Tag: Australian Grand Prix

Bahrain Grand Prix

Image obtained from F1.com

Bahrain Shows The Importance of DRS

Whilst the Japanese Grand Prix was a snooze fest, the Bahrain Grand Prix proved slightly more entertaining with some decent amount of action up and down the field. What it does highlight however, is the reliance of DRS for any chance of meaningful overtaking. The track has 3 DRS zones compared to Japan that has 1, and highlights that the current generation of F1 cars are not very good at “racing”. The race was refreshed towards the end with a safety car that brought some closer racing for the closing stages. Piastri always looked in control and was never put under pressure. Could we have a new favourite for the title?

Does Lando lack the mental strength to become champion?

After a poor qualifying, Norris was rather down beat afterwards, sure sixth on the grid isn’t great but in a car that in race trim at least is clearly quicker than everyone else, it shouldn’t be the end of the world. We have seen Max and Hamilton many a time come from much further back to finish a race on the podium.

Norris during the interview suggested that his issues lay within his head, and he looked very depressed. It’s made me wonder whether he has the mental strength to succeed in a tight championship fight. If you look at other drivers like Max, Alonso, Schumacher, Raikkonen, Pastri and many more they never seem to be too fazed by anything, or at least that’s how they appear in front of the media. I don’t mention Hamilton because he does tend to wear his heart on his sleeve, however he rarely questions his own mental strength in front of the cameras.

I don’t know who Norris surrounds himself with outside of F1, but if it were me I would be associating with people that can help nurture and improve my mental strength. The problem with being a star is finding the right people to associate with, there are a lot of snakes out there that will just want his money and won’t have his best interests at heart. My suggestion to him would be to take stock on who he associates with and make sure to weed out anyone just there for a free ride. If he can’t find a way to improve his mental strength, he needs to try and manage it better and not let it show to the world, else he may see this year’s title, slip through his fingers, despite McLaren protecting him.

Turmoil at Red Bull

It’s been a mixed start for RB, they have a couple of podiums including a win in Japan and they have swapped the second drivers around. Tsunoda should have been given the seat in the first place in my opinion, and it will be interesting to see how he compares to Max. The team however had a nightmare in Bahrain. Starting in practice they looked miles off the McLaren pace and they both qualified poorly and then in the race they both had issues in the pits with the traffic light (bring back the lollipop man) which caused them to lose places.

Sky Sports reported after the race that there was a rather heated discussion between key personnel in RB and Max’s manager. The problem when you have so much continued success is it is hard to let that go. It’s the natural cycle in F1, one team dominates for a couple of seasons, other teams eventually catch up and surpass them and then the regulations change and so the cycle begins again. Max has had his was for so long, like Hamilton before him and Vettel before him, maybe it’s time he had a new challenge and move teams like Hamilton did. Red Bull have obviously been hit by the controversy last season and the loss of key personnel to other teams which has exasperated their decline. What Horner and Markko will be saying is “we need to get through this tough spell together, but we look strong for 2026”.

Max is clearly not going to leave mid-season, but rumours are that he is already losing confidence as the upgrades that have come, so far have not worked. It will be interesting to see what happens for 2026, no doubt he will have a get out clause, however I can’t see which team would have him. Any team that has him will have to be prepared to upset the apple cart. Ferrari are likely to be happy with Leclerc and Hamilton, so far, they seem to get on and don’t attract much wrong attention towards the team. McLaren are happy with Nozza and Piastri and Max won’t go to Mercedes unless George is outed. The only viable place I could see him is Aston Martin, but they are having their own issues at the moment, and you would assume he’d replace Alonso.

Ferrari strategy costs them again.

Finally, a note on the Ferrari strategy calls this race. Initially rejecting Leclerc’s calls to go on the hard tyre looked like a strong shrewd strategy call. The hard tyre was clearly not a good tyre for anyone using it. Unfortunately, at the safety car they put both drivers on it and it cost Leclerc a podium, not long after pitting both drivers complained they had no grip. They couldn’t run another set of mediums, having started on them and then fitting another set at the first pitstops, but the soft tyre in the early stages lasted well and I can’t help but think in the latter stages on lower fuel, they would have been even better.

A round up of elsewhere

William had a race to forget, Sainz retired with damage and was then given a 10 place for the next race after failing to serve his time penalty for causing a collision.

Nico Hulkenberg was disqualified after the race for having excessive wear on his plank under his car

Results

1st	Oscar Piastri	11th	Kimi Antonelli
2nd	George Russell	12th	Alex Albon
3rf	Lando Norris	13th	Isack Hadjar
4th	Charles Leclerc	14th	Jack Doohan
5th	Lewis Hamilton	15th	Fernando Alonso
6th	Max Verstappen	16th	Liam Lawson
7th	Pierre Gasley	17th	Lance Stroll
8th	Estaban Ocon	18th	Gabriel Bortoleto
9th	Yuki Tsunoda	DNF	Carlos Sainz
10th	Oliver Bearman	DIS	Nico Hulkenberg

Race Rating: 6/10

What’s next?

Short week before the Saudi GP, not expecting this one to be a barn stormer but we will see.

Let me know what you think below:

Australian Grand Prix

Image obtained from F1.com

F1 is back baby!

The 2025 season got under way this past weekend with Australia raising the curtain, something that they haven’t done for several years.

With Albert Park being quite a niche circuit, it is still difficult really to get a real feel of the pecking order, I don’t think we will really find out the complete order for a couple of races. I think we can all agree that Haas seem to be struggling, both cars scored points last year, this year they finished last.

The changeable conditions caught out several drivers both rookies and experienced alike, it added a bit of intrigue to the race however it also made it a bit slow and stuttery. An F1 car is never designed to run in the wet it is however clear that with the torque and power the cars have, once they go in the wet it’s very hard to keep it under control. This may well get worse next season with more electrical power being applied.

A race of crashes and a tough weekend for the rookies

In a weekend of crashes, it was the rookies that had the lion’s share of them. Albert Park is a tough street circuit and will punish you if you make a mistake. It’s not an easy circuit to master for a green driver and I am sure they would have much preferred Bahrain as the first race of the season.

Bearman at least kept his crashes to practice, however come qualifying when his gear box failed, one must assume it was a knock on from the shunt in practice. Antonelli damaged the underside of his car during Q1 and compromised himself which meant he couldn’t progress any further.

Hadjar crashed on the formation lap before Jack Doohan and Bortoletto crashed and Lawson almost with a carbon copy of Hadjar also crashed out. Hadjar was quite dismayed and embarrassed about what happened, however the fact that the conditions also caught out Sainz behind the safety car and Alonso as well as Lawson in a similar fashion, I think he will take some solace from.

McLaren lead the way

I know I said it’s hard to call the order after the first race, there were some hints that McLaren were possibly hiding some pace. Firstly, the gap in qualifying was larger than what I thought it would be. It was quite close in Q1 & Q2 then the run on the new softs in Q3 was almost half a second quicker than the Red Bull. The other tell tail sign that the car has significant performance was during the first stage of the race on the intermediate tyres. Verstappen seemed to be keeping up well, made a mistake and he was gone. His tyres seemed to be shot, whilst both McLarens scampered off into the distance. The biggest hint was when everyone had pitted for dry tyres, they both pitted and went onto the hard compound with Verstappen on the medium. Normally you would expect McLaren to be at a disadvantage here with the conditions at the time and the fact that the harder tyre is slower to warm up. I expected Verstappen to put them under pressure and potentially pass them, however the opposite happened, and both cars again started to pull away.

Finally, Piastri managed to go from 13th to 9th, obviously he was helped by unlapping himself during the safety car, however he showed great pace and pulled off a couple of fantastic overtakes without really looking like he was throwing the car about.

Williams best of the midfield?

Williams showed well all weekend and although you shouldn’t read too much into practice it was no surprise to me when the qualified well. I think Williams are going to finally move forward this year with two drivers that can be competitive and know how to score points. Albon finished 4th thanks to a penalty for Antonelli, which would later be rescinded dropping Albon back to 5th. It meant that had he scored almost as many points in the first race as he managed all season last year. The only negative to come out the weekend was Sainz’s crash behind the safety car, a bit embarrassing but without that crash they were on for a good points haul. Hopefully the pace in the car isn’t a one off and they can carry on as they started.

Out for a Stroll

I Just wanted to add that Lance Stroll quietly went about his weekend and ended up getting a positive result for Aston Martin. He may have benefited from some of the accidents however, he kept his nose clean and scored some solid points.