How Verstappen and Alpine made the Sao Paulo GP into race of the year

The Stroll crash, late in Q2, was to have a major impact on the race. When the red flag was flown Verstappen wasn’t able to complete his final run and was left stranded in 12th place – which became 17th on the grid when a five-place PU penalty was added.

He was fuming afterwards, especially because of the time lag before the red flag that allowed drivers ahead of the incident to finish their laps – which is actually standard practice.

In stark contrast his title rival Lando Norris took pole, and it looked like come the race the McLaren driver would make significant inroads into Verstappen’s title advantage. Meanwhile George Russell did a good job to take second, while there were surprises behind with Yuki Tsunoda, Esteban Ocon and Liam Lawson filling third to fifth.

Albon was seventh, but there was no chance to repair his wrecked Williams, and he had to forfeit. Aston however managed to repair both its damaged cars and get them onto the grid, with a wet track obliging everyone to start on intermediates. Then on the formation lap Stroll had a bizarre spin into the barrier and then drove into the gravel as he tried to get going.

As the other drivers arrived back on the grid, some of them in the wrong slots as they were confused by the missing cars, FIA race director Niels Wittich made the call to delay the start.

Drivers should have switched off their engines, but on the front row Norris and Russell erroneously took off on another formation lap, and most of the field soon followed.

Verstappen knew the rules and along with a handful of others he stayed put until his team told him to follow the field around. We’d never seen anything quite like it – and this crazy day was far from over…

For those who had qualified unexpectedly far up the grid an opportunity was there for the taking.

“In those conditions it’s so dominated by what the drivers are actually able to do outside of the raw car performance,” recalls Ocon’s engineer Josh Peckett. “Things like visibility have such a big impact on how you can progress, and how you can push through the field.

“We had a reasonable level of confidence that we could get something decent out of it. Whether it was fourth or fifth or sixth, we weren’t sure. We did expect that if everyone finished we’d have a couple of people come past.”

When things finally got underway what was set to be a lucrative day for Norris took a turn for the worse when he ceded the lead to Russell. However, all eyes were on Verstappen.

Already gifted two places by the absence of both Albon and Stroll, he was up to 11th by the end of lap one – before passing Lewis Hamilton to get into the points.

By lap 22 he was running in sixth place, which became fifth when Charles Leclerc stopped for new intermediates as rain began to intensify.

Many drivers complained that the conditions were getting impossible, and when Nico Hülkenberg spun off and a VSC was called for, those further down the field dived into the pits for cheap pitstops and fresh intermediates.

The leading six drivers were past the pit entry and thus had to wait until they came around on the following lap. Three of the them, Russell, Norris and Tsunoda (just passed by Ocon) duly followed the crowd, and dived into the pits.

However Ocon, Verstappen and Gasly made the opposite call, and stayed out – and third, fifth and sixth immediately became first, second and third on the road as the VSC continued.

All three took a punt on the fact that in such conditions a safety car period can quickly turn into a red flag, and that means a free tyre change. Stick it out, and you might get lucky. Or the rain might go away, and worn tyres will still get the job done.

“Based on the feedback of both drivers, it was quite clear that it wasn’t sustainable even with full wets,” says Peckett.

“So knowing the rules, and knowing how we’ve taken advantage of those situations before, we basically took a gamble.”

“Our initial call, engineering-wise, was to box under that VSC,” says Gasly’s engineer John Howard. “We almost had a free pit stop. But as we were going around the lap Pierre expressed his doubt over the decision, and we re-evaluated as well, and said what do we actually have to gain from stopping now?

“You could see that the rain was stopping. And if you can stick with it, keep the car on track, and avoid stopping for wets, you save yourself one tyre change.”

When the VSC finally ended the Alpine/RBR gamble paid off when almost immediately Colapinto had his second crash of the day, and a red flag duly came out.

As the cars pulled into the pits Ocon, Verstappen and Gasly were at the head of the queue, and all three now had a free change to new inters for the restart.

In 29 laps Verstappen had gone from 15th to second with a mixture of bravura driving and smart strategy. At the restart he would have just had Ocon between him and what would be an astonishing victory, even by his standards.

For Alpine this still had the potential to be a significant pay day. Taking the restart in first and third Ocon and Gasly – both opportunistic GP winners in the past – were not going to waste the chance to bag big points.

“We weren’t expecting any more heavy rain, so we knew we were probably going to be okay,” says Peckett. “And Esteban’s driving up until that point had been faultless. And it typically is in the wet.

“He sounded the calmest he has done in any race all year! In all of those very high pressure wet scenarios he does stay very, very calm.

“And I think he was probably more confident about where we could end up than any of us were. By the time we got to that stage having got one set of tyres through 30-odd laps we knew we weren’t going to have to stop again.

“It was just a case of driving consistently, and he was very happy with the balance all the way through the first part. We didn’t adjust flap angle or do anything, apart from fit a new set of tyres. So at that stage, we were feeling reasonably confident we’d get a decent result.”

Against the odds after the restart Ocon managed to stay in front of Verstappen for around seven laps until Sainz had his second incident of the day, and brought out another safety car. It was a development that ultimately didn’t help Ocon.

“Max was sort of a fairly steady three or four seconds behind, but was complaining of visibility,” says Peckett.

“And it would have been very interesting to know what would have happened if that safety car hadn’t come out in the final stint that allowed Max the restart push into Turn 1, because I think getting past at full racing speed would have been quite tricky.”

At the resumption Verstappen seized his chance and made a decisive move and successfully jumped Ocon to take the lead – some 43 laps after he’d sat in P17 on the grid, albeit depleted by two cars.

Ocon’s job now was to hang on to second. Gasly was behind him, and given the clashes the pair had had over their two seasons together, there was perhaps potential for fireworks.

However Gasly had his hands full keeping Russell behind, and was in effect riding shotgun for his team-mate, who had the advantage of a clear track ahead.

“Pierre didn’t look like he was trying to get past,” says Peckett. “He was just focusing on the defending side.

“And I think from a team perspective that helped a lot as well, because it just kept the whole situation calm. If it had just been the two of them on their own, both pushing for second, it might have been a slightly different situation!

“We were pretty interested in what Russell was going to do, and after five or ten laps or so became clear that for him coming past Pierre was going to be pretty tricky. It did make things a little bit easier. Pierre definitely had a harder time with it than Esteban did on that front.”

“I just kept giving Pierre the gap [to Russell],” says Howard. “I was saying you’re just as good at him in the low-speed stuff, he’s a bit quicker down the straights. You can do this, try not to worry about a faster guy coming, and just keep your head down.”

As the laps ticked away Ocon and Gasly remained solidly in second and third, and Russell could do nothing. On the Alpine pit wall the enormity of what such a result would mean was coming into focus.

“It’s always hard when you look like you’re going to get something decent,” says Peckett. “Because you do get excited thinking, what if? But there’s always that nagging doubt that any number of things could go wrong and really ruin it.

“I think it was the last five laps or so there was a graphic on the TV that showed the jump that we’d make in the teams’ championship if we stayed in the current places, and that kind of brought it all home. So that added a bit of stress…”

“Both Josh and I try stay calm under pressure, and be very calm presence on the radio,” says Howard. “As the flag is getting closer and closer, you think this is almost done, we’ve almost got this.

“But then you don’t want to start celebrating early! All it takes is one front lock up and you lose everything you’ve worked so hard for…”

In the end all three drivers at the front drove faultlessly, and Verstappen crossed the line with an advantage of 19 seconds over Ocon. Having also bagged fastest lap the Dutchman gained 18 points on Norris, who had slipped back to sixth after starting from pole.

In the context of the championship that represented a huge swing of fortune in a matter of a few hours – and it really took the momentum out of the McLaren man’s title hopes with three races still to run.

Ocon and Gasly crossed the line just three second apart, with Russell right behind in fourth. The 33-point haul completely transformed Alpine’s season, with three spots gained in the championship battle ultimately worth around $30 million.

“It was amazing for both cars to be on the podium with the season that we’d had, starting on the back row at some races,” says Howard. “I know it was a wet race and these things can happen, but I don’t think anybody would have expected it.

“Ultimately, even in these mixed-up races, you need to be there to capitalise on these things. And we put ourselves in that position through a series of decisions and a little bit of luck. Both drivers kept it on track, lap-after-lap, and without that, the result would not have been possible.”

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