Is a Win a Win?

The Monday Debrief.

As a newcomer, someone who is new to the world of Formula One, there’s still plenty of things that I don’t know or need to learn. I’ll never quite understand certain things, why certain decisions are made, and what goes on in the mind of the driver. However, I have a few thoughts from yesterday’s Hungary Grand Prix.

Motor racing, in its own way, is in fact a sport. For Formula One, drivers are exposed to crazy endurance and strength training, they must keep up with weight limitations for their car and neck resistance training for the g-force the car exhibits. It’s a physically and mentally dominating sport, that the average person may not be able to tackle. But just like any sport, tensions rise, aggressions come out, and fight mode is turned all the way up. The NHL and NFL are widely known sports around the globe, so it comes as no shock to people when unsavory language or swears come out during a game. Any mic’ed up player will show that game time means you’re tuned in and ready to fight. Same thing I’m finding with F1. If it’s a sport, why does it feel so unfavored to show any type of emotion or frustration when something during the race isn’t working in your favor, or going your way.

This brings up the topic of Max Verstappen on his radio around lap 54-55. Frustrations were high for Verstappen, and the fight to claim 1st was big. A series of bad luck events tainted Verstappen’s race, causing him to finish in 5th place. Verstappen received lots of criticism for his outburst on the radio, people claiming he was being unprofessional and distasteful.

A radio message from Max goes: “it’s quite impressive how we let ourselves get undercut, and just completely **** my race”.

Another

Race Engineer: “I understand the medical delegate needs to have a look at you and examine you”

Max: “We can send the medical delegate to the steward’s team, and they can have a look. See if they are all ok”

In response to all the critics about his rash behavior, Verstappen responded “they can all **** off”.

Because I’m new to the sport, I don’t exactly know where the line is between letting it all out and being able to express some sort of emotion. No one bats an eye when a pro NFL or NHL player expresses frustrations, so why is it different here? In my eyes, I feel like it may be because of the level of prestige of the sport. Formula One is a rich man’s sport. I’ve said it on here before. As a driver, and a team, you’re travelling to the most beautiful countries in the most lavish cities. As a regular person, it costs money to attend these races. If you’re not close, you must train, or fly, and accommodations, expenses add up. So, in my mind I feel the people who are criticizing think that having these lash outs and outburst diminishes the prestige of the sport. If F1 is just like any sport, if it’s not taken too far, why can’t drivers express these frustrations with banter and swearing. It doesn’t make sense.

I digress.

I think the main controversy to come out of the Grand Prix yesterday was who won, and why, in my opinion, it’s the most awkward win (that I’ve seen thus far). Lando Norris started in Pole position on Sunday after coming out fastest during Qualifying on Saturday morning. From the start of the race on Sunday, it wasn’t long before the 1st place position went to Oscar Piastri, who had a better start over Norris. A good portion of the race was dominated by Piastri, who held first position for as long as he could. But the last 20 something laps is where things begin to fall apart, and this is where my knowledge of the sport is beginner. During the last remaining laps, McLaren made the decision to pit Norris, and then after pit Piastri. Coming out of the pits, Norris was able to gain first position, and Piastri came out behind shortly thereafter. Norris’ race engineer made it clear that they wanted to swap positions back to before they pitted, making sure that Piastri would regain first position. According to Norris, this was not ideal, and Piastri was around 6 seconds behind him. 6 seconds is a long time, and that’s a big gap between cars, especially since they’re going 230-300km/h.

Here are some radio messages between Norris and his race engineer (RE):

RE: “we need you to save more tyres please, and we do want to let Oscar through”

Norris: “we should have boxed him first then surely, no?”

RE: “Doesn’t matter”

Norris: “I mean it does to me maybe”

And

RE: “we think both cars are using their tyres too much. Just remember, every single Sunday morning meeting we have”

Norris: "yeah, tell him to catch up then please”

And

RE: “Lando, he can’t catch you up, you’ve proved your point, and it really doesn’t matter”

Norris: “I mean, I would have tried to undercut anyways”

RE: “mate, we did the stop sequence in this order for the good of the team”

Norris: “yeah, I’m fighting for a championship”

While I still don’t know much about F1, I wonder if they had just switched the sequence of cars they pitted, if the result would have been different. I don’t know why they decided to send Piastri through. Lando Norris is second in the Driver’s Championship with 189 points, 106 points behind Max Verstappen who sits in with 295 points. I don’t think I’ll understand the decision to switch the driver’s places. It was unfortunate to hear Norris’ race engineer basically guilt trip him into letting Piastri through. Not only are drivers competing against other teams and other drivers, but they’re also competing against their own teammate. Norris had to slow his car down significantly to let Oscar pass him, ultimately leading Piastri to win the 2024 Hungary Grand Prix. It was unfortunate to watch because on the one hand you have a driver who thinks he should have one the race, and on the other hand you have a driver who thinks he stole the win.  

With all the bruhaha that was stirred up over this decision, Piastri’s celebration was in my eyes, not won in the way I think he would’ve wanted it. I’m no driver, but I can understand that it is an absolute honor to win a Grand Prix, and whether we think it wasn’t an organic celebration, this is something that’s special to Oscar, and something he'll remember for the rest of his life.  

People online have so many things to say, so many opinions about how drivers do this, they do that, how Norris is a crybaby, etc. But this all ties back to whether drivers can get emotional. In every other sport I watch, emotions run high, and athletes can express their frustrations without the world batting an eye. But somehow for F1 it’s different.

Prestige maybe?

Let's hope things simmer down, because next up, Spa.