Q: It appears that Verstappen’s defensive moves recently have all essentially been to cover the inside of the corner and then push Norris wide. With the points situation Norris clearly has more to lose, and the stewards haven’t been consistent enough to count on Max getting a penalty. Should Norris start overtaking Max off the track and dealing with the time penalty with his car’s pace compared with the Red Bull? Norris gave away a lot of time following Max around when he had the pace to catch the Ferraris.
Will, Indy
CHRIS MEDLAND: As the rules are written, Verstappen has been within them if he’s been first to the apex and then pushed Norris wide, but I believe your approach was part of Norris’ thinking in Austin, where he stayed ahead and nearly pulled out a five-second advantage by the finish. But the standard penalty is 10 seconds (as seen for Verstappen twice in Mexico City) to deter drivers from completing an illegal move and trying to then pull away to negate it. Norris only got give in at COTA because Verstappen also went off-track in their fight.
You raise a good point, though, that Verstappen stayed ahead of Norris after the clearly illegal Turn 8 move because he knew it would limit his chances of winning the race, whereas Norris would have had a good chance if he’d been let back through. Norris was clearly staying ahead after Turn 4 anyway, and on this occasion he was in the right, but I wouldn’t put it against both of them never giving a place back across the rest of the season.
Q: Do you think when Ocon starts having problems with Bearman and brings chaos to Haas, Toyota will put Ritomo Miyata in that car during 2025 or would they wait for 2026?
The guy raced wheel to wheel with Lawson in Super Formula. Downgrading to F2 was such a terrible career choice, but maybe this partnership can move him to F1. I hope he goes back to Super Formula while he waits for the F1 call though.
William Mazeo
CM: To be honest, I’m not convinced there will be chaos at Haas, partly because they’ve shown with Hulkenberg and Magnussen they can manage drivers when they are close together. For Ocon it’s a fresh start but he and Gasly have not had as many run-ins since Monaco, and it’s not clear how closely matched he and Bearman will be.
But given the point of your question, I don’t think Miyata would be in the frame. You’re right that F2 has been a slightly strange and disappointing move after his Super Formula and SuperGT double in 2023, and he’s clearly talented, but I think the trajectory Haas is on will still have it in a position to attract some very impressive and experienced names that are already on the grid. If Miyata goes back to Super Formula and excels, plus gets to run in an old F1 car as part of the Haas TPC program (very much possible), then he might come more into the thinking, but a fair bit still has to happen in that scenario.
Q: Watching Mexican GP FP2, I was sad to see George Russell smack the wall. But the most sad part of this is was the time it took for any type of safety vehicle to come to his aid. It took 100 seconds for the first safety car (instead of a truck full of stuff) to arrive. In fact, the crane got there first! Come on F1 — you must do better. IndyCar and NASCAR sure do.
Bob Moffett
CM: This is a topic brought up a lot, and each time I seem to get ever-more defensive of F1. I’m not critical of IndyCar and NASCAR’s approaches at all, but different doesn’t necessarily mean worse. There is always room for improvement, but the safety systems F1 has invested in has made the sport extremely safe, and the last fatality during a race weekend — and only one in the past 30 years — was actually caused by being too quick with other vehicles on track.
That said, on this occasion I actually agree with you, Bob. Now there are multiple response teams stationed around each circuit, and there was a first responder with Russell 30 seconds after he got out of the car because they could see he was a little shaken up by the hit — they run across to him from behind the barrier before the crane emerges — but in a crash situation, the medical car is deployed when the impact exceeds a certain limit to check a driver for signs of injury or concussion. That happened here, but you’re right that it took close to two minutes for it to arrive, and if a driver is injured, then that time for the car to get round is too long in an emergency situation.
Usually we’ve seen drivers jumping out of all sorts of accidents, given the amazing work done on car and track safety, but even so, for the first responder to get to him 30 seconds after Russell had climbed out — a full minute after the crash happened — was too long.
Q: If for some reason FRM and 23XI don’t come to an agreement with NASCAR, would those charters be up for grabs, disappear or what?
Bernard, TX
KELLY CRANDALL: It’s unclear at the moment. At this time, what we do know is that NASCAR, in one of its filing responses, said it is planning for the 2025 season to have 32 charters (which would leave eight open spots). So, if NASCAR is saying 32 charters, hypothetically we could assume four are going to be held back, which we can assume would be the two current ones assigned to 23XI Racing (Nos. 23 and 45) and Front Row Motorsports (Nos. 34 and 38). And then remember that those teams were both trying to get one more charter to expand to three teams (from the charters on the market by Stewart-Haas. Trackhouse Racing is supposed to be getting one of those with Gene Haas keeping one as well).
There has been no submission from 23XI Racing or Front Row Motorsports for the third charter they are seeking, a sale which has to be approved by NASCAR. So, from there, hypothetically, we could see those two charters going back on the market if we keep trying to play the numbers game of how NASCAR comes up with 32 charters. But in reality there is no telling how this all plays out and what could keep changing as time goes on.
THE FINAL WORD
From Robin Miller’s Mailbag, October 30, 2013
Q: On Sept. 25, Michael from Nashville wrote to you concerning the 1989 Indianapolis 500 and the scoring had both Emerson Fittipaldi and Al Unser Jr. wrecked. I got to thinking about that race, and after watching the last 20 laps again, I came to a conclusion. Had both Fittipaldi and Al wrecked, Boesel would have eventually taken over the lead (once he made up the laps that he was behind, of course).
However, Boesel’s engine was starting to blow (ABC mentioned this), so there’s a very good chance he wouldn’t have finished the race. The race would have been decided between the fourth- and fifth-place cars: Mario Andretti and A.J. Foyt (both were on the same lap).
If this situation would have come up, who do you think would have won, giving consideration to where both were in terms of their respective careers?
Scott Richards, Hughesville, PA
ROBIN MILLER: My take is that Scott Brayton would have won because A.J. would have stuffed Mario into the wall as he tried to pass on the last lap.