HAAS is now #6 in constructors championship.
The cars are now qualifying better.
Update package paid off in 2 place rise in weekend results IMO.
Did Gazoo racing already have an impact?

I wish the stewards would butt out... If a driver is pushed off and completes the pass anyway, he keeps it, the end.. Otherwise all a driver ever has to do is drive the inside line and open steering till he pushes the potential passer out of bounds...

I would dearly dearly love to see those 2 come to blows on track a couple times and have Leclerc pull off a "Kimi" and swipe the championship from BOTH of them by 1 point.

I think it's too early for any impact from Gazoo . It will take some time for that to happen . But they will have an impact I am sure .

I think this year's Haas team are benefitting from a few things . Gunther had them heading in the right direction . His replacement has increased the heading in the right direction . Additional $$$ by Gene Haas and outside sponsors has helped . Additional hiring has helped .

Like most things it's not one item that moves a team forward it is a variety of things . When all the pieces fall into place the puzzle has been completed . I hope next year's Haas driver lineup can take the battan and run with it .

I realize everybody's got a different opinion on the Max-Lando battle at the end. But if I were a steward, I would not have punished Lando for the pass. Play on. Yes, the pass occurred off the track (Max was ahead at the apex), but like they say in the NFL, it was a bang-bang play. It's not like Lando had an option to make the corner given the line Max ran. Norris was off the track because Max made no attempt to make the corner. He ran wide on purpose to make it impossible (per the rules) to pass him. In fact, Max was totally off track as well.

But some would argue that one infraction was passing off the track (Lando) and the other was track limits (Max), so the penalties aren't the same. But as a steward, I would see it differently. The rule isn't that you can't pass off the track. The rule is that you can't leave the track and gain an advantage. After all, if a car had crashed on the track or was otherwise incapacitated, and the track was effectively blocked so all running cars had to go off track to get around the obstacle, the stewards wouldn't penalize those cars for passing off the track.

No. The rule is that you cannot leave the track to gain an advantage. While Lando left the track to gain an advantage (passing Max), no one would argue that he wasn't forced to do so by Max's maneuver (Max going wide). Max also gained an advantage (preventing Lando from passing) by going off track intentionally. Hence, like in the NFL, offsetting penalties. Because we can't replay the down in auto racing, play on.

I'll also try to find the pic I ran across of what the rule actually says. IIRC, the sentence immediately after the "cannot gain an advantage by going off the track" mentions something to the effect of "unless you are forced off the track" (I'm paraphrasing).

I agree. Otherwise, as you pointed out, passing on the outside (particularly for tighter corners) would be near-impossible.

Saw today that Jenson Button was interviewing Horner and pointed out that very thing to his face regarding that penalty. Something like "your driver is very good at using the current rules to his advantage, and those rules should be changed" - paraphrasing. Especially as the day before I think it was Russell that got the penalty for doing *exactly* what Max did.. The stewards are not consistent at all.

Talking about rules, just gonna put on my tinfoil hat for a second and leave:
- McLaren was destroying the field until.... the flex wing saga (and all teams are now being checked but we know who was doing it better). Now? still good but unable to beat RB and a seemingly 2 steps behind
- RedBull ? nowhere since the FIA explicitely banned the side to side braking... and as they finally sorta caught up in Austin, they got hit by the tea tray ride height thing

=> Ferrari wins with a 1-2 on a totally not upgraded car...

It's starting to look like whoever loses their latest cheat gets pegged back a few spots ;-) LOL

3 way constructors and potential 2 way driver world championship fights now :cool:

Awesome stuff, all to play for, everything to lose

Thoroughly enjoying this years championship with the frequent swings between fastest teams and drivers

Loving it, can't remember being as chilled about what will be, will be as I am now

Maybe because I've been here, done this many times before, the stress of worrying about being that 'person' that caused a DNF that lost a world championship just washes over me now

Going to put my reputation on the line here and predict....

Max to win the drivers championship in Las Vegas
Ferrari to win the constructors on the last race by only a few points

Max winning driver's championship is not a stretch; it's expected. But predicting the Scuderia to win the constructor's championship? That's a bold prediction! I like it!

Ha. I just saw that interview bit about 10 minutes ago, too.

These idiots would have banned Piquet, Arnoux, and Villeneuve for the passes they did, and no one got wrecked.

Two simple rules would do.

No passing off track, including cutting the apex.

You punt another car off track or otherwise cause a spin, you take the position behind where they wind up. They exit the race, you box for a 30 second penalty.

Passing is racing ("everything else is just waiting"). No passing allowed?, as the FIA seem to want, may as well watch the grass grow.

Nice run by the pole winner ! And great to see new names in Q3 . Tomorrow could be a good race .

Another poor result for Checo. I was hoping for a good result for him today. The team really need to try someone else in that car.

^^^ Checo will be lucky to finish out the year . Nice guy but in a death spiral and can't pull up .

Good qualifying!

Lots of talk about the off track passing prior to qualifying.

Regulation is manipulation and interference.

F1 is so over-regulated it is stifling,
and creates the type of nonsense that we see every
race weekend with the stewards arguing over
every nuance of regulation.
When you have 10,000 rules and add another 20,000 rules
to further define the other rules, this is what you get.
Just like the government and IRS.

If they had a clue and butted out long ago instead
of trying to manipulate them into spec cars and outcomes,
the rules would be clear and everyone would understand them.

Who could have seen that coming?
Every one of us who yelled at the TV every time
over the past 30 years when they announced a new way
to " improve the racing" or "control costs".
It's all BS and political and decided by fools.

Hey, maybe it would be better if we put big grooves
in the tires to slow the cars down.
Oh ya, good idea!
Nope.

Hey maybe we could kick out Bridgestone and Michelin and get
pirelli to only supply tires we spec out so that it ruins the
races and turns them into a slow procession?
Good idea!
Not.

Let's get rid of refueling so they don't make as many pit stops
and run at 7/10ths for the entire race to make the tires last.
Good idea!
Missed again.

I wonder how much money all the hybrid crap saved?

Ran off the track?
Pushed off the track?
Put some grass out there instead of a half mile of smooth run-off
and see how many of them stay on the track.
Problem solved.

Cutting corners?
Put back the huge curbs and watch them stay off the curbs.
Problem solved.

Every time they cave or do something dumb with the rules or tracks
it creates more problems than they tried to solve by making it a sissy sport.

Actions are supposed to have consequences.
They continuously remove the consequences of bad actions,
and wonder why they have so many bad actions.

Geebus Verstappen is dangerous! Good to see them give him 20 seconds. Surprised it won’t be more after the race.

Great finish by top three!

He and RB are seeing it all slip away.

Good battle at the Merc team. 😀

…. and who would have predicted Ferrari is now a strong contender for the manufacturers championship?

Not sure why VER has to drive that way. Is he really that sociopathic that he thinks he's in the right, running Lando off the track twice? Why resort to dirty driving like that? Barring some miracle (like injury/illness/alien abduction where he misses multiple races), he's going to win the driver's championship. Lando has to gain > 10 points at each race to win it all. All Max has to do is finish close to Lando to prevent that from happening. So let Lando finish P3 or P2, and come in 1 or 2 positions behind him, and all will still work out for Max.

Congrats to Carlos. Way to recover from a less-than-perfect start.

Who should replace Checo next year? Does Yuki deserve the seat? Or would you plug in Lawson? Or do you see if your lawyers are smart enough to get Carlos out of his deal with Williams?

If Lawson keeps it up my money is on him. Heck, I’m not so sure RB will be that much better than the Williams in a couple of years the way it’s going there now!