Australian Grand Prix: The hits/misses of the editorial team

The Top 3:

Charles Leclerc, once again imperial.

He is undoubtedly the driver of this early season. Charles Leclerc delivered another masterclass on the Melbourne track, with a hat trick to top it off. The Monegasque is walking on water in this early season and now has 71 points in the standings, already 38 points ahead of his teammate Carlos Sainz and 46 points ahead of Max Verstappen.

Charles Leclerc had a perfect weekend, dominating the Red Bulls in qualifying by nearly three tenths of a second, and then leading the entire Grand Prix without being troubled despite two Safety Car periods that brought his pursuers closer. A masterstroke.

Alexander Albon, the point that echoes like a victory.

That point is worth its weight in gold. After starting last due to his disqualification from the qualifying rounds, the task looked very challenging for the Thai driver. In a Williams car that has been underperforming since the start of the season (zero points), Albon had finished 13th and 14th in the first two races.

The former Red Bull driver embarked on a different strategy than the majority of the grid by choosing the hard tires, just like only five other drivers. It was a daring gamble that didn’t necessarily pay off for Alonso and Magnussen, for example, who stopped on the 39th lap to switch to medium tires and finished outside the points.

Alex Albon perfectly managed the wear of his tires to stay on track until the last lap, remaining competitive and setting good lap times. On the 56th lap, he even set a better time than the McLarens ahead of him, despite Ricciardo and Norris having 20 fewer laps on their tires. However, when he had to make his mandatory pit stop on the 57th lap, Albon lost three positions and dropped from 7th to 10th place.

Enough to bring a point to his team, which had been waiting for this since the 2021 Russian Grand Prix. A very strong performance from the Thai driver who establishes himself as the number one at Williams while Latifi seems to be struggling.

Mercedes is always there to pick up the crumbs.

They are clearly not up to the challenge to fight for victories, and it shows. The Mercedes W13 is not as well-born as its predecessors that brought 8 consecutive constructors’ titles to the German team. Yet, George Russell and Lewis Hamilton are second and fifth in the standings, ahead of Max Verstappen.

On Sunday, once again, the Silver Arrows were there to take advantage of their competitors’ mistakes. Qualifying in fifth and sixth, the two drivers capitalized on the retirements of Sainz and Verstappen. They also managed to overtake Norris right from the first corner, resulting in a strong performance with George Russell securing his first podium for Mercedes in third place, and Lewis Hamilton finishing in fourth.

If Mercedes is not (yet) able to fight for the title, Russell and Hamilton are almost maximizing every opportunity to bring big points to their team and limit the gap on the two favorites, Red Bull and especially Ferrari. It’s a winning strategy as Mercedes is second in the constructors’ standings, ten points ahead of Red Bull.

The Flop 3.

Aston Martin, a catastrophic weekend from start to finish.

For Aston Martin, there is absolutely nothing good to bring back from Australia. The team owned by Lawrence Stroll was the weakest on the grid this weekend. The lack of reliability of the car is alarming, as Sebastian Vettel experienced a mechanical problem in FP1 and did not drive in FP2, during which Lance Stroll caused a red flag by losing a piece of the wing. Then, in FP3, both drivers crashed their cars, giving their mechanics a lot of work to repair everything just two hours before qualifying.

In qualifying, Stroll went off the track while closing the door on Nicholas Latifi, and Vettel was only able to get on the track thanks to the red flag caused by his teammate, managing to complete only one flying lap and qualify in 18th place. In the race, things didn’t improve for the German as he hit the wall on the 22nd lap, ending his race.

Stroll, on the other hand, delivered some impressive battles on track, notably against Pierre Gasly, sometimes pushing beyond the limits (receiving a 5-second penalty for zig-zagging on the straight), but failed to finish in the points (12th). Aston Martin leaves Melbourne at the bottom of the standings, without any points scored since the start of the season, with a Lance Stroll whose performance raises questions and a Sebastian Vettel who appears to have no desire to be there. The season is going to be a long one at this pace for Aston.

Carlos Sainz unrecognizable in Melbourne.

A weekend to forget for Carlos Sainz. The Spaniard struggled on the Australian track and suffered in comparison to his teammate. By missing out on his last attempt in Q3, Sainz only started from ninth place on the grid. A very disappointing result considering Charles Leclerc secured pole position with a lap time 1.5 seconds faster.

In the race, Sainz, who started on hard tires, completely misses his start and falls to 14th place. Afterwards, the Spaniard will claim a steering wheel issue to justify his failed start. For him, the race ends on the second lap when he misses his braking point at turn 9 while trying to overtake Kevin Magnussen. His F1-75 goes off track and ends up in the gravel trap at turn 10. Stuck, Sainz doesn’t get out of it and pays a high price for his big mistake.

Spanish driver falls to third place in the rankings, already 38 points behind his teammate. A quick reaction is eagerly awaited for Carlos Sainz, who is but a shadow of the driver he was last year.

Red Bull, the lack of reliability comes at a cost

Do the weeks follow and resemble each other for Red Bull? After Max Verstappen’s victory in Jeddah, the Austrian team arrived in Melbourne with ambition. But it was the scenario of Bahrain that repeated itself. Sitting comfortably in second position, unable to challenge Leclerc ahead but much stronger than his pursuers, Verstappen was holding onto his second podium of the season when he was forced to stop on the side of the track in the 39th lap, his car engulfed in flames.

This is the second retirement for the Dutch driver after Bahrain, and he has only finished one race since the beginning of the season. Despite his promises on the track, the RB18 is sorely lacking in reliability, which has already cost the team numerous points and deprived Max Verstappen of two more podium finishes. With a 46-point deficit for the defending champion, Red Bull cannot afford any mistakes anymore and must urgently score big points in the upcoming races to prevent Ferrari from gaining too much of an advantage.