Max Verstappen’s refusal to follow Red Bull team orders to let then team-mate Sergio Perez past at the 2022 Formula 1 Sao Paulo Grand Prix has been clarified at last.

The Dutchman had already been crowned the champion that season after winning the Japanese Grand Prix to secure his second successive World Championship.

However, Verstappen refused to let Perez overtake him in Brazil to help aid the Mexican driver’s battle for second in the Drivers’ Standings against Charles Leclerc.

The now four-time F1 title winner was heading Perez in the closing stages at Interlagos when his race engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase, requested he give up the spot.

Verstappen, though, remained silent over the radio until he crossed the line in sixth place and was then asked by Lambiase as to why he ignored the team’s instruction.

His response was: “I told you already last summer, the guys don’t ask that again to me, are we clear about that?

“I gave my reasons and I stand by it”.

Jos Verstappen, Max’s father, has now revealed that the order was not adhered to as Red Bull had gone into the weekend with no intention of executing a swap.

“That question came,” Verstappen Sr told Dutch publication Formule 1.

“Max had talked about it before the trip to Brazil and they weren’t going to ask, and suddenly that question came over the onboard radio anyway.

“Max responded very clearly then too, he leaves no room for doubt, even in this area.”

Verstappen would have ‘trouble’ letting a team-mate pass him

Verstappen hinted post-race that “something that happened in the past“ had caused him to ignore the request by Red Bull, speculated to be Perez’s crash in Monaco.

It had been alleged that Perez, who won in Monte Carlo that season, had admitted to Red Bull that he had crashed on purpose in Q3 as he out-qualified his team-mate.

Lando Norris looked poised to replicate Verstappen earlier this term at the Hungarian Grand Prix until he obliged with McLaren’s call to let Oscar Piastri through to win.

Showcasing his pace having been pitted earlier than Piastri, Norris initially refused to let his team-mate by, but he eventually caved into the pleas from his race engineer.

“They must have regretted that later,” Verstappen Sr said of McLaren’s Budapest decision.

“But it’s hard to say anything about that, because you don’t know what’s going on in that team, what contracts are like and what agreements were made.

“If I translate it to Max, I think he would have had trouble letting his teammate pass.

“But everyone is different and has to react in the way that suits them.”

READ MORE: Jos sets Red Bull target to retain Max Verstappen

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Alex Albon and Franco Colapinto praised the extensive repair job by the Williams mechanics after both drivers suffered heavy damage during the Formula 1 Sao Paulo Grand Prix.

Colapinto crashed the car twice, first in Qualifying and then again on Lap 32 of the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, the latter shunt being quite severe.

Albon had his shunt during the final Qualifying session reportedly costing the team nearly two million pounds in repairs, leaving Williams with a “tremendous amount” of work according to boss James Vowles.

However, arriving at this weekend’s Las Vegas Grand Prix, Williams had fixed both of its cars and even managed to keep the same specifications it had in Brazil.

Asked about the repair job, Albon said despite the “huge effort”, Williams does not have a lot of spare parts remaining now until the end of the season.

Albon told media, including Motorsport Week: “Yes, it’s been a huge effort, I would say, not only to get them here ready but also in the same specification as Brazil.

“It’s fair to say there’s not many spare parts left for the rest of the season but at the same time, it just shows you the quality that we have back at the factory and here at the racetrack.

“It’s been a huge effort to get it all done on time and of course, that’s a lot of time spent after work hours and over the night to get these cars ready.

“We’re still fighting in a championship battle, it feels a bit more disconnected without people scoring so well last race out but it’s great to see the hunger and desire from everyone to get the cars ready.”

Colapinto: ‘They are the heroes of the week by far’

The last thing you’d want as a driver after having a costly shunt is to be racing at a street circuit, but Albon is not letting the lack of spare parts affect his driving this weekend.

“I feel like these things are always upon us,” he added.

“It was the same thing in the first few races of the year when we had one spare chassis.

“The moment you start to think about spare parts and driving under the limit is actually normally when you start making mistakes.

“We’ll go about it as a normal weekend of course not taking crazy risks, especially on a Friday but we’re here to race, we’re here to do a good job, we’re here to score points.

The 28-year-old’s team-mate, Colapinto, showed his appreciation towards the team after the quick turnaround to get the cars ready for Vegas.

He said: “Unfortunately for the team, we left the race [in Brazil] with a lot of damage.

“But the boys in the workshop have been working so, so hard to get the cars back here in Vegas.

“In the latest spec, the cars are looking great, the guys did a fantastic job in the factory, so I’m very proud of them.

“They are the heroes of the week by far, so yeah, very great.”

READ MORE: Williams reveals reason it missed out on Adrian Newey F1 return

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Lando Norris has revealed his loss in Brazil left him feeling “down for a week” amid the realisation that the “doors almost shut” on his dream to win the Formula 1 title.

Norris heads into this weekend’s Las Vegas Grand Prix with an almost insurmountable task to win the title as he trails a substantial 62 points behind Max Verstappen.

The Briton sustained a sizeable blow to his championship ambitions in Brazil as he dropped from pole position to sixth as Verstappen prevailed from 17th on the grid.

Norris had managed to reduce the gap to 44 points with a win in the earlier Sprint race, but his latest setback has all but ensured that Verstappen will retain his crown.

Norris has admitted the points swing at Interlagos provided a stinging mental blow as he tried to come to terms with the idea that the title will be out of reach in 2024.

“Not a lot has changed, honestly,” Norris told media including Motorsport Week. “I kind of know the position I’m in now. I have less to lose now.

“The gap to Max is for the first time… probably when I’ve looked at the gap myself, and kind of had the realisation of where things stand.

“I think post-Brazil was a tough one for me, because it was the first moment, realistically, when I’m like, it’s tough to achieve first position now.

“We were on such a good run of form. Little by little, you know, it’s hard to get any big points on Max, because he didn’t have any bad races.

“It was a tough week, because things just didn’t go our way. My kind of real fight for the championship was slimmed by the biggest margin of the whole year.

“A tricky one, but it doesn’t change my approach. My approach has been correct. My approach has been the right approach for the last few weekends.

“I’ve been performing well, I’ve been doing a good job. So, from my side, I did not change anything, but I think I can probably just go out and enjoy it a little bit more.”

Norris counts Brazil as ‘defining moment’

Norris conceded the timing accentuated his anguish compared to earlier slip-ups this season as Brazil arrived at a point when there is less time to recover the ground.

“I think what made Brazil tough was two things,” he continued. “One was for something like this to happen so late in the season.

“I think when it’s earlier in the season, it’s more so big and you see what happens later on.

“This was almost a defining moment for the championship. It was a defining moment for the championship. The doors are almost shut.

“For a week, I was pretty down after Brazil. Because I had that realisation that things are pretty much out of my control now. Not within reach necessarily.

“That’s a tough realisation when hopes and your belief is so high. For it to get knocked down so much all of a sudden was pretty demoralising.

“Not the best of feelings, but you learn to accept that that’s life. I admit it, even in Miami. I was lucky in Miami to get the win. With a Safety Car, that’s the strategy you play.

“I think Brazil was still a bit more luck of the trade [with the red flag]. That is Formula 1. That’s racing, I’m not complaining about it.

“Luck can be on your side, it can be on other people’s side. That’s life. I don’t mind. One day it will go your way, the next it won’t.”

READ MORE – Lando Norris names 2024 F1 race defeat that inspired ‘renewed focus’ at McLaren

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Ex-Formula 1 team boss Eddie Jordan has accused the F1 Race Director of favouring Lando Norris at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix in an attempt to extend the title battle.

Jordan, known for his outspoken remarks, made the accusations on his Formula For Success podcast as he dissected the controversy that occurred at Interlagos.

It took Race Director Niels Wittich over 40 seconds to deploy a red flag after Lance Stroll crashed in the closing seconds of Q1 as multiple cars completed their laps.

Max Verstappen was eliminated as a result and seething post-session, while title rival Norris took an emphatic pole position, rubbing salt into the Dutchman’s wound.

But while Verstappen rebounded to win from 17th on the grid, the events earlier in the weekend lingered as the FIA announced Wittich had stepped down from his role.

Jordan debated the topic with his co-host David Coulthard, who argued that the current Virtual Safety Car rules could be improved amid an incident during the Sprint.

“I think it’s kind of found its natural place now where the luck of where the Safety Car comes out is the luck of the racing gods,” the erstwhile McLaren driver said.

“We have to assume that the race director never looks at things like where cars are as to whether…”

Open bias on display in Brazil?

Jordan interrupted, accusing Wittich of using his position as Race Director to calculate Verstappen’s position on the circuit in relation to his rivals.

“Of course he does! Of course he does!” Jordan exclaimed.

“Are you telling me that Max was dealt a fair deal? Was he dealt a fair deal when the red flag came out six cars, seven cars later?

“Come on David, don’t be stupid.

“You know the gods are in Lando’s hands. They want Lando to win this championship. But he’s not going to, because Max has outfoxed him. That’s it,” he concluded.

Coulthard refused to acknowledge the theory: “Well, look, I don’t know if it’s true. I think that sometimes the racing gods just are…”

At this point, Jordan cut him off, stating Wittich made a mistake in deploying the red flag.

The red flag was wrong! It was a mistake!” Jordan claimed. “He f***** up, didn’t he!”

READ MORE: McLaren argues earlier F1 team orders could’ve hindered future prospects

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Fernando Alonso explained that Aston Martin’s brake balance issues in the Formula 1 Sao Paulo Grand Prix were akin to engaging “the handbrake”.

Alonso had a torrid Sunday afternoon at Interlagos plagued by not only painful bouncing but brake balance issues.

Those issues were triggered by a rebuild on both Aston Martin‘s after crashes in qualifying, particularly changing the floor specs between those incidents in the race.

Brake issues pitted Lance Stroll into a formation lap spin and Alonso battled them all race in Brazil.

“After [qualifying] we had to go back to a less performing package on the car, so the race was a little bit slower pace from our side,” Alonso told media including Motorsport Week post-race. 

“And then we had a brake issue, I think Lance had the brake problem in the formation lap, and I had the brake issue after all the restarts where all the brake balance goes completely rearwards, it’s like braking with a handbrake, so it was all in all a nightmare out there, but we need to get better for the next round.”

Brake issues weren’t the only thing plaguing Aston Martin in Brazil with the team undergoing experiments with its Japanese GP spec floor before Alonso and Stroll crashed out of qualifying.

Alonso takes ‘positives’ from Aston Martin’s troubles

Despite its fifth-place position in the Constructors’ standings, Aston Martin is struggling massively on track to find performance.

A best-of-both-worlds floor introduced at the United States GP didn’t deliver results, prompting Aston Martin to continue changing between a low-speed circuit floor spec and a high-speed circuit floor spec.

Aston Martin performance director Tom McCullough told Autosport: “We’ve had two main floor philosophies this year, and we’ve iterated and developed both of them as they sort of suit different tracks and, as you notice, we’ve sort of gone between the two of them.

“The floor that we brought to Austin was trying to sort of do best of both worlds really, and was a bit of an experimental floor understanding for next year.”

Alonso acknowledged the experiments Aston Martin has been undertaking in a positive light.

He’s hopeful that these experiments bare fruit in 2025.

“Every weekend we take positives and lessons, so we need to apply those lessons,” Alonso said.

“I think this weekend also we tried different packages, I think it’s again very clear which ones are performing and which ones not, so hopefully all this information is helping the team for 2025.”

McCullough is positive that the team is heading in the right direction for 2025, saying “I think, looking at the way the AMR25 developments are going at the moment, which is in effect an evolution of the philosophies that we’ve adopted, we’re making quite good strides in the wind tunnel.”

READ MORE – Fernando Alonso: F1 Brazil GP pain barrier doesn’t compare to Valencia crisis

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Mercedes conceded that the decision to overrule George Russell and make a pit stop right before the Formula 1 Sao Paulo Grand Prix was red-flagged was a mistake.

Starting on the front row, Russell claimed the lead from polesitter Lando Norris and then headed the McLaren throughout the opening stint as the top two pulled clear.

Despite Russell’s reluctance, Mercedes and McLaren chose to haul their drivers into the pits to switch to fresh Intermediates on Lap 28 as the conditions deteriorated.

However, this would transpire to be an ill-timed call as Franco Colapinto’s crash on Lap 32 triggered a stoppage that allowed those who had not pitted to change tyres.

Russell thus ended up in fourth place behind the three cars – Max Verstappen’s Red Bull and the two Alpine drivers – who had retained track position under the red flag.

The Briton made his irritation at squandering a podium clear post-race as he lamented having not trusted his instinct as he had done earlier this campaign in Belgium.

Mercedes explains pit stop timing in Brazil

Mercedes Trackside Engineering Director Andrew Shovlin has revealed how the timing of a Virtual Safety Car held a critical role in the side committing to that pit stop.

“I think with hindsight, you would manage most races differently,” Shovlin acknowledged. “But certainly, in this case, we would have done.

“One of the key things is once they announced that the VSC was ending, we had a very, very short window, only a second or two, where we could have got George to stay out on track.

“The reason you would have done that is by that point, you are going to suffer a full pit loss anyway.

“You may as well stay out and just gamble on the fact that it was quite likely someone would have a crash, as happened, and that they are forced to red flag it.

“Prior to that, stopping to us made sense, because given that Lando was coming in, George was able to do that.

“He would have still been ahead of all those cars that stayed out. But you get the benefit of fresh rubber in case they do not call it as a red flag.

“Normally, we try not to assume that there is going to be a red flag, because sometimes you get it right, sometimes you get it wrong.

“If there is a Safety Car and you decide to stay out, assuming a red flag, if you do not get it, you are in trouble.

“But obviously, the cars that did stay out, that gamble worked for them, and they ended up in prime position.”

READ MORE – Russell rues not ‘trusting my gut’ on ill-timed Mercedes pit call in F1 Brazil GP

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Trackside Engineering Director Andrew Shovlin explained why Mercedes paid a €10,000 fine for setting tyre pressures on the grid for the Formula 1 Sao Paulo Grand Prix.

The start of last Sunday’s race at Interlagos was pure chaos.

Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll prompted a 30-minute delay after his clumsy off into the gravel trap on the formation lap.

As the race restart drew near, FIA Technical Delegate Jo Bauer noted that Mercedes made tyre pressure adjustments to both George Russell and Lewis Hamilton‘s F1 machines in the 10—to 5-minute window before lights out.

“As this is in contradiction to TD003 N, items 2. c) and 2. h) i., I am referring this matter to the stewards for their consideration,” a referral from Bauer read as the matter was escalated to the stewards post-race.

In the Sao Paulo instalment of the Mercedes’ debrief, Shovlin explained that “The issue was when we got the message for the restart, that was straight into a 10 minutes to go.

“The tyres must be fitted to the car at five minutes to go. That meant that we only had a few minutes to get the tyres down to the car, get them on the car, and get them checked by the FIA.

“That did not fit.”

Shovlin detailed that Interlagos’ complex pit layout, with high-positioned garages and an unfavourable pit-lane position for Mercedes, gave the team little time to get the tyres to its cars on time.

“The set that we called for, which was not a set on the racks, but a set on wheelie boards so we could move them, had not been bled down to race pressures at that point,” Shovlin said.

“The engineers will be calling for different tyre pressures. The tyre technicians are then running around trying to make sure all the sets are done. These sets were not done.

“Once we got them down to the car, we were up against that five-minute limit, which is a serious penalty if you do not make that. We had to then get them on the car.

“We then started to bleed them, but ran out of time.”

In addition, Shovlin revealed that “we did not have time for the FIA checks to be done” and that this was the real cause behind Bauer referring the matter to the stewards.

“[The FIA was] happy that the tyres were at the right pressure,” Shovlin said.

“It was simply that the scrutineer was not there supervising the bleed before they went on the car. That was why we were then called to the stewards.”

Shovlin accepted the appropriate punishment dished out to Mercedes F1

Mercedes escaped any punishment that would affect its race result in Brazil, instead, the stewards issued a verdict of a monetary fine.

The stewards imposed a €5000 fine on Mercedes for each incident as it acknowledged “the gate to access the grid was not immediately opened.

“The FIA accepted that given this short notice it was extremely difficult if not impossible for the teams to follow the procedure prescribed in the technical directive.

“Normally a breach of this nature, within a competitive session would carry a sporting penalty but it is not appropriate in this case.”

Shovlin was happy to accept this punishment as it was agreed by all partiers that Mercedes did not attain a sporting advantage.

“[The FIA] accepted there was no sporting gain from it and that we were complying with all the regulations around tyre pressures,” he said.

READ MORE – Mercedes escapes penalty over F1 Brazil GP tyre pressure infringement

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Oscar Piastri has denied that a change in rear wing design represented the “biggest problem” behind McLaren’s trouble in the wet at Formula 1‘s Sao Paulo Grand Prix.

McLaren emerged as the benchmark side in a dry Sprint race in Brazil as polesitter Piastri adhered to a call to cede the lead to team-mate Lando Norris, who led a 1-2.

But while Norris took pole in the wet on Sunday morning, McLaren‘s pace wasn’t as competitive in the main race as he came home in sixth place, with Piastri in eighth.

The Briton committing numerous mistakes contributed to his plight down the order, which began when he lost his advantage at the start to Mercedes’ George Russell.

Norris was unable to regain the place in the opening stint, while Piastri being stuck behind Liam Lawson led to a clash at Turn 1 which saw him penalised 10 seconds.

Both Norris and Piastri endured more frustration across the closing stages at Interlagos as neither driver was able to make an impression on Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari.

However, Piastri has dismissed that McLaren’s straight-line speed deficit to rival teams provided an overriding reason behind its struggle to make progress in the race.

“Yeah, top speed didn’t seem great, but I don’t think that was our biggest problem,” Piastri told media including Motorsport Week.

“We were obviously gaining in the corners with the downforce we had but really not enough.

“So I think we need to understand a bit better, because the first half of the race we looked really quick and in the second half of the race both cars seemed to struggle a lot more.”

McLaren rear wing choice not a ‘limitation’

McLaren’s returning straight-line speed shortcoming in the wet came amid the decision to switch out the new medium and low downforce rear wing it had introduced.

The revision to that area paid dividends in the Sprint as the Woking-based squad combined its prowess through the corners with not being vulnerable on the straights.

But the deluge that arrived on Sunday prompted McLaren to change to a more loaded rear-wing configuration to combat the treacherous conditions that were present.

When asked whether that locked McLaren into the top-speed shortage that hampered the team’s advances, Piastri responded: “I’m not sure how limiting it was.

“You could argue in qualifying it helped with the extra downforce and in the race it should have helped in the majority of the lap.

“The first half of the race, yes, maybe you could argue it was holding us back a bit because we were stuck behind cars.

“But the second half we weren’t stuck behind cars, we were just slow.

“So I think it doesn’t really matter what rear wing we had on, the second half, we weren’t really gonna finish any better.”

READ MORE – Oscar Piastri: ‘Dangerous’ F1 Brazil GP exposed Wet tyre issues

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Haas’ Nico Hulkenberg has revealed that the marshals who assisted him during the Formula 1 Sao Paulo Grand Prix were “partying” afterwards.

The German driver spun off the Interlagos circuit in tricky conditions which brought out the Virtual Safety Car on Lap 28 of the race.

Hulkenberg had ended up on a crest off the track with his rear wheels in the air, needing assistance from the marshals to move his car.

However, once the 37-year-old was freed, he continued back onto the track thus resulting in his disqualification from the race for receiving assistance from the marshals.

The Haas driver found out whilst the race was paused due to a red flag brought out by Franco Colapinto’s crash amid the extremely wet conditions.

Reflecting on his race, he said: “I think it was going OK on the inters actually; I was in a train with Pierre [Gasly] and Fernando [Alonso] for a long time, before we pitted,” he told media including Motorsport Week.

“So I think we were going OK – it wasn’t dreadful, but it wasn’t amazing either.

“Just after the pitstop, our race somehow… obviously it finished pretty quickly and it all went south from there.”

On the incident, he added: “They [the marshals] came out, they pushed me off and they were really happy with themselves.

“They were partying and pushing me on and saying, ‘come on, go, let’s go, this race isn’t finished’.

“In that moment, you don’t really think, you don’t care to be honest as well, you just continue and you deal with the consequences later.”

Haas drivers struggle in wet weather race

Hulkenberg’s team-mate for the weekend was Oliver Bearman after he replaced Kevin Magnussen for the weekend because the Danish driver had food poisoning.

Bearman, who will race for the American outfit full-time in 2025, finished 12th after struggling to keep his car on the circuit.

The British youngster spun off the track and made contact with the rear of Colapinto’s car during the race as he complained about visibility.

To his engineer Mark Slade, he said that he couldn’t even see his steering wheel and that he was “trying not to die.”

After the race, Hulkenberg also commented on the difficulty of racing in those conditions.

He added: “Definitely amongst the toughest conditions that I’ve raced in.

“Incredibly low grip, a very, very narrow window, very hard to make no mistakes, It was very tough.”

Haas is now seventh in the Constructors’ Standings after Alpine achieved a double podium finish to be three points ahead.

RB is also close behind by two points in a tense midfield battle that is set to continue at the next race in Las Vegas.

READ MORE – Nico Hulkenberg: Haas will become a ‘serious competitor’ in F1

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RB driver Liam Lawson felt fortunate to only have spun off the track once and not crash out on 10 occasions throughout the Formula 1 Sao Paulo Grand Prix.

Lawson finished ninth last Sunday, scoring two points for the sister Red Bull team, with his team-mate Yuki Tsunoda finishing in seventh place.

The New Zealand driver was also involved in a few scrapes with Oscar Piastri, Sergio Perez, and Lewis Hamilton in perilous conditions at the Interlagos circuit.

“It’s obviously what could have been, maybe, without that [the contact with Piastri],” he told media including Motorsport Week.

“We obviously lost a lot of time in the red flag, that was just really unlucky timing, Alpine made the right call there by staying out.

“Honestly, I didn’t think we would have made another lap on the inters, it was so wet, so fair play to the guys who did stay out but, obviously, something I’ll learn from.

“I think, initially, I probably jumped the gun a little bit and thought it was too wet but, I’ll learn from that going forward.”

He added: “I nearly crashed the car probably 10 times, It was very sketchy but the most important thing was staying on the track and, fortunately, we were able to do that.”

Lawson optimistic about fight with Alpine

Despite both drivers scoring points, RB’s battle with Haas became a three-team battle as Alpine achieved a double-podium finish to propel from ninth up to sixth.

In the Constructors’ Championship RB now resides in eighth place, two points behind Haas and and another three points behind Alpine.

“Yeah, I think, obviously, they made the most of this,” Lawson added regarding Alpine’s unexpected 33-point haul.

“It’s very close – five points; It’s totally doable for us, so we’ll obviously focus on trying to score good points during the last triple header.”

The positives both RB drivers will take are that they both managed to qualify in the top five during Sunday’s morning qualifying session.

The duo achieved the best qualifying results of their careers so far, as Tsunoda started the race from the second row in third place.

Despite it being in wet conditions, RB will hope it can carry its qualifying pace to Las Vegas and convert it into some more points on Sunday.

READ MORE: Pierre Gasly: Alpine Brazil GP podium built on ‘personal relationship’ with Esteban Ocon

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