Out with the old. PETER COSTER reports on the shock of the new at the United States Grand Prix.
New Zealander Liam Lawson is suddenly an F1 contender. It’s only one race, but the driver who replaced Australia’s Daniel Ricciardo was third fastest in early qualifying for the United States Grand Prix.
And he hasn’t raced an F1 car for a year. The 22-year-old put the car back in the garage because it was carrying engine penalties from Ricciardo’s last race in Singapore, which meant he would start at the back of the grid.
So why bother!
Lawson started 19th and finished ninth in the points after standing in for Ricciardo last year when the Honey Badger was on the sidelines for five races after breaking his hand in the Dutch GP at Zandvoort.
Ironically, Ricciardo returned to F1 at the United States Grand Prix last year and was out of the car and an F1 seat at the US race this year.
Such is the twist of fate that has brought an end to the career of a driver who has won eight Grands Prix and was once considered among the top five drivers at the elite level of motorsport.
No one, least of all Ricciardo, can explain a decline that has seen him sacked from two teams in McLaren and AlphaTauri, now VCARB, after leaving Red Bull where he felt the team was being built around a young Max Verstappen.
Ricciardo won seven races with Red Bull after outracing Sebastian Vettel, who moved on to Ferrari.
Ricciardo was to win a last race at Monza for McLaren but then lost his way. Tears were shed when he finished last at Singapore last month, some by Ricciardo, who knew it was his last race in F1 unless a seat with another team opens up next year.
He remains loved by the fans for his infectious grin and by the teams he has driven for and even other drivers.
He has been a class act but a driver whose time would seem to have come. He has become old in Formula One terms, but at 35 is still younger than former world champions such as Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso, who are still driving in their 40s.
Ricciardo’s name has gone largely unmentioned in the enthusiasm that so suddenly surrounds his successor.
At the same time, Lewis Hamilton has escaped criticism after spinning into the barriers at the US race in Texas on Sunday.
Much the same happened to teammate George Russell and the Mercedes cars were blamed rather than their drivers.
Somehow it was always Ricciardo who always carried the blame for his travails. He knew he had to outperform teammate Yuki Tsunoda and consistently failed to do so.
To be fair, Red Bull had to make a decision about delivering a Formula One seat to Lawson whose contract as a junior driver carried a clause that would see him free to go elsewhere if there were nothing on offer.
Perhaps the most telling factor in Lawson’s elevation was not only how he has conducted himself in waiting for a chance to join the elite, but also the difficulties he has faced.
The New Zealander joins a select group of kiwi drivers who raced in F1. Denny Hulme won a world championship and Bruce McLaren was a multiple winner and race car designer who founded the team that still carries his name.
Sunday’s race was Lawson’s first this season and while he had spent hours in a simulator there is no comparison to driving a car in combat.
But back to CODA, the Circuit of the Americas in Texas.
The “gunslingers,” as they were called in this gun-toting state, were McLaren’s Lando Norris on pole and world champion Max Verstappen, also on the front row.
The race was won by Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, but such was the gap to the rest of the field, some 19 seconds, that this was largely overlooked as Norris and Verstappen fought for a podium place.
Norris finished third but was given a five-second penalty, which pushed him back to fourth behind Verstappen after gaining an advantage by exceeding track limits.
This was disputed by a clearly furious McLaren chief Andrea Stella, who said both cars ran wide of the track.
“My view is that the way the stewards interfered with a beautiful piece of motorsports was inappropriate because both cars gained no advantage.
“It’s a shame because it cost us a race where we stayed patient after we were pushed off in the first lap at the first corner. We accepted it.
“Having said very clearly our position, this kind of position by the stewards, this kind of position cannot be appealed.
“For us the chapter is now closed and we move on to the next race.”
The next race is the second in the current triple header, the Mexican Grand Prix followed but the Brazilian race at Sao Paulo.
The off-track excursion gave Verstappen a 57-point lead in the drivers’ championship with the current world champion on 354 points to Norris’s 297.
McLaren leads the constructors’ championship by 544 points to Red Bull’s 504 with Ferrari on 504.
Results of the United States Grand Prix
Pos | Driver | Car | Time/retired |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 35:09.6 |
2 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | +8.562s |
3 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT | +19.412s |
4 | Lando Norris | McLaren Mercedes | +20.354s |
5 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren Mercedes | +21.921s |
6 | George Russell | Mercedes | +56.295s |
7 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT | +59.072s |
8 | Nico Hulkenberg | Haas Ferrari | +62.957s |
9 | Liam Lawson | RB Honda RBPT | +70.563s |
10 | Franco Colapinto | Williams Mercedes | +71.979s |
11 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas Ferrari | +79.782s |
12 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine Renault | +90.558s |
13 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin Aramco Mercedes | +1 lap |
14 | Yuki Tsunoda | RB Honda RBPT | +1 lap |
15 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin Aramco Mercedes | +1 lap |
16 | Alexander Albon | Williams Mercedes | +1 lap |
17 | Valtteri Bottas | Kick Sauber Ferrari | +1 lap |
18 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine Renault | +1 lap |
19 | Zhou Guanyu | Kick Sauber Ferrari | +1 lap |
NC | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | DNF |
PETER COSTER is a former editor and foreign correspondent who has covered a range of international sports, including world championship fights and the Olympic Games.
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