FIA stewards react too late to save F1 2024 – Up/Down in Mexico

Time was back int’ day (’80s, ’90s, ’00s etc), FIA stewards would either do nothing in an F1 race – not wanting to break up their afternoon nap – or slap an offending competitor with a stop-and-go penalty, completely ruining said punished driver’s afternoon.

It seems like now this might be the only way to solve grand prix racing’s unbecoming ‘argy-bargy’, particularly F1’s chief argy-barge-ist Max Verstappen.

His 20sec heavyweight penalty for twice shoving Lando Norris off the track did half the job, but the Dutchman still finished sixth after serving the punishment in his pitstop.

If he’d have been given a good old-fashioned stop-and-go, the Red Bull man might not even have finished in the points, while the fans (and Norris) would have been halfway compensated for the championship fight he keeps neutering by pushing his title rival out the way.

Verstappen has been up to these tricks this season and in previous ones in battles with Lewis Hamilton and others. The achingly slow, years-late reaction from the stewards is long overdue.

Here’s what was going up and down in Mexico.

Going Up

Throwing the rule book – at Max

Finally something approaching a proper penalty. Max Verstappen being given a combined 20sec whopper was the long overdue just deserts for his often-unsavoury driving – but the stewards should have gone further this time and before.

It’s probably too late to save this championship as a competitive prospect, but hopefully will stop him from doing it in the future.

All this would likely happen less though if Mexico had proper gravel/or grass instead of vast swathes of asphalt.

Radio rage

An extreme level of whining and cursing fellow drivers on a number of team radios in Mexico, particularly Lawson and Perez. Love it.

Winning choice

Lewis Hamilton sitting pretty there, watching his new-for-2025 employers easily win the last two races.

Double helping

A double points finish for Haas in Mexico means it now has a ten-point advantage in the ‘race’ for sixth in the constructors’ championship.

Close shave shot

Kudos to the brave cameraman that had Yuki Tsunoda flying at him at 200mph. Must have got his attention.

Going Down

Lack of home comforts

A massive 400,000-strong crowd across the Mexican GP weekend paid their hard-earned pesos to watch home hero Sergio Perez finish last.

Bad timing

Just at the moment Yuki was supposed to show Red Bull chiefs what he’s made of – with the arrival of fellow RB junior Liam Lawson as his new team-mate – the Japanese driver spins off at COTA then crashes out in Mexico too.

Unfortunate.

Old dog’s early bath

Alonso, on his 400th GP weekend, barely lasted 16 laps before his Aston conked out. Bet he can’t wait the Newey Mobile to arrive in 2026.

Booked up

The proliferation of young talent making ‘rookie’ cameos in FP1 showed just how there aren’t enough teams and ergo opportunities in F1 for upcoming stars.

Ollie Bearman, Kimi Antonelli, Felipe Drugovich,  Robert Shwartzman and Pato O’Ward were all running, and are deserving of a GP seat, but only the first two will be at motor sport’s top table next year.

Piastri goes to pieces

Oscar Piastri’s had a bit of a Perez-like mini collapse over the last couple of races, with poor qualifying showings giving him it all do in the GPs.

This has helped Ferrari sneak up in the constructors’ battle, with both Leclerc and Sainz scoring the big points.