A colossal sports weekend in Austin culminated in Charles Leclerc’s third victory of the 2024 Formula One season, as the 27-year-old helmed a Ferrari one-two at the United States Grand Prix on Sunday afternoon.
Leclerc, who lined up fourth on the starting grid, expertly maneuvered his way past world championship leaders Max Verstappen and Lando Norris on the opening turn of the race and never looked back. He and teammate Carlos Sainz swifty took their Ferraris, comfortably the best car of the weekend, around the track at Circuit of the Americas for the remainder of the afternoon, never dealing with any meaningful pressure from the chase pack.
The real battle of the race was the one for the final spot on the podium, with Verstappen and Norris scrapping once again for critical points in the title fight. Despite having fresher tires and a number of opportunities to get past the three-time reigning drivers’ champion, Norris picked up a five-second penalty for overtaking Verstappen outside of the racing boundaries, resulting in a disappointing fourth place finish for the McLaren driver. Verstappen, the architect of an impressive defensive drive, rounded out the podium in third, solidifying his position at the top of the overall standings.
Here’s what you need to know about the 2024 U.S. Grand Prix:
Ferrari Isn’t Done Yet
There’s no question that the tussle between Red Bull and McLaren has been the headline this season, but Ferrari has lurked more than loomed as a dark horse in recent weeks thanks to a handful of mid-year upgrades. If we learned anything this weekend at COTA, it’s that it’s time to stop overlooking the Prancing Horse.
Leclerc, who rewarded himself with a sensational birthday gift after turning 27 earlier this week, reminded the paddock why he’s one of the best drivers on the grid with his move at turn 1 on the opening lap of the race. Positioning his car on the inside of Sainz and then letting Verstappen and Norris focus on one another was a masterclass in waiting for the right moment to pounce. He then pulled one of the most fluid and effortless moves of the season.
CHARLES LECLERC JUMPS INTO FIRST OF THE US GRAND PRIX 😨 pic.twitter.com/uPAoyxuOVj
— ESPN (@espn) October 20, 2024
But what happened for the remainder of the race is what should lead those watching to take Ferrari seriously. Steady hands from both Leclerc and Sainz, well-timed pit stops to cover off any threat and world-class technical performance is a winning recipe for any team. Leclerc said it himself when speaking with Jenson Button of Sky Sports at the end of the race; The strides that the engineering and development side have made to get the Ferrari back into the mix for wins after falling off following Leclerc’s home win in Monaco are something that should be recognized and applauded.
Throughout the weekend, it already sounded like members of the paddock—and most notably Ferrari’s top competitors—were preparing for a breakout performance. What seemed like a two-dimensional constructors’ championship race is now very much a three-horse race if Leclerc and Sainz carry the juice from Austin to Mexico City.
Lando Norris Is Running Out of Time
Stop me if you’ve heard this before. Norris starts in pole position, only to lose the lead on the opening lap of the race.
If you experienced an acute sense of déjà vu, it’s because we’ve seen this movie before, and more than once, in 2024. Norris relinquished the lead immediately and despite a tire advantage over his competitors in the second stint after the lead pack pitted, he didn’t manage to pick up another place on Sunday.
It must be said that McLaren didn’t anticipate COTA being a strong track for the team and Norris ending up on pole was likely only the result of Verstappen not being able to finish his last flying lap in qualifying on Saturday. But with the margin for error being so small in his pursuit of his first world championship, Norris couldn’t afford a weekend like the one he had in Austin.
The gap to Verstappen is now back up to 57 points, meaning that Norris now not only has to be flawless in the final five races, but he also likely needs at least one slip-up from one of the most sure-handed drivers the sport has ever seen. McLaren’s lead in the team standings is also only at 40 (with a gap of just 48 to Ferrari) and it’s fair to say that when the team has needed to deliver this season, they’ve left a lot on the table.
It's likely that Norris will find himself competing for championships throughout the rest of his F1 career, but the 2024 season is rapidly approaching “what if” territory for the 24-year-old.
Mercedes’s Mishaps
McLaren might not have had an ideal Sunday given its expectations, but Mercedes had a flat out rotten weekend. Toto Wolff’s outfit will leave Austin with a measly 13 points—only six more than Haas managed across the two race days.
Mercedes wasn’t anticipating a fight for the top of the podium, but the situation turned south quickly on Saturday. After a middling fifth and sixth-place finish in the sprint, Lewis Hamilton finished second-to-last in qualifying. That still wasn’t the low point for the team in that particular session, as George Russell then badly wrecked his car on his last flying lap. What would’ve been a sixth-place start for Sunday’s race turned into a pit lane start for Russell, as the damage to his vehicle was so bad that Mercedes had to work throughout the night on Saturday to make repairs.
Sunday’s race brought all sorts of room for improvement and Hamilton seemed to lean into that, leaping up from 17th to 12th on the opening lap. A mere two laps later, however, the 39-year-old beached his car at the same turn where Russell had wrecked less than 24 hours before and was forced to retire from the race.
Russell did battle his way up to sixth by the end of Sunday’s Grand Prix, but the damage was already done on a weekend when Mercedes needed a better showing—especially with the outburst Ferrari had. All that’s left to do is settle for fourth in the constructors’ standings and start focusing on how to improve next year.
The Kids Are Alright
While Norris, Verstappen and Leclerc tussled at the front of the pack, a fascinating battle played out at the tail end of the points positions. And youth won the day.
Liam Lawson, back in F1 and driving for RB, along with Franco Colapinto of Williams rounded out the group of point scorers with a pair of mature drives that far exceeded their years of experience on the track. Both rookies pulled some of the field’s longest opening stints on hard tires, which allowed them to opt for sets of much quicker medium tires and cruise their way past those that had used their pit stops in a much earlier phase of the race.
While each driver benefitted from the strategy employed by their teams, they were wise to stay out of trouble and run a clean race. Both Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda, who finished 12th and 14th respectively, picked up penalties during the afternoon—the results of riskier overtake attempts. Lawson and Colapinto made sure to make their passes count, staying out of danger and reaping the benefits of doing so.
Results like the ones Lawson, 22, and Colapinto, 21, earned Sunday are monumental for the future of each driver. Lawson is auditioning not only to hold onto his seat at RB next season, but also perhaps for an eventual spot alongside Verstappen at the top Red Bull team. Colapinto is still without a contract for next year but with a spot still open at Sauber and his recent run of form (12th, 8th, 11th, 10th in his four starts in F1), there’s no denying he’s worthy of consideration.
While the old guard of world champions like Hamilton and Alonso continue to get their well-deserved respect, it’s encouraging to see that the future of the sport is in such capable hands.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as United States Grand Prix Takeaways: Charles Leclerc Victory Puts Ferrari Back in the Mix.