The Las Vegas Grand Prix weekend was a whirlwind.
Celebrities and Elvises descended on the paddock. Fireworks exploded after the race. And Formula One crowned its latest world champion, Max Verstappen. The Dutchman didn’t have the fastest car, nor has he for 70 percent of the season, he said. But he still managed to cement his name among the greats of the sport after finishing fifth.
Meanwhile, Mercedes secured a 1-2 finish with George Russell taking the win, and Ferrari secured a combined 27 points, which is crucial in the constructors’ championship. Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz finished ahead of the McLaren duo of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris, who netted 15 points. The Woking-based crew still has the lead in the constructor standings at 608 points, but Ferrari is 24 points behind with two races and a sprint to go — and staring down a track that Sainz reckons won’t go well for the Prancing Horse.
“In Qatar, the maximum might be a P5 or a P6 because with this car, in a track like Qatar, I expect to struggle, and I expect McLaren and Mercedes to be very strong,” Sainz said. “Probably also even Red Bull, given that they were strong also in quali in Austin. So yeah, I think it’s going to be a very challenging weekend for us.”
As everyone flew out of Las Vegas and readied for the Qatar Grand Prix, news broke Monday about F1’s “agreement in principle with General Motors” to become the 11th team on the grid in 2026.
Needless to say, there’s a lot to unpack in our post-race mailbag.
Editor’s note: Questions were lightly edited for clarity and brevity.
Why wasn’t Carlos Sainz penalized for crossing the white line separating the pits from the track? In an earlier race this year, Hamilton was penalized for simply brushing the line with one wheel. — Daryl J.
A really good question that, unsurprisingly, was one of the most upvoted comments for our mailbag.
Amid the confusion from Ferrari over pitting Sainz, the Spaniard was told very late to stay out when he was already moving toward entering the pits as his pit crew was not ready. As Daryl notes, Sainz had already committed to coming in, keeping his Ferrari to the left-hand side of the track and inside the painted white line that separated it from the racing circuit.
At the last minute, Sainz kept going straight and returned to the main track, aborting the decision to pit. The incident was not noted by race control, meaning there was no investigation by the stewards.
Sainz! You can’t do that, buddy.
You can’t rejoin the track after passing on the inside of the pit commit line.#F1 | #LasVegasGP pic.twitter.com/2no2Q6qP6O— Ryan Erik King (@RyanErikKing) November 24, 2024
But as Daryl notes, crossing the white line that separates pit entry from the track does usually result in a penalty. According to Appendix L, clause 4d of the International Sporting Code, “any part of a tire of a car entering the pit lane must not cross, in any direction, any line painted on the track for the purpose of separating cars entering the pit lane from those on the track.”
Lewis Hamilton received a five-second time penalty for crossing the white line at pit entry in Austria in July, running slightly wide before coming in. The only difference between what happened with Sainz and Hamilton is that Hamilton did enter the pits. One could argue that, as Sainz’s car was not “entering the pit lane” because he stayed out, he could not have been penalized.
That said, it was pretty clear what the intention was, the Ferrari having long committed to the pit entry road. I also think back to Hockenheim 2018, when Hamilton crossed the white line to stay out after a late change in the call to pit. That resulted in a reprimand for Hamilton after he was investigated under the exact same wording of the Sporting Code.
So, a strange one. Perhaps it should have been a reprimand at the very least. — Luke Smith
Why was Vegas grouped for a triple header with races nearly 12 hours in time difference vs with the other Western hemisphere races (Austin, Miami, Mexico City, Sao Pãulo)? And have you got a crystal ball on how Vegas may improve for next year (e.g., yellow lines at pit entry, no post-race interviews at Bellagio, please)? — C Y.
Well, C Y., to the first of your questions: I am currently answering mid-flight from Dallas back to the UK, where I’m going to get a grand total of 32 hours on home soil (and I think about 22 actually at home) before my flight departs for Qatar. So, I’m really wondering the same thing.
Las Vegas has been clear that it wants to keep the grand prix on the week before Thanksgiving moving forward, and the potential of more titles being clinched on the Strip surely would please F1. The sport has made good progress with regionalizing the calendar, finally getting Canada to budge to late May and moving Monaco to early June. But to have Las Vegas kicking off a triple-header, which includes two races in the Middle East, still seems tough. I remember last year how everyone got sick in Abu Dhabi, and that was simply a back-to-back before Qatar got stuck in the middle this year.
I don’t see a need to move Las Vegas to go with Austin and Mexico. It would be fine as a standalone race, I think. The issue is putting it the week before Qatar. Having a week off post-Vegas would do everyone in the paddock some good. The price for that might be a later finish to the season if Qatar and Abu Dhabi, taking place on Dec. 1 and Dec. 8 this year, both got budged a further week later.
In terms of improvements? That scheduling issue is definitely one many in the paddock feel needs to be addressed, with Ferrari’s Sainz discussing it after the race. The weekend timetable was better this year, but I still don’t see why it has to run so late at 10 p.m. PT. If we want it to look spectacular under the night sky, then great — it’s dark by 4:30 p.m. in Vegas in November!
Otherwise, I think building on the progress made this year will be the goal. I wrote about how a more toned-down affair worked well this time. It’ll be about refining that moving forward in a similar way to Miami’s improvements over the past three years.
Also, the Bellagio Fountain interviews undeniably look very, very cool. But it does seem odd to cart the drivers there from the pit lane in a fleet of Rolls Royces just to answer three questions and then take them back. Or maybe that’s a Vegas quirk we should embrace? — Luke Smith
With the Driver’s Championship 2024 wrapped up, any way-too-early predictions on the 2025 Championship? — Craig R.
I am very intrigued to see how the drivers’ championship pans out next season, particularly with Hamilton making the move to Ferrari and Sainz heading to Williams. The Spaniard will be out of the mix, given he’s heading to a team in the lower portion of the midfield. And considering that it will be Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s first season in F1, it is a lot to expect him to challenge for the title straight away.
I believe it’ll come down to Verstappen, Leclerc, Norris and potentially Piastri. With two races and a sprint to go, Leclerc is just 21 points off of Norris. If Ferrari can keep developing its car in the same direction, Leclerc could find some consistency, and it’ll be interesting to see how Hamilton fares. Red Bull also doesn’t have the fastest car right now, which could put Verstappen under threat next year, given McLaren’s performance since Miami. But, when looking at the results, Verstappen scored 267 points between Miami and Las Vegas, and Norris secured 257 points.
I feel it will come down to Verstappen and Norris again. I do feel the Briton has what it takes to be a world champion. As he said in Las Vegas during media day, “I definitely was not at the level I needed to be at the beginning of the year, and even Miami point of the season. Since the summer break, I feel like I’ve done a very good job and performed very, very well, by far some of my best performances that I’ve done. So I’ve been very happy, actually, with how the last few months have gone, honestly. I wouldn’t change many things that have happened. But I still need to make tweaks. I still need to improve on things. That’s clear.”
The thing is, and Norris noted this as well — “When you’re competing against drivers who are close to that, like Max, you have to be close to perfect if you want to challenge him and challenge the teams we’re around.” Verstappen rarely missteps and performs at a high level, even without the best car. It’ll come down to whether Red Bull can address the car’s weaknesses.
My way, way-too-early top three predictions are:
- Verstappen
- Norris
- Leclerc — Madeline Coleman
Does anyone enjoy the grid walk? It has to be the most awkward/cringeworthy thing on TV. It doesn’t matter what racing series; no one wants to talk to these reporters doing the grid walks. — Michael J.
I’ll treat this as a two-part question. I enjoy watching the grid walk when Martin Brundle chats with celebrities who happen to be F1 fans, such as the Sylvester Stallone interview. However, it can be quite awkward at times, like the Machine Gun Kelly chat last year. It can be hit-or-miss.
But I thoroughly enjoy walking the grid before the race and seeing the cars and team personnel. It’s amazing to see the designs of the cars and how teams prepare ahead of the race. And then there’s the celebrity aspect. There have been times I’ve been walking towards the front of the grid, and a flurry of cameras will rush past at the sight of a celebrity. Luke and I stood near Sainz’s car ahead of the Las Vegas Grand Prix, watching as crowds of cameras and celebrities passed us. All of a sudden, multiple cameras came up, and we saw Noah Lyles standing a few feet away from us. — Madeline Coleman
If GM/Cadillac is actually granted an entry for 2026, what powertrain will they use? Cadillac has said that theirs won’t be ready until 2028, and with Alpine ending its engine program, this would leave Mercedes, Ferrari, Honda or Ford as the available options. It’s my understanding that Ford will be exclusively working with Red Bull and Honda exclusively with Aston Martin. Just wondering. — William D.
William submitted this question before F1 confirmed it had struck an “agreement in principle” with General Motors for a Cadillac team to join the grid in 2026, finally expanding to an 11th team.
GM has already registered to develop its own F1 power unit from 2028, initially planning to supply Andretti’s team. The plans have changed and it will now be a fully-fledged GM works team racing under the Cadillac brand, but as it will debut in 2026, there will still be two seasons where it needs a customer engine supply.
Andretti had planned to work with Renault for 2026 and 2027 if its entry was approved in January. As William notes, Renault has confirmed it will end its F1 engine program after 2025, meaning GM would need a new customer deal for its first two years.
There are five engine suppliers for 2026 and 2027: Mercedes, Ferrari, Red Bull Powertrains (working with Ford), Honda and Audi. Mercedes has just agreed to supply Alpine, taking it back up to three teams (along with itself and McLaren) after Aston Martin’s switch to Honda, while Red Bull has been keen to supply only its own teams to begin with but has the scope to work with a further two customers.
Ferrari would be a logical option for Cadillac. As of 2026, Ferrari will only supply itself and Haas after Sauber’s Audi takeover, meaning it would be a chance to keep a three-team presence on the grid.
Should Cadillac be unable to strike a deal with one of the existing suppliers, the regulations have a failsafe in mind that would dictate the manufacturer working with the fewest teams would be obligated to provide engines. This would fall to either Honda or Audi, both of which have only one team (Aston Martin and the existing Sauber squad respectively) lined up for 2026.
Such a scenario seems unlikely, given the financial boost that working with a customer team can offer manufacturers. — Luke Smith
Is one of the drivers on the GM team likely to be American? If so, who are the favourites? — Craig C.
Something Andretti and GM have expressed since the beginning is the desire to have an American drive one of the cars. It’s too early to say who the clear favorites are, but there are names that could be possibilities.
Colton Herta, who races for Andretti Global in IndyCar, is a name I wouldn’t be surprised to see pop up, but he does not have a super license yet. He will need to finish either fourth or higher in 2025 or fifth or better and participate in an F1 practice session (driving 100 kilometers). He was briefly a contender for the then-AlphaTauri seat in 2023 but did not have a super license. Herta’s Andretti IndyCar contract runs through 2027.
As cliche as it is, time will tell. — Madeline Coleman
Top photo of Carlos Sainz at the Las Vegas Grand Prix: HOCH ZWEI via USA Today
