Colapinto’s Best Weekend Yet. - 2026 Madrid GP Losers & Winners

We cannot have another race weekend like that. This thing, if I had a dark bit of this hotel room, it would go straight there. Because yeah, it looked demanding from the driver's point of view over the course of a single lap, but it was just more frustrating over a whole race distance. And from the grandstands where I was located, I must admit, it did drag. The only races where I really got up in arms over something consistently were during the F2 races. When it comes to examples from Formula 1, we had Verstappen admitting Norris was quicker, yet he was able to keep him behind relatively easily. And then, of course, there was the likes of Liam Lawson, him needing to make a risky move just to try and progress amongst cars that really should have been simple to try and get by over, like, maybe Monza circuits. As much as I thought the facilities were solid enough for the first year in band A, this track does need to be changed up for next year. Nico Rosberg was right. Carl Zeiss needs to be held accountable, in part. He's lauded this track for months. Let's just say that on a Sunday, catching someone was a lot easier than actually trying to overtake them. And Lando Norris demonstrated that perfectly, because he was a guy who was quick enough to control the opening stint. But once he came out over that disastrous pit stop, there was absolutely nothing he could do to try and get that win back. And you know what? To change things up a little, I'm going to keep you on your toes. We're going to flit between winners, losers, and the mayor. So yes, indeed, Lando Norris, I think, was a winner of this weekend. He not only was able to come back from a Friday where he couldn't really run due to a gearbox problem, he then went on to take pole by 11 thousandths of a second, before then building a six-second lead before the virtual safety car. And his reward was P3. And yes, Lance Stroll triggered another virtual safety car stop. It's starting to get a bit weird now this is happening twice, and I find it even weirder that he wasn't even able to perform a donut. Either that Honda engine is as bad as we thought, or, well, yeah, let's just save it for maybe another video on this matter. It was bad enough that his rivals were able to get their stops within that particular time frame, and Norris didn't. But as it was ending, the team seemingly didn't get over the radio to just go, stereo, and oh yeah, he had a seven-second pit stop. That change made things even worse. Although the team were very quick to not blame that, but instead just go, oh, it was just bad timing. But no, quite frankly, it was both. Had he had a faster stop, it might have been different. And Lando felt that he delivered absolutely everything required. And you know what? I would agree with that. As was him wanting to drink his Coke in peace, dang it. And Max Verstappen, I believe, is another one of those winners, because he indeed was one of those top three challengers. And Red Bull seriously performed here. Verstappen initially resisted Red Bull's instruction to surrender the positions gained before eventually complying. And in hindsight, for the fact that Hamilton retired, it just felt really weird. But indeed, he was being investigated. So Red Bull had a point there. But that deliberate slowdown cost him as much as a five-second time penalty would have done anyway. You could say that maybe fortune helped him inherit that position. But I think his defending was able to help preserve being one spot higher than he started. Hey, the Mad Ring track organizers, you maybe want to have Max give you a call, because he wants to help you out. He believes there's potential. He wasn't the biggest critic of this place in the end of the day. But then we move on to a loser, Lewis Hamilton. The first of today's losers, in fact. Well, you know, an actual person. Because he was able to recover from his FP3 crash to qualify fourth, also without the second ADUO upgrade engine. But not long after his start, his race was pretty much over. Him saying that the brake problem began before he brushed the barrier. So the contact shouldn't really be assumed to have caused the actual failure. It might have been lingering before that. But even then, his race was quite precarious after that really bold move to the inside, trying to catch those ahead of him napping. It looked really ballsy. This was a messy weekend for him, which marred his serious potential here. He believed he did have the performance to really go on and fight for the win. But instead, all he got was his first DNF of the season and his championship stances. Well, they're all but lost now, I think. I think all that Lewis can do now is try and push for changes regarding the rules of engagement for next year. But then there's Charles Leclerc to consider, because even though I've rated him as a mare, he led half the race and he did go on to finish fourth. I mean, that's not ideal, but let's remember here. He stayed out on those hard tyres while others were stopping around him and he kept them in decent nick, so kudos to that. Kimi couldn't even get close to him to even try to overtake. I think most of the grid were praying for a second virtual safety car. Besides, there was also Russell threatening behind and that gap had to be considered. He finished just barely in front of George. And Leclerc did back the gamble, believing a conventional strategy would have probably produced P4 anyway. 29 seconds behind the podium sitters. I mean, that is, I think, a very reasonable mare. His sharper criticism, though, was more aimed, instead of the race prospects, to the qualifying prospects, because the Monaco 2.0 complaints regarding the mad ring? Yeah, I'm starting to believe that. Saturday was really the more interesting day out of any of them. And yeah, oh, my boy, my boy, my poor boy. I mean, this was absolutely painful, right? It was bad enough that Piastri qualified seventh, almost half a second behind his teammate. But then he had contact with Russell at the beginning, which damaged his front wing. And then he started on the hards, which left him poorly placed to exploit the earlier pit stops, thanks to Lance Stroll. And yeah, he was able to stay out until lap 42. But then the mediums failed to try and inspire him to do something better against the midfield. And all he could muster at the end of the day was P8. And not once this weekend did he look poised to try and pull a fast one against Landa or indeed anyone. There's just something about qualifying which is leaving something on the table with this kid. And another one of the guys I like. I'm not sure whether I like him anymore, because Carlos Sainz, his first home Grand Prix in Madrid was an absolute disaster because impeding Bottas was bad enough sending him back to P20. Although to be fair, Williams didn't warn him about the impending Cadillac driver. But then he locked up at the start, clattering into Yuki Tsunoda, then was moving under braking into his compatriot to earn yet another time penalty. And just like with Piastri in Hungary, he was not in the least bit remorseful. He was not in the mood for apologising. Oh, that's just what Fernando does. He goes complaining and then I get a penalty. I mean, this is just yet another example to say that this year has been Carlos' worst year for his reputation in Formula One. Forget a revenge arc. I think he needs a redemption arc. You know what? I need to do this. This represents Carlos Sainz. Dump it, you go. I mean, I'm going to need a whole video to do all this. Because like I said earlier, he needs to be held to account in part as to why this track was so bad for overtaking. We need a longer video here because we've got other people to talk about and indeed other teams, because Aston Martin, yeah, they're a loser too. Alonso's side of that clash with Sainz, that ended with a replacement front wing, of course, and P17 for his trouble. But that was not all. He had a clutch problem on Friday to consider and then Stroll had a suspected battery issue to compound all of that. And then he suffered race damage before brake trouble then forced him out around turn 17. His stopped car, triggering that interruption for the second race in a row, which once again changed the league battle. I mean, all because, again, he wasn't able to perform a donut. This weekend was an absolute horror show for this team. And yes, Nui did admit that there will be some weight patches coming for Baku, which might make things a little bit better. His partner, Enrico Cardele, basically said it's pretty much time for the 2026 car. There won't be really any major substantial upgrades anymore. And then we move on to a Meh driver. And I'm being generous, yeah, but I think Alex Albon deserves a place because he did beat both Astons and a Haas, which he did consider were close to the Williams' potential, but it was still P15. And yes, he did regain some brownie points in those comparing him with Carlos because Alex just looks like the more composed driver. And he did gain two places at the start and had a tidy drive plus a bold pit call after clattering the barriers in practice, but still no points. You really need to be toppling Audis if you want to try and score points. And the FW48, it's not even close to that. And then we move on to another backmarker team, Cadillac. It was looking hopeful though, because Perez did feel like Cadillac was having one of its stronger weekends actually racing the Williams' car, something that Valtteri Bottas has reported on occasion in previous races. But then, you guessed it, reliability just kicked them off. This time, it was a suspected water system problem which forced him out. He was boxing to retire the car. As for his Finnish teammate, he finished last after managing early damage himself. And of course he had to manage, yep, brake temperatures. So let's keep it brief here. Reliability once again snuffed out potential. Next, Oliver Behrman, another loser. His FP3 crash basically kept him out of qualifying and any contention of being anything other than a loser because he also had to change engine components which then led to a pit lane start. And from there, traffic and unhelpful timing for his hard tyres limited his chances of making any sort of recovery, him finishing P16. But to be fair, he did hold himself accountable. Unlike Carlos Sainz, he did, Behrman, accept responsibility for his lot as Haas did prove they had a car capable of bothering the points-paying positions as Ocon was able to demonstrate. Speaking of, Esteban Ocon, I'm placing in the meh category because now that I believe he's got the updated engine too, he was able to pass both Audis at the start and reach the top 10 for a good long while when Hamilton retired. He only failed to score that point thanks to mishandling of the pit stops and Hülkenberg overtaking and taking P10 back. It was really close, but no cigar. Then afterwards, Ocon wanted to check whether his positioning in the pit box had contributed to the reason why he lost that position, but instead, his boss pointed towards the equipment and that issue rather than blaming anybody in terms of mechanics or indeed the driver. So credit where it's due here for Ocon's drive, he did well, but Haas' improved consistency, it didn't bring them any points at all still. And what's worse, the team that took away that P10 point is the one that's chasing them for P7 in the constructors. So we then move on to Nico Hülkenberg, who was the winner out of all of that. Audi sent him out ahead of Ocon and he kept that P10 when all the cars sorted themselves out near the end. And now Audi are just four points behind Haas in the constructors and it could be three if their Sonoda Monza appeal goes through. And indeed, that pit stop exchange made the weekend for Audi and brought them some sort of good fortune. And he also made a soft tyre start, which meant that he had to make an early pit stop, which ultimately suited him. Then switch to hard was workable. The Audi were able to preserve the tyres and I did notice that in practice that the Audi's medium tyre performance was really good. The tyre deck situation with that team, it's really commendable. So I believe that Audi got something that they could extract and he also credited the crew. So not bad for this team and it's really important to remember that based in the car world, Audi's parent company, the VW Group, they're facing financial difficulty. But then we move on to the other Audi driver. Yeah, this was a bit of a meh situation because yes, he was 12th at the start behind his teammate. He started on the hards, which meant that he had to wait for his own chance, which never came. And he ended up one place down in 13th, although he was flirting with the points. Bortoletto then went on to criticise the strategy's outcome while explaining that the original choice had been pretty reasonable. He also argued that holding Colopinto behind on much worse tyres exposed Madrins' passing problem. And he was probably one of the most critical drivers out there, saying at some point he almost fell asleep while racing that circuit. But his defence wasn't spotless though because the stewards did go on to warn him for moving under braking. So even though he's my other boy, you know, his actions with forcing Franco off track, yeah, he did get a slap on the wrist for that. We then move on to another midfield driver, Pierre Gasly. And I believe he was a loser of this weekend for multiple reasons. Because even though he tried to drag himself up from 14th, waiting almost to the end of the race to change from his original hard tyres, he was hoping that interruption would yield something. But all he got for his trouble was a five seconds speeding penalty in the pit lane. A painful reminder of his loss to Monaco podium. He also acknowledged that the team hadn't really extracted its qualifying potential and the different strategies really complicated Sunday's own comparison. But still, Saturday's missed opportunity remains. And oh yeah, there was the fact that all the conduct over the radio and his driving led to Piastri almost passing his teammate for that critical seventh place that the Argentine got. If I had the foam of doubt with me, I would be holding it right now. Because I thought that he had beef with overtaking just capped to Ocon. But now, I'm not so sure. I think he's got something stuck in his craw regarding anyone who's his teammate and overtaking. And also Alpine, they were just not forceful enough regarding team orders. But we'll talk about that in Colopinto's section because he's up next. And oh boy, I think this was probably one of the most impressive weekends of his career. And he's been having plenty of those this year, right? And yes, I know, you're probably going to be saying, oh, well, you're Biasor because you're a Francophile. You must admit, this kid now has 27 points to his name. He's not that far behind Gasly in the championship. And I think he's about to overtake Limblad for 11th place. And hey, there's no beating about the bush. I don't have a pint glass to my name here, but I've got these two commemorative mothering cups. So these will have to do in trying to make up for a pint. So first one, and then the other one. Seriously, the Spanish Coke tastes really different to the UK one. He rose up two spots from his P9 qualifying, which is impressive enough, and got as high as P6 at the start until Lawson got back past him. But you know what? This weekend, this was one of the most heroic yet for Alpine, especially after catching a shake through La Monumental in previous days. That was really, really scary. He also had one of those early stops and that tyre management really carried him through. He had enough rubber to defend even against a McLaren. And because of his efforts, the gap to Racing Bulls and the Constructors got that considerably bit shorter. Although Pierre's conduct really did complicate things near the end, and Alpine were again not bold enough to try and call time on all of those shenanigans, because come on, those two drivers were on completely different strategies. They needed to let Franco through since he had a lot more rubber left on his rubber. Alpine still managed to get a good chunk of points and they managed to get one over their rivals. And this time around, it was the Argentine leaving the charge. I did touch upon Lawson just now, and I think he is a winner as well. And based on the fact that all of the stuff regarding the injury of Hajar has gotten really, really quiet in recent times, I wouldn't be surprised if Liam gets one more go around Baku. And we all know how impressive Liam was around Baku last time out in 2025. Who knows? If he's in a Red Bull, podium perhaps, but I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's talk about the maddering performance. Yeah, he was almost a lap down on the leaders in terms of time, but P6, that's what Red Bull needs for someone filling in for the likes of Isaac Hajar. He did start on the hards, meaning that the early stops favoured the other drivers, but he did still finish higher than he started. He went from P8 to P6. And Lawson also felt that qualifying had limited him while describing growing confidence in the RB22. I believe him because during practice and early qualifying, he was right up there with the Sapon. At some points, he was leading Q1. He was looking really good in that car. A far cry from what we saw in last year. And I think even if this stint in the Red Bull senior team is capped to three races, this was far more commendable than what he was able to do last year. Any F1 team that's looking for a brand new driver for 2028, they need to give Liam a call because surely Liam's done enough to keep in that race in Bulls for 2027. Come on, 14 points in these three races. That is really, really not too shabby for a stand-in. I do believe Liam's done himself proud in these three races. And as I touched upon earlier, it might be four. And then quite aptly, we talk about the other super sub, Yuki Tsunoda, contact with Carlos Sainz, basically spoiling it all. And according to Alan Permain, the performance loss due to that clatter was maybe up to half a second of performance per lap. In the midfield, at a track where you really can't overtake and you really need to do all you can to try and catch up, you're basically screwed. All he could do was P14. And what made this really sting in the eyes of many, and this should be really clarified here, Yuki did have a damaged car, is that Arvid Lindblad, his teammate, went on to score that really respectable P9. I think given the circumstances, Tsunoda is right to believe that what he was able to do in the race was pretty much reasonable. It's a shame that it came to an end if it's the end for Yuki here. But he did manage to get a point, P10, at a time when he probably wasn't thinking he was getting any running in a 2026 machine. You know, that's commendable. But then naturally, we got to then contrast that with Arvid Lindblad, because he was at one point in practice, this kid, running in P4 before, of course, he brought out that red flag. But then, unlike Behrmann, I'm not calling him a loser because he managed to come back from all of that and then get that two points P9 finish. Although I think he probably made some of the racing bulls mechanics a little bit nettle for the fact that, well, it meant a very, very late night on Friday. At least he was able to repay their efforts. He felt like the car had more to offer, but varying its electrical power deployment really couldn't create a passing opportunity. Let's just say that Arvid did what he could to try and get one place higher, but I still believe he is a winner, despite Friday's mistake. Even as Colapinto's bigger haul of points helped Alpine close in on racing bulls P5. So very much like it was in Monza, this was a case of V-carb damage limitation, Arvid leading the charge. But wait a minute, Law, you haven't mentioned George Russell yet. Where is he in all of this? Well, here he is. I am dubbing him a loser. And even he admits that he is a bit of a loser because if you heard his comments, yeah, this championship is all but done now. And it all started off so well for him too. He topped FP1, but then went on to qualify sixth and finished fifth. A 15 points gap to his teammate means that the early promise was particularly hollow with all things considered. Mercedes then switched him from hards to mediums, hoping to gain on Leclerc, but the tyres disappointed, prompting another stop for hard tyres. And George was once again questioning this approach, believing he could have made those hard tyres last longer, but he once again got a stony reception from the pit wall. And then with a really helpful bit of news and morale boosting is, oh, just do what you did on the hard tyres. I mean, thanks. I'm pretty sure George was elated with that advice. I think ultimately his title assessment hurt more because now he's 81 points behind Kimi with the European leg over, and we could only have maybe like seven races left to go. It's that dire of a situation for George that even with all of these opportunities and Mercedes reliability still being a little bit precarious, it looks all but over for the teammate of Kimi Antonelli. But yeah, speaking of Antonelli, he too felt a little bit hollow after the weekend. Him going as far as saying that he believed that Lando Norris deserved the win more than him. But at the end of the day, he may not have felt like he earned this win, but they all count. Still had to go up against two world champions right behind him, and based on what he was able to do ultimately, he may end up being a world champion himself in just a few months' time. Put that besides Russell's assessment, his closest challenger is talking down his title chances, and the other rival, Lewis Hamilton? Well, his brakes conked out, pushing him into triple digits behind the Italian driver. So this was a weekend where offering a faster rival the chance to gain instead strengthened Kimi's position. Though he believes that Norris was the better driver at the end of the day, Kimi still got maximum points, and Norris may be putting in the performances of his life right now, but he's now still found himself that little bit further behind the Italian driver. Although McLaren are looking to be really competitive at the end of the season, it's really not going to produce that ultimate push that he really needs to try and get his second world title. It's all good in terms of redeeming Norris' reputation with all the naysayers, but Kimi just got that opportunity. And seriously, McLaren really need to sort themselves out, but maybe with Lando having this change of aura about him, he might be able to actually shove that change into overdrive. But for now, I must shove you over to this video over here, because I do believe it's worth your time. And instead of freshening myself up, I better just go and start packing and head for home. So I'll see you up the ladder tomorrow.