🏁 Ay Caramba

🥇Max Verstappen [362]: Says his penalties fighting Lando weren’t his biggest issue. “My biggest problem was that we just had no pace. Just struggling a lot on the tires, couldn’t really attack, and I couldn’t follow Ferrari and McLaren.” His replacement engine was partly to blame.

🥈Lando Norris [315]: Scored an invite to the family dinner celebrating his good mate Sainz’s victory. The Carlando bond remains strong.

🥉Charles Leclerc [291]: Accidentally let an F bomb slip in the Mexico GP press conference and immediately followed it up with: “Oh, sorry! Oh, no, oh no! I don't want to join Max!” Referring to Max getting slapped with community service a few races ago for his language. Apparently the FIA are considering his apology and may only give a warning 😆

4️⃣ Oscar Piastri [251]: “A very poor mistake” led to his surprising Q1 exit in Mexico. “I just went off in Turn 12, got beached on the kerb there, and that was it. My lap was easily going to be enough, so it's very frustrating to make that mistake. I lost about a second.”

5️⃣ Carlos Sainz [240]: Achieves his goal of “one more win” with Ferrari before his departure at season’s end. “Honestly, I really wanted this one, I really needed it also for myself – I wanted to get it done. I’ve been saying for a while I wanted one more win before leaving Ferrari and to do it here in front of this mega crowd is incredible.”

6️⃣ Lewis Hamilton [189]: Had a “fun” battle chasing his teammate in the last stint, eventually overtaking him for P4. On keeping the teammate battle clean: “It’s pretty straightforward, I don't think either of us are silly.” C’mon now Lewis. George is definitely a little bit silly.

7️⃣ George Russell [177]: Reveals that you don’t just make the big bucks right away: “In my first year of F1, I was on a five-figure salary and actually lost over six figures in that first year from paying for my trainer, paying for flights, paying for an assistant. And that's probably the case for 25 per cent of the grid.” That’s surprisingly low, even for the worst team on the grid at the time.

8️⃣ Sergio Perez [150]: After his clash with Lawson, he said the young driver doesn’t have the right attitude for F1, and needs to be more humble. “When you come to Formula 1, you're obviously very hungry and so on, but you have to be respectful as well. In his first two grands prix he has had many incidents. He has to say: 'Look, probably I'm overdoing it a little bit, I will step back and start again’.”

9️⃣ Fernando Alonso [62]: Has DNF’d in his 200th, 300th, and now 400th GP start. This time it was due to a brake cooling issue from stuck debris. “It hurts always the same, to be honest, when you don’t see the checkered flag. It doesn’t matter which number.” Insult to injury: got a bug while in Mexico, and missed Brazil media day while still being treated for the illness.

🔟Nico Hulkenberg [31]: Praises the team after a double points finish. “I think everyone’s work is paying off and we’re a consistent contender for points which is obviously great news – I think four time points in a row now for me, including the Sprint in Austin.”

11. Lance Stroll [24]: “I think we’re 40 seconds behind Magnussen in the Haas so we’re in a midfield fight. A lot of work to do.” Haas would have to make up a 40 point deficit in 2 Sprints and 4 GPs. A tall task, but not impossible. Would be MEGA if they can pull it off.

12. Yuki Tsunoda [22]: Rough stretch continued after a spin in Ausin with a crash in Quali last weekend, and an unlucky exit after turn 1 in the race.

13. Kevin Magnussen 📈 [14]: Says he’s finding his rhythm again after a “perfect day” in Mexico. A P7 finish while fending of Piastri and matching Verstappen’s pace in the last stint was quite impressive.

14. Alex Albon 📉 [12]: A tough weekend saw him hit Bearman in FP1, then DNF on lap 1 after making contact with Yuki. “I don’t think I did anything wrong, I don’t think anyone else did anything much wrong either, just seems bad luck.”

15. Daniel Ricciardo 📉 [12]: Back to some good pop punk car singalong videos with his free time. Instantly had to look this song up. Quite catchy. If you like pop punk, check it out: “In Bloom” by Neck Deep.

16. Pierre Gasly [9]: Says the team has “clearly made a step” after a Q3 appearance and P10 finish in the race last weekend. Remember the absolute tractor they had at the start of the season?

17. Ollie Bearman [7]: Albon retracted his earlier radio message blaming Ollie for his FP1 crash, saying the team warned the rookie too late.

18. Franco Colapinto [5]: His goal is to stay in F1, but isn’t looking too far ahead. “I’m not thinking about 2025, not really – I’m fully focused on this year and what we have to do about the great opportunity that I have for 2024 and to finish the year on a high, and then we will see what I do in 2025.”

19. Esteban Ocon [5]: Managed P13 after a pit lane start in Mexico. “A couple of fights, but we are not quick enough to be able to come back from starting last.”

20. Liam Lawson [2]: On his duel with Perez that left the hometown driver heated: “I gave him space at [Turn] 4, he came in super late. At that point of the race we had just got some clean air and honestly our pace wasn’t bad so I’m not just going to get out of his way.” Liam also gave Checo the ‘ol bird flip at one point, which he later apologized for.

21. Zhou Guanyu [0]: On the small victories: “We still managed to hold our own and stay competitive with the cars around us. It’s a step forward, something we weren’t able to do just a few races ago, so it’s encouraging progress.”

22. Logan Sargeant [0]: Working on his golf swing while he plots his next move.

23. Valtteri Bottas [0]: Reportedly open to a reserve driver role with Mercedes if he doesn’t land the Sauber seat. You would think they would go with youth in the reserve role. But I agree the grid is better with Bottas on it.

🥇 McLaren [566]: CEO Zak Brown on Max’s aggressive moves that resulted in 20s of penalties: “I mean, it’s getting a bit ridiculous. I applaud the FIA stewards – enough’s enough. Let’s just have some good clean racing moving forward.”

🥈 Ferrari 📈 [537]: TP Vasseur heaped praise on Sainz: “He was clever to give up the position [on turn 1] and then to come back and to overtake Max, I think it was a perfect drive and a perfect weekend.” He was also frustrated by lapped drivers not getting out of Leclerc’s way: “He lost three or four seconds in the traffic with some idiots and he came back, pushed a little too much, lost a little bit in the tires in the traffic and honestly these guys, they have to respect the blue flag and I don’t understand why the FIA didn’t give them a penalty.”

🥉 Red Bull 📉 [512]: Christian Horner called the penalties on Max “very harsh”, and doesn’t like drivers on the outside getting priority. “If you’ve got the inside line, you control the corner. It’s one of the principles in the physics of racing and I think that they just need to get back to basics that if you’re on the outside, you don't have priority.” Horner even brought telemetry data to the press conference afterwards, showing Lando had gone into the corner faster than he had any other lap - and wasn’t going to make the turn while fighting Max.

4️⃣ Mercedes [366]: Toto Wolff admits the cost cap has taken a hit from recent crashes, and says the car exists “on a knife’s edge.” “So, we probably have to dial down what we put on the car. We will be having two upgrade packages in Brazil – two floors, but that is basically it, nothing else is going to come. We have certain limitation on parts, so we need to be creative.

5️⃣ Aston Martin [86]: Announces a multi-year global partnership with Saudi Arabian mining company Ma’aden.

6️⃣ Haas [46]: The only current team on the grid whose drivers both have poles at Interlagos. Hulkenberg in 2010 with Williams, and Magnussen in 2022 with Haas.

7️⃣ VCARB [36]: Colapinto rumors are heating up, as Horner says he would be a “bad team boss” if he didn’t check on his availability. Possible scenario: Checo out, Lawson up to Red Bull, and Colapinto at VCARB.

8️⃣ Williams [17]: TP Vowles agrees with 19/20 drivers on the grid that the overtaking rules need clarification: "It's not as clear as it should be, so it has to be changed in the future." George Russell revealed at a driver meeting that all but one driver voted to address overtaking rules immediately rather than waiting until 2025. Hmmm… I wonder who it was…

9️⃣ Alpine [14]: Fined for procedural errors in violation of the cost cap, along with Honda. The FIA determined they did not seek an advantage as a result of the breach, and acted in good faith in correcting the issue.

🔟Kick Sauber [0]: Former head of Race Strategy at Ferrari, Inaki Rueda, is joining the team as a part of their ongoing restructuring.

• Brake Control: McLaren’s clever brake cooling design helped propel Lando to P2 and a split of the Ferraris. From Hughes and Piola: “The cooling air goes outboard over the brake disc, then inboard through the exit, effectively giving two cooling routes (see the technical drawing above). The McLaren’s inlet is also slightly larger than that of the Ferrari. The whole duct of the McLaren is fashioned from carbon fiber, in contrast to the Ferrari’s aluminum. Carbon fiber conducts less heat than any metal.”

• PACE CHART! @FDataAnalysis does it again. Sainz was just .05s/lap faster than Lando, Max and Lewis were equal, and Magnussen matched Piastri’s traffic pace (and even matched Max, who was hampered by PU issues). 🔽 

• Spoiler Alert: If you don’t mind spoilers from the upcoming F1 movie, check out how Brad Pitt’s character faired at the fictitious version of the Mexico GP.

• Vegas Prep: A local souvenir shop owner is happier with this year’s Vegas GP set up. Traffic isn’t as bad, and organizers listened to complaints that construction last year blocked potential customers from businesses on the track route. F1 officials and local business owners will be holding hands and singing Kumbaya by 2026 at this rate. Ya love to see it.

• Photobomb: Carlos Sainz and Zak Brown traded photobombs on their respective team photos. Never pass up a good photobomb opportunity.

• Danger off Track: It’s not only driving that has it’s risks. Take a look at this close call from a cameraman on the main straight - and the resulting shot 🔽 

Quick Question (My answer)

Reese’s are a classic, Butterfinger used to be my favorite, Skittles a more recent favorite until I learned the Red dye is outlawed in like every other country because it’s poison. Might have some anyway. And sorry, but I’m a proud Candy Corn hater. Gross!