Let’s start with the obvious. Max Verstappen should have received a race ban. He deliberately ran into another driver because he was upset with his team. He’s a grown-up and a father and should learn to control himself. There are no excuses for that kind of behavior.
Michael Schumacher was disqualified from the 1997 championship for similar actions, and in the Monaco Grand Prix, George Russell had a harsher penalty for cutting a corner. The standards must be applied equally across all drivers, and Verstappen’s nonchalant attitude when asked about the incident compounds the nastiness of his actions.
My question to the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile, or FIA, is this: Was Verstappen’s role model status taken into consideration when his penalty was handed out? Because I recall a much milder incident when another driver — Lewis Hamilton — received a harsher penalty because he is a “role model” to younger drivers. If Hamilton is a role model, does Verstappen’s consistently light penalization mean he isn’t? Just food for thought.
Anyway, on to the less ridiculous parts of the race weekend.
I’ve run out of ways to tell you that Oscar Piastri is next up. That was the largest pole position margin of the season. He’s a cut above the rest (not including the world champions). I suggest you go and watch that qualifying session back to witness poetry in motion.
The “Unc. vs. Unc. Battle” between Nico Hülkenberg and Fernando Alonso was nice to see. They have a combined age of 80 and showed the beauty of experience. Has anyone seen that one WWE meme of Paul Michael Levesque, or Triple H, and Shawn Michaels? It was like that, except for the lower reaches of the points.
Hülkenberg finished the race in fifth. I smell a podium with his name on it.
Alonso finally scored! He now has a whole two points! But, as he said, “Even the championship is very long.” He also drove off into the gravel by himself. Here’s to hoping that it isn’t an omen for the very long championship to come.
After Red Bull put the wrong rear wing on Yuki Tsunoda’s car, he essentially became the data collection car for Verstappen, a role Checo Perez was often relegated to last season. Red Bull, keep your horns off Isack Hadjar. We can’t have him subjected to whatever the humiliation ritual is for the second Red Bull driver.
Kimi Antonelli retired from the race with engine failure for the second time in three races (uh oh Mercedes and customer teams). He must have been the unluckiest driver during this triple-header.
The rest of this recap is going to be me complaining about Ferrari, so buckle up.
Are team orders the only strategy we have? Because they seem to make an appearance every race. Finally, Hamilton had a decent qualifying and was hoping to fight for a podium. But Ferrari decided to swap the cars around. They didn’t gain any time in doing so. So — in Cardi B’s voice — what was the reason?
I need Hamilton to start cursing people out. Leave the mindfulness and 40-year-old maturity behind. Bring back the fire that drove not one, not two, not three, but four would champions to the brink.
I’m getting bored of seeing the greatest driver of all time so downbeat. He did well in qualifying, only to see it unravel faster than people can spell Ferrari. He was overtaken by a Stake Kick Sauber car. Are you reading the stupidity?
At some point we have to call it what it is. He stopped three times, and each time he complained about a change — or lack thereof — that significantly affected the balance of his car.
During the last stint, Hamilton complained that the rear end of his car felt very light, and his onboard camera showed it looked unstable. The car weighs 700 kilograms (around 1,500 pounds). So, where did the weight go? And the usually sharp pit crew had a stinker — a 4.7-second stop (about as long as it took me to type the word “usually”). What is going on?
While I appreciate all the damage control Fred Vasseur is doing, I equally appreciate Nico Rosberg telling him honestly that the car looks tough to drive.
But for now, the Band-Aids on the bullet wound are that Ferrari is up to second in the Constructors’ Championship and that Hamilton has more points at this point in the season than he did in 2024. At some point, that will not be enough.
Fratelli d’Italia, let’s start making real progress.
Up next is Canada, where Hamilton scored his first win. Hopefully, there’s something better for him.
