If Formula One appeared relatively dull in 2023, its all change for the new season. For the first time in the history of the sport all the drivers at the final Grand Prix were retained by their respective teams for this year. The 2023 silly season was short lived as even the ‘at risk’ Yukli Tsunoda had a contract extension announced at his home race in Suzuka.

Lewis Hamilton committed his foreseeable future signing a new deal with Mercedes, though clearly given his recent announcement, it was not the one he had hoped for to end his career with the silver arrows. The seven times champion is off to Ferrari replacing the only non-Red Bull driver to win a Grand Prix in over a year.

 

 

Sainz imperious in Australia

Carlos Sainz was imperious in Australia, claiming the quickest time in both Q1 and Q2 only to be beaten to pole position by a supreme effort from the current world champion. 

Sainz then stuck with Verstappen at lights out, not allowing the Red Bull to build its customary one second gap which means the car behind does not get DRS even though this season it is enabled after just one lap.

The Spanish driver was rewarded on lap two as Verstappen made a mistake in turn 6 and the Ferrari powered by completing a DRS overtake easily into turn 9.

Of course Max had brake issues which would see him retire the car just three laps later, meaning for the first time since Singapore last year, there would be an F1 race winner other than the current world champion.

Verstappen faces penalty blow from Australia

 

 

 

Juts two weeks recovery time

Two weeks earlier, Carlos had been rushed to hospital in Saudi Arabia to have his appendix removed and his participation at the Australian Grand Prix was in doubt up to the moment he took his seat in the SF-24 for practice one in Melbourne. Yet the Spaniard was determined to speed his recovery as best possible. “I went on the internet and started talking with professionals and said, ‘OK, what helps to speed up recovery?’” he detailed.

“Nine days ago, when I was about to catch the flight to come to Australia, I was still in bed,” Sainz revealed to assembled media. Barely I could use my abdominal to move and I was like: ‘This is not going to happen’. But I took the flight and suddenly when I landed in Australia, the feeling was a lot better.”

The Ferrari driver revealed that he’d spoken with Alex Albon who suffered a similar fate 18 months ago and the Williams driver assured Sainz the second week after the operation, progress was much quicker.

Carlos took some time to get comfortable in the car, but by the time qualifying in Melbourne came around, he adapted better than his team mate to the different conditions between FP3 and qualifying which saw him the main threat to Max Verstappen.

Hamilton and Wolff disagreement down under

 

 

 

Sainz ‘stronger’ than Leclerc

Team mate Charles Leclerc struggled with the handling of his Ferrari and could only manage P5 and was a quarter of a second slower than his Spanish team mate.

Carlos Sainz looked the stronger of the Ferrari pairing last season and only because of events beyond his control in Las Vegas did he finish the year eventually just behind Leclerc. The Monegasque driver is a favoured son of the Scuderia and in January it was announced he had done a deal to take him way behind the end of this year.

It was expected that a contract extension would be announced shortly afterwards but then the bombshell dropped that Lewis would be going to Ferrari next year and Carlos was out of a job. The Spanish media have reacted to their countryman’s victory in Australia with a mix of praise for Sainz and derision for the Scuderia and Hamilton.

Writing for Marca, Maro Canseco reckons Ferrari are swapping a driver worthy of a “documentary” for one who is in “clear decline”.

Alonso penalty was worth it

 

 

 

Spanish media high praise for Carlos

“Sainz’s feat would deserve a complete documentary if he were British like Lewis Hamilton, with a victory days after undergoing surgery for appendicitis and with three incisions still in his abdomen, which must have bothered him on the torture rack for the body that is F1,” he said.

“In the offices of Maranello, or rather Turin, they made a decision to do without their currently best driver, already in 2023 ahead of Charles Leclerc, to place a driver in clear decline not so much in talent or morale and of lacking in attitude, as the seven-time champion has been demonstrating in recent times.”

Lewis Hamilton is indeed struggling at present and has been out qualified by his junior team mate in all five of the last Grand Prix weekends. In Australia matters grew worse as Lewis failed to make it into Q3 and was left ruing a blown engine just a quarter of the way through the race on Sunday.

“It is not based on sporting values, but on marketing. May God preserve their sight,” Canseco adds. “Hamilton’s retirement (engine) when he was clearly behind Russell again indicates that he is no longer the undisputed first driver at Mercedes and it is very likely that he will not be able to beat the Monegasque in 2025 either.”

Marko claims Max wouldn’t have won anyway

 

 

Ferrari: “Have we made a mistake?”

Soymotor’s Raymond Blancafort believes Ferrari have to be questioning their decision.

“Surely, once the euphoric rush of adrenaline has passed, Frédéric Vasseur and Elkann will have their brains rumbling with a question: ‘Have we made a mistake?’” he wrote.

“At Ferrari, they promised them very happily by announcing the signing of Lewis Hamilton with a chequebook, sacrificing Carlos Sainz. And now perhaps they are wondering if they have signed a name more than the man they needed – who they had at home, surely much cheaper, and who wanted to continue.”

Hamilton has struggled with the feel of the new ground effect cars which came into force in 2022. Unlike other older driver’s such as Fernando Alonso, Lewis is struggling to feel connected with the rear end of his car, something which isn’t going away any time soon. Whether the Ferrari next year will make him feel more comfortable is an unknown, but it could just be Lewis is never going to be comfortable with the ever changing centre of pressure as the floor does its work in creating downforce.

Piastri reacts to McLaren team orders denying him a podium

 

 

Red Bull turmoil around sacking Daniel Ricciardo

Since Max Verstappen arrived on the scene in Formula One, Red Bull have sacked three drivers mid-season in less than a decade. The world champion himself benefitted from a switch from the then Toro Rosso team to Red Bull in 2016 when Daniil Kvyat was deemed to be underperforming.

Then Pierre Gasly was dropped from racing alongside Max while Alex Albon was promoted after just half a season’s racing in 2019. Ricciardo was to benefit from the latest driver ditched mid-season by the Red Bull Racing organisation, when he stepped in last year after just ten races replacing the unlucky Nyck de Vries…. READ MORE