Australian GP
“Slow cars still get points, Christian.”
So as a relatively new F1 fan (since 2020), this was my first time watching the Australian GP. As an American on the East Coast, lights out for me was 1:00 am. WOO! With pretty much every practice session and even qualifying starting after midnight, I only watched the race, and caught highlights of the rest. Now I proudly stayed up until 1:00am to watch the race live, which I can’t say I’ll do every time, but it was fun. Shout out to all the Australian, East/Southeast Asian fans who put up with inconvenient race start times most weekends of the season. Y’all know a dedication that Western Europe and North American fans could only dream of.
So because I only watched the race, let’s just jump into the break down, shall we?
Race 3 Summary
April 10, 2022
Charles Leclerc, and the 2 Mercedes drivers both got a great jump. Similarly to Ferrari last race, the 2 Red Bulls effectively blocked each other, giving Hamilton a chance to shoot up the inside of Perez, securing P3, after Perez ran out of room behind his teammate, Max Verstappen. George Russell made a brilliant lunge up the inside of Lando Norris, putting him in a very respectable P5. Ferrari who have looked nothing but reliable, showed some signs of weakness today with Carlos Sainz. He started in a disappointing P9 after some unlucky red flags in qualifying, and his start during the race was abysmal, dropping down to P13. It was clear early on that he was having some sort of issue, because losing 4 spots to midfield teams, when he’s in the most dominant car at this point of the season was unusual in this young season. Now Sainz did start on the Hard compound tires, which could have potentially caused him to lose out initially on pace and grip, but Alonso, who also started on Hard tires, held his starting position of P10. On the second lap of the race, Carlos went wide into the grass, slid across track, and spun into the gravel. Fortunately, he didn’t take any cars with him on the slide, and no cars hit him in that vulnerable position, but his race was done. According to the Monday debrief, an electrical issue caused problems for Sainz during that unlucky qualifying run, and they continued to have issues on the grid on Sunday. A last minute replacement of his steering wheel, didn’t help matters, and in his desperation to make up places, pushed it too hard causing him to run wide.
Sebastian Vettel, who is finally racing for the time this season, had a rough weekend too. Engine problems ended his FP1 session early, and he wasn’t able to run in FP2 because the issue wasn’t resolved. To make matters worse, he crashed in FP3, and despite his team’s best efforts, he wasn’t able to participate in qualifying. YIKES. Well, it gets worse! Vettel ran wide into the gravel on lap 11, and then he crashed (again) on lap 23, ending his horrible grand prix weekend. Considering Nico Hulkenberg didn’t have the benefit of testing or any racing for several years before being thrown into that Aston Martin to fill in for Vettel. I understand that these new cars are different to drive, but this was an extremely disappointing weekend for the 4x-World Champion.
George Russell benefitted immensely from the safety car brought out for Vettel’s crash. Having not pitted, he was able to get a cheap pit stop under the safety car, saving about 8 seconds, and slotting into 3rd place. Perez caught back up to Russell, but Russell wouldn’t give up the position easily. His team warned him about managing tires, to which he responded “That’s not what I want to hear”. Obviously, Russell is a competitor, and absolutely wanted a chance at a podium, especially when the Mercedes is a bit off pace at the beginning of the season. Despite a few laps of defense, Perez did successfully overtake Russell for P3. Post-race, George admitted that even though he didn’t want to just give up position, he checked his sensors and realized that he was on the limit, and ultimately he needed to manage a bit more.
HOWEVER, only 3 laps later, Max Verstappen pulled off to the side of the track after stating that he smelled something weird (a little barbecue-y) with his car. Funnily, Perez asked over his radio what happened with Max’s car, and if he too should be worried about his car. His team said something along the lines of “don’t worry about it” and “it doesn’t affect your car”. But I mean… Can you blame him for being worried?! The last time Max retired, Sergio went out the following lap, so I don’t think it’s that crazy for him to ask if he needs to nurse an issue so that he can at least finish this race. Fortunately for him, the issue did not afflict his car, and he brought it home for P2. With Max out, Charles Leclerc had no remaining competition this race and finished with about a 15-20 second margin.
Impressively, Alex Albon and Fernando Alonso were both able to extract a ton of life and performance for their Hard compound tires. Alonso got a little unlucky after his pit stop, and found himself in a DRS train, ultimately cooking his tires and forcing him to pit again. Albon, however, ran his Hard tires from the start of the race to the final lap, only pitting on lap 58 to serve his mandatory pit stop and switch compounds to avoid penalty or DQ. After starting P20, he managed to secure his team’s first point of the season after crossing the line in P10.
WINNERS AND LOSERS
Continuing from last week’s first installment of this section, let’s see how the teams stacked up…
Winners:
-Mercedes
-McLaren
-Williams
(Honorable Mentions: Alpha Romeo and Alpha Tauri. For Alpha Romeo, much better strategy weekend and a respectable P8 for Valterri Bottas and P11 for Zhou Guanyu. For Alpha Tauri they had their first double finish of the season, and that deserves a big thumbs up, because they were looking ROUGH the past 2 weekends).
Mercedes- Another podium for the washed up Mercedes this season... Hmm… The Silver Arrows are sitting P2 in the Constructors, and Russell is P2 in the Drivers. The team still has a ton of work to do, and they know it, but major props to their ability to maximize points early on in the season with (at least so far) some reliability in their car.
McLaren- Winners for two weekends in a row in my book! They’ve gone from zero to hero, and scored double points for the first time this season. They are trending in a positive direction, and are having impressive pit stop times!
Williams- Really, Albon is the winner, but Latifi finished the race, which is somewhat of a miracle at this point of the season. (That may be a bit harsh…) Anyways, Williams is no stranger to different strategy decisions to give them an edge in a slower car. Albon did a great job managing tires, and drove a clean race. Latifi finished P16, only above Alonso (who pitted a few laps prior because he had completely used up his set of Mediums), and the DNFs… But hey, he finished.
Losers:
-Red Bull
-Ferrari
-Aston Martin
Red Bull- It is with great joy that I put them down here. Despite a P2 finish, reliability is a HUGE question for Red Bull. Their golden boy has now NOT FINISHED 2 out of the 3 races so far in the season, and is showing signs of cracking under pressure of defending his title. Red Bull would do anything for Verstappen including sacrificing Perez, but Perez has finished more races, and even out qualified Max in the only race Max finished. Had it not been for his bad luck, Perez probably should have won that race. I’m not saying they should give up on Verstappen (mostly because THEY WOULD NEVER), but I think Perez deserves much more of the team’s respect, especially considering they may have to give up a lot to help their golden boy climb from P6 where he is currently sitting. Remember, speed isn’t everything. Slow cars still get points, Christian.
Max Verstappen hopping out of his barbecued car.
Ferrari- Before you come for me, please let me explain. Leclerc had another dominant weekend, which is obviously impressive. I do have some early concerns though, with Ferrari as a whole, which is why they’re hanging out down here with the losers this weekend. For starters, Carlos Sainz had a horrible weekend, and a lot of it was bad luck and car issues. But still, a DNF for Sainz doesn’t help bolster Ferrari’s early lead, something that they need as a cushion, especially if Red Bull and Mercedes dial in their cars in the next couple of races. I feel like Carlos is kind of… backsliding a little? It crushes me to even say these things, because I really respect him, his work ethic, and his skill as a driver. Maybe Leclerc just made a big leap in the off season, and that’s why Carlos looks a little weaker this season. Maybe it’s this new era of cars are a bit challenging for him compared to Charles. But if anyone can learn, I believe Carlos could. But ultimately, my biggest concern is what happens if/when Red Bull and Mercedes improve their reliability and pace respectively. Will Ferrari have an answer?
Aston Martin- Undeniably the worst of the worst. Sitting in a comfortable last place, the green machine (does anyone call them that?) has 0 points so far this season. Vettel gets a one race pass, and an acknowledgment that recovering from Covid is definitely difficult. Even if his symptoms were mild, there is definitely some residual fatigue that lingers even after you’re “negative”. From FP1 to the checkered flag, Aston Martin had the worst weekend. Both drivers wrecked in FP3, creating a MASSIVE repair job for the team. Vettel crashed in the early stages of the race, while Stroll finished in a respectable P12 (the last of the un-lapped cars). Despite this respectable finish for Stroll, I felt he could have been penalized for pushing Bottas off track, although the stewards decided not to investigate the incident further. Aston Martin just looks awful right now, with no real answers. After McLaren’s horrible start to the season, it was clear that they were going to be working hard to make improvements. Aston Martin got off to this season on their back foot, and they haven’t recovered.
>SILVER ARROW POINTS:
> Mercedes 3-4 finish and sitting P2 in the Constructors! Absolutely impressive considering their car is lacking pace.
> I am overjoyed for Russell getting his first podium with the team! I love his competitive spirit, but most importantly, he has clearly matured since that Imola incident last season. A Russell from 2021, or 2020 would have probably cooked those tires continuing to defend against Perez, but he had the perspective to look after his tires to maximize points (which is clearly the team’s goal right now).
> Bummed Lewis couldn’t secure another podium, but P4 is a great finish for the team. Hopefully the team can sort out his overheating issues, and it doesn’t prevent/distract the team for making improvements to the car and aero package.
> Regarding to the 2 drivers radio calls. 1) Russell showed his competitiveness, while also taking the feedback from the team. Plenty of drivers ignore their teams’ instructions, but Russell took their feedback, and checked his tires. Growth, you love to see it. 2) Again, Lewis showed his competitiveness. People were quick to take to Twitter to guess what Lewis meant when he said “You put me in a really difficult position.” Many believed that the message from his team to “lift and coast” was a message to hold position and not fight Russell. Now, I have several points about this, but first, Sir Lewis has said that he was simply frustrated that he couldn’t fight for P3 because of the engine overheating, nothing more. But even if the “lift and coast” order was the team saying don’t fight with Russell, could you blame them? The team will do anything for Lewis, and even with Russell having more points, I have no doubt that Hamilton is still their go to driver, because why wouldn’t that be the case with a 7x World Champion? And even IF team orders were given to Hamilton, why wouldn’t he be a little frustrated? Again, he’s a competitor. He wants to win. Drivers have said several times that with all the adrenaline pumping through them while driving, they’re going to come off a bit intense on radio messages. Lewis wanted P3, and was frustrated that he was being told to take it easy by the team, but guess what? He listened, because again, P4 is better than completely cooking your engine. You only get so many power unit replacements before you start getting penalized, so why risk an early change? Also, with the cost cap, why risk an incident with 1 or both cars when you know you’re trying to bring some impressive upgrades in the coming weeks? Both Lewis and George are entitled to their frustrations over radio… But they are both great drivers, and are with a 8x World Champion team, and they know that. Anyways, I just wanted it to be said.
LOOKING AHEAD
So we have another weekend off before the next race in Imola. This Grand Prix will have the first sprint race of the season, and I am cautiously interested. I don’t like this format of qualifying, because traditional qualifying is interesting and impressive on it’s own, BUT Mercedes has had (relatively) horrible qualifying pace, and the weight from additional fuel has helped them with balance issues. I’m not saying that this will magically give them a pole position, but I think the sprints will be more beneficial (at least this early one) to Mercedes this year than the sprints were last year. Only time will tell…
As always, I’ve been sharing two other F1 commentary channels. They are creators of color, and I highly recommend checking them out!
Quick Stop F1 Podcast: Australian GP Review (hosted by Nyasha and Thandie, and joined by a special guest, journalist and podcaster Anita Abayomi. They are big Mercedes fans, and absolutely hilarious and informative. Their perspectives and F1 experience is something I look forward to every week. While I shared their YouTube link, they are found on Podcast streaming services as well.)
On the Chicane: 2022 Australian GP Race Rundown (hosted by Paris and Marium, these 2 women of color bring a unique perspective to their race rundowns. Their video recaps are filled with summary and analysis, and are usually under 30 minutes! Perfect to have along with your morning coffee or tea! They also share graphics of the track with cool info on their Instagram before every race.)
See y’all in Europe! (lol, I wish)