Verstappen on verge of title despite ‘terrible’ weekend

It is a measure of Max Verstappen’s superiority in Formula 1 this year that he could have what he described as a “really terrible weekend” at the Singapore Grand Prix and still put himself in a position from which he could easily clinch the world title in Japan on Sunday.

To leave Suzuka as a two-time champion, Verstappen needs to gain eight points on Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and 10 on his Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez.

The mathematical possibilities are many depending on various finishing positions. But if Verstappen wins the race with the fastest lap - by far the most probable scenario at a race track that is likely to suit the Red Bull, which is comfortably the fastest car in the field - he will seal it.

On Sunday night, though, this was not at the forefront of Verstappen’s mind. He acknowledged that winning the title, sooner or later, with five races left and a 104-point lead, was “normally not a problem”.

But he was much more concerned about what had been an unusually messy weekend from both driver and team, whose standard modus operandi this season has been peerlessness.

“It was just a very frustrating weekend,” Verstappen said. “This has just been a really terrible weekend which started yesterday with the big mess-up in qualifying.”

From the few glimpses of Verstappen’s pace that were seen over the weekend at Marina Bay, he was more than capable of dominating the race. But a series of errors from the team in qualifying left him eighth on the grid.

Red Bull asked him to abort a lap that would have been good enough for pole so he could do another that would have been expected to be faster in drying conditions. But two corners from the end of another lap that would have been pole, they realised he was short of fuel and therefore had to abort that too, so as not to fall foul of a rule that demands a litre of fuel for a sample to remain in the car.

That left a very unhappy Verstappen eighth on the grid. From there, he said, a win was impossible and probably a podium, too.

Some doubted him, given wins from down the grid in three of last four races, but he was on the money. As expected, he became stuck in traffic. He made two uncharacteristic errors trying to make progress and the result was seventh at the flag.

“We have five races left and we have a big lead but I want to have a good weekend every single time,” Verstappen said.

A timely win for Perez

Verstappen’s difficulties left the race win looking set to be a battle between Leclerc, Perez and Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes.

It became a two-horse race when Hamilton lost a place at the start to the second Ferrari of Carlos Sainz, who lacked pace. For Hamilton, just as with Verstappen, uncharacteristic mistakes followed as he tried to make up ground.

The win was more or less decided in the first few metres. Leclerc made a bad start from pole; Perez a great one from second.

There were still two hours of racing to go on a track made treacherous by a tropical downpour before the start, five safety cars to negotiate, and Leclerc was with Perez pretty much all the way. But as long as Perez kept his head and Red Bull did not mess up, the win was his. And so it proved.

Team principal Christian Horner called it Perez’s greatest win - and the Mexican agreed because of “how intense it was”. It was a victory Perez needed. He started the season strongly and had secured a new two-year contract for 2023 and 2024 even before he won in Monaco.

But in recent races, as upgrades to the Red Bull have made it more to Verstappen’s liking, he has struggled and been further off his team-mate than his predecessors Pierre Gasly and Alex Albon, both of whom were dropped for lack of pace.

“This win is really special for me,” Perez said, “because I have had a bit of a rough patch in the last few races and obviously the media in F1 makes it extremely a lot bigger, maybe because I am Mexican.

“And if I am two races not in the podium then I am having the worst season ever and Red Bull should drop me and all that sort of stuff you get to see. It is not a reminder to anyone of how good I am, but it is good to put these sorts of performances.”

Budget cap day imminent

A win for Red Bull, even if it was not the driver they would prefer to see on top of the podium, will have felt sweet after a race in which their difficulties off the track overshadowed any they had on it.

The entire weekend in Singapore was dominated by talk of Formula 1’s budget cap, and claims that two teams are likely to be found to have been non-compliant with it in 2021 when governing body the FIA announces the results of its analysis on Wednesday.

This is very much not confirmed, and the FIA says the process of assessing the teams’ submissions, which includes debate back and forth, is still ongoing. But the widespread belief in F1 is that the FIA will announce on Wednesday that Red Bull and Aston Martin did not stay within the $145m (£114m) limit last season.

The rules define two levels of breach — material and minor — the dividing line being 5 per cent of the cap, or $7.25m. And Wednesday’s announcement may not be the end of the process. A team can attempt to reach a settlement agreement with the FIA. If that fails, it goes to an adjudication panel of independent judges.

The potential punishments at the end of the process are similar for both offences - points deduction, budget cap reduction, research and development reduction and so on; but for ‘material’ the possibility of disqualification from a championship is added.

There have been rumours on this topic for some weeks, and Mercedes and Ferrari say they have been concerned about it for some time. In Singapore, they decided to speak out and the result was anger at Red Bull.

Ferrari team boss Mattia Binotto and racing director Laurent Mekies were both careful not to name any teams in their interviews. Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff was more outspoken. And his comments in an interview with Sky on Friday infuriated Horner.

On Sunday evening, Horner doubled down on his threat to look into taking legal action against Mercedes and/or Ferrari for defamation.

“What I said yesterday absolutely stands and we will just consider all of our options and it’s totally unacceptable to make a completely unfounded allegation,” he said. “And on the basis of what knowledge? So where is the source of information?

“This is a confidential submission between the team and FIA. I have no idea of the compliance of any of our rivals.”

Aston Martin say they are “in discussion with the FIA and awaiting certification”.

Binotto told Sky Italia: “This is clearly an important matter. It puts the (sport’s) credibility in general at stake. I hope that everyone has dealt with this exercise correctly, because otherwise it will be a very big problem to manage.

“Let’s wait until Wednesday before making a judgement, but whatever amount we are talking about it’s important to understand that even if it is $4m, which falls into the category of what is considered a ‘minor breach’, $4m is not minor.

“Because for us, $4m represents the development parts for an entire season; $4m means 70 people in a technical department who can come up with and produce solutions that could be worth up to half a second a lap.

“So even if we are looking at something considered a ‘minor breach’, it’s not peanuts. We are talking of half a second and that advantage is carried forward into subsequent seasons, because while it began in 2021, it still gives a competitive advantage in 2022 and 2023.”

Binotto said that Ferrari had “allowed a margin of error so as to take absolutely no risks in the first year” of the cap’s implementation.

“We constantly asked questions regarding the interpretation of the regulation, seeking clarifications and doing the right thing. We did everything correctly. I know that the final FIA report is delayed, which means there are still ongoing discussions, hence the speculation,” Binotto said.

He added that he believed there were “no grey areas” in the rules.

Horner said on Sunday evening: “We haven’t completed the process. We need to see the entire process. These are a brand new set of regulations that are highly complicated that apply to companies of different structures and formulations.

“Of course, there are always different interpretations to those regulations. In the first year, it will be very interesting to see how that is applied.

“We have seen clarifications since the submissions were made that apply to last year. So it’s always going to be a process of evolution.

“It’s an enormous process for the FIA to get their arms around, particularly when you look at the scale of the teams in the pit lane, many of which belong to even bigger conglomerates and organisations.

“We have not been informed we are in breach of the regulations. Let’s get to the end of the process and understand where we are.”