Welcome to Motorsport Monthly, a monthly article that talks about the biggest headlines, about the most watched motorsports in America.
By: Andrew Coe
The Brazil Grand Prix put up a race that could be considered one of the best of the season so far. Featuring an outstanding push from Max Verstappen who started from the pit lane and finished third, a fiasco race from Oscar Piastri that saw him lose a tremendous amount of ground to his teammate Lando Norris, who is now the front runner for the 2025 World Drivers Championship, and a disaster from Ferrari who had both drivers fail to finish the race. Verstappen’s brilliance ironically started with heartbreak in qualifying, failing to advance out of Q1, but after Red Bull made some mechanical changes, resulting in relegation to a pit-lane start, Verstappen had his work cut out for him. Taking advantage of multiple safety car restarts, Verstappen knifed his way through the field, finishing third behind Norris and Antonelli. Lando Norris had a stellar weekend, winning the Sprint Race as well as the full distance race but more importantly, taking a commanding lead of 24 points in the Drivers’ Championship with only three races to go. In fact, only 49 points separate Norris from Piastri from Verstappen, and with the unpredictability of Formula 1, it’s truly anyone’s race for winning the Championship. Another tight race prevalent is the team championship, as Ferrari, with a horrible race weekend fell from second place to fourth place. With the only remaining races being Las Vegas, Qatar, and Abu Dhabi; Mercedes, Red Bull, and Ferrari are all going to have to finish strong if they are going to finish second behind the dominant Mclaren.
Now, for the Las Vegas Grand Prix. The Las Vegas Grand Prix has been an absolute smash hit since its new debut in 2023. Featuring part of the circuit on the Las Vegas Strip, the racing action has been absolutely breathtaking, and with Red Bull having the edge over McLaren in the past two years, a Max Verstappen race win would set the championship race ablaze. Additionally, the midfield battle has been closer than ever. A measly 49 points separates fifth place Williams, from ninth place Kick Sauber, with Racing Bulls, Aston Martin, and Haas filling out the rest of the order, respectfully. On a track with top-tier overtaking opportunities, every place, second, and pit stop matters because championship standings are on the line.
By: Charlie Westerlund
Alex Palou became a 4 time Indycar champion in September and as the offseason began, major news over drivers has sparked a chain reaction that has made major changes to the grid for next year. The first announcement was that Andretti star Colton Herta said that he would become Cadillac F1’s reserve driver and would gear up to take on Formula 2 with Rodin Carlin. This is in an effort to become the first American on the F1 Grid since Logan Sargeant, and to try and become the first champion since 1978. Replacing him at Andretti is veteran Will Power, the veteran leaves team Penske after the huge cheating scandal at the Indy 500. This caused many changes in leadership at Penske. He was also stalling at Penske and felt it was time to move on, and hopes that at Andretti he can make one last run at an Indycar championship.
Replacing Power at Penske is David Malukas, who has been under the radar and is finally getting his shot in top equipment. He has been the class of the midfield for a couple years, and rookie Caio Collet will replace Malukas at AJ Foyt racing. The next big move was made by RLL racing, as they signed Mick Schumacher, son of the legendary, 7 time F1 world champion, Michael Schumacher. Many believe this signing could lead to them being more competitive next year and being Mick’s path back to formula one. Indycar also revealed that in their 2026 schedule they were adding Phoenix raceway and getting rid of Iowa Speedway. While a very questionable schedule change, the change was done so NASCAR and Indycar could both race at the same track in one weekend. The last time Indycar raced at Phoenix was in 2018 with Josef Newgarden taking the win. You can catch all the action on FOX, March 7th.
That’s all for this month’s edition, we’ll be back next month with news on the NASCAR lawsuit, the end to the Formula one season, and indycar silly season.