This is Formula 1, but not as you know it. Not as you know it this year, anyway.
A team other than Red Bull Racing winning. A driver other than Max Verstappen mounting the top step of the podium. The Spanish and Italian anthems usurping the Dutch-German duo.
A brave new world.
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Lando almost crashes while celebrating | 00:39
For weeks — months — we’ve been talking about how we must appreciate the feats of champions apparent Red Bull Racing and Verstappen. This week we can talk about the thrill of something else.
Carlos Sainz crossed the line of a thrilling Singapore Grand Prix to briefly reinvigorate Formula 1 in 2023 and make himself that something else.
It was a victory hard won, superbly executed and a long time coming in a race that will live long in the memory of the 2023 season — even if the excitement of a break from the status quo will likely last only until next weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix, where regular program will surely resume.
But for now let’s bask in the glory of something else.
CARLOS SAINZ DELIVERS A STATEMENT RACE
This was Carlos Sainz’s second win, but the Spaniard joked that this was his first “smooth operation” for Ferrari before customarily crooning Smooth Operator in celebration.
It was a hard-earnt bit of karaoke, because this was a statement grand prix.
Sainz has been in golden form in the second half of the season. He looks at home in the SF-23. He’s had the measure of his often better rated teammate, Charles Leclerc. As a result he’s been the man to take the reins in the last two weekends, when Ferrari’s been a genuine frontrunner.
Monza was never to be, but the stars aligned in Singapore to give him a real chance at being the first non-Red Bull Racing driver of the year to win a race.
Despite starting from pole at this circuit where passing is difficult, it was no sure thing.
Mercedes had the faster car, and the race transpired to give George Russell and Lewis Hamilton relatively cheap pit stops without losing more than a couple of places late in the race to turn the finale into a thrilling chase.
With five laps to go victory looked easily within reach. Sainz’s studiously assembled race win seemed doomed.
It was a fantastically clever race strategy that saved him.
He slowed down enough to bring Lando Norris into his DRS range, which gave the McLaren enough of a boost to straight-line speed to prevent the charging Russell and Hamilton from getting an easy run on him.
Having lost Charles Leclerc as a defender early in the race, Sainz brilliantly turned foe into friend in his mission to control the race.
“It is always tricky because you always put yourself under extra pressure,” Sainz said. “Then you know that then you cannot have a lockup, you cannot have a single mistake or a snap, because it means then Lando is going to have a chance to overtake you.
“I think that move saved my race, also Lando’s P2, because I feel like if not, I would have been dead meat.
“If the Mercs would have passed Lando, I think they could have got past me pretty easily.”
We don’t often get such clear displays of tactics from the cockpit. Sainz gave us a masterclass.
“Playing with all that and managing to keep everything under control, we managed to bring home a win that was never easy, but that definitely feels incredible.”
There’s not much on the line for Ferrari this season, but Sainz is using his opportunities to cement his status as a premier-class driver — something that’ll stand him in good stead if Ferrari can get its act together next year.
‘Genius bromance’ holds off Mercedes | 04:14
THE PERFECT SEASON IS OVER
Sainz’s win was Red Bull Racing’s loss. The dream of a perfect season is finished with seven races still remaining.
The history book will reflect that Red Bull Racing won an unprecedented 14 races in a row to open the 2023 season and 15 races in succession dating back to last year’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, an unprecedented streak.
Max Verstappen’s sensational 10 in a row goes no further, the reigning champion finishing fifth, up from 11th, at the end of a disappointing weekend. That too is a record — one many will hope will never be repeated.
But Red Bull Racing boss Christian Horner said it was no loss. In a record-equalling 22-race season, such a feat was only ever hypothetical.
“We never expected it,” he said. “To have got through [14] races is beyond our wildest imaginations. For Max to have now 10 in a row is insanity.
“While statistics apparently don’t matter, they are ones that as a team we’re incredibly proud of.
“We’ve got this far. To have broken the record [for most consecutive team victories] since 1988 shows just how hard it is to have achieved the kind of supremacy that we’ve achieved this year, and that’s testimony to everybody doing and playing their part.”
But Red Bull Racing does believe that in some circumstances Verstappen could have won in Singapore, even from 11th on the grid.
The Dutchman started on the hard tyre hoping for a safety car in the final third of the grand prix to give him a cheap stop.
In the end he got the opposite, with all his rivals getting a short pit stop on lap 20.
But Horner thought even a clean race would’ve given Verstappen a shot at victory.
“With Carlos holding the front up because of the deg on those hard tyres, Max would’ve definitely come into play with the pace that he had at the end of the race,” he said. “When you look at the delta he was off the leaders by the end of it, if you take away the delta for the free stop, suddenly — bang — he’s right in the game.”
Verstappen finished 21 seconds off the lead. The difference between a pit stop at racing speed and during the safety car is 13.5 seconds — not quite enough to have put him the lead battle but enough perhaps to have prevented Mercedes from gambling and to have brought the race towards him.
The odds were always against him, just as the odds were always against the perfect season.
Perez overtaken three times in 1 minute | 01:03
WAS THERE ANOTHER WAY FOR MERCEDES TO WIN?
Mercedes was second and fourth with George Russell and Lewis Hamilton late in the race when it decided to gamble on a second stop for both drivers. With fresh mediums, they initiated a thrilling chase to the finish that came close to sensationally paying off.
But instead a minor but costly misjudgment sent George Russell into the wall and out of the race on the last lap. Hamilton, without time to make a move on Norris, finished third.
You could argue in hindsight that it was wrong to gamble. Even if Russell hadn’t have crashed, points would have been lost.
But in possibly the only race of the season another team was capable of winning, that would’ve shown an alarming lack of ambition. It was right to try it.
It also ignores a potential alternative route to victory via Hamilton.
The seven-time champion was the quicker Mercedes driver on fresh mediums, closing a five-second gap to Russell down to nothing in a handful of laps as both challenged for the lead.
With Russell unable to show Norris a wheel, did Mercedes miss a trick not swapping drivers to give Hamilton a go?
“No,” team boss Toto Wolff said. “I think both played for the victory, and in that circumstance you’ve just got to let them race and fight it out between themselves.”
It would’ve been controversial — to say the least — to take Russell’s opportunity away from him after having had the strong weekend up to that point. It would’ve been difficult to justify with little at stake in the broader championship.
But it’s an interesting hypothetical.
Lando almost crashes while celebrating | 00:39
LIAM LAWSON: GET HIM SIGNED
On an evening of firsts for 2023, another one: the first time AlphaTauri’s other car has scored points this season.
Liam Lawson qualified 10th — knocking Verstappen out of the top 10 in doing so — and drove a superbly assured race to finish one place up from where he started. His two points almost double AlphaTauri’s haul from three to five for the season.
At the most physically demanding track on the calendar and a circuit he’s never raced around before, it was enormously impressive.
“When you get the opportunity you have to take it with both hands,” he said. “I’m happy with the race, and I definitely gave it everything because I think we maximised the car’s performance.”
Technical director Jody Egginton underlined three key characteristics of the Kiwi’s strong performance.
“Liam did a fantastic job of managing his tyres, making moves where possible and returning consistent lap times,” he said — no mean feat around these narrow streets.
But perhaps most important was a little reminder from Christian Horner about where Lawson sits in the brand’s driver hierarchy.
“I think he’s done a great job,” Horner said. “I think he’s done an impressive job in considering the circumstances. He’s been dropped in the car, and at a track that’s very challenging I think he’s done a great job today.
“Obviously he’s a Red Bull Racing driver on loan to AlphaTauri, as all the drivers are there.”
Sky Sports’ David Croft declared: “That man deserves a seat in Formula 1.
P1 podcast host Tom Bellingham wrote: “Liam Lawson is getting that seat next year.”
Fellow P1 podcast host Matt Gallagher added: “Liam Lawson securing his first points around the HARDEST track in the world. Give this man a full time race seat immediately.”
Get that contract ready. Surely there’s no room for debate — other than whether Daniel Ricciardo or Yuki Tsunoda will be alongside him in 2024.
Piastri walks off after Brundle ‘snub’ | 00:34
PIASTRI’S BIG GAINS HELP MCLAREN TO NEW TARGET
Oscar Piastri was frustrated to start the grand prix 17th and second-last on the grid, but what followed was an understated reminder of just how well the Aussie is doing.
Piastri recovered 10 places during the grand prix to finish seventh and score six points for a slog of a day in Marina Bay.
He got a little lucky with Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso retiring from ahead of him, but nothing can be taken away from Piastri’s tenacity to return points.
Combined with Norris’s second place, McLaren scored 24 points in Singapore, closing the gap to Aston Martin from 102 points down to 78 points.
The current rate of progress is 9.7 points per round since Silverstone. With seven races remaining — plus three sprints — points at that continuing trajectory would bring McLaren to within 10 points of usurping Aston Martin for fourth at the end of the season.
This was a particularly poor weekend for Aston.
The car wasn’t as competitive as expected. Lance Stroll binned his car in Q1 — evidence of how deeply he’s committed to F1, the team said — and didn’t race because he was sore. Fernando Alonso was uncharacteristically scrappy, spinning out of the points and finishing 15th.
It’s the team’s first non-score of the year but follows a trend of declining competitiveness.
McLaren, on the other hand, can count on Piastri scoring regular points to bridge that gap — as his big Singapore gains attested.
