Heroes
Max. He was given the opportunity to show that he doesn't just win from the lead, but can actually fight back from adversity. True, he's still got the best combination of man and machine out there, but it's not uncommon to see the best of the best flounder when things go wrong, so it was a good look on Max to get a win that he had to work for. (Yes, I feel like he deserved more penalty for running LeClerc off the road on the opening lap, and this is certainly 'zero' behaviour, and his comment about the penalty left a sour taste in my mouth. I think it's a little unfair that everything they say can be broadcast, but he's been in the sport long enough to know whatever he says is going to be broadcast)
Perez. Still a mile behind his teammate, but wrapped up second place in the championship, which is a first for a Red Bull #2 driver. He may not be the 'best' choice for Red Bull's #2 seat, but he's clearly good enough.
LeClerc. Finishing a race should be a low bar, but for LeClerc it was a lot. Not a flawless race, but a lot of things would have to have gone against Verstappen for Charles to win.
Ocon. One of the interesting effects of the modern F1 rules is that when a team/driver seems completely left behind, a great performance can pop up. I didn't expect much from Ocon/Alpine, so fourth is quite a lot!
Stroll. Maybe he races better when he's not on Daddy's payroll? As much as I'd like to say he's used up all his chances in F1, he goes and shows he's a skilled F1 racer
Sainz. A ten place grid penalty for racing on a defective track is going to be in the top 10 of 'unfair' calls in F1, if not all of sport, for decades. Once he focused on his race though, the results came. I feel like he's not as naturally talented as some of the other drivers in F1, but he's much better at racing the car and position he's got.
Piastri. A long list of drivers who looked set to have a disappointing weekend and then didn't.
Anit-Heroes
So this week I'm not sure anyone really deserves to be a ZERO (okay, the FIA made some bad calls, so call them Zeroes)
Williams and Haas had magnificent qualifying sessions, but didn't work out so well on race day. The former making them heroes, the latter making them zeroes. I think that Las Vegas was a good example of F1 being a team sport, and having strategists and engineers understanding all the challenges the event put on helped, and you could see which teams have the people in place to figure things out.
The track... it was maligned going in. I like to wait and see. The first couple of laps looked like we were going to watch a disaster unfold, but once the track was cleaned up, I think the race provided some great entertainment. Obviously it will take more races to know if this year was the fluke or if it's a good idea to race at night in a desert on a street track. I just don't feel like it would be fair to classify as a 'zero'
Honourable mention:
The Las Vegas liveries were so so much better than the USGP liveries. Ferrari should make the monochrome red white and black their permanent livery. Red Bull had some fun, especially with Max's Elvis firesuit. The Alpha Tauri looked good, the Williams was great.
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