Australia: post-race carnage 2023

 

An entertaining, albeit red, race that ended in a rather disappointing farce. Safety car, VSC, two standing restarts and three red flags. Apologies if I miss stuff out or get the order wrong, it was an early start and a lot happened.

Off the line Verstappen lost out to both Russell and Hamilton, while Leclerc visited the gravel trap for an early retirement.

Cue the safety car. Perez, who started from the pit lane on hard tyres, came in (as did others at the lower end) and then had a second stop for more hard tyres so he could just go to the end.

A short time later a safety car for Albon’s crash helped Perez, closing things up, but it graduated to a red flag which buggered the Mexican as almost everyone ahead of him hadn’t stopped yet (Russell and Sainz had, and were a couple of places ahead) robbing him of places he would’ve gained in the pit stops. It was lovely for Verstappen and Hamilton (the latter still leading) as they got a free tyre change, and very rough for a comfortable-looking Russell.

We then got a standing restart. Perez had a great getaway but then got boxed in and ended up losing two places.

Worse was to follow for Russell, though, as his engine burst into flames and he had to park it at the exit, bringing out the VSC.

Verstappen, meanwhile, passed Hamilton then drove off into the sunset. Alonso was very close behind Hamilton, and followed closely in turn by Sainz and Gasly.

Perez had made up good ground but the red flag had harmed his prospects and while top five perhaps was possible, a podium seemed out of reach. Then Magnussen forgot objects cannot occupy the same co-ordinates in time and space when he introduced his right rear tyre to a concrete wall. The wall objected, and ejected the tyre from the car, at which point another red flag, with just two racing laps to go, came out.

And so to the second standing restart. It was a grand embuggerance. Verstappen just held off Hamilton, while Alonso was in third until Sainz knocked him around. The elder Spaniard was able to recover, unlike the two Alpines who were next to one another, and in pieces, by the wall (should’ve been double points). Logan Sargeant decided braking was optional and smacked into the back of De Vries to take them both out. Stroll was also relegated out of the points.

The only question was whether the red flag that followed would lead to the final order being the result or if it would be wound back a little, as per previous occasions.

 

So I had a shower, brushed my teeth, and logged on to see F1 had decided to go with Option C: Make Shit Up.

They led the cars out for a ‘rolling restart’ which appears to have been a pointless parade lap. Alpine must have been livid given that this nonsense meant they got nothing, and Sainz got a 5s penalty for the collision with Alonso, punting him out of the points.

An absolute farce of a result.

The top 10, as it stands, is currently:

Ver, Ham, Alo, Str, Per, Nor, Hul, Pia, Zho, Tsu

Could Perez have got a podium? Possibly but it was a bad bet. Had the first red flag not hamstrung his hopes it could have happened. But he was also aided by Leclerc, Albon, and Russell all DNFing. That being said, I never would’ve predicted this turn of events.

Other things to note: the Mercedes was very tasty today, second best car, probably, to Red Bull. Ferrari and Aston Martin not far off either. Williams, in Albon’s hands, was also good, and there were impressive performances from Gasly, Norris, and Hulkenberg too.

Reliability is a concern for just about every top team, with Russell’s engine fire.

Morris Dancer