Ryan Boulanger, Reporter
@ryanbcourant
Max Verstappen has won the World Driver’s Championship with only four races to go in the season, clinching his second world title in a row at the Suzuka Grand Prix. Verstappen has dominated this season, scoring 12 wins so far. Verstappen is undoubtedly a talented driver, but Red Bull’s dominant display so far this season leaves unanswered questions amid a budget cap scandal.
Rumors had been sparked around the paddock that two teams, now known to be Red Bull and Aston Martin, had exceeded the budget cap the FIA set for this season. The FIA then confirmed the day after Suzuka that Aston Martin had committed minor procedural errors, while Red Bull had gone over by less than 5% of the budget cap, which could be up to 7.25 million dollars.
This might not seem like a lot considering F1’s 100+ million cost cap, however, just an extra 500,000 dollars in R&D can give teams an enormous competitive advantage. Red Bull would not be the team it is without the talent of both Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez, both generational talents, however, its blatant disregard for the clear rules that the FIA has set cannot go unpunished.
To add to the already existing controversy surrounding Max’s title, the race at Suzuka was not one to go unnoticed. A red flag waved after multiple crashes, including a scary collision into the barriers from Carlos Sainz, as well as a spinout from Zhou Guanyu delayed the rainy start to the race. The race was almost restarted when the rain seemed to clear up but was quickly delayed again when officials noticed a river forming in the pit lane. The race was finally restarted around 2 hours later, with drier conditions.
Max got out to a strong lead, leaving Sergio Perez and Charles Leclerc in his dust. Max came home for victory and only needed to beat Leclerc by a margin of 8 points to claim his second world title. Leclerc and Perez battled it out to the finish in an exciting wheel-to-wheel spectacle in which Leclerc went off track and gained an advantage, coming in before Perez by a small margin. It was thought that Leclerc still had a fighting chance for the title, but a late 5-second penalty for leaving the track given to the Ferrari driver put him behind Perez, allowing Max to take the title with only 4 races left.
Another impressive showing worth mentioning was Sebastian Vettel’s wheel-to-wheel finish with Fernando Alonso. Vettel beat Alonso by a margin of .001 seconds in a spectacular finish, capping off his last Japanese Grand Prix, one of his favorite races. It is remarkable Vettel was able to pull off a 6th place finish after a poor start in his slower Aston Martin, and truly shows his excellence as a driver which will be missed on the grid next year.
Mercedes continued to struggle throughout the weekend, plagued by technical issues during qualifying resulting in a P6 and P8 qualifying finish, translating to a P5 and P8 finish for Hamilton and Russell, respectively. Esteban Ocon of Alpine managed to finish 4th, scoring 12 points for Alpine. Ocon will be joined by current AlphaTauri driver Pierre Gasly next year, with Alpine’s other driver, 2-time world champion Fernando Alonso moving to Aston Martin.
Alpine looks promising for next year’s season, currently sitting 4th in the constructor’s championship with 143 points, and the gain of race-winner Pierre Gasly should only aid in their efforts for a front-field finish next year. Perhaps one of the most exciting finishes from Suzuka belongs to popularized Williams driver Nicholas Latifi. Latifi, who had been sitting in 21st place in a 20-driver championship (due to Devrie’s surprise outing at Monza) finally managed to score points this season, coming home with two after a P9 finish. With Latifi’s reported exit from Williams at the end of this season sparking many memes, namely Goatifi, this has certainly been a good opportunity for the Canadian driver to legitimize his place on the grid this season.
Make sure to check out an excellent, in-depth explanation of F1 if you’re new to the sport: https://nchscourant.com/formula-1-for-dummies/
Stay tuned for new race reviews after every race day!
