Race Review: Australia

The 2024 F1 grid recently took a trip down under for their yearly visit to the Albert Park Circuit, the race did not disappoint and was full of unexpected drama from lap 1 to 53 treating the British fans that woke up at 4am!

Only 18 drivers lined up on the grid as Logan Sargeant was forced to sit out with Alex Albon taking his chassis following a big crash in FP1 leaving his unusable and on a plane back to Oxfordshire. Zhou Guanyu took the total up to 19 as he joined the pack from the pits.

In front of a record crowd Max Verstappen started on pole position and after the iconic ‘lights out and away we go’, led the whole pack safely through the first few corners. There were multiple strategies on display with some drivers starting on softs and mediums hoping to make up positions at the start, with others going long starting on hards. Lando Norris managed to hold onto his 3rd position after being promoted following Sergio Perez’s penalty in qualifying moving him down to P6.

Carlos Sainz managed to stay close behind Verstappen on the opening laps and got the overtake done on lap two to take the lead of the Grand Prix. Verstappen made a mistake as he claimed he had “lost the car” making the overtake an easy one for the Ferrari driver. Things went from bad to worse on lap four for the World Champion as his car had smoke coming from the rear, he limped back to the pits but with his brakes being on fire was forced to retire. It was game on for Ferrari and McLaren with the front three being super tight.

Lewis Hamilton was one of those that started on the soft compound tyres meaning he made his first pit stop early on lap eight, the strategy was unsuccessful for the Brit as he remained out of the points. Unfortunately, the Mercedes driver, who had already had a poor qualifying session the day before starting in P11, just a lap after complimenting the Red Bull’s pace was forced to retire on lap 16 following a engine failure.  

Sauber had nightmares on their pitstops with an issue with their wheelnut, the same issue was present in the Bahrain and Jeddah races and once again put drivers out of contention of points. To make things worse Sauber was handed a €5000 fine after losing control of their wheel nut in a pit stop and causing a potentially dangerous situation as it fell into the pit lane.

Racing for the final points positions Haas were told to swap positions with Nico Hulkenberg allowed to pass teammate Kevin Magnussen to move up to 10th. Later in the race the pair were both able to progress up the field one place each into 9th and 10th respectively leaving Australia with important points.

Despite jumping his pitting teammate, Oscar Piastri was also given team orders to allow Norris past so the Englishman could close the gap to Leclerc in second. For the majority of the race the order was Sainz, Leclerc, Norris and Piastri showing how much progress the teams have made for this season.

Pierre Gasly was given a 10 second penalty after crossing the white line on his exit from the pit lane, this saw him finish the race in P13.

Heading into the final 18 laps of the race Leclerc took the second place position as Norris came in for his second pit stop. Despite having the fresher tyres and being faster Norris was unable to catch the Ferrari’s and finished the race in P3.

Much like Singapore 2023, with just one lap remaining George Russell, who was fighting Fernando Alonso for P6, crashed meaning a double DNF for Mercedes. It was a big crash but thankfully he was okay, after the race the stewards awarded Alonso a 20 second penalty as they felt his driving before Russell’s crash was “potentially dangerous”.

Sainz, aka the smooth operator, had a fantastic race finishing 2.366 seconds ahead of Leclerc in P2, perhaps all drivers need to have their appendix removed if they want to win! Before crossing the line Sainz came on the radio with a wholesome message for Leclerc to “come closer so we can celebrate this together”!

Albon had a tough race, unable to pick up any points he finished in P11. Sadly, there was no opportunity for the return of the shoey as Aussie drivers Piastri and Daniel Ricciardo finished P4 and P12 respectively in their home race.

Overall a really exciting race, hopefully there’s more like this to come!