Rookies dropping like flies - Doohan out on the first lap.
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Rookies dropping like flies - Doohan out on the first lap.
Sainz crashes under the safety car.
Very odd race but equally very entertaining.Quote:
Originally Posted by F1nKS
Antonelli shined today, he is going to be special this season. I expected a woeful race for Ferrari, for a brief moment there, they had the lead of the race and someone on their pit wall had a brain-fade and asked them to pit. Missed opportunity, but l expect they would have a chat about it and hopefully do better in China. But if this is what we would be seeing from Ferrari this season, they are unlikely to win any of the championships on the table.
Norris one, Piastri zero. The inter-teammate battle takes an unlucky turn for the Auzzie. Albert Park has never been kind to Australian drivers in F1.
The Redbull is actually a better car; in Verstappen's hand at least, than we expected. It was good to see that Mercedes also have genuine pace to fight for poduims and wins.
Ferrari would come out of this weekend feeling somewhat bruised. The car is some way off where they expected it to be. And they still have a dodgy strategist on their pitwall. Even in the more experienced Leclerc's hands, the car was twitchy and without the right balance to unleash the true potential of that car. We have to see how they fair in China to really gauge if this car is a dud or not.
It was a fun race. I was able to stay awake for the whole thing.
Winners:
Norris handled the pressure magnificently, especially considering that either Piastri or Max pressured him the whole race.
Max - he took what the race gave him, he pushed hard but, was not overly aggressive.
Mercedes—Russell and Antonelli can't complain about 4/5 finish. Antonelli was the only rookie who stayed out of trouble. Mercedes looks to have a talented team of drivers for the future.
Albon-Williams shows at least the preseason, and practice results were not flukes. Too bad about Sainz crash.
Stroll/Hulkenberg - they stayed out of trouble and picked up nice points for the team.
Losers
Piastri—his young age showed that he may have been too aggressive. A second-place finish, knowing he was possibly faster than Norris, would have been a good result.
The Rookies - Hadjar/Doohan/Bortoleto/Bearman - a challenging environment to start your season in.
Sainz - It will be interesting to hear whether his wreck was a driver error or a car failure.
Lawson - He had a very bad race and weekend.
Ferrari - probably not the start they wanted. With the conditions, it is easy to double-guess their strategy calls, and you could just say it was "bad luck" but also don't have a good track record on strategy. Hamilton with the right call could have been P4 and he knew it and told his people so.
Pretty spot on if you ask me.Quote:
Originally Posted by F1nKS
The only thing I'd add mention of is Yuki. He held his own, and almost pulled off what Albon did. Right up until the end he was keeping things under control, then it went south. I really wouldn't count him in either winner or loser category, since he almost pulled some good points. Hopefully he bounces back and has confidence in the car for future races.
And really the track conditions were changing so much I don't know that the trend will continue. It was really hot for qually, and fairly hot for the race as well. With rare passing opportunities, many cars were stuck where they qualified. With cooler weather and dry tracks, we might sort out the strong and weak points of the cars.
Good race. Sadly, most of the rookies showed that they are rookies. Hopefully Ferrari can figure out how to get near the fight up front.
Oh, and I'm not going to sugar coat it (hide your children):
Fuck Helmut Marko.
To be fair, it was the worst possible condition for a first proper race for any rookies. Which is why Antonelli has shown he is going to be very special. But the rookies that crashed were in the good company of Alonso and Sainz, both very experienced racers. I felt for Hadjah who did not even make it to the grid for the start of the race. Unfortunately, It would not go unnoticed. He can't make any more mistakes like that or we might see a swap out before we reach mid-season.Quote:
Originally Posted by N. Jones