2024 Sao Paulo Grand Prix Heroes and Zeroes

[Jericoke]

A little preamble:

I'm sure there's a good reason why its called the Sao Paulo Grand Prix and not the Brazilian Grand Prix. Still seems weird to me.  Whatever BS reason they used to get the 'European', 'Pacific' or 'San Marino' Grand Prix run in the past must not exist any more?

Heroes
Anyone who finished the race.  Sure, racing in the wet is a supreme test of a driver's skill, but sometimes you hit a puddle at the wrong time, and you're out through no fault of your own.

Max.  Rain is the great equalizer and boy did Max equalize the heck out of how much better he is at racing than the other drivers.

Alpine/Econ/Gasly.  Hard to say what happened here, but absolutely stunning races from Econ and Gasly.  Is the car meant for the rain?  Is the car really bad, and the rain equalization showed that Econ and Gasly are amongst the best of the best?  I don't know, but I don't think ANYONE would have pegged Alpine for reaching 6th place in the WCC.  Absolutely heroic day for the boys from Enstone.

Russell.  Mercedes looked like they were up a creek without a paddle, yet Russell seems to have found a paddle.

Tsunoda.  Again, with the idea that a wet race is the 'great equalizer', he looked good this weekend.

Zeroes.
It's a tough weekend when it's wet.  Bad luck can make a driver look catastrophically bad, so it's not really fair to call someone out for a bad moment.  However.

Zhou.  With wet racing equalizing things, he looked so much worse than everyone.

Perez. As with the rest of 2024, no where to be found.

Stroll.  I find it hilarious that he was classified below Albon, a man who literally didn't have a race car.  (Yes, I understand it has to do with starting positions and how neither started.  Still the funniest thing I've seen in F1 in a long time)

FIA.  I feel like the Race Director (or someone) isn't keeping a tight control on how the races are being conducted.  safety cars and red flags don't seem to be operating at maximum safety levels.  Thankfully no one has been hurt, but these things need to be operated fairly in order to maintain both the safety and sporting integrity. 

Similarly, whatever it was that Norris et al did wrong on the aborted start, the FIA really needs to be able to communicate directly with the drivers.  True, they probably broke the rules, and the drivers should know the rules, but on a chaotic day where things that 'never happen' are happening over and over, it felt like a guiding hand was missing.  The FIA needs to provide that guiding hand, that's basically what they're there for.

[Dare]

I read that if Perez leaves he takes his sponsors money
with him. Problem is what team would want him with the
finishes he's had with one of the best cars

[lkjohnson1950]

I think we have to mention McLaren and Mercedes as Zeroes. Both teams called their drivers in fairly early, both drivers protested, and it proved to be the wrong call. Especially since both cars have a rep for being relatively gentle to their tires. I'm surprized Macca didn't tell Norris to do the opposite of George. And Jeri, it's Ocon not Econ. 

[Andy B]

I read that if Perez leaves he takes his sponsors money
with him. Problem is what team would want him with the
finishes he's had with one of the best cars

It seem SP's sponsors are willing to put their money behind FC.

[rmassart]

I think we have to mention McLaren and Mercedes as Zeroes.

I think the whole McLaren team, including drivers (less so Piastri), were Zeros this weekend. As much as I wanted Lando to keep challenging Max in order to keep the season interesting, based on this weekend's performance, as well as some others, he's simply not good enough to be champion, not this season and maybe not any season. His race craft was shoddy, he's made mistakes and McLaren have not exactly been helping.

His starts from pole have been terrible all season - what's up with that? He's not maximising his points take on weekends when he should be and is now relying (not very well) on Piastri to give him points he doesn't deserve.

In fact I think McLaren should have again swapped their drivers in the last few laps to enable Piastri to build a 10 second gap to Tsunoda. It would have shown their support Piastri, who in my mind has gone off the boil a little since team orders became a thing at McLaren.

As for Max, I've never really liked him, but that performance today puts him another class to the rest of the field, including the aging world champions Alonso and Hamilton. The frustrating thing with Max is that he is so good, you wish he didn't taint his name with some of the antics he pulls, such as in Mexico last weekend.