Australian Grand Prix Review || F1 2023

00:00

A record amount of red flags. 8 DNFs and three race starts. The Australian Grand Prix was absolute chaos the entire weekend. So, get ready because you’ve been summoned to the Steward’s Office

00:18

Hello, everyone and welcome back to the Steward’s Office. I’m Saira and today, we’re gonna be talking about the absolute chaos that was the Australian Grand Prix. I feel like this entire weekend was just messy in so many different ways and I’m so glad I kept a note of everything because there was just a lot to keep track of.

00:43

Even the Free Practice sessions seemed to be a little messy. Both Lewis and Logan reported some bouncing in FP1 but that might have been exacerbated because Australia is a street circuit and the roads can just be pretty bumpy at times. Max was having issues with his downshifts which I’m pretty sure was something that he was having issues with in Saudi as well so that just seemed to be a problem that wasn't being resolved. We saw a good couple of drivers have some moments off the track and it is so lucky that Australia isn’t like a lot of the other street circuits because it does have some pretty big gravel and grass run offs in certain areas, so we didn’t see anyone properly wreck their car and need a huge patch job which is always good to know.

01:30

GPS was an issue in this session though. A red flag came out and I was so confused why. There was nothing happening on track, no car had stopped, no massive piece of debris that would cause that red flag to come out and then it turns out they had to red flag the session because the GPS system wasn’t working. The FIA and the teams didn’t know where the drivers were on the track which was just plain unsafe because you can’t warn the drivers if there is a crash or a car that’s coming up on a fast lap you need to move out of the way for so it has the potential to cause a bigger accident. So, I do completely understand the need for it but definitely one of the stranger reasons that I’ve seen for a red flag.

02:16

On top of that, towards the end of the session Logan Sargeant ended up stopping on track and by FP2 we learnt that it was an electrical issue but Williams weren't really giving us specifics on what was going on there. His qualifying in Saudi wasn’t the best and by the end of Q1 there, he did end up stopping on track because of an issue so it could potentially be related or a repeat issue that's happening. But because of the electrical issue he didn’t do any running in FP2 while the team worked to fix his car which isn’t great when you also haven’t raced here before, you want to get as much track time as you can anyway in the free practice sessions. That's why they exist, so you and your engineers can get as much information as possible but you definitely when you aren’t even familiar with the circuit.

03:08

To be honest though, FP2… it wasn’t exactly pointless but it just wasn’t really a representative session for anyone. It ended up raining for the majority of the session so we got a lot of wet tyre running from the drivers. Which, I mean, don’t get me wrong, I love wet tyre sessions so much but rain wasn’t really forecast for the race so it almost felt like it was a bit of a wasted session in that respect because none of the teams were really gonna be able to apply anything they learnt from that session to the race. Maybe anything is a bit strong but there was gonna be really limited information they had learnt in wet tyre running that they would then be able to apply to the actual race. Before it started to rain though, Lewis was making some big setup changes and he’d done the exact same thing in FP1. So, I don’t think he’s found like the perfect sweet spot with the car setup in general and to be fair, he’s been pretty open and honest with that. And it could also just be him just wanting to try those setups and see how they worked and it they were any better than what he had. But yeah, I think for him in FP1 and FP2 especially, there was a lot of testing going on with the setup to find something that he was actually going to be comfortable with. Like I said though, FP2, not the most representative session for any of the drivers that were taking part.

04:31

Saturday was just a day to forget for Checo. I honestly felt so so bad for him. I don’t know what happened but his car was just an absolute mess. He was in the garage for a little while at the start of FP3 and the mechanics were just doing some work at the back of his car and I didn’t really think much of it but when he finally got out on track, it was a little messy for him. I don’t think he managed to do a single quali simulation in that session, at all. He had to deal with traffic issues, which just seemed to be a problem for everyone in all of the practice sessions and then he was complaining about the car setup and the brakes, went off track and then in the last 8 minutes of the session there was this huge cheer from the commentators because it looked like he was finally going to that quali sim in and that excitement quickly faded because he went off the track again. He was just not a happy bunny in FP3 and then to top all of that off, he went to the end of the pitlane so he could go out and do a practice start with the rest of the drivers but by the time he got there the clock had already counted down to 0 so he wasn’t allowed to head out and had to get pushed back to the Red Bull garage. I don’t know how he managed to get so much bad luck in just one practice session but FP3 was just not a session that was any good for him.

06:05

We did saw another red flag during the session and this time it wasn’t because of the GPS like in FP1 §but because there was some debris from Nyck De Vries’ car and it was the strangest bit of debris, to be honest. with you. Usually, when they talk debris on track I'm thinking it's a bit of the front wing if they’ve knocked into something or tyre debris if they've had a puncture. But this time, the curved part of the sidepod had flown off of the car, which definitely isn’t a piece of the car that should be going anywhere. Last time I saw something like that happen was with the Alpines last year and it was either in preseason testing or one of the first couple of races of the season. I can’t remember which… it could potentially be both. But just a strange piece to come off and not a piece we usually see come off. I mean AlphaTauri aren’t doing great anyway, let's be honest. It's not been the best season start for them. The last thing they need is their car falling apart on track for no reason especially when it's a part of the car that shouldn't be coming off.

07:14

And McLaren once again seemed like they were having issues in practice since Lando had to come into the pits in the last fifteen minutes in FP3 as he had an issue with the car that the engineers needed to fix and he wasn’t able to go back out. I can’t lie, I feel like in free practice over the past three races, Lando has spent more time in the garage than he has on track which probably doesn’t help when you’re trying to figure out a race setup and just trying to figure out the car in general and get as much data on it as possible.

07:48

By the time Q1 started, the track was a little slippery and there was a little bit of rain but nothing major and the drivers did manage to get out on dry tyres but it didn’t take long for Logan Sargeant to spin and cause a yellow flag. Thankfully, he did manage to keep the car going but this is the second quali in a row where he’s either spun or clipped a wall and just compromised his quali a little bit because of it. I can’t tell whether this time it was just because of a slippery track and he didn't have that grip there or whether overall he’s just pushing a little too much in quali and it’s just too much to ask of the car and for him to keep under control. I mean, if it’s the latter then I think with a little bit of time and more experience, it should be something we see less of. But at least he was able to complete quali, even though he did get knocked out in Q1, it seemed like a better running that he had in Saudi.

08:48

After that, it wasn’t long before Checo’s Red Bull ended up in the gravel and a red flag came out. You could tell he wasn’t happy down the radio because whatever was going on with the car was the same issue that he had in FP3 and he was vocal about it and said that they needed to get that fixed. And that was the end of his qualifying, and he ended up in P20.

09:10

For me, one of the more incredible things about Q1 was the fact that with 11 minutes left on the clock after the red flag and the session resumed, none of the drivers seemed to pit again. All of them stayed out there on the same set of tyres and the times just kept tumbling down. And that’s not normally what we see. But the drivers were just able to put in lap after lap and were making some huge improvements with their times.

09:38

McLaren at this point were still complaining about balance issues though. I couldn’t tell you what is going on with that car but neither of the drivers seemed to happy with it during quali and sadly Oscar ended up being knocked out in Q1 at his home race and the first time he had ever visited the circuit.

09:57

Q2 and Q3, we pretty much saw the same thing happening with the tyres. Drivers just managing to do multiple laps on their soft tyres but a few of them did need to pit in these sessions but still managed to get so many laps out of one set of tyres. The absolute stand-out driver for me this qualifying session had to be Alex Albon. That Williams has definitely got performance in it, at least for one lap and he was just setting some insane lap times. To the point, he was up there with the Red Bulls. Acually, it's just the Red Bull, it was just Max at this point. He was setting purple sectors, and just loving lift and it was great to see. I think we saw the performance drop off a little by the time he got to Q3 but he still managed to get that car into P8 which is incredible and it's given me a little bit of hope for Williams this season, I can't lie. Maybe I'm jumping the gun a little bit but I think that car definitely has performance to be unlocked and I think Alex is the right driver to extract as much as he can out of that car.

11:02

Nico Hulkenberg was another driver that did really well in quali. He seems to just be extracting a lot out of the Haas for one lap pace and he ended up in P10 but we did see some really good lap times from him that were taking him pretty high up in the timesheets during Q1 and Q2.

11:21

Mercedes as a team had an amazing quali. I really wasn’t expecting that from them but they managed to secure P2 and P3. At this point, I’ve kind of managed by expectations with the team. So, I came into this weekend thinking, that if there were around P5-ish, that would be a pretty good result and I wouldn't ask for much more. But they just managed to find some amazing pace for quali that it worked out well for both of the drivers.

11:49

Ferrari on the other hand just seemed to be... a little bit of a mess at times. I’m just once again wondering what the heck was going on with them. By Q3, they just seemed to be waiting for the rain and just not prepping the tyres to get them into the right window. I mean, most teams were doing two warm-up laps before doing a flying lap just to get the heat into the tyres and I don’t know what Ferrari were trying to do during quali. Admittedly, there was a 90% chance of rain during the session but no other team seemed to be holding off or trying to prep for the rain or hold off as much as Ferrari seemed to be doing. And both of their drivers ended up in P5 and P7. So, not great, not terrible but I think there was more performance that could have come out of that car.

12:41

And then we finally got to the race… and just wow. It’s taken us three races but this finally felt like a race worth watching. The pace with a lot of the cars was pretty even and there were a good couple of battles going on around the grid that actually felt exciting to watch. It definitely felt worth the early start for me but it was just chaos as well. I can't lie, running on about four and a half hours of sleep, it took me a little while to get my head around everything that had happened in the race.

13:18

So we started off with both Checo and Valtteri starting from the pitlane. Both of them had undergone suspension changes that weren’t authorised under parc ferme and I’m gonna assume that Checo’s one was to resolve the issues he was having in quali. But Checo had also changed the control electronics and the energy store. Now those could just be precautionary, maybe just to cover bases or maybe there was an issue that the team had found when they were working on the car. But either way, it meant that both drivers were going to have a pitlane start.

13:52

At lights out, George and Lewis both had amazing starts. George got past Max right at the start and managed to pull a little bit of a lead and then it didn’t take long for Lewis to also get past Max. Just really strong starts from both of them which once again, I just wasn’t expecting from the car. From the drivers, yeah, but just not the car. I thought they might end up getting swallowed by the Aston Martin of Fernando Alonoso or even Lance Stroll coming up from P6 but that just wasn't an issue for them. They had really decent starts and the car was working for them.

14:29

That happiness for me was cut short very quickly because as Lance and Charles went wheel to wheel, Lance’s rear tyre clipped Charles and he ended up spinning and beached in the gravel. When I tell you guys that my heart completely sank when I saw his car just sat there on it's own. I can't even begin to describe the feeling and I wasn't able to yell too loud either because my dad was upstairs sleeping. Quali obviously had not been the best for Charles and I’d just been hoping that he would be able to make up some places in the first lap but instead, we got a DNF.

15:07

His post-race interviews just sounded so fed up and done. A lot like Bahrain where there wasn’t really any anger but just kind of accepting that this was gonna be the norm almost? And it's just not the sort of thing any of us fans wanted to see or hear. He’s got, what? Six points from three races right now? And all of those came from Saudi. So six points, one penalty, two DNFs and the worst start to his F1 season since he joined Ferrari. I don’t even think nightmare covers it anymore. I don’t even know if it’s going to get any better right now. DNFs aside, the Ferrari just doesn’t have the pace right now. They seem to be behind Aston and Merc and even the drivers seem to be saying that yeah, tey're going to be behind both of those teams on top of Red Bull. And then when you also pair that up with the mechanical DNF in Bahrain, which could crop again for all we know… the signs aren’t great for Ferrari right now but we’re still early in the season and there are 20 races left so anything could happen. For Charles though, this is just another race weekend for him to forget.

16:21

His DNF caused the first safety car of the race and along with that there were a couple of pitstops. The Softs and Mediums for the drivers who came in were swapped over for Hard tyres in the hopes that they would be able to get to the end of the race. By lap six though, Alex ended up spinning and crashing into a barrier. It didn’t look like he had an incident with anyone, I think it was just a driver error but it was so costly for him. He was running a pretty good race though and probably would have ended up somewhere in the points but it just wasn’t meant to be. It was a little worrying to watch that crash though since the car had kicked up a lot of gravel and dust whilst it was skidding and sliding slightly back onto the track, so I don’t know if the drivers approaching him could really see the car. But I’m so glad that everything managed to stay safe and there weren’t any other issues with other drivers.

17:20

That did cause another safety car to come out though and at that point George and Carlos had pitted for the hard tyres and they were the only two that pitted at this point. The teams just wanted to try and get an advantage from the safety car. And I don’t think it would have been possible for Merc to have even tried to double stack the cars because George and Lewis were pretty close together when the safety car came out and Lewis was worried that the move would put him at a disadvantage. But pretty much as soon as we heard that radio message from him, a red flag was shown and the race was stopped and that meant everyone who hadn’t pitted, including Lewis, was about to have a massive advantage. They were going to be able to change their tyres and even their front wings if they wanted to without losing a single place or any time to their competitors.

18:11

And, let’s just say that Carlos and George weren’t happy about this. I think part of that unhappiness came from the fact that they didn’t get why they needed the red flag but apparently that was because of the amount of gravel that was on track and needed to be swept away. But, look, sometimes timing of things like safety cars and red flags are just down to luck and the Ferrari and Merc made the best decision with what they knew at the time. And had the red flag not come out, then the two drivers would have had an advantage, there's no doubt about that. None of the teams knew that that red flag was gonna come out a few seconds later otherwise I'm sure both Merc and Ferrari would have waited.

18:54

We then had a standing start which was the second time we saw a lights out, with Lewis in P1 and Max in P2. And it was a really solid start from Lewis again and he managed to get away from Max in those opening stages. Realistically though, I knew that that was going to stay the case. The start might have been slow for red Bull but there was just so much pace in the car that it just doesn’t really matter. At some point or another, Max was going to end up back at the front of the field and that’s exactly what happened.

19:28

Carlos was actually having a really good race at this point. He was the second fastest car on track at some points, so there is some pace there in Ferrari and he was getting some really great overtakes done because after his pitstop at the start of the race, he was bumped down into P11 and was just trying to make up those places. So, even thought hat pitstop put him at a disadvantage he did just get his head down and knew that he needed a good race to make those places back up.

19:56

By lap 18, we had a VSC come out. George’s car had an engine issue that was causing a fire at the back of his car. And the images from that were just worrying, a lot like seeing the crash from Albon. I’m so glad to know he managed to get out of the car safely and unharmed but of course, it was just a gutting end to the race for him.

20:20

Merc definitely had the chance of a double podium on Sunday. I don’t think there was any way that they could have fought Max for the race win but they definitely could have had a 2-3, that was within their realms. Word coming out of the team was that there wasn’t a leak in the car, the PU had just failed. I think what makes it worse is that in general, Mercedes haven’t really had reliability issues. I mean when you look at their car last year, it was really reliable. That was one of the biggest positives coming out of the W13 for them. So, it’s gutting that on a weekend they could have had a double podium or at least a really good haul of points, that reliability just wasn’t on their side.

21:04

After the VSC ended, there was this beautiful, almost cat-and-mouse game that was going on between Lewis and Fernando. Tyre management was huge for this race. None of the drivers wanted to pit again if they’d swapped onto the hard tyres during either the safety car or the red flag but they weren’t meant to last that long so the drivers really need to look after them so that they could get to the end of the race. And Max was way way ahead of the pack so Lewis and Fernando were the first closest pair on the grid that we really saw. And every time Fernando pushed the pace, cut down the time between him and Lewis and almost tried to force Lewis to use up more of his tyres, Lewis would match that pace, get Fernando out of DRS and just go back to tyre management. And this just kept happening. We would see Fernando two tenths up on Lewis and nearly getting into DRS. Lewis picking up the pace, making up those two tenths and pulling away from Fernando and the just slowing back down. So interesting to watch these two drivers play a really smart game between them and I loved watching that.

22:14

Pierre was also having an amazing race. I have no clue where the pace from Alpine came from but he was keeping up with Carlos and Lance without a problem really. Putting in some great lap times, getting within DRS of Carlos. He was running in P5 and was just doing a really solid job up there.

22:33

By the end of the race and I’m talking, three or four laps left, Kevin Magnussen ended up going into a wall and breaking his rear suspension and that causes one of his rear wheels to completely come off. And that caused the second red flag of the race. So, the drivers headed back into the pits and we had our third lights out of the race. And guys, I’m telling you my nerves were shot at this point. I’ve told you guys before that I get anxious as the drivers go into the first corner in the opening lap but to go through that three times on not very much sleep… yeah, I think I could live without that. I really do not wanna go through that feeling three times in one race.

23:19

So, initially I hadn’t really understood why we even needed the red flag in the first place. I get that F1 like to finish a race under green flag conditions but it felt so pointless for what was only going to be two laps when the teams were struggling with tyre warm-up anyway. But apparently, they needed that red flag because some of the debris on track were pieces of metal and just bits that could have damaged the cars had they run over them and it just wouldn't have been to tidy that up during a safety car.

23:50

Eventually, we got the cars back out on track and on the grid for what should have only been a two-lap shoot-out but with the drivers just being desperate to improve the places in those last two laps and get into the points, it meant that it wasn’t going to be that straight forward. Max and Lewis got off the line with no problem, no incidents, they were going. But Carlos’ front tyres ended up knocking Fernando which caused his Aston to spin around and that just caused a whole host of chaos behind him because the drivers were trying to take evasive action.

24:25

So we ended up with Pierre taking to the grass, coming back on track and then crashing into Esetaban, sending both of them into the barriers and Alpine leaving the weekend with a double DNF. On top of that Logan ended up hitting Nyck and ending both of their races. Checo went onto the gravel and lost a couple of places there and Lance ended up out-braking himself and also decided to take a tour of the gravel because why not? So that restart was just an absolute mess and congratulations to all of the drivers that managed to get out of it unscathed.

25:01

But with abandoned cars on track, we had our third and final record-breaking red flag of the race and at this point, I honestly thought that was it. There was no point in restarting this race. What could they possibly gain? It would only be the one lap but oh no, the FIA said nope. We’re doing a rolling restart. We've had enough of the standing ones. Let's mix it up a bit, we're going to do a rolling restart. One lap with a rolling restart, cross the line, get the checkered flag and I was exhausted at this point. I just wanted the race to be over. A rolling restart just to cross the line meant that we weren’t going to get any overtakes anyway so it was just going to be processional. And it felt pointless to me. Before that could happen the FIA had to make the decision about the order the cars would do the rolling restart in and because none of the cars had made it out of the first sector before the red flag had come out, they would go to the order they were in before that absolute chaos. On top of that they also gave a§ penalty to Carlos for causing a collision with Fernando.

26:14

It was going to be a five-second time penalty and with the rolling start and only 12 cars left to run, it was definitely going to put him out of the points. I feel like had that incident happened on the first lap, it probably would have just been put down to a first lap incident so I do think it was pretty harsh. Especially since Fernando didn't lose a place, he didn't have to DNF, he said there was no damage on the car. And Carlos, bless him, was so upset about it.

26:43

The team has come away pointless from Australia, a DNF for Charles and two penalty points for Carlos. At this point, I just hope both of the drivers are gonna go home and have a decent break now before Baku. There’s a pretty big gap so I hope they’re just going to just be spending time with friends and family and forgetting about this weekend. Ferrari now has a 30 point gap to Mercedes in 3rd that they going to have to try and makeup and to second place there are 39 points. And I don’t think it’s going to be that easy for them to make up that gap.

27:19

Post-race, Pierre was investigated for the collision with Esteban which made me panic a little because he is so close to getting a race ban but the Steward’s didn’t take any further action. They usually are pretty lenient when it’s an incident between teammates and to be fair, Esteban didn’t seem angry about it either when he was doing his interviews. Of course he was disappointed but he said that Pierre had apologised to him and that it could have been anyone really. So, that was dropped.

27:52

And then Haas decided that they wanted to launch a protest. They wanted the order after the chaotic standing restart to be reinstated as the final race results because it would benefit the team massively since Nico had been in P4 at that point. So, it would have been a pretty big haul of points for them. The rules do say that the leader needed to pass the first sector for that order to be used but Haas argued that it was to do with the second safety car line which had been passed but the Steward’s eventually dismissed their protest and the provisional race classification was finally confirmed only what? Four/five hours after the race? Insanity.

28:32

Max finally got his first win at Australia, Fernando took home a third consecutive podium for Aston Martin. Lewis got his first podium of the season and became the first driver to get a podium in 17 consecutive seasons.

28:50

Checo ended up winning driver of the day and I have to agree with you guys. I'm not picking a different driver. He went from P20 and a pitlane start to P5 with the fastest lap and had a pretty clean race. And for a guy who was starting that far back, and didn't have the best of Saturdays it was great to see that he didn’t manage to end up in any of the huge tangles. Of course, though, a P5 finish has opened up the gap between him and Max at the top of the championship so I’m sure he’s going to be fighting in the next race to try and close that up again.

29:22

No power ranking this week as I just work to edit what I’ve got so far but I’m hoping to make some changes to it this week and then post the results on my TikTok so make sure you keep an eye out on that.

29:36

I cannot believe we ended up with 8 DNFs this race. Eight of them. There are gonna be a lot of teams that aren’t coming away from the race with smiles on their faces. McLaren and AlphaTauri are probably heading back a little happier though with both of the teams finally scoring their first points of the season. Yuki scored one, coming in P10 and both Oscar and Lando managed to take points home for the team and got the team up to P5 in the constructors’. Were both teams helped out by all the DNFs? Definitely. But I don’t think any of them are going to be looking their nose up at points and are just gonna look at building on this in future races.

30:15

And that just about sums up the chaos of the Australian Grand Prix. I’m glad all of the drivers came out of it okay, even if the cars didn’t and that we actually got to see some good racing this week. Baku is up next at the end of April and I’m not sure how well that’s going to go. It’s not my favourite circuit in general and I don’t think it’s gonna replicate some of the closer battles that we’ve had this race but I guess we’ll just wait and see. Thank you guys, and diolch yn fawr listening, make you follow this podcast to get notified every time a new episode comes out and I’ll see you guys the next time you’re summoned to the steward’s office.