Five Things We Learned from the 2023 São Paulo Grand Prix

We've waved goodbye to Brazil and Sprint for another year and are back on home soil in Grove to knuckle down for the final two rounds of 2023.

The fight for P7 is in full swing, and we're ready to maximise our performance in Las Vegas and Abu Dhabi after adding to our tally over the tripleheader.

Before we set our sights on the season's end, let's spend some time reflecting on São Paulo and what we've learned from our three days in Brazil.

What a mammoth effort from the team over the past month, with the US Grand Prix, the Mexico City Grand Prix, and the São Paulo Grand Prix all coming back-to-back-to-back.

Triple-header rounds aren't anything new to Formula 1, but this year's trio was the first to feature a combination of three flyaway races together with two F1 Sprint appearances.

That's a lot of competitive running — 10 sessions — for everyone to remain sharp in amongst any late-season tiredness, so to leave with five points is an achievement we're proud of.

There's now a little time for friends and family before we fly off to Vegas next week, with some in the team enjoying time with an even larger family than they're used to!

It's a no-scoring round in Brazil, but that doesn't mean there aren't any positives to take from the Sao Paulo GP weekend.

Alex surged through the field in the Sprint on Saturday, and Logan repeated that charge in Sunday's race, with a combined 12 places gained from both.

P19 to P14 meant Alex shrugged off the disappointment of an ill-timed Shootout red flag that saw both FW45s occupying the back row.

Then, one day later, Sarge navigated the Lap 1 chaos to jump from a P19 start to a P11 finish, just shy of the points.

We know Alex is a tyre whisperer, with some memorable moments when the No23 car stays on track without switching Pirellis for seemingly impossible lengths of time.

It seems that tyre mastery has rubbed off on his teammate, too, with Logan taking three sets of red-ringed soft compound tyres through 69 laps of Autódromo José Carlos Pace despite their short life expectancy.

The early red flag stoppage saw Logan coming off the mediums he began the race with to equip a fresh set of softs.

Fifteen laps later, Sarge took on a second set and ran them for an incredible 27 tours before finishing the race on a third set, this time for 26 laps.

Talking about Formula 1 and fine margins is one of the sport's biggest cliches, but Brazil showed that perhaps it's truer than ever.

Less than a second covered the entire field in qualifying, with P1's 1:10.340 time being 0.935s faster than P20's 1:11.275 in Q1.

Albono finished P10 in that opening section of quali, but had he been a quarter of a second quicker, he'd have ended the opening 18 minutes in P2.

On the other hand, a lap time just 0.250 slower than his 1:10.621 would've meant P17 and no Q2 appearance in a shining example of how close the class of 2023 is.

Brazil may love their football, but there's no denying the South American nation adores Formula 1, too.

Fresh from big turnouts in Austin and Mexico City, the weekend saw the most spectators head through the turnstiles at any other Brazilian or São Paulo GP.

The three-day figures had 267,000 fans head to the track to glimpse the 2023 stars in action thanks to increased capacity around the circuit.

Even without any Brazilian representatives racing in the sport, this country's passion for racing remains high.

With a contract extension until 2030, we can’t wait for our future visits to São Paulo and its iconic amphitheatre of Formula 1.