Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports
Red Bull’s Constructors’ Cup breaks a string of eight-straight wins for Mercedes
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, racing for the first time since clinching his second-straight F1 World Championship two weeks ago, won the United States Grand Prix down in Texas.
In the process, Verstappen secured the Constructors’ Cup for Red Bull for the first time in nearly a decade.
The Constructors’ Cup, awarded each season to the team or manufacturer that secures the most points over the course of the season based on the results from their two drivers, has been in Mercedes’ hands for nearly a decade. Mercedes won their first Constructors’ Cup back in 2014, when Lewis Hamilton won his first Drivers’ Championship. That began a string of seven-straight titles for Hamilton, broken last year by Verstappen.
But even with Verstappen’s world title in 2021, Mercedes still won the Constructors’ Cup, thanks to the seasons from Hamilton — who finished just eight points behind Verstappen in the final standings — and Hamilton’s Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas, who finished third overall.
Red Bull entered the United States Grand Prix with a chance to clinch their first Constructors’ Cup since 2013, and while there were a few different pathways for Red Bull to secure the title, the easiest ran through Verstappen or his teammate, Sergio Perez. A victory from either driver would see Red Bull through to the championship.
Their biggest competition heading into this weekend? Ferrari. Thanks to strong showing this season from both Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz this season, Ferrari was still alive in the Constructors’ Cup as the F1 schedule entered its final stretch.
And with Sainz starting on the pole down in Texas, it looked like it might be a tough task for Red Bull to secure the win as the race began.
But Sainz could not complete the first lap.
A collision with George Russell of Mercedes in the first turn saw Sainz’s day come to a close before it truly even began:
The early exit from Sainz opened the door for Verstappen to take the lead, but the Mercedes drivers were hot on his wheels throughout the early going.
On lap 13, the three leaders — Verstappen, Hamilton and Russell — made their initial stops on pit road. Russell was forced to endure a five-second penalty, issued after causing the first-lap crash from Sainz, and the three leaders rolled off in different positions, as Verstappen was in second, Hamilton in sixth, and Russell back in eighth.
Two more incidents shook up the field. On lap 19 Bottas, perhaps dealing with some wind gusts, lost the rear of his car and ended up in the gravel. That brought out the safety car, allowing a pair of drivers — Leclerc and Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel — to pit. Then on the lap 21 restart, Alpine’s Fernando Alonso and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll came together. Alonso was able to fight through the spin and remain in the race, but Stroll’s day was finished.
How Alonso was able to stay in the race is nothing short of amazing:
The race finally restarted on lap 26, with Verstappen in the lead, but the Red Bull driver caught a bad break when he came into the pits on lap 36, but the stop was a slow one, giving his main competitors, including Hamilton, a chance to capitalize. With 13 laps left Hamilton was in the lead, with Verstappen over three seconds behind him in second place, followed by Leclerc and Perez. Hamilton’s teammate Russell rounded out the top five:
But Verstappen was closing fast, and on lap 49 he had gotten within a second of Hamilton, allowing him to enable his car’s “drag reduction system.” With DRS enabled, Verstappen continued to close, and finally on lap 50, he swung into the lead:
Hamilton tried to close the gap on the final few laps, but Verstappen was able to hold him off, securing his 13th win of the season, and the title for Red Bull:
The win had extra meaning for Red Bull, as the team dealt with the news of the passing of Dietrich Mateschitz, the co-founder of Red Bull and founder and owner of the Red Bull Formula One racing team. Before the race, Mateschitz was remembered:
And after the win, Verstappen paid tribute to “Didi:”
Beyond securing the Contractors’ Cup for Red Bull, Verstappen’s victory put him into rarefied F1 air. The win, his 13th of the season, tied him with both Vettel and Michael Schumacher with the most wins in a single season. Vettel won 13 Grand Prix back in 2013, when he won his fourth-straight F1 title, while Schumacher won 13 races back in 2004. Perhaps most impressive is the fact that Schumacher won 13 of the 18 races that season, winning a whopping 72% of the time, a mark that still stands.
However, Verstappen still has three races left, the Mexican Grand Prix, the Brazilian Grand Prix, and the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Verstappen won both the Mexican Grand Prix and the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix last season, and finished second to Hamilton in Brazil a year ago.
So Verstappen’s eyes are now likely set on winning his 14th race of the season, leaving him atop F1 history.
