2025 Race 19 - USA

[airshifter]

I think one of the big winners was Ferrari. Leclerc rolled the dice with starting on softs, and almost pulled it off for a second place finish. Though Lando got him in the end, it wasn't easy and Charles still earned a solid podium finish. With Lewis in 4th and ahead of Piastri it was quite a change of form for him this weekend as well.

Max was the big winner with the McLarens coming together in the Sprint, and earning easy points while they were out. But taking the pole and converting it to a win once again showed he isn't going to give up without a fight, and the Red Bull is strong enough in his hands to still win races.

A bad weekend for Oscar, but he still retains the lead and most likely the real title challenge is still Lando. It will be interesting to see who keeps their head in the game with the final races, and if either of them will fade. But today as well as the last race proved that Red Bull, Mercedes, and Ferrari might be able to get in the mix enough to cost either leading driver points if they can't stay at the very front. This puts on more pressure if Max is performing, and can be a penalty for a driver having a bad weekend like Oscar did this week.


Most of the better action was back in the pack more, but I did enjoy watching the Charles and Lando battle and seeing how it played out.

[Used to be Starter]

Max was the big winner with the McLarens coming together in the Sprint, and earning easy points while they were out. But taking the pole and converting it to a win once again showed he isn't going to give up without a fight, and the Red Bull is strong enough in his hands to still win races.

Max did a nice job, but the real winner was the factory and designer who found some decent up grades a couple races ago to make the car driveable.

[airshifter]

Max did a nice job, but the real winner was the factory and designer who found some decent up grades a couple races ago to make the car driveable.

No doubt that whatever they found has helped. They were struggling to compete with McLaren but have pulled things back. And they have been a bit tight lipped about what changed beyond the floor, but seem to indicate that somehow they found a wider setup window, so it's easier to adjust things from a baseline setting. Hard to say really if RB stepped up a lot or McLaren slowed down on development, but either way things are closer together. It will be interesting to see if the step up from Ferrari becomes a trend, or if it was more just a fluke. Though McLaren dominated at season start, the others are clawing back towards the front, and it makes things interesting again.

Right now, I think the RB and McLaren are fairly even, with either having possible advantages and disadvantages at differing tracks. I think RB is still better in the high speed and low downforce and McLaren good at the higher downforce tracks. It seems Merc and Ferrari can get in there now and then, but I think that is coming down to just nailing a setup and having a track a driver excels at being enough to challenge the frontrunners at times. Qually is more important than it's been for a while now I think, as well as the track conditions and weather impacting tire management.

And it seems all the front running cars are very temperamental about clean air. A great qually lap or early move by any driver can put the drivers behind on the back foot more so than in previous years. At COTA Lando essentially had the pace of Max, but the dirty air kept him from getting past Leclerc quickly and challenging at the front.