Formula One’s new season started in style with a chaotic Australian Grand Prix, which was littered with incidents, safety cars and changeable conditions, starting and finishing in the rain.
Lando Norris delivered on the preseason hype by winning from pole position, surviving several challenges and soaking up the pressure from Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in the final few laps.
It was a trickier day for Lewis Hamilton on his Ferrari debut, as he finished 10th, while there was heartbreak for home favorite Oscar Piastri, who looked set for at least a podium, and for many of the rookies who got caught out in the damp conditions. But one newcomer starred in the wet conditions, as Kimi Antonelli climbed from a P16 start to a fourth-place finish.
We received many questions in our post-race mailbag, so let’s get into them.
Editor’s note: Questions have been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.
How long should we give Hamilton to adjust to the Ferrari? Yes, it is a new season, new car, new power unit, but he is in his 19th season and has gone through multiple regulation changes. — Collinlee1903
Australia proved there’s still a lot of work for Hamilton and Ferrari to do. Much of their adjustment together could only happen when they did a full race weekend — the added headache of a wet race and the need for some big strategy calls only added to the challenge.
It will definitely take time, despite all his experience and success. Hamilton has spoken about how the Ferrari car behaves differently to what he grew used to at Mercedes. He’s generally happy with the feel of the car, unlike his final couple of years at Mercedes, but unlocking the extra pace will be the next step. In the dry in Melbourne through practice, he didn’t quite have teammate Charles Leclerc’s confidence through some of the medium-speed corners. Building up that comfort does take time.
Hamilton’s learning process will continue to evolve this year, even with elements such as radio communication with race engineer Riccardo Adami. We saw just how tricky that was at points in the race on Sunday, but Hamilton was confident they’d review their discussions and work out what each other wanted in those high-pressure situations.
With each race, we can form a firmer judgment. But it’ll be a little while until we know for sure just how well Hamilton has adjusted.
Luke Smith
Can there be a special “Racing Dad” award given to Anthony Hamilton for comforting Hadjar after he crashed on the formation lap? That’s one of the sweetest things I’ve ever seen in sports. — Anonymous
You had to feel for Isack Hadjar. He didn’t even get to line up on the grid for his F1 debut after spinning into the barrier at Turn 2 on the formation lap, leaving the Frenchman visibly distraught. Anthony Hamilton, Lewis’s father, took time to comfort Hadjar walking back through the paddock afterward, which would have meant a lot — Hadjar is a huge fan of the seven-time world champion, having long looked up to him as a youngster.
It was an incredibly touching moment that summed up the best of sport, as you say. In a moment that could have haunted Hadjar, he was immediately given some selfless support.
Luke Smith
Do you think the rookies (bar Antonelli) are going to struggle all season, or do you reckon the wet conditions were the reason they didn’t race well? I understand that racing in wet conditions is a struggle, but they all pretty much crashed in the same way. — Kevin T.
The rookies’ race performances largely came down to the wet conditions, such as how slippery the painted lines were. As Antonelli pointed out in his post-race interviews, this was only his second time driving an F1 car in the wet. The first was briefly last April.
Some of the wrecks were caused by small mistakes, like Hadjar trying to warm up his tires. Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto, who crashed with 10 or so laps to go, said he “touched the curb and ultimately ended up in the wall.”
Liam Lawson’s wreck, though, came down to a risky strategy call. The Red Bull driver stayed out on the medium tire when the rain came mid-race, the team knowing “sector three was bad” but “thought sector one would stay a little bit drier.”
As Bortoleto pointed out, rookies weren’t the only ones who crashed. Fernando Alonso lost control, too. We need to remember that for some of these drivers, Australia marked their F1 debut. These are new teams and new cars, and the conditions were quite poor. I’d reserve judgment until after they have a few races under their belts in normal conditions.
A big positive for the rookies is that they gained this experience.
Madeline Coleman
Cars were overtaking a moving truck under the safety car in conditions that saw multiple cars spin off on their own at low speeds. How on earth was this allowed to happen? — Greg S.
The sight of the moving truck on the track following Alonso’s crash was quite concerning. Recovery vehicles are sometimes required to help clear stricken cars, but they pose an added risk to the drivers, especially in low-grip conditions.
“As soon as we’re behind the safety car, the temperature of the tires drops so far down that even at very low speed, it’s actually very tricky to just have any sort of grip,” Pierre Gasly explained to reporters after the race. “You see a lot of guys just losing the car everywhere.”
At one point, the truck passed down the circuit just ahead of the safety car and the train behind, with Norris taking a moment before moving to the right to overtake exiting Turn 10.
Throwing a red flag might have been the better call and is something drivers have previously raised with governing body, the FIA. As well as a message being issued to teams to inform them a recovery vehicle is on the track, race control also throws a double yellow flag in the area where any vehicle is to slow the cars right now.
“In that particular scenario, I don’t think it was that bad,” said Leclerc after the race. “But in most of the scenarios, I think we would prefer to see a red flag whenever there’s a truck on track.”
Gasly said that “generally it was fine” in Australia, while the top three of Norris, Verstappen and George Russell all agreed. “I mean, if you crash behind the safety car, you’re really stupid,” said Verstappen.
Luke Smith
Antonelli was initially penalized for this pit release (Clive Rose/Getty Images)
How did Kimi get his place back? I’ve seen info saying that the stewards changed their minds based on significant new information, but no details. — Anonymous
The overturn of the five-second penalty stemmed from Mercedes’ successful Right of Review request. Essentially, teams can ask for a re-examination of a penalty based on four key conditions, and the petition must be within a 96-hour deadline. The evidence must be new, significant, relevant and unavailable to the team when the decision was made, and all four conditions must be met for the stewards to reexamine their decision.
The penalty was for an unsafe release into Nico Hulkenberg’s path. The five-second penalty saw Antonelli then drop behind Williams’ Alex Albon in the provisional race standings.
The significant, new element was video from the roll hoop camera, downloaded from the F1 camera after the race, meaning it wasn’t available when the stewards made the in-race decision. The stewards examined that video, as well as additional footage taken from the helicopter which was also previously not available to the stewards, and reversed the decision.
“It is clear that Car 12 did not cross into the fast lane until a significant distance down the pit lane and only after the driver checked his mirror to confirm clearance with Car 27,” read the reasoning in the stewards’ decision document. “The roll hoop camera shows that he had sufficient room to safely pass the McLaren pits without risk to the McLaren mechanics.”
Madeline Coleman
What exactly happened to Yuki? I watched the race live, and they didn’t explain why he had dropped so far in the standings. And all you said in the wrap-up article was something about bad strategy. Did he pit a lap too late for hards at the end? — Anonymous
It boiled down to the timing of pitting. Yuki Tsunoda had a competitive pace and raced a clean grand prix, making no mistakes up until that last rain call came through. The Racing Bulls driver was among the last to pit, diving in on Lap 47. In comparison, George Russell pitted at around Lap 44.
“There is nowhere to hide; we got our last call wrong, and it cost us very dearly,” team principal Laurent Mekies said in the team’s post-race recap.
Racing Bulls can’t afford to make mistakes like this. Tsunoda was running in the top 10 after qualifying P5 and ended the race with zero points after he finished P12. The midfield is anticipated to be quite competitive, and what happened to the Racing Bulls shows how thin the margins are.
Madeline Coleman
Williams looks legit during this first week of the race. Top 10 in qualifying despite Carlos Sainz slipping in the first couple of laps and Albon finished strong. Do you think, for now, Sainz is truly their “biggest investment”? — Nuha G.
Carlos Sainz is a big win for the team. One moment from this past race weekend that jumped out to me, though it did not surprise me, was how team principal James Vowles described Sainz’s impact on Williams. The Spaniard is known for his work ethic, and his arrival comes at a key time for the team.
“His ability to communicate what’s going on in the car is fantastic, his ability to understand what’s going on in the team around him and how to bring them forward, what excellence looks like, what winning looks like, and how to elevate our state from where we are is his strength,” Vowles said.
“That’s part of the reason why I wanted to make sure he was with us this year and beyond. In terms of his pace, we knew he was quick, but I’ve been really impressed with his ability to interact with our aero team or our engineers and bring them on a journey as well.”
The team is in a different spot than it was 12 months ago and spirits are much higher. Albon has been the team leader for a few years and has invested a lot into Williams’ future. He and Sainz make up its most successful driver lineup in several seasons and they are similar, Albon said during the team’s preseason launch, which is important for the team’s future.
Madeline Coleman
If you could bring back one track from grand prix history for your own purposes of running it on a race weekend, which would it be and why? – Scott M.
Love this question, Scott! I think running around Watkins Glen would be pretty cool, given how undulating it is and all the surrounding trees. I’ve never been there for a race, but everything I’ve seen makes me think I’d love to go sometime!
Luke Smith
(Top photo: Alessio De Marco/IPA Sport / ipa-agency.net/IPA/Sipa USA)
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