For only the second time in the past twelve months a Red Bull driver did not win the race at the Australian Grand Prix weekend. In each of the three practice sessions a Red Bull car failed to top the time sheets and in the first two sessions of Qualifying neither Max or Checo was quickest.

Verstappen pulled out two laps in Q3 which were each quick enough for the pole position time, the 35th of his career, but this was the first time we’d seen a car designed by Adrian Newey fastest. At the start of the race, Red Bull now claim Verstappen’s rear right brake was stuck and building up terrific heat while he waited for the rest of the cars to form up behind him on the grid before lights out.

 

 

 

RB20 raises questions on tyre wear

But the writing was on the wall as early as in practice two that Ferrari were here to mount a significant challenge to the world champions. There it was the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc who demonstrated lap after lap that the SF-24 was a match if not better on its medium tyres than either Red Bull car.

Pirelli have rolled the dice this year stating their intention with the tyres is to try and elect compounds for each race which will force the teams into making two pit stops. This tends to make the races less processional and regularly provides drivers on different tyre offsets able to overtake each other rather than trail along in a DRS train.

This combined with Red Bull delivering a new platform for the RB20, which for now appears to cope less well than its predecessor in terms of tyre degradation – something Red Bull mastered in 2023 as they were often the car to pit last for new tyres with Max building leads on those who had already switched for fresh rubber.

Of course this bodes well for the coming races along with the fact that McLaren were competitive with Ferrari for much of the 2024 Australian Grand Prix.

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Perez surprising admission

So its unclear whether Max would have won the race had his car not caught fire and he had to retire the RB20 after just five laps. A non-Max win was described by one pit lane reporter as “a good day for the sport” whereas had Verstappen been able to continue, it may have been an exciting duel between him and Sainz to the end, with the Ferrari winning out due to it being kinder than the Re Bull on the Pirelli tyres.

When asked whether the Ferrari race pace and lack of front end graining meant Sainz would have won the race even had Verstappen not retired, Checo was quick to respond.

“Absolutely,” he replied when Sky Sports F1. ”I think just as a team, we just didn’t have the pace today. We didn’t have the pace throughout the weekend. We were struggling already from Friday and we never got on top of the management of tyres.”

Perez claimed even McLaren were probably on a par with the world championship team but he notes the track in Melbourne is one where Ferrari does go well.

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Ferrari better at “front limited tracks”

“We were struggling early on, we could see that Ferrari and McLaren were a step ahead of us. I think we just couldn’t get the balance in a window. And there is some work to do for the coming races.

“We already saw last year in a track like this – for example, Las Vegas a front-limited track – Ferrari was a lot stronger than us so we just couldn’t look after the front tyres.”

Checo started the Grand Prix in sixth place after receiving a three place grid drop penalty for impeding Haas F1 Nico Hulkenberg in qualifying, though with the retirement of Verstappen the Mexican driver made it home in P5. This is the second circuit of this type after Bahrain that F1 has raced at so far this year, with more Ferrari hope to come in Suzuka, Miami, Imola, Barcelona, Silverstone, Spa, Zaandvoort, Qatar, COTA and Brazil. All in all half of the races this year will be held at front limited circuits which bodes well for the Ferrari pairing who could mount a challenge to Max Verstappn this season.

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Marko questions Red Bull set up

“Checo, however, went backwards,” Helmut Marko mused to ServusTV. “Why? We were at times two seconds slower than the race leader.

“We need to start looking at that. Maybe the tyre pressure was too high for these conditions or we went the wrong way with the set-up because he was two seconds slower.

“We thought the problems had been solved, which was the case with Max, I think. But as I said, Checo’s race result does give us food for thought.”

As much as Marko believes Max is quicker than Sergio, even he must admit that Perez being two seconds a lap slower would have probably meant Max would also have found difficulties with his RB20, had he survived longer than five laps.

Verstappen faces penalty blow in Australia

 

 

 

Horner defends his star driver

Verstappen appeared incensed on the team radio when it became apparent he was required to retire his car. The Dutch driver jumped out of the car and appeared to be gesticulating vigorously with mechanics from his side of the garage.

Red Bull team boss Christian Horner sought to defuse the flashpoint explaining: “A driver is always going to be frustrated when they get out of the car from a retirement. He’s been very gracious with the team.

“That DNF hurts everyone in the same way. It’s a matter of learning from it and understanding what caused it. Remarkable after three races he’s still leading the World Championship even with that DNF.

“A lot of lessons learned today,” concluded Horner.

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Alonso Penalty was ‘worth it

Long after the Formula One chequered flag dell in Australia, Fernando Alonso was to be issued with a penalty from the stewards chasing the classified race result. The Aston Martin driver was given a drive-through for “potentially dangerous” driving, which was converted into a 20-second penalty post-race.

The Melbourne stewards also decided to award the Spanish world champion driver with three penalty points on his super license, which will remain until 12 months today. Yet the big question was it worth the risk for Alonso and even further, does this jeopardise his opportunity to replace Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes for next season…..? READ MORE