To start the season, I'd have to say we are 2 for 2 for entertaining races. Some interesting shake ups in qualifying, and a very scary crash from Schumacher. At the time of writing this, no post race penalties have been applied.
Red Bull claim their first pole with Perez (first of career), as well as the race victory. It wasn't a big surprise they were very very strong. Red Bull brought a specific low downforce packaged which proved to be a good decision. Being 6-8 kph faster than everyone is pretty incredible. I feel they have some trickery going on with maybe stalling the diffuser or something the reduce drag, as their speed advantage is not down to power. Verstappen didn't have his best quali, but was great in the race. Amazing clean racing with Leclerc once again and used his straight line speed advantage to make the pass. A deserving victory. Perez, very unlucky with the safety car, but I am not certain he did have the pace to win the race, but a podium was probably very likely.
Ferrari another great result. Leclerc opens the book to some incredibly mindful tactics during the race, and in back to back races is showing an edge in his mental game over Verstappen. It could be moot point, but I would like see how Verstappen gained time during the VSC over Charles. Going into that VSC, Leclerc had a 1.4ish second advantage, and coming out it was well under 1 second. Carlos by his own admission is still a step behind Charles, but he's still driving really really good. A strong podium, beat Perez, that's a good day. I don't know why race control did not tell Perez to give Sainz the position prior to going green, it was pretty clear cut that Sainz was ahead at the SC line. But a race without F1 getting it wrong some how? Almost rare these days. Sainz technically did slow down during the double waved yellows, but in all honesty it's not enough. Drivers need to start respecting the flags better. I should mention I really liked Ferrari's dummy call on the first pitstop that seemed super obvious, but Red Bull fell for it. I think Charles' tires were much better and planned to go several laps longer. And shout out to great pitstops again.
Mercedes still a long way off the top teams. George did everything right and 5th is the best that was possible. Hamilton actually drove a really good race, but was shockingly hit with some bad luck with VSC and that really hurt his race. Signs continue to point towards their PU not being all that great.
Alpine may have come into the race looking like the best of the rest, but I'm not sure they are genuinely better than Mercedes yet. I don't think the SC/VSC's helped them in the race, but Ocon should have easily been able to dispatch Norris. I really did enjoy the interteam battle, but their racing each other certainly didn't help their race. Sadly, I think Alpine should have stepped in and tried to get them to focus on attacking Russell ahead. Alonso, bad luck for him. Had a great race going, points were almost certain.
McLaren has to been very happy just to get some points. Probably not representative of their actual pace, but take the points when they come. A very strong result for Norris. Ricciardo having a mechanical failure was probably a benefit to him as chances he finished in the points were slim anyways.
AlphaTauri I expected to be better than they are. Tough break for Yuki, but it would have been a difficult day for him regardless. Gasly at least finished the race, but to be behind a Mclaren doesn't look good.
Haas back in the points again. The car is legitimately pretty good. If things go their way, a top 5 may be possible for them. They will need to maximize points early as their development program probably will not be as strong as other teams. Magnusson again coming in with a good race. Shame about Mick, and it sounds like they may not even have a car ready for him in Australia. Let's hope for the best their.
Alfa Romeo certainly had a car to score points today. Not sure what happened to Bottas, but was another driver struck by bad luck all around the same time. Zhou not a great day. Hopefully his career doesn't shadow Tsunoda's, where after a great debut falls to being one of the worst on the grid. Time will tell.
Aston Martin still feeling the pains. Rumor's is they have a car in the wind tunnel that is drastically different than their current car. That might be encouraging because the current car stinks. Hulkenberg finishing ahead of Stroll is fortunate for him as he dropped like a stone on his used tires. Hamilton and Magnusson didn't struggle on theirs. Fair enough, I'm sure he was physically not as prepared as the other drivers, which could have been a factor in such a demanding race. Stroll getting clipped by Albon, I only saw the one replay, but it appeared Stroll turned in and was at least equally at fault.
Williams had a miserable day, and it's probably going to one of many this season. They appear to be the worst on the grid. Albon certainly is the better driver on the team. Unsure how much he was at fault for his own DNF. Latifi probably needs to find a new career, however he sure has a way of shaking up a race with his incompetent driving.
Driver of the Race: Charles Leclerc. Despite missing out on the win, he pulled out some strategic tactics during the race that got he best of Verstappen. Pure pace and driving, they were pretty equal, but the mental game, Leclerc was better.
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Originally Posted by paolo lalli
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