And they are fourteen. Fourteen wins in a single season for Max Verstappen, a number that was already loaded with meaning in Belgium (the 14th race, the victory from the 14th position …) but which Max will probably soon leave behind. Of course, the championships now rival Nascar in number of races and, proportionally, increase the chances of a driver setting a new record of annual success, as happened in Mexico. But “that” driver, this year, is always him.
The race is the least, unfortunately, because apart from a few good duels in the rear of the show not much has been seen. However, the refined palates will have appreciated the perfect race conduct by the winner. The Mexican track is one of the few (once there was also Sochi) where pole position can become a headache. Unlike many other circuits, from the starting line to the braking of turn 1 there is enough space to invent a game of trails. But the world champion was cold and perfect not only in the deadlift, but also in protecting himself from any attacks with a perfect choice of trajectory and braking to the limit. And it’s not the first time in Mexico. Departures are studied at the table on the eve, based above all on the historical, that is, on the previous editions. For each car there is a colored track, which allows you to see which is the best point to go to when stepping on the brake. It is true that Max, compared to the pursuing Mercedes, had a advantage of compound, starting with the Soft against Hamilton and Russell’s Mediums. The softer rubber at the start heats up earlier and offers more grip when braking, but certainly does not guarantee to maintain the position.
After all, it was precisely the choice of tires that put Max’s direct rivals in difficulty in this race. By choosing the medium (yellow) compound to avoid degradation already in the first laps, the Mercedes actually wrapped itself up. At the pit stop, by regulation, he could not refit the yellow, unless he went for the two stops. To put on the Soft it was very early, while the Hard with white band were a bit of an unknown. And to complicate matters, Hamilton didn’t even go much further (four laps) than Verstappen before stopping, because he would have come out of the pits in a complicated position. So an advantage was lost which after the twentieth lap, with Max in evident difficulty with the left front, made us think of a tighter duel.
From then on, the race did not offer much, except, in fact, the spectacle of a pilot always in control with a car that, when you sit inside your teammate, looks much less like a spaceship. Rather, Ferrari’s non-performance remains a half-mystery, fifth and sixth one minute behind the winner. Not the best, while on the other side of the world the Finali Mondiali and the entry into the Hypercar universe were celebrated. From the half-mouthed comments of Leclerc, Binotto and even Sainz it is clear that the problem was not only that of having “loaded” the aerodynamic set up too much, which indeed seems more like a screen to hide an engine shortage. I didn’t quite understand what Charles meant when he said (after qualifying) that the Power Unit didn’t respond well on the straight, where you usually hit the throttle hard and that’s it. Or rather, perhaps there is an explanation. The height (over 2200) meters and the consequent rarefaction of the air put the turbo in crisis, whose vanes, meeting less resistance, approach the fateful threshold of 125 thousand rpm. To remedy the problem, with the hybrid, it causes the turbo to send current to the MGU-H, which thus works a bit like a braked bench, with a ‘parasitic’ current that slows down the motion of the impeller. There have been many problems with the turbo, in the many years of collaboration with Honeywell, linked both to the slowness of supplies and developments and to the incorrect sizing (in 2014, due to design choice, the compressor was too small). I am not aware that the supplier has changed, but the arrangement of the turbine / compressor components has certainly changed. Could it have been this that put the F1-75 in trouble, remembering, among other things, that the Leclerc turbo (not the ‘H’) had been changed in Austin together with the V6 thermal? Meanwhile, they tell me that they have seen Nicolas Todtmanager of Charles, in red uniform. As Bruno Barbieri would say, the first rule of management is to always stay one step behind the team. But obviously it does not apply to everyone. Unless Todt jr has joined the GeS staff: and how do we fit it with the budget cap?
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