The Wild Four-Way Fight To Turn 1 In Mexico | Jolyon Palmer’s F1 TV Analysis

Former F1 driver Jolyon Palmer analyses the lengthy run to Turn 1 in Mexico, as the race leaders went four-wide in one of the most dramatic starts of the season.

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So, I love the start in Mexico. There’s always so much drama. 830 m to the first corner and it is not even easy from the front row. So, Lando Norris makes it look easier than usual though. Gets a good start. You’ve got the two Ferraris just behind and uh you’re all now looking for a slipstream on this long run. You can see Norris has checked out. He’s got a great launch and that should be easy, but it’s not. What it does mean is he gets the chance to cover the inside line. So, if we pause it here, that’s not a great place to pause it. Let’s pause it there. You’ve got Lewis Hamilton almost being boxed in behind Norris. Soair here has a couple of options. Does he keep Hamilton boxed in or does he shift across and start to squeeze Vstappen who’s roaring from fifth place down the outside line? And he chooses the latter. So he opens the door for Hamilton to come through the middle. Vstappen is then out on the curb and he is not going to stop that and heads right out for the boonies to the uh to the barrier. Uh you’ve got loads of drivers cutting through this first corner as well. Some drivers not very happy about it. But we’ve got Charlotte Clair is going to cut through from there. You got Kimmy Anteneelli is going to cut through. The Stapen is obviously going to cut through and you’ve got two more further back out of shot. Carlo Sites and Liam Lawson. But fundamentally, Norris has done this absolutely perfectly. Got the launch, covered the inside. And from there, he wasn’t going to be passed. Hamilton’s done well to get the space. Llair was in a bit of a tight spot with the Stafford attacking and Hamilton attacking and he is going to cut through there and uh chooses late on to to not make the corner and that is our other two coming through Science and Lawson and a bit of contact between those two as well. We’ll get into that one later on. So, we have a question on this as well which is why didn’tlllair get a penalty for not giving the position back to Lewis. It’s a good question and I don’t have the answer. So let’s have a look with this reverse angle because I think it becomes more clear-cut here that Hamilton should have that place second position because of the way here that SH gives Hamilton the space. Vstappen is then going to have a squeeze at the moment. Max is looking like he’s going to have a clear launch down the outside. Remember he’s on a medium tire so it’s a particularly decent start. But in the end we get four wide. You’ve got the two Ferraris neck and neck. You’ve got Vstappen so ambitious out wide onto the curb. It’s the first race he’s not led out of the out of the first corner since 2019. Here he’s got astonishing form and as a result a lot of confidence to go and attack this first corner. You can actually see Hamilton is marginally ahead of Charlotte before the breaking zone. So it’s just a nose in front, but I would say the Ferrari on the left is ahead of the Ferrari on the right. We come through the corner. So if we ignore Vstappen now, who’s never going to make it stop from that outside line. We come through the corner and now Charl is in a real squeeze here. We’ve had contact in the past before with Perezlair and Versappen. This time it’s Hamilton, Llair and Vstappen. And they managed to get through. Max doesn’t turn in. He can’t turn in. So now Lewis has definitely got the second place. He’s ahead of Charl who is coming through. He’s got space to stay on the track should he wish to stay on the track, but he’s also chosen to uh to go wide at this point. Realizes that you can just cut through. He’s done it before at the first corner and gets away with it. Behind you’ve got Antelli going to do the same thing from side by side with Russell. Pashri is going to go deep as well, but try his best to stay on the track whereas others won’t. Andlair from behind Hamilton chooses to go off the road. He’s not forced off by Lewis. You can see the space that Lewis leaves on the exit. Go straight across. The safest thing to do at this point is to absolutely floor it. Rejoin in the lead and choose who you’re going to let pass. Basically, be your own judge at this point. And uh as we as we play it through, Charl lets Lando go through but does not let Lewis go through. It should be a penalty. It should be a slam dunk. I can only assume the stewards saw five cars go through. Absolute melee. You’ve even got Franco Colopinto at the back of the field having a spin. You’ve got contact. You’ve got debris on the circuit. Marshalls needed to retrieve it, which was another sketchy uh condition that we had early on in the race. And I can only assume the stewards just thought Ferrari side by side. They emerged second and third. But the reality is here Charlotte Clair over to Lewis Hamilton off the track and he should have had a penalty for it. It’s 800 m down the turn one and the Ferraris are very close. Lewis Hamilton pinched to the inside. Hamilton trying to attack. Watch Max Stapen who’s on the outside who’s locking up. Who’s going deep and off the road on the racetrack? Lando Norris keeps the lead. It was a wild start to this one as they reclaim the lead. Over the road went Max Stapen. Over the road went Shalair. Let’s have a look at uh another couple of views of this start because I love a four wide start into the first corner. It’s the best you can get in Formula 1, especially three different teams, title protagonists as well. Loads at stake, but this one will give us a shot of Max Vstappen who looked like for a moment he was going to get the space, but I have to say it was always ambitious and it was always likely to be closed off on that outside line. It is closed off and you can just see if you watch the Red Bull as soon as he gets over that curb. Now you can see the floor striking out with with some sparks and that is now the underside just hitting the raised curbs. So he’s not got the the tires perfectly in contact with the uh with the asphalt. He’s now missing basically a load of grip. He can’t slow the car and uh and that is why you can just see him surfing on that uh on that curb lock up, but he just is is out of control at that moment. It’s so dusty off the line and that then is is bappen off. Let’s have a look at a couple of on boards. First of all, George Russell fuming at what went on at the first corner. Thought it was outrageous. I had to say I don’t like to see five cars cutting the first corner. I would like to see this change for next year. A natural deterrent because over the years drivers look back, they watch the old races and they think I’ll just cut that. No one ever gets a penalty for it. We’ve seen the leader do it. We’ve seen drivers coming through and and as Shalair did give back a position for second place. It’s the safest thing to do. There’s no risk in cutting the grass. So that’s why you’ve now got drivers in their heads thinking, I’ll attack, just hope it sticks, and if it doesn’t, I’ll cut the corner and keep my position or even gain a position. In the case of Charlotte Clair, Russell’s on the soft tires, starting from the dirty side of the grid, I don’t think he’s got a leg to stand on. As much as I don’t like to see drivers cutting the corner, he is very clearly in fifth position as we head towards the breaking zone. I think he was particularly perturbed that the stappen who started behind him was uh was breaking so late and gaining the position. But I think Max was ahead into the corner. Credit to George for keeping it on the track. You can see how dirty it is off the line as well. He does keep it on the track at this moment. It looks like it might be P3, but it’s never going to stick because there’s one Ferrari, there’s a Red Bull, and there is a Mercedes as well. He’s going to get Antonelli’s place back, but frustrating for Russell. I think the problem for him was in that initial launch. And let’s watch again because Vstappens is quite something at the start on that medium tire. You wonder if he’d started on the soft if he could have done something magnificent with that extra bit of grip off the line. But as it is on the medium, he’s got a chance. At this point, it looks like it’s going to open up, but he’s always driving in this slight direction towards that outside curb, and you’re never going to be afforded a lot of space. So, it’s it’s an incredibly risky move. He does get shuffled out to the curb. We’ve seen him already skating over the top of it. But what I love here is the car control. And it looks so cool from Versappen who’s heading so far out wide. I’ve never seen anyone just legitimately hit that barrier. But look how long and how aggressively he is turning to the left here. I mean, this is some sublime car control there. That is Vappen on full opposite lock, drifting it. The barrier fast approaching and he’s just holding it, holding it, holding it like speedway. But you never sense that he panicked and he comes back on with not even a meter to the wall and then remembers where he was fourth in the queue gives up the place to to Hamilton through the next corner as well. So uh some pretty impressive stuff there from the staffman albeit ambitious and albeit not actually paying off for his race. The final view is with Lewis Hamilton then just to really show how this one came about. He could be boxed in here.lair opens the door. Hamilton then has a chance to come through. You can see he’s ahead oflllair at this moment. comes through, makes it cleanly on the track, has actually given a lot of space to his teammate as well on the exit. So, he deserves to be second. Probably didn’t need to be trying to look around the outside of Norwich there for uh for turn two, but didn’t make a difference. Should have had second place. I hated every meters of that first corner. I mean, I obviously there was the start, which wasn’t a great one. Strangely, that kind of helped me because I don’t think Lando would have came back to the right if I had a good start. So, luckily I could have a sleep stream. Um but then yeah after that I was just a passenger trying to defend my place. I think Louis didn’t especially knew that there was that there was Max on the outside of me and that created I mean everything was super super tight. Um but yeah, luckily my race didn’t my race or Louis’s race actually didn’t end up here because I I really thought it would good run to turn one, but then I mean there were too many cars so you just have to try and avoid everything and I I had to go onto the curb and you bottom. So uh yeah, that was tough. Um I avoided going into the wall through the grass and then found my position again and then basically tried to just do the race. Yeah, the beginning was was very hectic. Uh yeah, I struggle to understand how three drivers can just cook the first corner and and continue it. It punishes the drivers who have driven correctly. And if you know, if you can risk everything with no downside, that’s what drivers are going to do. And it’s always been the the case here in Mexico.