Unpacking a Crazy Sao Paulo Grand Prix
The Sao Paulo Grand Prix proved to be the best F1 weekend of 2022
As the penultimate race of the 2022 F1 season, the Sao Paulo Grand Prix ended up being one of the most entertaining. With both championships wrapped up, there’s still battles for second in both the driver’s and constructor’s standings. No one is going quietly into the offseason and after this weekend I wish there was more racing ahead.
Friday Qualifying
Qualifying on Friday was quite the day.
Ferrari wasted no time making mistakes this weekend. Charles Leclerc was the only driver on intermediate tires at the beginning of Q3. The team believed there was rain at turn 12. However, with Interlagos being a shorter circuit, drivers would have been going through fast enough for the track to stay dry in light rain. And if the team thought there was rain, why was Sainz not also on inters? Leclerc had to pit for soft tires after one lap and ultimately failed to get a qualifying time in during the session. He began the Sprint Race on Saturday 10th on the grid. Check out him seeing everyone else on soft tires… tough.
The real story of qualifying was Kevin Magnussen and Haas. The Dane’s flying Q3 lap had him two tenths of a second up on Max Verstappen for Pole Position. 2022 is Magnussen’s eighth season in F1. After a one year hiatus, Haas signed Magnussen to a one year contract when they had to let Russian Nikita Mazepin go due to… conflicting interests. All things considered, Magnussen has had a great year for Haas. This weekend’s Pole Position was both his first as a driver and Haas’s first as a team. I think everyone was happy for both them.
Saturday Sprint Race
The Sprint Race on Saturday was just how the F1 decision makers drew it up. The race had plenty of movement all over the grid. Several drivers made up for poor qualifying efforts.
Magnussen was quickly eaten up and passed by the faster cars on track. I was surprised he held on to P1 for the 2 laps that he did.
The highlight of the day was Alpine teammates Fernando Alonso and Estaban Ocon going back and forth. The duo have raced hard all year. Going back to the opening race in Bahrain when the two were racing hard. The team consciously didn’t say anything to either to see how it would play out.
Their squabble on Saturday eventually lead to contact that ended up hurting each throughout the race. Alonso was adamant that the contact was Ocon’s fault. He voiced his opinion of his teammate on the team radio during the race and then again in his post race interviews. Despite all his campaigning, Alonso eventually received a penalty for the incident putting him at 18th for the race Sunday. Ocon ended up finishing the Sprint in 17th.
If Alonso thinks Ocon is a bad teammate, next year with nepotism baby Lance Stroll will surely go much better.
Next year we’ll be getting 6 sprint races as opposed to the 3 this year. They’ve proven to be a great change of pace and an added element of excitement to Grand Prix weekends.
Sunday Race
Oh baby.
With consistent action and overtakes, the race itself was one of the best of the season.
A racing incident between Kevin Magnussen and Daniel Ricciardio ended both their days on lap 1. Unfortunately for Magnussen, Friday’s Pole Position was his lone highlight.
Mercedes was their old selves again. After winning the Sprint Race on Saturday, George Russell started the Grand Prix in P1 and never looked back. Lewis Hamilton quickly made ground to get behind Russell in P2.
An early restart after a safety car had Verstappen and Hamilton going at it like they did last year. Hamilton was ahead of Verstappen by the slimmest of margins and left the champion little room to pass. Verstappen dove for the position anyway causing the two to collide. Verstappen complained that Hamilton left him no room but was given a penalty for his forcing of contact on Hamilton.
Russel and Hamilton dominated the rest of the way. The pair ran in P1 and P2 for the back third of the race. Hamilton has won at least one race in every season he’s been in F1. With the season winding down, that streak is looking more and more likely to break. The team decided to let both drivers race and see how it pans out. Hamilton never got within a second of Russell and the pair breezed to the 1-2 finish. It was Russell’s long awaited first Grand Prix victory.
The final laps are when things got interesting for the other two teams in the top three of the standings.
With two laps left, Charles Leclerc and Sergio Perez were focused on their battle for second in the driver’s standings. Both drivers were one position behind their teammates. Naturally, when fighting for important points, they wanted to swap positions with said teammates…
In Ferrari’s situation, the swap simply didn’t make sense. In third place, Carlos Sainz was in position for a podium. How do you tell a driver, “Hey we need you to give up your podium for your teammate to have a small leg up for second place on the season.” As a team, it makes no difference who’s in which place. The 3-4 finish was massive in their fight with Mercedes. At the end of the day, Leclerc begging for the position on the team radio felt… strange.
Red Bull on the otherhand… there’s a lot to unpack here. Let’s go back to Monaco this year. Sitting at third behind the two Ferraris in Q3, Sergio Perez crashed. The crash ultimately ended the session and finalized race positions as they stood; himself at third and his teammate Verstappen in fourth. Monaco is infamous for the difficulty to pass so there was speculation that the incident by Perez was not an accident. Perez later went on to win in Monaco in large part because of his third place starting position.
Now, two laps left in the Sao Paulo Grand Prix. Verstappen gets direction from his engineer to swap positions with his Checo. Verstappen ignores the orders.
Unlike Ferrari, this change makes sense. Both championships are wrapped up and Verstappen was in no position for a podium — let alone a win. Perez is arguably the only one left fighting for anything in the Red Bull garage. Upon listening to the team radios, Verstappen hints at his reasoning for not letting Checo pass him and implores the team to quit asking. In his post race interview, Verstappen was asked directly if this was because of the Monaco qualifying incident. Verstappen danced around the question and threw a cheeky glance at the camera…
Naturally, Perez was not happy with Verstappen’s clear snub. After the race, he made sure to remind everyone of the times he’s swapped positions in favor of Verstappen. While I don’t think Checo was right in saying he’s the reason for Verstappen’s two championships, there’s no doubt he’s been a great teammate every step of the way.
Perez and Leclerc go into the last race of the season tied for second. Leclerc owns the tiebreaker as he has more wins on the season. After what happened today, I expect Red Bull to do everything to help Checo secure that second spot. Fittingly, Ferrari will likely let Leclerc down one last time.
It was a hell of a weekend in Sao Paulo. In a otherwise dull 2022 season, Interlagos had it all. A first time grand prix winner. A first time pole winner. Lots of good racing in both the sprint and grand prix. And plenty of drama.