2024 United States Grand Prix Heroes and Zeroes

[Jericoke]

Heroes:

LeClerc.  Anyone remember 'Mortal Kombat'?  Flawless victory
Sainz.  He's a good racer, but when LeClerc is at his best, Sainz can't be better than runner up.

Verstappen.  Whatever turmoil is going on around him, he's a champion, defended against Norris like a champion.

Hulkenberg.  Points for Haas's home race. 

Lawson.  Points in his return to F1.  This is what Ricciardo was supposed to do, nice to see Lawson actually doing it.

Colapinto.  Continues to repay the faith that Williams put in him.  He belongs in F1, and I hope he gets a chance at it going into the next few years.

Russell.  Pit lane to sixth place?  It's been hard for him to make his mark on the sport as an 'elite racer', but this is another brick on that path.

Zeroes
Tsunoda.  'How did this happen?!'  The fact that you don't know what's going on during the race, sad to say, shows you may not belong in F1 any more.

Norris.  He's a talented race car driver, but doesn't have that 'killer instinct' that champions need.  He had a clearly superior race car to Verstappen after the pit stops, but drove as predictably as possible.  We've all seen drivers like Hamilton, Alonso manufacture a pass by putting on pressure, fake moves, making the lead driver defend.  Max did a great job defending, but there was no terror in his heart like when fighting Hamilton.  No pressure to make a mistake.  Also, I feel like McLaren just isn't giving him the support he needs.  I'm not talking about past races with strategy with his teammate, but I don't feel like he was being coached on trying something different, places where Max might be vulnerable.

Gravel traps.  Lewis makes a mistake, and the entire field has to bunch up so safety equipment can be deployed?  A single mistake, and a race that was on a knife's edge between one and two stops suddenly becomes a safe one stop call?  Paved run off areas allow the cars to stop/rejoin safely, and retrieval of stopped cars is quicker and safer.  What we saw today robbed us of a great race.  (Although to be fair, I feel like it was a great race.  Just could've been better.)

[Dare]

I almost forgot what a safety car looked like

So since Lando didn't win is the WDC  Max's now

I agree with Jeri bout Lando not having the killer instinct. I wonder
what Lewis could have accomplished the McLaren

[rmassart]

Spot on with Lando, Jeri. There's something missing there. He's simply not taking his opportunities and has been not doing so all season. I was really hopefull this might go down to the wire, but in the end Max will be probably be champion with at least a couple of races to spare.

Well done Ferrari. They're still hanging in their with a chance on the constructors championship and I am sure Hamilton will have been pleased to watch them bag a 1-2, even if he was sitting on the sidelines for most of the race.

[cosworth151]

Heroes:

Haas passes VCARB in the Constructors Championship    (and still don't have any mention of the Evil Empire on the cars.)

A couple of months ago would anyone have believed that RBR might end up third in the Constructors Championship?

Colopinto and Lawson continue to impress. I hope they can keep it up.

Zeroes:

The previously mentioned gravel trap. It really is a "trap."

I wonder if Lewis has a "Days Until Ferrari" countdown app on his phone.

I agree about Lando. LoN & I were talking about that in the Chat Room during the race.

It's makes me sad to see a driver with the talent of Valtteri Bottas end his F1 career this way.

[Willy]

Interesting start and then it got boring until near the end.

Leclerc, when he is on, he is great

Gravel traps....as Jeri mentioned. Pave em guys!

Lando has skills but does not seem to be a killer as mentioned.

Lawson and Colapinto are names to watch as they both will be much better in much better cars. Watch this space.

Tsunoda has no business staying in his seat. I imagine he brings a world of cash with him but I bet there are better Japanese drivers chopping at the bit to get a chance in F1.

[Jericoke]

Bonus Zero:

I totally forgot it was a sprint weekend, and I watched the sprint qualifying and race.

No one else seems to be mentioning the sprint in their heroes/zeroes either.

I know that the point of the sprint is to get more people to attend in person, and I suppose it's doing that, but as a couch watching fan, the sprint feels like homework that I have to do, rather than an extra competition which makes things exciting.

The drivers don't like it, having Max be grumpy all the time has got to be a turn off for casual fans.  What other athlete whines and complains when they're on top?

Even the commentators seemed burned out by the time we got to real qualifying.  I tried watching both the F1TV broadcast (yay Hinchcliffe!) and the Sky broadcast, and the commentators were just done with it.  You're not going to win fans when your cheerleading commentators are bored.

If they want to keep up the sprints (and if it's making extra $$$ for the promoters, I would imagine they do), then maybe mix it up again.  Put reserve/rookie drivers in the cars, let it still count towards WCC, but have a separate sprint championship that doesn't influence the WDC.  If you're a die hard racing fan, you'll make time to watch, if you're not, you'll feel like you've got options about what to watch.  Also, have a secondary commentator team so the main team doesn't seem burned out either.

[Dare]

Watching F1 now on TV makes me think how much I miss the Speed TV guys. Wonder what their up to  now

[lkjohnson1950]

Sitting in their rockin' chairs at the old folks home yellin' "that Verstappen kid would get his a$$ kicked by Senna" at the TV.

[Andy B]

I've not seen the race as on a road trip.
A report from TW states the LH's spin was a car issue?
I would like to agree as LH does not spin cars in the race and wonder if its another experimental set up he was trying?

Good to see a Kiwi up there.

[John S]

If they want to keep up the sprints (and if it's making extra $$$ for the promoters, I would imagine they do), then maybe mix it up again.  Put reserve/rookie drivers in the cars, let it still count towards WCC, but have a separate sprint championship that doesn't influence the WDC.  If you're a die hard racing fan, you'll make time to watch, if you're not, you'll feel like you've got options about what to watch.  Also, have a secondary commentator team so the main team doesn't seem burned out either.

I can see where you're coming from on this Jeri, but (& it's a big but) putting rookies into the F1 cars that are needed a few hours later for proper race Quali is a risk too far for the teams. 
Just what are they supposed to do if many of the cars, maybe even both cars from one team, are binned by the junior pilots.     

They already have junior series at a lot of events - it's called F2.     
Having to lug another set of cars to every Sprint event will push back heavily on F1s burgeoning so called Green credentials, and bust cost cap - or rather teams profits - wide open. 

On the main topic Heroes & Zeros I'm in line with most of the above comments, except about gravel! The more gravel traps the better, it'll keep the buggers inside the track limits. 
I do concede however that traps should only be about 5yds deep so as not to trap cars unnecessarily and put them out of race.