Lando Norris maintained his opposition to the stewards’ call to penalise him for passing Max Verstappen off-track at the United States Grand Prix, stating that he was no longer the attacking driver in that scenario.

The incident between Norris and Verstappen earned the Briton a five-second penalty as he was deemed to have left the track and gained an advantage, although both drivers were outside of the white lines at the time.

Norris says that he was ahead of Verstappen before the apex, where the Red Bull driver then emerged ahead – which Norris interpreted as his championship rival going in too hard and gaining an advantage by preserving the place off-track.

He says that both he and Verstappen did what they thought was right in the situation, adding that he still did not understand the stewards’ decision-making process in awarding him a time penalty.

“I’ve not spoken to Max at all because he did what he thought was right and I did what I thought was right. I still disagree and as a team we disagree,” Norris reflected.

“I think what we saw with George [Russell]’s and [Valtteri] Bottas’s version in some ways was very similar to ours: I was completely ahead of Max, I was over a car length ahead of him. I was no longer the attacking car, he was.

“I was ahead of Max, I was having to defend, he was the one attacking me and effectively he has gone in too hard and overtaken off the track. 

Lando Norris, McLaren MCL38, battles with Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB20

Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images

“I just maintained my position so it is something I am sure we will discuss as it has been a big talking point since last weekend. A lot of other drivers didn’t agree with it, teams didn’t agree with it.

“I think the point is that he only stayed ahead of me at the apex because he went off the track, he would not have been ahead at the apex if he braked where he should’ve braked and stayed on the track. I think that is obvious.”

Norris denied that he needed to change his entire approach to be more aggressive in those scenarios, but felt he could make small tweaks to how he races in the future.

He added that fighting against Verstappen pits him against “probably the best in the world”, which naturally makes overtaking him a considerable challenge.

“It is not as easy as just saying [I need to be more aggressive]. Do I need to make some changes? Yes. And adapt a little bit more. But is everything I am doing wrong? Also no,” Norris contended.

“I had a lot of fun and I respected the battle that we had. He still ended up on top and I need to be beating him. So some little things I need to change but I don’t need to change my whole approach.

Lando Norris, McLaren F1 Team, on the grid with his engineer

Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images

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“Max is probably the best in the world at what he does. When I am going up against the best in the world it is not going to be an easy thing to do. 

“He has been racing in this position for longer than I have. I am definitely not doing a perfect job, but I’m not doing a bad job.

“I think there are certain things I don’t agree with but I still want to be racing, I don’t want there to be rules for absolutely everything.

“I just believed the way I got a penalty last weekend and the consequences of how that happened I didn’t agree with, and that’s the only thing that needs to be changed. It is clear what his intentions are and it is difficult for me to get around.”

The IndyCar Series has a few dedicated forums to help drive the sport forward, but one key area needed to bolster itself is the need for an engineers council. 

There are groups stretching from drivers, manufacturers, team managers and others, but currently no place for the technical minds of pit lane to share thoughts on how to push innovations to the next level, such as the recent hybrid technology that was introduced midway through the 2024 season. Gavin Ward, Team Principal for Arrow McLaren, has proposed a proper forum consisting of engineers that could help in a number of key areas, such as development, direction and even cost. 

“I think it’s a subtle development with what’s already going on,” Ward told Motorsport.com. 

“You have regular team manager meetings with IndyCar, which are useful; it’s a good outreach from the series. I guess the feedback I’ve been given is, and some of the experience I’ve had as an engineer stepping into those meetings and wanting to bring up engineering focused topics about anything from what sensors we allow or really how to evolve the rules package, with a focus on where teams go and spend their money — engineering or idea wise — or how to use the collective know-how and knowledge of the entire pit lane to try and improve the show and the racing or the safety for the cars.”

Gavin Ward. Arrows McLaren

Photo by: Joe Skibinski

Ward’s background as an engineer, which also includes 12 years with Red Bull Racing in Formula 1, puts him in a unique role to share thoughts at the team manager meetings. However, he felt those discussions were “the wrong place for it” and noted how most of the team managers have more of a mechanical background. 

“There’s a lot of common interest in this sport, unlike other racing series I’ve worked in,” Ward said. “But there’s a lot of common interest in making it, putting on a great show and being pragmatic about how we put together the best product and don’t waste money if we don’t need to, et cetera.” 

Chris Simmons, Director of Performance at Chip Ganassi Racing, shared how there was some involvement during the initial phase of hybrid testing when the original plan was to utilize the MAHLE system, which ended up being replaced and produced in a joint effort by Chevrolet, Honda and IndyCar. 

“I think people at IndyCar have a lot of data from different teams, but not necessarily the tools and certainly not the need to use the tools — simulations and things — as hard as the teams do,” Simmons told Motorsport.com. “Teams often have better info than they have about what we’re doing now and what could be changed. I think it makes sense to bring the experts in on some of those discussions, for sure.”

And Ward was also quick to point out how series leadership can sometimes place more emphasis on engineering based on driver feedback versus actual engineers. Although he doesn’t discount the voice of the drivers, there should be more inclusion from the “brain power” that occupy the timing stands.

Another key element to the discussion is the impact of cost on the teams with any new product being introduced.

Kyle Kirkwood, Indianapolis Hybrid Testing

Photo by: Penske Entertainment

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“The series needs to understand the true cost of some of the decisions they make,” Ward said. 

“They look at, ‘We’ll put this new part as an available option on the race cars.’ They’ll tell you that that part costs $1,000. But the truth is, everyone is going to Windshear (wind tunnel) aero testing the hell out of it or people are running their tunnels in Pennsylvania or Mooresville (North Carolina), spending a hell of a lot more money trying to figure out every detail about that part of how it interacts with everything else, remapping their entire cars. The cost of that $1,000 part is not $1,000 per car. It’s a hell of a lot more.”

Simmons added: “Yeah, I think when we start talking about costs, sometimes people want to go look for something cheaper, but what we’re really going to be looking for is value.

“So, if you have a sensor that costs half as much but lasts a quarter as long, that’s really more expensive. I think that gets lost in the shuffle sometimes, that you go through something that’s cheaper and it’s actually not a better value. 

“Hopefully, the big teams and the little teams would agree with things like that, things that are prone to get damaged in a crash. Even if it lasts longer, it doesn’t always work out that way, so you’ve got to balance it out on some of those things. If you have a sensor in the cockpit or down by the brake master cylinders, if it lasts a couple of and it costs twice as much as something that only lasts a couple of races, that’s a heck of a lot of value.”

As far as the makeup of what an engineers council would look like, Ward believes it is something that could mirror Formula 1. He would also like to add Firestone and IndyCar technical personnel to the group as part of a groupthink of discussions to reduce the number of races that become dependent on fuel saving, along with some events that lacked natural racing.

“I don’t think we need to reinvent the wheel,” Ward said. “This happens in Formula 1. They’ve got a technical working group over there; they send technical directors from each team and they meet up, I don’t know ‘x’ times a year and discuss future rules packages. Basically, I’m saying to do the same thing. We do it with team managers and so does F1; they do a sporting working group, which is a team manager meeting. And they also have a technical equivalent. 

“I’ll be the first to tell you that IndyCar doesn’t need to copy what Formula 1 is doing, but I think it shouldn’t blind to what they’re doing either.”

Red Bull Formula 1 driver Sergio Perez has acknowledged he has had a “terrible season” and is desperate to gift his Mexican home fans a big result this weekend.

Perez started the season in strong enough shape to earn a new two-year deal at Red Bull, but like last year his form tailed off dramatically from May onwards. Red Bull was forced to reconsider its options over the summer as it saw its constructors’ championship lead slip away, with just one reliable podium finisher in Max Verstappen to count on, but kept the faith in the Mexican for the time being.

Perez was more much affected than Verstappen by some of the handling issues introduced to the 2024 RB20 car, and hasn’t been on the podium since April.

But Red Bull has managed to find a much more benign car balance over the past few races, allowing Verstappen to take a sprint race win last week in Austin. Ahead of his home race in Mexico City, Perez is desperate to use Red Bull’s improved car to build some momentum as he hopes to replicate the scene of 2021 when his infant son joined him on the podium.

“I know I’ve had a terrible season,” he said. “It started really well, but it’s been really, really difficult. If I had a strong result, it can definitely change my season massively in terms of personal feeling, so I’m really up for it.

“Having my son up there with me on the podium watching me, I think that moment will stay with me forever. It’s something that I hope he remembers forever. Those moments, I think it’s the ones that really matter to me. And I hope I can repeat that one this weekend.”

Sergio Perez, Red Bull Racing

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

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Perez suggested his car was down on specification and performance in Austin compared to Verstappen’s, and said Red Bull would need both cars to be on point if it is to have any chance to beat McLaren in the standings, even if a lot of the squad’s constructors’ championship headaches stem from having just Verstappen race up front for months.

“I think the numbers and facts will remain internal with the engineers, we know what the delta [difference] was,” the 34-year-old said. “Having Ferrari there doesn’t change anything. I think we want to win the constructors’ title, finishing second or third in the end makes no difference.

“So, we really want to win it. For that, we need to have both cars with the best possible performance and best possible package as well.”

Perez faces a new threat to his 2025 seat in the shape of the emerging Liam Lawson, who made a huge impression on Red Bull’s management on his first race weekend back in Austin. Replacing Daniel Ricciardo at RB for the final six races of 2024, the 22-year-old New Zealander climbed from 19th to ninth at the US Grand Prix, overcoming a grid penalty to score valuable points.

“I think this is Formula 1. Sometimes the results are not coming, and you just have to make sure you keep your head down, you focus on the stuff that you can control and the rest is something that you cannot get bothered with,” Perez insisted, dismissing enduring speculation over his future.

“I feel that I’m in the same boat as the team. We found a big issue in Monza, and after Monza we’re heading the right direction.”

Alex Albon will ‘lean towards’ using Franco Colapinto‘s set-up at the Mexico City Grand Prix as he looks for a more harmonious balance with his upgraded Williams Formula 1 car.

Williams introduced a comprehensive series of upgrades for the Dutch Grand Prix at the end of August, which Albon used to good effect at the Monza and Baku races, where he scored points in both.

The Anglo-Thai driver has been more closely matched since Colapinto was promoted to the line-up in place of Logan Sargeant, and Albon suggested that his own side of the garage had perhaps struggled to get its head around the new upgrade package in comparison to Colapinto’s engineers.

Albon will move towards Colapinto’s set-up for this weekend to determine if it alleviates his issues, particularly in lower-speed corners.

“We definitely have a different car balance with the new upgrades that we brought onto the car. We’re still yet to really fully understand them. 

“We can see it in the data, we can see where we’re just trying to get to grips with what’s going on. 

“This will be the first weekend where I’m just kind of leaning a little bit more towards what the other side of the garage has been doing and just trying to see if that will help fix some of the issues that I’ve been having. 

Franco Colapinto, Williams FW46

Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images

“I think actually around Mexico it’s going to be really important for us to try to get right because, on paper, the areas I’ve been struggling with are very corner-specific, and they’re corners that Mexico has a lot of, these kind of low-speed corners.”

Asked if the brake locking issue he had struggled with was a new issue with the upgrades, Albon explained that it had “become more apparent. So that’s kind of close to the area I’ve been working on.”

He added that it was “nice” to have a stronger team-mate in the second car to help fill in any performance shortfalls, and offered a reference point for set-ups for the team to compare.

Albon noted that Colapinto’s ability to score in Austin with 10th place “elevates everyone”, and felt the challenge provided by the Argentine was not a new experience.

“It’s nice. We’ve had the simulator working over the weekend – just trying to, over the last few days, have a look at the differences. 

“But it elevates me, it elevates everyone in the team. When I have a bad weekend, we’re still scoring points, so that’s very positive.

“No [it’s not a new experience], I think if you go back a few more years, you can [see I’ve had pressure]. At Williams, sure, but it’s how it’s always been. It’s how you race. It’s how you race since you’re nine years old. So, it’s alright.”

In the fan zone at the Circuit of the Americas, next to a jar of earplugs and a few feet from an industrial sized jug of free sunscreen, sat a 3-inch thick book with heavy blank white pages. Fans were shuffling from the midday heat into the tent where the book sat, writing notes in Sharpie to Daniel Ricciardo, the man whose absence hung over the race weekend like a loved one lost.

“You were my first F1 favorite driver,” read one note in the book. “R.I.R. (Rest in Retirement),” another. “Come to COTA to see you & you weren’t here…so sad.”

It wasn’t hard to see all the signs that Ricciardo was meant to be at the U.S. Grand Prix. Literally, Ricciardo’s illustrated, Stetson-wearing face stood out front-and-center on a printed fabric mural of F1 drivers (all wearing cowboy gear) covering a fence at Turn 15. Saturday, in downtown Austin, Ricciardo’s clothing brand Enchanté launched a pop up store with a new capsule collection, conspicuously minus the man himself. Ricciardo facetimed a few lucky fans who’d lined up early for the opening, but otherwise the shop stayed a shop for the weekend. And that was him on the COTA website’s schedule of weekend events, wearing a University of Texas jersey and smiling next to a note about the driver’s parade happening from 12 to 12:30 on Sunday (just before the Globe of Death).

There had even been a rumor that Ricciardo was meant to receive the keys to the city — though when reached for comment, the mayor’s office responded that this was “news” to them.

And then there were the books. Twelve in total — thick black hardcovers sandwiching 600 pages of pristine paper, strewn throughout the fan areas surrounding the track. Signs touting “Letters to Cowboy Ric from Austin”, also featuring another illustrated Ricciardo-as-cowpoke, stood outside the tents. By Sunday morning three had been completely filled, with notes from fans claiming to be from Argentina, Israel, the UK, and beyond.

One of 12 books fans used to write messages to Daniel Ricciardo

The books themselves had been the slightly off-handed idea of Bobby Epstein, chairman of COTA.

“We did it for the fans, but we did it for him, is really why we did it,” Epstein explained. “I feel like he’s made so many contributions to our event and to the spirit of sport that we didn’t want to see him walk away and not know that he was appreciated and loved and beloved. And if he’s not gonna have a farewell tour, then we’re gonna give him at least some fond memories that he can look at any time he wants.”

Epstein was seeing one of the signed books for the first time Sunday morning, wondering what exactly he’d find inside. Flipping through, he excitedly asked, to whoever was in the room, for some bookmarks. A stack of Barbie-pink Post-Its was put in his hand, and he immediately started sticking them to pages. For what purpose, he wasn’t yet sure.

There were sketches of shoeys and full-page love letters, a few messages from haters and cute scrawl from children still confusing their lowercase Bs and Ds.

Ingrid, from Austin but attending her first F1 race ever, had Ricciardo on her mind. “Honestly, the way he left Singapore — the way he was kind of shoved out of Singapore, I should say — was really depressing,” she told Motorsport. “I was kind of hoping he’d be here in Austin.”

Writing in the book, she said, was a way connecting with him, even if it was a one-way street.

“I just wanted to be able to prove that I got the chance to write in the book that maybe he chose to flip through on a random day. Because this sport just brings me so much joy, and I wanted him to know that. Granted, he’s never gonna know me — but he’ll get to know my name in the book that I signed.”

Signs outside tents at the U.S. GP inviting fans to write messages to Ricciardo

Anamarie had driven from Dallas. She was wearing a Ferrari jacket, but talked about how Ricciardo sparked her Formula 1 fandom.

“I wrote him ‘thank you’ for getting me into the sport,” said said. “Without him, I wouldn’t be here today with my sisters at our first grand prix.”

Maureen and Valerie, two fans who’d just finished signing one of the books, had flown from the British Virgin Islands to attend the U.S. GP.

“I came from the Virgin Islands, so it wasn’t easy to come here. And he is not even here!” said Maureen, Valerie’s travel partner.

“Danny Ric, I saw a video of him on Instagram and that’s how I started following Formula 1,” said Valerie. “He is so charismatic and so good.“

Of course, you can only mourn for so long.

“However, I’m a little bit salty, because I’m a Lando fan, too. And he stole that point from Lando, fastest lap, in Singapore,” said Valerie.

Afterward, she asked if this reporter could share her Instagram handle with Norris.

“I’m single,” she explained.

The Flatrock Motorsports Park, which features a 30-degree banked bend and could host IndyCar or MotoGP races in the future, officially opened on Thursday.

The Tennessee venue has been constructed to the FIA’s Grade 2 standard, which means it is homologated to run any racing series outside of F1.

It has grabbed attention ever since construction work first began in 2022 with its layout making the most of the undulations of the land it is built on.

This includes dramatic rises and falls on the straights, corners with blind brows, as well as an iconic 30-degree banked turn that will push cars and drivers to the limit.

The official opening for the 3.5-mile, 23-turn Club circuit for members took place on Thursday, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on the starting grid, and the first laps was completed by its development and founding partner Rusty Bittle.

Construction is continuing at the venue for a kart track, and future phases will include a 2.7-mile FIM and Grade 2 Grand Prix track – as well as hotel, restaurant, campgrounds and an amphitheatre for concerts and events.

Speaking after the opening, Bittle said: “We are beyond thrilled to open the ‘Club’ track to our members today.

“After months of hard work and dedication, it’s amazing to see them on track, enjoying what we’ve built.

“Flatrock is destined to become one of the top motorsport destinations, and this is just the beginning. I can’t wait to see where we go from here as we continue to develop and expand the facility.”