Australia: post-race analysis 2022

Well, it’s been a few years but the race in Australia was both the least interesting and least profitable of the season so far. It wasn’t dire, but not a cracker by any stretch of the imagination. Also worth noting I made a mistake, Albon was only disqualified from, er, qualifying, not the whole race weekend.

A few drivers, including Sainz and Alonso, started on the hard tyres, but most were on the medium. Off the line both Mercedes did well, Hamilton passing both Norris and Perez, while Ricciardo found himself behind Russell. Sainz had a dire start and a few laps later driver error put him into in a gravel trap and out of the race, bringing out the safety car. A weekend to forget for the Spaniard.

Racing resumed and Leclerc handily fended off Verstappen. Perez, meanwhile, passed Hamilton with seeming ease (not at the restart but in normal racing).

The pattern was essentially set, with a few notable shifts. Vettel made a mistake, hit the barriers, and went out, and Verstappen had a reliability DNF, forcing him to park by the wayside. In between these events, the Vettel-safety car meant Verstappen got very close to taking the lead but Leclerc managed once more to retain his place.

The McLarens, bottled up right behind the Mercedes, pitted first but this proved unwise as the advantage was extended by the Silver Arrows staying out longer (Hamilton was miffed that Russell got lucky with safety car timing for a cheap stop that put the younger Briton up on the podium).

However, the very fact that McLaren might be disappointed with 5^th and 6^th shows just how much progress they’ve made since leaving the Middle East and is some cause for optimism. The Mercedes team can also be happy with not just more good luck but looking after their tyres much better than the Red Bull during the first stint.

Ocon and Bottas were 7^th and 8^th, scoring amid a tight midfield tussle, with Gasly 9^th and Albon getting an impressive 10^th. The Thai kept his hard tyres on for almost the entire race, pitting at the last opportunity for soft tyres and retaining the last point position (ahead of Zhou Guanyu) by just a couple of seconds (he was 0.3s ahead leaving the pits).

Alonso had looked very fast, stayed out long, and when the Vettel safety car came out on lap 40 pitted. But his medium tyres were simply way off the pace and he may have grained them to ruin pushing too hard too early. A shame, as he and the car together had real pace (compounding his qualifying misfortune). He ended up way out of the points, with a late push for fastest lap with new tyres that was thwarted by Leclerc.

So, just three retirements, which, according to reality and not my sleepy misreading, was one too few for my bet to come off. Close, especially as Schumacher and Tsunoda came within a hair’s breadth of crashing under the safety car, but no cigar.

Two of the three were chaps at the sharp end. This means Leclerc now has a dominant position of 71 points, Russell is on 37, Sainz* 33, Perez* 30, Hamilton 28, and Verstappen** 25.

* = DNFs.

The on-track action was closer and there was more passing than in previous races at this circuit, as well as many off-track forays. Could’ve easily been more DNFs, but wasn’t quite to be.

 

Next race is Imola, in a fortnight. And a more civilised hour. Unfortunately, the weekend will be contaminated by the money-grubbing tedium of a sprint race.

Morris Dancer