A RAFT of crashes, unreliability, red flags, and three restarts was the story of the 2023 Australian Grand Prix.
To no-one’s great surprise, Max Verstappen took pole position on Saturday.
What did raise eyebrows somewhat was the presence of Mercedes’ George Russell and Lewis Hamilton in second and third on the grid. For the first time this season the Merc had produced a turn of pace.
Checo Perez was left to start Sunday’s race from the pitlane after a mystery issue in qualifying.
It wasn’t the customary straightforward start for Verstappen, who lost the lead to Russell as the lights went out. Verstappen was then muscled out of the way by Hamilton and relegated to P3.
It could’ve been worse – and it was for Charles Leclerc. The Ferrari driver, starting in P7, was tipped into the turn three gravel on the opening lap, by Lance Stroll. Race stewards quickly deemed it a racing incident.
The recovery of Leclerc’s Ferrari prompted the first appearance of the safety car. Those at the lower end of the running order opted to make a stop and switch to a hard compound tyre. However, just three laps after the restart Alex Albon slammed into the barriers at turn seven. It brought the safety car out again, and race leader, Russell, took the opportunity to pit while Hamilton and Verstappen stayed out.
The advantage of having completed his stop quickly turned into a catastrophe for Russell, as the red flag was hung shortly afterwards. The Williams had dumped a load of gravel on the track that could only be cleared up with a sweeper. As F1, since Japan 2015, does not allow cars on track whilst heavy machinery is deployed, the red flag made its first appearance of the afternoon.
It meant that everyone who didn’t stop would have a “free stop” and get to change to a new set of tyres.
At the restart, Hamilton held off Verstappen but the writing was on the wall as the Red Bull driver, with the aid of DRS, swept around the outside of Hamilton on the back straight, and into the lead.
Russell, who restarted in seventh, made progress through the field. He overtook Pierre Gasly for fourth, but a handful of laps later he ground to a halt near the pit exit with flames coming from the back of his Merc. An apparent power unit issue looked to be the culprit for Russell.
Up ahead, Verstappen unleashed the prodigious speed of the Red Bull and built a solid gap to Hamilton. In turn, Hamilton wasn’t as comfortable with Fernando Alonso breathing down his gearbox. The Spaniard, in his Aston Martin, looked threatening throughout the race, but never really showed Hamilton a wheel.
With only two laps to go, another red flag interrupted proceedings. This time it was to clear the debris from Kevin Magnussen’s Haas who had clouted the barrier at the exit of turn one. By this stage, Carlos Sainz looked likely to salvage some points for Ferrari as he fought his way into P4 when the red flag had halted the race.
The restart would be a two-lap shoot-out and bedlam ensued.
While Verstappen defended his lead from Hamilton it was utter chaos behind them.
First, Sainz tagged the back of Alonso sending the latter spinning. Gasly collected teammate Esteban Ocon which brought an end to both Alpine’s races, and Logan Sargeant ran into the back of Alpha Tauri’s Nyck de Vries on the restart. You guessed it, another red flag period.
This time the race would not restart, given that Verstappen had already crossed the line to start the final lap of the Grand Prix. It would, effectively, be a one lap parade, after which the safety car pulled into the pits and the field crossed the line.
As the field had not completed a sector by the time the red flag was deployed, the classification was taken one lap back, minus the stricken Alpines.
This restored Alonso to third, and while Sainz finished fourth on the road he was given a five-second penalty for his clash with Alonso, pushing Stroll to fourth ahead of Perez in fifth.
Lando Norris scored a solid sixth for McLaren, ahead of Nico Hulkenberg.
Home hero, Oscar Piastri, took eighth – and with it his first F1 points. Zhou Guanyu was ninth for Alfa Romeo ahead of Yuki Tsunoda. After three rounds of 2023, Verstappen leads the drivers’ standings by 69 points to Perez’s 54.
There are still 20 races to go in the season, and lots of questions to be answered. The good news for those sent back to the drawing board is that they have nearly a month to come up with solutions.
The cancellation of the Chinese Grand Prix means that F1 2023 only returns at the end of April, with the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
