For all you Formula 1 watchers out there, you may have been shocked by the race last Sunday afternoon. Crashes, spin-outs, and rain caused more than just a few problems for racers when the weekend began. From Aplines racers on the podium to some of the best racers spinning out, there is much to unpack from the Brazil Grand Prix.
To start, many sprint and qualifying racers had trouble hitting clean turns and keeping their place in the race. Many teams, like Red Bull and Mercedes, had difficulty passing others like Maclaren and Ferrari. In highlights from the weekend, racers can be heard over the radio telling their teams what they want to do. Many wanted just to push through instead of adding time by pitting to change tires.
Another surprising thing was the unfortunate weather during the qualifying race. The day was stormy and windy causing racers to spin out and hit each other. Lewis Hamilton, a racer from Red Bull Racing, crashed out in qualifying due to the rain. This was very unexpected being that Hamilton is a good and consistent racer. Carlos Sainz, from team Ferrari, landed in 14th place at the end of qualifying.
The Balcavage family is a local family of very big Formula 1 fans. The four daughters of this family were interviewed to see how they felt about qualifying and the overall turnout of the weekend. The Balcavage sisters were shocked like many other watchers after the results of the race.
“But overall, it was very scary and overwhelming what happened during qualifying,” said one of the younger twin sisters, Isabella Balcavage.
She and her sisters all had the same reaction to the crashes in qualifying. They also were happy for Max Verstappen winning the race because he needed a win to boost his confidence. Also, the fans of F1 were shocked at the double Apline podium. Alpine had previously had no points and was struggling to keep up with the other teams. When the sisters were asked what might happen next their answers seemed quite on the mark after this race.
“Honestly at this point, anything can happen: Alpine got a double podium last race, so what’s next?” said one of the older twins, Sophia Balcavage. “Myself and many other people assumed they would be passed relatively close to the beginning so this was a turn of events.”
Emma Balcavage, Sofia’s twin sister, said, “It is difficult to see what will happen in the next race. Max won in Vegas last year. However, with McLaren’s dominance, it is difficult to say what will happen.”
Their other younger sister, Angelina Balcavage, had the same reaction and said, “With the variety of winners and podiums, anything could happen.”
Many people would agree that there is a good chance that Charles Leclerc, Max Verstappen, and Lando Norris will be on the podium in Las Vegas. However, there may be some racers who might take their spots in points. Racers like Oscar Piastri, Lewis Hamilton, George Russel, and Carlos Sainz could take over with points in overall rankings.
When it came down to the day of the race everyone was ready to see the showdown. At the start of the race, Lance Stroll crashed on the formation lap. Second to the pre-race crash, Many racers toward the back of the lineup were not in their correct spot. Hamilton and Colapinto were not in their correct spots causing mishaps for other racers.
After the pre-race dilemmas were resolved the race soon began, but then more problems arose from there. Since qualifying was just hours before the track was still slick due to the rainfall. Racers were bumping into each other’s wheels and having trouble keeping a clear path on turns. Bearman for example got a 10-second penalty for bumping into Colapinto in lap 4. This was the case for many others and then crashes soon after began to spring up. On laps 32 and 33 racers saw that a red flag was given by the FIA. Colapinto had crashed and the track needed cleanup before the race could continue. This also helped because the rain soon became lighter so racers could see and have a better race.
Overall the race had people jumping out of their seats or quite the opposite saying, “I told you so.” Some were shocked and some were left unsurprized by Verstappen’s win. Now it’s off to the races to see what might happen next. Will Max get his second Vegas win? Will Ferrari be back on top? Who’s gonna crash or spin out? All these questions will be answered soon enough at the Las Vegas Grand Prix. Stick around to find out what happens at the next Formula 1 race.
