are almost never politically neutral, and some of the worst of recent humanity will be thrust into the picture to promote your favourite sport.
…PS: Lewis Hamilton had an exclusive merch drop over the weekend that involved having to download Comet, his AI Search Engine browser under the Perplexity sponsor on his helmet. Given Hamilton’s activism started around environmental awareness (The famous pictures of him around rubbish and Neat Burger, now defunct), it feels incredibly disappointing. A reminder that even the best, have a price.
Speaking of Lewis Hamilton – It genuinely made me sad to see that 10% of the F1 audience thought he was driver of the day because he passed a six-car stackup at the first corner, and was slower than Nico Hulkenberg on the same strategy to limp home in 8th. 22 races in red, still nowhere near a podium. This may be a harsh but valid question – Was John Elkann’s damning words last week a degree of buyer’s remorse for his very expensive investment?
Carlos Sainz once again is going to nab the headlines for a possible P4 in the race because Alex Albon very carefully chooses the precise wrong time to shit the bed and look horrible by comparison. A crash in Quali, a penalty for driving into the back of Hamilton, and a retired car. Welp.
Congratulations to Doriane Pin for winning the F1 Academy title, after a messy Sprint race and Maya Weug and Tina Hausmann colliding effectively handed Pin the crown. Fair play to her, she scored in every single F1 Academy race she finished, even if she clearly was slower than others in the series like Chloe Chambers and Alisha Palmowski at times.
It’s just a shame that the whole thing feels… redundant. Her single-seater career has been poor. She got dumped by PREMA half way through her second year of FRECA after failing to finish a race higher than 14th. Winning the F1 Academy prize of a race seat would likely have her either back in FRECA, which is a waste of everyone’s time, or GB3, which is a backwards step on the ladder.
Pin is a silver-rated Endurance driver with great pedigree in Sportscars, Mercedes backing, and Iron Lynx setup that could do with a driver like her… but I worry that Pin winning and going back to Sportscars would be a bad look for the Academy, because it means their pipeline isn’t working. While it’s genuinely good news they’re hiring young girls out of karting like Ella Hakkinen, it again begs the question – Who is this for, and what’s the ultimate aim?
And as I type this, another big rumour dropping that Aston Martin is rumoured to be bringing in Christian Horner to replace Andy Cowell. Which… fuck. According to Andrew Benson at the BBC, it’s reported that Cowell and Adrian Newey are having a power struggle, with Cowell in charge, but Newey thinking he’s in charge, backed up with his exorbitant salary and ownership stake in the team. If something has to give, Cowell will be shipped out and Christian Horner, even with his recent scandal, has the best resume by miles given y’know… 14 World Championships in 20 years at Red Bull. Imagine Adrian Newey walking away from Red Bull after falling out with Horner, only for his new employers to potentially bring him back? Horrifying. Oh and even worse, Horner wants an ownership stake too…
The Verdict: 5/10 – Didn’t hate it, but this was the first Vegas Race that fell somewhat flat for me. Strategy wasn’t really on the table, there was more frustration over passing than anything else (Shoutout to Alonso for going round the outside of Turn 3), and while the battle at the front was mildly intriguing, it petered out as the race went on. A skippable race. See you in Qatar.
