Category: Formula 1

Ocon had made his first tyre change on lap nine, just before the tear-off became lodged in a brake duct of his Alpine A524 to trigger overheating.

At the time, he was in a fight with Kevin Magnussen, Alex Albon and Nico Hulkenberg, with both Haas drivers eventually finishing in the points. However, the brake temperature issue obliged Ocon to make a second stop just seven laps after his first.

It was too early to allow him to get to the flag without a third stop later in the race to refit the little-used hard tyres that he had abandoned earlier.

He was classified 16th, behind the Saubers of Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu, both of whom suffered lengthy delays in the pits.

“Before the tear-off we were fighting with Kevin, Alex and I was in front of Nico,” said Ocon when asked about his race by Autosport. 

“So we were on for possible points, from ninth to 11th, I think that would have been where we finished today.

“Unfortunately, we’ll never know the outcome, but it was an interesting race.

“I was happy with how we progressed, the pace we had, we were keeping up with these guys. So it was looking good.”

Esteban Ocon, Alpine A524, leaves his pit box after a stop

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

Expanding on what happened with his brakes, he said: “On the first lap, I got a tear-off in my mirror, that was the first thing.

“And then a couple of laps later, it’s not the same tear-off, it’s another one that goes in my brake duct.

“The whole rear of the car was going to burn, if we didn’t stop. It obviously was the safe thing to do.

“Maybe keeping going would have made us retire, we will never know, so not much that we could have done.

“I also had the radio failing by lap 30. It’s like if the Wi-Fi is horribly bad and it keeps cutting, basically!

“So a lot went wrong a bit with just being unlucky, I would say.

“I think the thing to remember is the progress that we’ve done this weekend, slowly, but hopefully we can keep that going.”

Ocon believes that Alpine made a step forward in Melbourne with understanding how to set the difficult A524 up.

Esteban Ocon, Alpine A524

Photo by: Alpine

“I think that race has been the strongest out of the three, definitely, in terms of pace and performance,” he said.

“And it’s good. It means that it’s going in the right direction.”

“Everything’s relative, but relative to the first two, definitely it’s a step up. And the car felt better as well.

“So it’s not only that this track suits the car better – I don’t think it does. I think we set it up much better than [at] the other races.”

Ferrari introduced a new but simplistic solution in Melbourne, as a winglet could be found mounted either side of the curved exhaust surround and rear wing pillar mounting on the SF-24.

It’s interesting that we haven’t seen anyone place winglets here before, given it’s clearly allowed within that box region and especially as Formula 1 designers have a penchant for placing aerodynamic surfaces wherever possible, with devices like the T-Wing a testament to this.

Despite this being the first time we’ve seen a winglet here, it’ll now likely be something we see other teams add to their arsenal during the course of the season, with these pylon winglets expected to help repurpose some of the heat being rejected from the engine cover outlet and improve flow downstream to the beam wing.

Carlos Sainz, Ferrari SF-24

Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images

Notably, Ferrari also made the switch to just a single element beam wing configuration for qualifying and the race having initially prepared the SF-24 with its bi-plane style arrangement.

The team clearly felt that this lower downforce configuration better suited the demands of the Albert Park circuit, having trialled its other solution in practice on Friday. The rear wing remained in the same configuration it had during the course of the first two races, with the new, lower downforce configuration taken to Saudi Arabia still remaining unused and under wraps.

Aston Martin AMR24 front wing detail

Photo by: Giorgio Piola

Aston Martin introduced a new front wing configuration in Australia, with the spanwise twist distribution of the upper two flaps altered to improve the performance envelope of the wing and therefore the car as a whole.

As a consequence of the change in flap profile the team have also removed one of the metal support brackets in the centre of the lower of those two flaps.

Kick Sauber C44 front wing detail

Photo by: Giorgio Piola

Sauber also introduced a new front wing in Australia although this was more of extensive overhaul, as they made the switch to the semi-detached flap and endplate juncture that we’ve seen Mercedes utilise since the beginning of this regulatory phase.

The goal with this design, and in fact Sauber’s precursive solution, is to increase the amount of outwash that the outboard section of the wing generates while still having the desired capacity to generate the downforce required of the front wing.

This means Sauber has created a detached flap section for the upper two elements, with endplate connecting spars, it is also angling them outward in conjunction with a reshaping of the endplate. There’s also a change to the shape of the flaps across their span.

As we’ve seen from other teams that have opted for this solution, Sauber has also hung two winglets from the endplate above the semi-detached flaps, which will not only introduce vorticity of their own but also work in conjunction with the those created by other surfaces in that region.

Unfortunately for Zhou Guanyu, damage to his front wing during qualifying meant that he had to start the race from the pitlane, as the team didn’t have any spares of this new configuration at its disposal.

Red Bull Racing RB20 technical detail

Photo by: Giorgio Piola

Red Bull didn’t have any new components at the Australian Grand Prix but that doesn’t mean work doesn’t continue apace.

In the early stages of FP1 the team rigged Max Verstappen’s car up with some additional cameras and placed markers on the front upper wheel wake deflector panel in order to study how much it flexes.

Three camera pods were added to the RB20 in order that the team could capture the footage they desired, with a pod on either sidepod and one on the bridge of the nose which housed two cameras looking sideways (red arrows).

Circular target stickers were added to the lower portion of the deflector to provide clear reference points when the footage is reviewed. Additional targets were added to the deflector in the upper section by means of extensions that the team added to the surface to improve the sightline for the cameras (blue arrows).

RB F1 Team VCARB 01 rear wing comparison

Photo by: Uncredited

Three races into the season and we’ve seen just as many rear wing configurations appear on RB’s VCARB 01. And, as the only team to take this approach, it’s clear that it’s looking to establish a wide-ranging repertoire in the early part of the season in order to tailor the car to the specific demands of each circuit.

The general DNA of the wing assembly remains the same irrespective of the downforce level required, with a spoon shaped mainplane and semi-detached tip section. But there are subtle changes across each specification in order to target the desired level of downforce and drag, whether that be in terms of the mainplane or upper flaps chord, the shape of the mainplane or the trailing edge geometry of the upper flap and tip section.

The wing used in Australia was once again paired with a single element beam wing to help depower the assembly, with the team having employed a traditional two element solution in Bahrain.

The overall design of the rear wing elements was more skewed toward the direction of the wing used in Bahrain, with the more flattened spoon shaped mainplane discarded, along with the V-shaped notch in the upper flap’s centreline that was seen in Saudi Arabia.

The RB team is fielding an all-Japanese line-up in first free practice with Iwasa joining regular driver Yuki Tsunoda in the VCARB 01 in their home round.

RB has given Iwasa the first of two mandatory rookie FP1 slots for the year, with the 22-year-old among the roster of young driver prospects that also includes reserve driver Liam Lawson and F2 driver Isack Hadjar.

“I am very happy to be able to participate in an official F1 session in my home country, and I am excited to be able to take the first step toward the realisation of my dream – winning races and capture the world championship title for many consecutive years in F1, the world’s most prestigious series,” Iwasa said.

Iwasa made his F1 testing debut at last November’s Abu Dhabi young driver test for the team then called AlphaTauri.

Team principal Laurent Mekies said he made a good impression at Yas Marina and has since been involved in supporting the race team in the simulator.

“He did a great job in the Abu Dhabi test at the end of last year when he drove for us for the first time, Mekies said.

“Since then, he has been doing a lot a valuable work in our simulator, including providing live race support.

“This on-track experience will be important for his growth as a young driver, as well as providing him and our engineers with a useful real-track correlation of the work he carries out for us in the simulator.”

Daniel Ricciardo, RB F1 Team VCARB 01

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

This year Iwasa competes in Japan’s domestic Super Formula series, scoring ninth on his Suzuka debut with Mugen as the top rookie.

Previously Iwasa won the 2020 French F4 championship, which led to an F3 campaign with Hitech and two years in F2 with DAMS.

Last year he scored three wins on his way to fourth in the championship, with too many non-scores to be a factor in the title fight.

While RB is no longer a pure Red Bull junior team, CEO Peter Bayer told Autosport that training young drivers for Red Bull was still a core task, aiming to have one younger driver alongside a more experienced hand at the Anglo-Italian outfit.

RB has therefore ramped up its TPC (testing of a previous car) programme, which now allows drivers to privately test the 2022 cars, which are much closer to the current specification than the 2021 generation that was allowed last year.

“Oscar Piastri is the best example. He ran I don’t know how many hundreds or thousands of miles [with Alpine], but he came in and he understood the car,” Bayer said. “He understood the dynamics, he understood the switches, and it makes such a big difference, and so it connects you fully.

“And we have a big programme actually for Liam, Isack and potentially Iwasa, and we want to make sure that we run them as much as possible also. It’s interesting that the previous car [that can be tested] is a 2022 car, so it’s finally a relevant car.”

Oliver Bearman received a shock call-up to the 2024 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix when Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz withdrew because of appendicitis.

The 18-year-old therefore became the third-youngest driver to ever compete in an F1 grand prix after getting the opportunity due to being Ferrari’s reserve.

But, there have been many other occasions in the 21st century when a team’s reserve has entered a grand prix in place of one of its main drivers. Here are 10 times it has happened.

Sebastian Vettel, BMW Sauber F1.07

Photo by: Sutton Images

Team: BMW-Sauber
Race: 2007 United States Grand Prix
Race finish: 8th

Sebastian Vettel was 16 days shy of his 20th birthday when he made his F1 debut for BMW-Sauber, after Robert Kubica suffered a heavy crash at the race prior in Montreal. Vettel had been BMW-Sauber’s reserve driver since August 2006 and in his first practice session, FP1 for the 2006 Turkish GP, the eventual four-time world champion claimed the record for the fastest ever penalty – nine seconds – after speeding in the pitlane.

Vettel was eventually given his proper F1 debut for the team at the 2007 United States GP where he was impressive from the off in Indianapolis. A teenage Vettel reached Q3 before finishing eighth, which at the time made him the youngest-ever F1 driver to score a point. Kubica returned for the following race, so later in 2007 BMW-Sauber released Vettel to Toro Rosso meaning he only drove one grand prix for the squad.

Oliver Bearman

Oliver Bearman, Ferrari SF-24, Zhou Guanyu, Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber C44

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

Team: Ferrari
Race: 2024 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix
Race finish: 7th

Bearman became another teenager to score points in F1 when he impressed on his debut for Ferrari. So surprising was the F1 call that Bearman started the weekend in F2 and claimed pole position for the feature race, but had to withdraw once Sainz was deemed not fit enough to compete.

The Briton’s first session was final practice and despite such limited time in the cockpit, Bearman qualified 11th having been less than one tenth of a second off Q3. Bearman stepped it up in the race as he climbed up to seventh and scored six points for Ferrari after fending off Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton in the closing laps.

Luca Badoer, Ferrari

Photo by: Sutton Images

Team: Ferrari
Races: 2009 European Grand Prix-2009 Belgian Grand Prix
Best finish: 14th

Not every reserve driver has impressed when racing for the Scuderia though. Luca Badoer made his Ferrari debut at the age of 38, 10 years after his last F1 appearance, due to Felipe Massa fracturing his skull at the Hungaroring when his helmet was struck by a piece of suspension from Rubens Barrichello’s Brawn GP car.

Given the context Badoer was expected to struggle, but maybe not as much as he actually did – he qualified last in Valencia and was 1.5 seconds off the next driver. The struggles continued into race day when Badoer came last of the finished cars, while team-mate Kimi Raikkonen was on the podium.

Badoer qualified last again in his second appearance, the 2009 Belgian GP, although this time he was within a second of Romain Grosjean in 19th. However, a sign reading “my grandmother is faster than Luca with a Ferrari. Shameful” proved to be the end of his F1 career as he finished last of the runners in Spa-Francorchamps and was subsequently replaced by Giancarlo Fisichella for Monza before Massa’s return in 2010.

Jenson Button, McLaren MCL32

Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images

Team: McLaren
Race: 2017 McLaren Grand Prix
Race finish: DNF

Jenson Button also made a shock return, having quit full-time racing at the end of 2016 and reducing his position to a reserve driver role at McLaren for 2017. He actually wished to retire, but the team convinced the 2009 world champion otherwise.

Button therefore had no interest in making another grand prix start. However, he was contractually obliged to do so at the 2017 Monaco GP when Fernando Alonso instead entered the Indianapolis 500 as part of his bid to claim the illustrious Triple Crown of Motorsport – awarded for winning the Monaco GP, Indianapolis 500 and Le Mans 24 Hours and a feat which has only been achieved by Graham Hill.

The then 37-year-old arguably started the weekend well though. Button reached Q3 and out-qualified team-mate Stoffel Vandoorne, but he started from the pitlane as his car was modified under parc ferme conditions due to McLaren exceeding its maximum quota of engine components for the year.

Any good feeling about Button’s individual performance went away in the race. On lap 60 while running at the back, Button made a late lunge down the inside of Turn 8 and clipped Pascal Wehrlein’s rear-right tyre which flipped his Sauber car onto its side against the barriers. The collision also caused Button to retire from the race before leaving McLaren at the end of 2017.

Alexander Wurz

Takuma Sato and Alexander Wurz

Photo by: Rainer W. Schlegelmilch / Motorsport Images

Team: McLaren
Race: 2005 San Marino Grand Prix
Race finish: 3rd

Alexander Wurz arguably had the greatest performance of any stand-in driver this century as he finished third at Imola in his first race for five years. Having been a McLaren test driver since 2001, Wurz was selected for the 2005 San Marino GP to replace the injured Juan Pablo Montoya, who had a hairline fracture of the shoulder – the cause of which is debated.

Wurz reached Q3 on his return to F1 and started the race in seventh, while his team-mate Raikkonen claimed pole. The Austrian, who is now chairman of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association, then drove a solid race as he crossed the line in fourth, but was later promoted into the podium positions due to the disqualification of third-placed Button, whose BAR car was underweight.

Wurz returned to his usual McLaren test driver duties before taking the same role at Williams in 2006, landing a race seat with the team a year later.

Stoffel Vandoorne

Stoffel Vandoorne, McLaren MP4-30 Honda

Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images

Team: McLaren
Race: 2016 Bahrain Grand Prix
Race finish: 10th

Vandoorne was another driver to appear as a McLaren stand-in when he made his F1 debut at the 2016 Bahrain GP. It came after joining McLaren’s junior programme in 2013 before becoming its third driver the following year with much hype around him. So, when Alonso broke his ribs in a crash at the season-opening 2016 Australian GP, Vandoorne’s F1 opportunity had finally arrived.

At the time McLaren was not very competitive and, lining up alongside Button, Bahrain could easily have been a difficult weekend for Vandoorne. He delivered on the promise though, out-qualifying his world champion team-mate before scoring McLaren’s first point of the season in 10th.

Although it was Vandoorne’s only grand prix of 2016, he was back in the McLaren seat the following year as Button stepped away. F1 ultimately ended in disappointment for Vandoorne as he had just two full seasons with McLaren, finishing 16th in the championship both years, before moving to Formula E where he clinched the 2022 title.

Nyck de Vries, Williams

Photo by: Williams

Team: Williams
Race: 2022 Italian Grand Prix
Race finish: 9th

Nyck de Vries’ F1 debut came later than most, as he was 27-years-old and had already won the F2 and Formula E championships. De Vries made his debut with Williams, having received the call-up just before final practice for the 2023 Italian GP after Alex Albon withdrew because of appendicitis.

It was a weird year for De Vries, who completed a practice session each for three teams – Williams, Mercedes and Aston Martin – in 2023 due to his ties with the Silver Arrows. On top of that, his Aston Martin drive came only the day before he replaced Albon at Monza. But what a debut it was for De Vries.

De Vries was immediately on the pace as he qualified 13th, three spots above team-mate Nicholas Latifi, and he finished the job by scoring points in ninth. At the time that result put him above Latifi in the championship, despite only doing one race, meaning De Vries was immediately in contention for an F1 seat in 2023.

Many teams were in the mix, but he eventually went to AlphaTauri. De Vries’ time as a full-time F1 driver was disastrous though, as he scored zero points before getting dropped after 10 grands prix and returning to Formula E and then also the World Endurance Championship.

Liam Lawson, AlphaTauri AT04

Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images

Team: AlphaTauri
Races: 2023 Dutch Grand Prix-2023 Qatar Grand Prix
Best finish: 9th

Liam Lawson received a late call-up for AlphaTauri at the 2023 Dutch GP after Daniel Ricciardo, who replaced De Vries, crashed in second practice and broke his hand. Lawson had never previously driven a competitive session in F1 before, with his only experience coming in first practice for the 2022 Belgian, Mexico and Abu Dhabi GPs alongside F2 duties.

The F1 world was shocked by how well Lawson did. He finished a respectable 13th on his debut before consistently being in or around the points over the following three grands prix, which included ninth in Singapore after Lawson remarkably reached Q3. His F1 stint ended in disappointment as Lawson finished last of the runners in Qatar, however the New Zealander had already staked a solid claim for a full-time seat in 2024.

Many fans wanted Lawson to receive the opportunity, especially because he was classified above team-mate Yuki Tsunoda in all but one of the grands prix they both competed in. However, AlphaTauri kept Tsunoda and Ricciardo as its pairing for 2024 with Lawson as reserve driver. Red Bull boss Christian Horner stated that Lawson will become “a grand prix driver at some stage”.

Kazuki Nakajima

Kazuki Nakajima, Williams FW29 in a media scrum

Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images

Team: Williams
Race: 2007 Brazilian Grand Prix
Race finish: 10th

Kazuki Nakajima drove the final grand prix of the 2007 season for Williams after Wurz quit prematurely, stating “if you have a moment’s doubt about what you are doing, then it is time to stop”.

So, with a spot now open at Williams for 2008, the 2007 Brazilian GP was practically an audition for Nakajima to claim that seat. The Japanese driver did not get the best of starts as he was eliminated from Q1 in 19th, while team-mate Nico Rosberg reached the final session.

However, Nakajima then delivered a solid recovery drive to 10th even though he did knock down two Williams mechanics after going too far into his pit box. Despite that, Williams was still impressed enough to give Nakajima an F1 seat for 2008 and he stayed for two seasons before moving to Japan’s Formula Nippon/Super Formula and Super GT.

Nakajima took the Super Formula title in 2012 and 2014, and was also part of the winning Toyota driver line-up in the 2018, 2019 and 2020 Le Mans 24 Hours. The Japanese driver was also crowned World Endurance Champion in the 2018-19 super season alongside Fernando Alonso and Sebastien Buemi.

Takuma Sato

Takuma Sato, BAR 005 Honda, leads Michael Schumacher, Ferrari F2003-GA

Photo by: Motorsport Images

Team: BAR
Race: 2003 Japanese Grand Prix
Race finish: 6th

Honda-backed Takuma Sato drove his rookie season with Jordan in 2002, but when the Japanese manufacturer shifted its full focus to BAR for the following year, Sato joined the team as its reserve driver. Sato finally made his BAR debut at the 2003 season finale in Suzuka when Jacques Villeneuve suddenly quit the team after it had refused to renew his contract for 2004.

Villeneuve had been with BAR since its debut in 1999, so Sato had some big shoes to fill. Sato  climbed up to sixth in the race after starting 13th in a valiant drive, and he was offered a BAR seat for the 2004 season as a result of his performance.

Having missed the Jeddah race, Sainz spent two weeks focusing on his recovery before returning to the cockpit for Friday practice at Albert Park.

Although he was fit to drive, his preparations were compromised by skipping training and not running in the Ferrari simulator.

FEATURE: 10 things we learned at the 2024 F1 Australian Grand Prix

Despite that he had the edge on team-mate Charles Leclerc in qualifying and having passed the ailing Max Verstappen in the opening laps, he went on to lead a one-two for the Italian team.

“This winter we agreed together to push until the last lap of the season,” he said when asked by Autosport to sum-up Sainz’s performance.

“And he did a fantastic job. He was there in Bahrain, pushing the team also, and for sure Jeddah was a tough weekend, a tough weekend for Carlos, a tough weekend for the team.

“But the recovery is mega. You have to keep in mind that two weeks ago he was in the hospital. I think even Friday he was not 100 per cent sure to be able to drive.

Carlos Sainz, Ferrari SF-24

Photo by: Mark Horsburgh / Motorsport Images

“And after a couple of laps, he was on the pace, and this was part of the success – because you can’t give up one lap in free practice if you want to perform.

“For sure, it’s amazing. If you have a look on where he’s coming from nobody expected a result like this.”

Vasseur downplayed the fact that Sainz had an edge on team-mate Leclerc.

“We are speaking about plus or minus half a tenth,” he said. “And classification is one thing, the pace is another one.

“I think during the race the issue is that we had to cover [Oscar] Piastri at the beginning, that was not ideal in terms of race time, for sure.

“We didn’t want to give up the position on track, and we put him in the tough situation. But on the last stint that he knew more about the degradation of the hard, and he was able to be very consistent and it was a good one.”

Third-placed Norris believes that he could have deprived Leclerc of second in Melbourne if McLaren had have gone for an undercut strategy, as Ferrari and team-mate Oscar Piastri did.

But when this was put to Stella, he implied Ferrari won out on merit because the SF-24 is a faster car than the MCL60.

The Italian added that a team orders call to swap Norris and Piastri was about minimising the risk of the pair crashing rather than fully believing Leclerc could be caught.

Considering Norris’s claim, Stella said: “It’s possible. That was very, very early in the race, a race with a high degree of uncertainty as to the behaviour of the hard tyres.

“And in fact, we saw that there were certainly some big cars that didn’t look quick at all because they were not working well with the tyres – one is the Red Bull of [Sergio] Perez [who finished fifth].

“So, I think we actually went for this aggressive strategy, trying to pass Leclerc with Oscar. But Leclerc decided that it was a good idea as well. And they went at the same time – potentially, because of listening to our radio.

“This also meant that Leclerc and Oscar would have gone below two cars fighting each other.

“So, with Lando in a strong position, we thought that was an unnecessary risk.”

Oscar Piastri, McLaren F1 Team, Andrea Stella, Team Principal, McLaren F1 Team, Lando Norris, McLaren F1 Team, 3rd position, talk after the race

Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images

Stella did soften the blow, adding that although the Ferrari was quicker, it was only marginally ahead of the McLaren, which is bringing an upgrade package for either the Imola or the Miami GP.

“Leclerc finished ahead of Lando because they have a faster car at the moment,” said Stella.

“The positive news is that this faster car is not faster by much at all.

“We were very close, which I think is encouraging for Japan in which some of the characteristics that make Australia being good for us take another step further in having a higher ratio of medium-high-speed [corners] compared to low-speed.”

On the decision to swap Piastri behind Norris at the former’s home race, Stella explained: “I would say that swap wasn’t even strategic. That was executional.

“The swap would have happened naturally because Lando had much fresher tyres…

“We called the swap to avoid that this comes to unnecessary racing …

“But despite having fresher tyres, actually, we didn’t catch Leclerc enough. This is why I’m saying Ferrari were quick today.”

“Every lap he was competitive and didn’t do anything wrong, he was calm,” Marko praised Tsunoda’s Melbourne performance talking to Autosport.

Asked if weekends like Australia are helping Tsunoda stake a claim for Sergio Perez’s Red Bull seat in 2025, he cautioned: “As we say, one swallow does not make a summer.

“So, he has to improve more before he can be considered in this direction.”

As RB leapfrogged Haas in the fight for sixth, team principal Laurent Mekies added: “Yuki executed a fast and well-controlled race to top the whole midfield group and got us our first points of the season.

“He did not put a foot wrong all weekend, and with calm and determination got faster session after session.”

Helmut Marko, Consultant, Red Bull Racing, Yuki Tsunoda, RB F1 Team

Photo by: Shameem Fahath

Tsunoda felt his 2024 car was much more consistent than last year’s machine, which makes it easier to put together clean weekends.

“Every race week I’m just resetting myself, at each track we perform a little bit differently,” he said.

“But actually, the good thing is our car is pretty consistent in terms of performance, that we didn’t have last year. We were kind of up and down last year, so that’s one of the strengths.

“It was frustrating the last two races. A couple of situations happened and there was an opportunity that we could score points, and we lost it.

“We knew that we just needed a clean race and I think we achieved it. We didn’t have any mistake. That’s very important for me and also for a team to have a good confidence for upcoming races.”

Additional reporting by Matt Kew

Formula 1 got something of a pressure release moment with Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz brilliantly winning the 2024 Australian Grand Prix and ending Max Verstappen’s latest dominant season start for Red Bull.

The world champion was undone by a rare mechanical issue aboard one of Red Bull’s cars and Sainz picked up the pieces fantastically for Ferrari, on a day where it may have won in any case, such was its treatment of the tyres on a tricky surface and layout in typically tough conditions here. That said, there was little action to speak of all race.

But Verstappen’s DNF and Sergio Perez’s latest absence from the lead fight means Red Bull’s quest to better its win rate from 2023 will likely have to wait for another year, with a 21-race winning streak required to break the team’s own record breaking 95.5% success rate last term.  

F1 also learned exactly how Sainz had made his brilliant recovery from missing the Jeddah round with appendicitis and his compatriot Fernando Alonso was in hot water with the stewards post-race. Elsewhere, there was controversy at Williams, a management boost for McLaren and more off-track debate over key issues facing the championship.

All that and more is included here in the pick of what we learned from F1’s 2024 visit to Melbourne.

1. Red Bull’s latest quest for perfection doesn’t even last as long as 2023

Verstappen’s race came to a smoky end, which also meant the end of Red Bull’s win hopes

Photo by: Mark Horsburgh / Motorsport Images

That answers that question, then. No, Red Bull can’t win every race of the 2024 F1 season. It’s quest to win in Melbourne – for what would’ve been Verstappen’s 10th in a row – was under pressure immediately with Ferrari’s fine form on the C5 softs over one lap and with the softer tyres overall this year meaning a front-limited two-stop race.

Such a limitation was why Leclerc probably would’ve won in Las Vegas last year, but here Sainz never got to take Verstappen on all things being equal as the Dutchman had his “right rear brake basically stuck on from when the lights went off” at the start. That meant he couldn’t scamper clear of the lap two DRS activation, nearly went off at Turn 2 on that tour with “having one brake calliper just stuck on – it’s like a handbrake”, then got jumped by Sainz. On lap three as he chased on, the climbing temperatures and brake fire forced his retirement.

But Verstappen was able to stick with Sainz immediately after being passed before his issue became really serious and was “reporting he was really quite happy with the balance of the car” on his four laps to the grid, per embattled Red Bull team boss Christian Horner.

That Perez couldn’t rise up the order after getting a visor tear off stuck in his RB20’s underfloor meant F1 never got to see what Red Bull could ultimately do here and was perhaps robbed of a thrilling victory contest. Unlike in 2023, its dominant run ended after three races, not 15.

2. How Sainz went from Jeddah operation to Melbourne masterclass

On his return from the operation that forced him to miss out in Jeddah, Sainz produced a stylish victory

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

Red Bull’s issues shouldn’t take away just how good Sainz was last weekend – a situation made all the more remarkable because just 14 days on from his appendectomy in Jeddah, he returned to F1 action in practice in Melbourne. His victory on Sunday was the third of his career and first not from pole.

Those achievements are impressive in isolation, but then there is the short timescale factor in the Spaniard’s recovery – he returned to action a week earlier than Alex Albon did in September 2022 (albeit with the caveat the Williams racer was also returning from respiratory failure that meant he had to enter intensive care).

In Melbourne, Sainz detailed exactly how he’d gone from operating theatre back to his SF-24’s cockpit so fast – praising modern medical procedures such as using a hyperbaric chambers twice a day and an Indiba machine for the differences to an open operation his father had undergone a generation ago that left Sainz Sr “cut open”.

Following his keyhole surgery, Sainz famously returned to the Jeddah paddock to witness Ollie Bearman’s debut in his place for Ferrari. This, he said, was down to his doctors telling him to “go for a walk after the operation”.

After returning home to Europe, Sainz couldn’t do his usual training and simulator preparation routines, as instead he had to spend “a lot of time in bed and recovering”. What exercise he could do was tracked by the FIA to assess his chances of safely returning to driving action, where he and Ferrari had to make changes to his seatbelt arrangement using sponges, which he showed off in a post-race picture with Norris.

Driver Ratings: Australian Grand Prix

“[The] Indiba machine, that is electromagnetic thing for the wounds,” Sainz explained post-race. “I was programming my time in bed, my time to go for a walk, my time to eat, the kind of food that you have to recover. Just everything was centred around recovery to try to be ready for Australia.

“When I was about to catch the flight to come to Australia, I was still in bed. I could barely 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.

“Every 24 hours, I was making a lot more progress than the first seven days, which is actually what all the doctors and all the professional people told me. Even Alex Albon told me this, I remember. So, it just followed more or less what everyone told me and put together a good plan.”

3. Alonso’s racing craftiness can bite

The penalty dealt to Alonso came after the stewards felt he had overstepped the mark in his defence against Russell

Photo by: Steve Etherington / Motorsport Images

Alonso has a deserved reputation for being F1’s canniest operator behind the wheel – think he how he altered his line so smartly to hold off and then beat Perez in Brazil last year. But his latest attempt at doing something different – in this case to hold off George Russell – massively backfired. And not only in the outcome for the Mercedes driver.

Although Alonso insists “at no point do we want to do anything wrong at these speeds” and we can take that as genuine suggestion he didn’t mean for Russell to end up in such danger, braking a touch earlier for a corner to either put a rival off or to gain a traction boost for an ensuing straight is legitimate racecraft. Russell himself said going off into the Turn 6 gravel “is on me” and that is to his credit. The unfortunate size of the shunt that followed was neither driver’s fault and couldn’t have been foreseen, further emphasising Alonso’s point above.

Before heading to the stewards he’d claimed “I had some issues for the last 15 laps or something on the battery, on the deployment” and his engine certainly wasn’t sounding brilliant after the chequered flag. But when his defence to the stewards contained the following, that “while his plan was to slow earlier, he got it slightly wrong and had to take extra steps to get back up to speed” the problem is clear.

Alonso simply messed up his tactic and in doing so, the stewards felt his driving was “in a manner that was at very least ‘potentially dangerous’”, and so enough to merit a penalty. His side is arguable, as Alonso as presented on social media, but the sanction feels right given it contained an error in what was always a risky manoeuvre.

4. Mercedes is in major trouble early in 2024

The disappointment of a double DNF isn’t the only reason Mercedes has to worry

Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images

Alonso was only racing Russell because he’d been able to bank around 10s in race time by pitting under the virtual safety car activated for Hamilton retiring from the race after 15 laps with a sudden engine failure. That alone is a major drama for Mercedes – that its car can’t even be considered to be reliable right now – following after the cooling dramas in Bahrain.

“That was a very disappointing end to a tough weekend, with a significant amount of accident damage to remedy ahead of Japan in two weeks’ time,” said Mercedes’ director of trackside engineering, Andrew Shovlin.

“We went into the race hoping to make progress forward from our grid positions: with Lewis, that involved starting on the soft, which helped him gain positions on the opening lap, and George on the medium. Lewis’s race was cut short by a sudden and unexpected power unit failure; we had no warning of it and will need to investigate further when the PU returns to Brixworth.

“For George, he knew he had to complete two long stints on the hard and find the right balance between pushing the tyre and stretching out its life. It was clear that we were unable to fight with the three teams in front, and he was racing for P6 after Alonso had pitted under the VSC for Lewis’s retirement and gained track position. George had an opportunity to get the place back on the final stint and was clearly caught by surprise by the unexpected deceleration in front on the penultimate lap.”

But Mercedes again struggled for pace in finding its narrow set-up window, with the team feeling its notable loss from FP3 to qualifying being down to the temperatures going up and the wind increasing. That meant Russell and Hamilton qualified down the order, the latter not even making Q3.

But the W15’s poor potential overall meant that even when Russell was back within DRS range late on behind Alonso, he couldn’t pass what is clearly a slower car.

PLUS: Why Mercedes’ F1 struggles are different this time

How Mercedes must wish it could rewind to lap three of the Bahrain race, when Russell passed Leclerc and had a faint shot at chasing Verstappen up front there. Pretty much everything else that has followed has been massively bad for one of F1’s best squads.

5. Tsunoda is finally doing what Red Bull wants, but it still may not be enough for a 2025 promotion

Tsunoda’s eighth place got the RB team off the mark in 2024 under its new guise

Photo by: Mark Sutton

Yuki Tsunoda was one of qualifying’s stars with his efforts to reach Q3 for AlphaTauri. In doing so, he became the only driver not from what might be considered the ‘Class A’ contingent to progress as Hamilton was knocked out. But Tsunoda had shone against the clock, at least compared to his under-fire team-mate Daniel Ricciardo, in both Bahrain and Jeddah so far in 2024.

Red Bull wanted him to push on and score points for its junior team at some stage. It got its way in Australia, with Tsunoda finishing eighth on the road after a close, near race-long chase with Lance Stroll’s Aston (Tsunoda finally lost touch over the final laps before the Russell crash and second VSC neutralisation). He then ended up seventh in the final results after Alonso’s penalty was applied.

But Red Bull’s motorsport advisor Helmut Marko, back in his usual driver defining role this weekend after the Jeddah speculation, still appeared a little under enthused by Tsunoda.

“Here, every lap he was competitive and didn’t do anything wrong, was calm,” Marko explained. “But as we say: one swallow does not make a summer. So, he has to improve more before he can be considered in this direction [possibly replacing Perez for 2025].”

6. Just how much Williams values Albon over Sargeant

Sargeant was a spectator for Saturday and Sunday after Williams elected to give his chassis to Albon

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

Alex Albon’s FP1 crash showed again how fast and brutal the Albert Park track can be, where his comparatively small mistake (albeit of the type of error a driver of Albon’s calibre should never be making) effectively destroyed his car against two walls lining the start of the layout’s quickest section.

But Williams’ decision to put Albon in the only remaining useable FW46 at the expense of its second-year driver Logan Sargeant for the rest of the weekend highlighted how brutal F1 can be. This was a pure business decision, where the team reflected that Albon’s points haul of 27 to Sargeant’s one (that required disqualifications ahead in the 2023 US GP) in their time as team-mates meant he had to be the one competing in the ultra-tight lower midfield in 2024.

Albon ended up qualifying 12th and finishing 11th, with Sargeant credited as being “tremendous” in supporting “the team in this regard”, per Williams team principal James Vowles.

The whole saga, however, raises questions of just why Williams bothered to continue with Sargeant after his underwhelming rookie campaign in 2023 and what this will now do for his confidence. At the same time, his poor Turn 11 spin on mediums early in FP2 deprived Williams of any long-run data on the critical harder race tyres the teams were saving at that stage.

Had he matched up better to Albon then such a choice, brutal as it was, might never have needed to have been made.

7. McLaren’s Brown era set for the long haul

Brown will continue to steer the ship at McLaren after extending his contract

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

Zak Brown was following in the illustrious footsteps of Bruce McLaren and Ron Dennis when he took over at the helm of the legendary McLaren team back in 2016, after the latter was ousted following a lengthy board dispute.

Brown will now continue to do so for the foreseeable future, following the announcement over the Melbourne week of his contract extension as McLaren Racing CEO (a role he took up in 2018 having joined as executive director of the McLaren Technology Group) to run until 2030.

Brown has overseen McLaren’s climb back up the F1 pecking order after its dramatic decline in the 2010s, which started before its disastrous Honda engine era. The American has also swelled McLaren’s racing activities to include IndyCar, Formula E and Extreme E.

“I am thrilled to continue leading McLaren Racing and to be a part of such a historic race team,” Brown said last Friday. “It is a privilege to work alongside the talented men and women across McLaren Racing’s different race series. Together, we will continue to push the boundaries of motorsport and strive for the highest performance on and off the track.” 

8. Bottas’s post-Mercedes confidence gains take a lucrative new twist, but his Sauber squad still has a pitstop problem

Bottas admits he has more self-confidence now than in his Mercedes years, but he keeps being held back by suspect pitwork

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

Valtteri Bottas wasn’t exactly a shrinking violet during his time at the top of F1 as Hamilton’s team-mate at Mercedes – remembering here his “to whom it may concern, f*** you” radio jibe from this race five years ago and that sauna scene in the third season of Drive to Survive.

But as his new Australian-lifestyle themed advert gained considerable traction over the Melbourne weekend, Bottas revealed “I maybe would have struggled with my confidence to do something like that” during his time racing for Mercedes between 2017 and 2021.

“With just a bit more age, a bit more experience, I’ve learned not to take myself too seriously,” he added – referencing to the nude prints he produced for charity in his first year as a Sauber driver after leaving Mercedes in 2022, which was followed by a dedicated nude calendar last year.

“Obviously, I have a connection [with the country] with my better half [cycling star Tiffany Cromwell] being Australian and most of our off-seasons we spend it in Australia. I like the lifestyle; I like the people. [Filming the advert] was fun. It was actually pretty much straight off the plane when I landed in Australia. Got it done, but it was so much fun.”

In the race, Bottas’s efforts were squandered by Sauber’s latest poor pitstop, as he lost around 30s at the first services due to its new-for-2024 pit equipment again crossthreading a wheelnut, this time on this right rear. In the final round of stops, Sauber did get Bottas away on time but a wheelnut bouncing loose and into the pitlane fast lane meant it copped a €5000 fine. A final slow pitstop for Zhou Guanyu in the other C44 was actually down to a gear selection issue.

9. Lack of transparency in F1’s off-track sagas under new focus

Susie Wolff’s move to file a criminal complaint against the FIA sparked a renewed focus on transparency in the governing body

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

As the Melbourne event was getting under way, F1 Academy managing director Susie Wolff revealed that she has filed a criminal complaint against the FIA over allegations made against her at the end of last year. This was followed by Mercedes drivers Hamilton and Russell questioning the continued lack of transparency in F1.

Hamilton said: “In a world where often people are silenced, for her to be standing up sends such a great message. I love that she’s taking it out of this world, filing it from outside, because there is a real lack of accountability here within this sport, within the FIA.

“Things that are happening behind closed doors, there is no transparency, there is clearly no accountability. How can you trust the sport and what is happening here if you didn’t have that?”

“You trust that the leaders in this sport have the best interest at their heart rather than their own interests,” Russell added. “When we don’t have the facts and figures, and there is no transparency, you always think there’s something being hidden.

“That’s why it’s so important for the sport now to send the right message to everybody who’s supporting Formula 1, watching Formula 1, wants to be involved in Formula 1, that things aren’t just swept under the carpet.”

Wolff’s action was revealed on the same day FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem was cleared by the governing body’s Ethics Committee over whistleblower complaints he had allegedly interfered in decisions at the 2023 Jeddah and Las Vegas races.

Transparency concerns have been a part of his regime throughout, particularly given that it covered the fallout from the Abu Dhabi 2021 officiating saga and how questioning of race officials by the media in a complex and often controversial category was subsequently restricted. Then there is also the current lack of FIA action over the Horner/Red Bull behaviour scandal.

10. Verstappen ‘intends’ to see out current Red Bull contract to 2028

For Verstappen it wasn’t a weekend to remember, although more light was shed on his future

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

The F1 circus returning home from the season’s opening triple-header (including Bahrain pre-season testing a week before the race there) allowed some of the huge pressure building over Red Bull to release. Then came the development that the female employee who filed a complaint against Horner had appealed Red Bull GmbH’s decision to clear him and that the FIA had also been notified of a potential breach of motorsport’s code of conduct.

The situation had become so tense for the team in Jeddah that Verstappen’s future beyond the current campaign was suddenly in doubt when he publicly backed Marko, who had suggested he was about to be suspended. But the saga didn’t develop further over the Melbourne weekend, which made Verstappen’s media day comments last week most significant.

“I’m happy within the team and, of course, it’s very important that we try to keep the key players in the team for a longer period of time, because that’s of course where the performance is as well,” Verstappen stated, before refusing to name those important people.

“And at the end of the day, it’s a performance business, it’s the same as if I wouldn’t perform, I wouldn’t be sitting here. I know how that works. But with the deal in place, that is also my intention to be here till the end. Because it would be a great story, for me personally, to just see it out till the end, because it basically means that I’ve been part of one family and one team.”

But, as ever in sport, one party intending to do something is far from it actually happening. Such a label also still leaves Verstappen with plenty of wiggle room to adopt a different position should this saga take another twist in the coming months.

The intense scrutiny that surrounded Red Bull’s leadership in Bahrain and Jeddah ceased somewhat in Melbourne

Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images

Sainz took a remarkable victory for Ferrari on Sunday, just two weeks after undergoing surgery for appendicitis on the weekend of the Saudi Arabian GP, which he sat out.

PLUS: Why Sainz could have won F1’s Australian GP even in a Verstappen head-to-head

That left the Spaniard with just a week to recover in time for the long trip to Australia.

While Sainz battled to be fighting fit for the Albert Park weekend, he feared that his Australia trip “wasn’t going to happen” until the last moment.

“Nine days ago, when I was about to catch the flight to come to Australia, I was still in bed,” Sainz revealed.

“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.

“Every 24 hours, I was making a lot more progress than the first seven days, which is actually what all the doctors told me: ‘Don’t worry, because the second week, every day is going to improve a lot more than the first week.’

“Even Alex Albon told me this, I remember, so it just followed more or less what everyone told me.”

Sainz left no stone unturned to speed up his recovery process, including the use of hyperbaric chambers to increase oxygen levels, and an Indiba machine which uses electromagnetic current to accelerate the healing process of his scar tissue.

Watch: F1 2024 Australian Grand Prix Review – Ferrari On Top Down Under

“As soon as I got my appendix removed, I went on the internet and started talking with professionals and said, ‘OK, what helps to speed up recovery?’,” he detailed.

“From that point onwards, I started doing all the sort of things that you can do to speed up recovery, the wounds, the scar tissue, what you can help to be faster on that. Talking to other athletes, talking to other doctors in Spain, internationally. Then I put together a plan with my team.

“The reason why athletes recover faster is because you can dedicate 24 hours per day for seven days to recovery. And that’s exactly what I did.

“I started going to hyperbaric chambers twice a day for one hour, taking an Indiba machine, that is an electromagnetic thing for the wounds.

“I was programming my time in bed, my time to go for a walk, my time to eat, the kind of food that you have to recover. Just everything is centred around recovery to try and be ready for Australia.”

Sainz’s second part of the race was unknown territory after only being able to do limited long runs in practice, but he said his body held up well even though he was “stiff and tired” by the end.

“Obviously, spending seven days in bed for your physical fitness and for all the muscles, it’s just not very healthy for an athlete,” he said.

Carlos Sainz, Scuderia Ferrari, 1st position, with his trophy

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

“The second half of the race was a bit of an unknown but once I got up in front and I had a gap, you can manage everything.

“You can choose your places where to push and not to push and everything becomes a lot easier.

“I’m not going to lie, the last five or 10 laps I was a bit stiff and tired, but nothing that was slowing me down too much.”

The Ferrari driver was forced to sit out the Saudi Arabian GP, where Oliver Bearman made a superb debut in his place, but Sainz was back at his best in Melbourne and won convincingly after poleman Max Verstappen retired with brake problems.

Sainz did his job prospects for 2025, when he will be replaced at Ferrari by Lewis Hamilton, no harm at all by leading home team-mate Charles Leclerc in a 1-2 for the Scuderia as McLaren drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri both headed the sole remaining Red Bull of Sergio Perez.

PLUS: Why Sainz could have won F1’s Australian GP even in a Verstappen head-to-head

A race that featured only 19 starters, with Logan Sargeant benched by Williams, was missing both Mercedes at the finish as Hamilton was dramatically joined in retirement late on by George Russell. A penalty handed down to Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso for driving erratically in the lead-up to Russell’s crash has bred plenty of debate.

All this and more is discussed in the latest edition of the Autosport Podcast, in which Bryn Lucas is joined by Alex Kalinauckas, Filip Cleeren and Matt Kew.