Carnage at the Australian Grand Prix
The safety car put in some good work on Sunday. It came out so often that at times it was questionable as to whether it had enough fuel to carry on. If not for the red flags, it’s driver Burt Mylander, might have found himself stranded at the side of the road. That’s right, red flags, three of them, along with two standing starts in addition to the original start all added to the drama down under that saw the race’s finishing order radically shuffled with two laps remaining. The only normalcy to be found was that a Red Bull finished first and Alonso finished in third, again. That’s three third place finishes in as many races for the Spaniard. With Lance Stroll finishing in fourth the two Aston Martin drivers, when considering pace and reliability, have consolidated a relatively comfortable second in the Constructors Championship, at least for the time being. Sadly, what was to be the Chinese Grand Prix in two weeks time was cancelled due to Covid lockdowns, so there will be a twenty-eight day wait for the next race, which will be held at the Baku City Circuit in Azerbaijan on April 30th.
With the Ferrari team looking more and more like a comedy routine from the Keystone Cops and coming away with zero points for the weekend, Mercedes might be the only team that could challenge Aston Martin’s bid for second place in the championship. They will have nearly a month now to continue developing their car, so all eyes will be on Baku to see what progress they’ve made. In Australia, Mercedes driver, George Russell, actually qualified in second and took the race lead on the opening lap after beating Verstappen off the line. Unfortunately for Russell, he pitted on lap seven under the second safety car, just before the race was red flagged (due to Albon’s hitting the wall on turn seven), and lost track position to all those who were able to change tires while the race was stopped. Adding insult to injury, Russell’s engine blew on lap seventeen, shooting flames from the exhaust pipe. Hamilton, however, who was also able to pass Verstappen on the opening lap after qualifying third, was one the recipients of the free pit stop and managed to stay ahead of the Dutchman until lap twelve. Ultimately, Hamilton was no match for the Red Bull’s pace, but he hung on to second place and scored valuable points for Mercedes.
Fred Vasseur and Ferrari on the other hand received a healthy dose of harsh reality when their withering boy wonder, Charles Leclerc, only qualified seventh and went off track and into the gravel on the third corner of lap one when he decided to go adventuring across Lance Stroll’s front tire. With Leclerc beached and out of the race, it was up to Carlos Sainz to keep Ferrari in the game and finish in a points paying position. While he did manage to bring his car home in fourth, a five-second time penalty for causing a collision with fellow countryman Fernando Alonso on the penultimate lap relegated him to twelfth. The collision occurred on the exit of turn one after the second red flag (Magnussen hit the wall on turn two) and consequent restart, and resulted in total mayhem with Alonso spinning off track, Gasly taking out his teammate Estebon Ocon and Logan Sargeant running into the back of de Vries. Sixteen cars had restarted, but by the time they cleared the wreckage only twelve were left, and with a new running order. Verstappen was in the lead, followed by Hamilton, Sainz, Hulkenberg, Tsunoda, Norris, Piastri, Zhou, Bottas, Perez, Alonso and Stroll, who appeared to have gone off on his own. The race, however, was red flagged before the cars even made it through the first sector. So, on lap fifty-seven of fifty-eight the drivers all lined up in pit row for the third time, only this time there was only one lap to go.
Apparently Michael Masi, the architect of 2021’s end of season debacle, was trackside in Australia as the race director for the V-8 Supercars support race. Even though he wasn’t involved with the Formula One race, he did make his presence known and might serve as an appropriate scapegoat for this year’s ridiculous end to the Australian GP. His presence alone can turn sport into gut-wrenching spectacle. In the end, the flag-happy race stewards decided they couldn’t accurately determine the new running order and with only one lap remaining, they realized they couldn’t get in another standing start as the final lap would have been completed while the cars formed the grid. So essentially, they excused themselves from any culpability in a farcicle ending to a solid race. They decided to revert to the restart order from the second red flag and do a one lap procession behind the safety car as the final lap. Unfortunately for Alpine, this procession didn’t include their cars, which were both previously in points paying positions, and while it did include Carlos Sainz, in fourth, the five-second time penalty they slapped him with was an eternity with the cars bunched behind the safety car, and he ended up in last place.
In retrospect, it might have made more sense to hold off on the red flag after Magnussen’s crash on lap fifty-four and let the race finish under the safety car. Sure, there was debris on the track, but Magnussen had managed to get his car into a safe spot and there really wasn’t any need for a red flag. In the latter stages of a race, red flags and subsequent restarts can be extremely dangerous. Towards the end of a race, the track is littered with spent rubber off the racing line, known as marbles, and the grip is substandard at best. Also, teams will be restarting on cold and potentially worn tires, if they don’t have a new set to put on. Also, the brakes on a Formula One car are only set up to complete one race, so in the final laps they are practically spent and don’t perform well. While it was exciting to watch, the Australian GP felt more like a series of sprint races ending in disaster than an actual Grand Prix.
That being said, and without the bloviated sense of self-righteousness, it was still a lot of fun to watch. McLaren scored their first points of the season, with both cars, landing them fifth in the Constructors Championship. Alpine, although denied any points this time out, showed good pace. Gasly, with better luck, would have finished fifth. And Perez, who’s weekend was hampered by traffic and a crash in qualifying that had him starting from pit lane, made the most of it by finishing fifth. He’s currently fifteen points adrift of Verstappen and nine points ahead of Alonso, who is smelling blood. While Perez is still in the hunt for a championship, it’s likely that the wily Alonso will pounce on any weakness he sees. Meanwhile, Yuki Tsunoda scored Alpha Tauri’s first point of the season and Nico Hulkenberg, still off the podium, finished in seventh after qualifying tenth, proving he’s still got it. Haas is now running tenth in the points. But it’s a long season and we’ve only seen three races so far. Twenty to go. Until then, stay fast, stay humble, and we’ll see you in Baku.