Ferrari drivers Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz admit they were at a loss to explain why they could not match the pace of their rivals at the Brazilian Grand Prix.

Leclerc came home fifth, improving one place on his qualifying position, but was over half a minute behind race winner Max Verstappen, who cut his way through the field to take victory from 17th.

While Leclerc’s weekend was forgettable, Sainz’s was miserable as he crashed out in both qualifying and the race before being hit with a stewards’ reprimand for dangerous driving as he tried to drive off in his stricken Ferrari despite marshals already being on the scene.

The outcome in Brazil was as gloomy as the weekend weather, especially considering Sainz’s victory in Mexico and Leclerc’s success in Austin at the other races during F1’s latest triple-header.

“I’ve always been a very strong driver in the wet but for some reason, ever since I’ve tried this car in the wet, I’ve never had a good feeling with it,” explained Sainz.

“I don’t know if we just don’t put energy into the tyres, we run it too stiff in the medium to high speed, or what it is. It is clear that it is very difficult and unpredictable to drive.

Marshals remove the damaged car of Carlos Sainz, Ferrari SF-24, after a crash

Photo by: Andrew Ferraro / Motorsport Images

“I’m pleased that Charles managed to bring it home in P5. I heard he was also struggling, so a bit of a nightmare the whole race, but hopefully, some dry races coming up and we will try to go for it.”

Leclerc was prepared to shoulder some of the blame for the poor performance but was pleased that his fifth place keeps Ferrari second in the constructors’ standings, where it sits 36 points behind leaders McLaren.

“Really not at all,” the Monegasque replied when asked if the car did not like the wet or intermediate tyre during the race.

“I think I’m partly to blame because obviously we decide the set-ups with together with the team. I wanted to go in a direction, however it was the wrong one, for sure. The pace was just not there, whether it was in qualifying, where I think in qualifying, we actually weren’t too bad.

“With the new tyres, low fuel, you can extract more out of the car, but in the race, we were nowhere – and more than being nowhere, it was extremely difficult to drive, extremely difficult to not do any mistakes.

“At the end, looking at all this, the only thing we could be a little bit satisfied of is being in front of the two McLarens and to only lose four points in the constructors is big damage limitation on the weekend where they seem to be so strong.”

Lando Norris, McLaren MCL38, Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF-24, Oscar Piastri, McLaren MCL38

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

Ferrari has been in fine form of late and could still claim a first constructors’ crown since 2008 if they can reel in and pass McLaren in the closing weeks of the season – starting in Las Vegas later this month.

“We will be alive until the very end,” added Sainz. “Three weekends now coming up that are going to be important for the whole team and now we need to refocus, regroup and see how we can approach these last three races in the best possible way.”

CHELSEA and Arsenal go head-to-head in the Premier League on Sunday afternoon.

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Chelsea and Arsenal resume their Premier League campaigns after their European adventures midweek.

The Blues enjoyed an emphatic 8-0 victory over Armenian minnows FC Noah in their Europa League contest, while the Gunners succumbed to a 1-0 defeat at the San Siro.

Mikel Arteta’s side have lost back-to-back games without scoring and now sit a full seven points behind leaders Liverpool after 10 matches.

Chelsea, meanwhile, have defied early-season doubters but they aren’t exactly flying at the moment.

They have only one win in their last four league games and were dumped out of there Carabao Cup against Newcastle.

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The extent of the women’s team’s financial situation was most apparent during the summer.

Sorensen said they turned down a pre-season trip to Australia, not because of finances but logistics. However, he admitted it was “a gamble we can’t afford”.

Everton had to sell highly-rated Sweden midfielder Hanna Bennison to Juventus in order to bring in much-needed funds.

They missed out on players in the Japanese market – who Sorensen said he had scouted years previously – because top clubs offered higher salaries.

Stringent rules on non-EU players coming to the WSL can also be a barrier for clubs like Everton. Foreign players have to meet certain requirements to be eligible to play in England and that limits the talent pool – something West Ham have also endured.

Sevilla duo Inma Gabarro and Toni Payne were among Everton’s highest-profile signings, while existing WSL-based players Honoka Hayashi, Melissa Lawley and Veatriki Sarri were seen as ‘low-risk’ options who did not need time to adapt.

Sorensen said during the summer transfer window the club “can’t just go out and spend a lot of money so we have to be super-smart”.

In reality, the budget for the women’s team has not decreased since 2021 – when former manager Willie Kirk targeted a top-three finish.

However, the market has become more expensive since then. Transfer fees are now common, while player salaries have increased.

Everton Women’s chief executive officer Alan McTavish, director of football Kevin Thelwell and Sorensen are already working on recruitment for January – but fans are growing impatient and want the lack of squad depth addressing.

“Immediate investment in recruitment is essential. We have such a ridiculously unbalanced squad,” said supporter MacFarlane.

“The pressure on these players is huge, especially on some of the younger players, having to play out of position all over the pitch – this simply is not good enough.”

MacFarlane also calls for future development of the club’s Walton Hall Park stadium, which he says will help “grow the fanbase and attract new supporters”.

Mike Perry vs. Conor McGregor? At least one of them thinks the fight is bound to be booked.

In a preview clip for an upcoming documentary produced by Dirty Boxing, Perry is shown expressing his ire for McGregor when the UFC superstar’s name is brought up. McGregor and Perry are both key members of BKFC, with Perry being the bare-knuckle boxing promotion’s most popular fighter and McGregor a part-owner, but they’ve rarely seen eye to eye.

Following Perry’s loss to Jake Paul in a boxing match this past July, McGregor went as far as to tweet that Perry was “fired” from BKFC. At the mention of a possible fight with McGregor, Perry didn’t mince words.

“That needs to happen.”

Perry rose to prominence as a member of the UFC roster with his brash personality and impressive punching power, though he parted ways from that promotion in 2021 with a 7-8 record. He hit the ground running when he joined BKFC later that year, defeating Julian Lane, and then rattling off consecutive wins over Michael Page, former UFC champions Luke Rockhold and Eddie Alvarez, and most recently Thiago Alves.

With each victory, “Platinum” has gained even more popularity, which makes him even more annoyed that McGregor has been stealing his shine.

“What’s making me mad is everybody sucking his balls,” Perry said. “Like he’s already fought for them. Like, ‘Hi, did y’all forget that I’m the reason y’all are pumped up right now?’ I fought five times for y’all, and and you all ain’t showing me no [love].”

Perry also took a shot at BKFC 175-pound champion Dave Mundell for sharing a picture of himself with McGregor on social media. The two are are old rivals from their MMA days, with Perry owning a knockout win of Mundell from 2016.

“And then Dave Mundell posting shaking Conor’s hand, like, you sucking it, bro,” Perry said. “So I knocked you out twice, you bum. Yeah, you heard me.”

The first episode of the Down & Dirty documentary premieres Friday at 2 p.m. ET on the Dirty Boxing YouTube channel. Watch a trailer for the six-part series below.

Duck. Jon Jones wants Alex Pereira next, not Tom Aspinall.

Then Again… Dana White says Jones (or Stipe Miocic) WILL fight Aspinall before it’s said and done.

PPV. The UFC is set for new broadcasting ground, but it looks like pay-per-view is here to stay.

Compete. Kamaru Usman isn’t letting a shared gym get in the way of a potential fight with Shavkat Rakhmonov.

KO. Dricus du Plessis thinks he could put Alex Pereira down in a striking battle.

Chaos. Colby Covington eyes matchups with Jack Della Maddalena, Shavkat Rakhmonov, and… Paddy Pimblett?

Crossover? BKFC star Kai Stewart would love to throw down with fellow Montana native Sean O’Malley.

Between the Links.

Dead leg challenge.

Chris Holdsworth’s new YouTube channel.

UFC Vegas 100 media day.

The MMA Vivisection. Zane Simon and Connor Ruebusch look ahead to Saturday’s illustrious UFC Vegas 100 card.

Cheeky.

Still the GOAT.

Square up.

No lies detected.

UFC Vegas 100. Wow. We made it, everyone.

Comment with your favorite APEX memories below and please, try not to get too emotional.

If you find something you’d like to see in the Morning Report, hit up @AlexanderKlee or @JedKMeshew on Twitter and let us know about it. Also, follow MMAFighting on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and like us on Facebook.

In a Formula 1 season dominated by technical intrigue between the top squads, attention was grabbed at the Brazilian Grand Prix by suspicions over a potential trick involving the internal water cooling of tyres.

The speculation follows hot on the heels of wild rumours we have seen throughout 2024 of asymmetric braking systems, flexi front wings, McLaren’s ‘mini-DRS’ and Red Bull’s front bib adjuster as the battle between F1’s big teams gets ever more intense.

One of the games played when performance closes up at the front is to try to hold back the performance of your main rival through politicking, rather than waste effort trying to pursue something similar – which would cost a lot more resource.

This latest story revolves around questions Red Bull has had over whether some teams might be adding a very small quantity of liquid when inflating their tyres, in order to help control temperatures.

While the accusations are centred on several unidentified teams – sources suggest that Red Bull’s main interest involves closest rival McLaren – which has denied any behaviour like this.

It comes with Red Bull being well versed in the tactic, because it is understood to have employed it in the past before doing so was outlawed in an FIA technical directive a few years ago.

However, this is where the matter could fall into a bit of a grey area because TDs are only advisory – and it is ultimately down to the stewards to interpret the wordings of the regulations as they see fit to determine if teams have breached the rules.

Pirelli tyres on the car of Oscar Piastri, McLaren MCL38

Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images

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And in this case, F1’s technical rules regarding tyre treatment only detail the removal of moisture from the tyres – not adding it.

Article 10.8.4 states:
a. Tyres may only be inflated with air or nitrogen.
b. Any process the intent of which is to reduce the amount of moisture in the tyre and/or in its inflation gas is forbidden.

So in theory, inflating the tyres with moist air does not appear to be strictly prohibited.

From Pirelli’s perspective, it supplies the teams with tyres that are inflated with ‘dry air’ inside.

Head of car racing and F1 Mario Isola said: “We have a dryer connected to our system, and they get all the tyres with dry air, as in the regulation. In the technical directive, it’s written that any modification to this is forbidden, and it’s quite clear.”

Red Bull however approached the governing body regarding this matter, because it believes teams may have been able to seek some advantage from altering the air’s composition and inject some cooling liquid – either water or another substance – through the valve.

Evidence of this tactic was alleged to have been spotted with water and watermarks seen inside some rims after tyres had been stripped at Pirelli’s base post-race in Singapore.

Sets of Medium and Hard Pirelli tyres used by McLaren

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

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The motivation appears simple as Pirelli’s tyres are sensitive to temperature and they are designed to thermally degrade over the course of its lifespan.

This results in the teams and drivers constantly trying to find the right balance between the bulk and tread temperature of the tyre. If a driver can keep the tyres cooler than their rivals, so they do not spike out of the operating window, then that results in improved performance and increased stint length.

A considerable amount of time, money and effort is expended by the teams to understand and harness the relationship between the associated components that can impact the tyre’s thermal degradation.

The wheel rim is now a spec component, supplied to all the teams by BBS, which means that any tricks, such as knurling on the wheel rim’s surface, changing spoke design and altering the geometries of the surfaces can no longer take place.

Meanwhile, the outer wheel cover and a great deal of the brake duct fence design are also specified, further limiting how they can be used for individual aerodynamic or thermodynamic benefit.

However, the brake assembly and internal drum design, while more limited than it has been in the past, still provides a playground for the engineers in terms of how they manage the heat generated by the brakes and how it is transferred to the tyre’s bulk temperature, via the wheel rim.

Each team has its own methods for dealing with the heat exchange between components, which obviously means some will do so better than others.

The introduction of a coolant into the tyre would be expected to help with this process, as it will alter the humidity level, which should in-turn impact the bulk temperature and pressure.

The most likely upshot here is that the temperature will be less than if it was just pure dry air, but there will also be a parallel increase in pressure.

This might look like a net loss in the short term, as teams traditionally try to run as close to the minimum tyre pressures prescribed by Pirelli as possible, as that should yield more performance.

However, given that this regulation set favours a car that’s less sensitive to ride height fluctuation but also requires cars to be as low as possible to reap benefits, it might make sense to have more pressure than might otherwise be ideal.

This is a sentiment echoed by Mario Isola, who suggests that teams have opted for a similar direction in the past, in order to gain aerodynamic performance at the short term detriment of a loss of grip from the tyre.

“I remember a few years ago most of the teams were increasing the front pressure to have a stiffer tyre and go lower with the ride height,” he said.

“They accepted to have this smaller contact patch, because the aero set-up of the car was better. So the balance between the two was about performance – because of the downforce they were able to achieve”.

It is understood that the FIA inspected tyres and rims closely at the Brazilian Grand Prix to see if there was any evidence of extra moisture – but nothing was found.

And while this increased focus will almost certainly mean that if anyone was playing around with this tactic then they will not be doing it any more, it will not stop intrigue over whether anyone got away with it earlier in the year.