Carlos Sainz, Ferrari (SP5, Accident Lap 38, 4 pts): 6/10
After his brilliant victory last week in Mexico, it was down to earth with an emphatic bump for Carlos Sainz this week in Brazil where nothing seemed to go quite right for him. There were no alarm signs after practice where he was a solid seventh, and fifth on the grid for the sprint race was a decent performance. But he made no progress in the race, and then met with disaster when he crashed in wet Sunday morning qualifying that left him starting the Grand Prix from pit lane. He made nothing like the sort of progress through the field that a similar out-of-place Max Verstappen managed, and his rise stalled at P13 before crashing out on lap 38. "Definitely a Sunday to forget for me," he admitted. "I tried to push and take some risks to gain positions and it obviously didn't pay off."
Zhou Guanyu, Sauber (SP17, P15): 4/10
Any promise that the Chinese driver showed in his early seasons in F1 has completely dissipated in 2024. A lot of that must be down to the C44 with the Sauber proving a profound disappointment and easily the worst car on the grid. While Valtteri Bottas can occasionally wring some juice out of it, it's proving to be beyond Zhou. To be fair, we're not sure anyone else could do much better with the tools in hand. Slowest in practice, last on the grid for both the sprint race and qualifying, his one bright point was finishing ahead of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll in the sprint before reverting to the back by the end of the Grand Prix. We can't really think of a bright spot for Zhou this week.
