In the round-up: Mercedes admit they have much to work on following their point-less Australian Grand Prix weekend.
In brief
Mercedes reeling after grim weekend
Mercedes failed to score in Melbourne as Lewis Hamilton retired with a technical problem and George Russell crashed on the penultimate lap. their performance was also a cause for concern, admitted trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin.
“It has been a bruising weekend for us, during which we were unable to compete on a single lap or the long runs, and we will be continuing to trawl through the data in the coming days, to see what isn’t working and why we are only currently able to deliver flashes of performance from the car,” he said. “It’s clear that we have much to work on, to give both drivers a better tool to work with at the race weekends.”
Hamilton’s power unit will be sent to the team’s engine facility in Brixworth for inspection. Russell’s crash leaves them “with a significant amount of accident damage to remedy ahead of Japan,” added Shovlin.
Gasly avoids penalty point in Melbourne
The stewards opted not to give Pierre Gasly a penalty point for crossing the yellow line at the pit exit during yesterday’s race.The Alpine driver was given a five-second time penalty but the stewards said penalty points were not deserved because drivers had advised them the line is hard to see when the sun is low, he crossed the line for a short distance of around a metre and, in their opinion, he caused no danger by doing so.
Australian GP crowd “record”
The Albert Park welcomed 452,055 people over the four-day Australian Grand Prix according to the race promoter, who said this is a record.
Colapinto disqualified
Williams junior driver Franco Colapinto was disqualified from the Formula 2 feature race for failing to engage his car’s set-up procedure correctly. He followed the correct steps, which involve pressing a pair of buttons, prior to the formation lap, but neglected to do so before the race start.
The MP driver therefore lost his seventh place finish in the race. Rafael Villagomez inherited it, Victor Martins and Oliver Bearman also moved up in the points places, and Jak Crawford was handed the final point for 10th place.
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Links
Motor racing links of interest:
Exclusive presale among ways F1 trying to court Las Vegas locals (Las Vegas Sun)
'Residents last year during the inaugural Formula One race were vocal in their displeasure of being priced out of the event. That’s why officials are adding about 7,000 new general admission tickets spread across multiple viewing zones and giving Nevada residents priority access, said Betsy Fretwell, chief operating officer of the Las Vegas Grand Prix.'
The Aussie schoolgirl breaking down barriers in F1 pursuit (Nine)
'All my weaknesses in a go-kart — we're doing practice days two to three times a week to fix them in anticipation for me to get into a car. So, cold tyre runs, working on my braking, race craft — getting all that fixed so I'm ready for everything.'
'We acknowledge our absolute lapse of judgement and apologise wholeheartedly. We have reached out to George personally to apologise.'
How much does Victoria spend to host the F1 Grand Prix? (ABC via YouTube)
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Notable posts from X (formerly Twitter), TikTok and more:
|@Carlossainz55 and @Charles_Leclerc give @scuderiaferrari their first one-two since the 2022 Bahrain Grand Prix. #F1 #AustralianGP #RaceFans pic.twitter.com/MkK6KNSE4q
— RaceFans (@racefansdotnet) March 24, 2024
Alex Palou on Spanish drivers winning a vast amount of international motorsports events this weekend: "We're taking over. Be warned. There's something cooking in Spain."
— Jenna Fryer (@JennaFryer) March 24, 2024
Appreciate that IndyCar tried *something* to try and get more attention on the races that aren't the 500. The execution isn't it.
Thermal can stay as a test course, and a cash-incentive all-star race would work better at a place like Mexico City.
— RJオコンネル 💙💜🩷 (@rjoconnell) March 24, 2024
The Thermal Club million dollar commercial.
— Jordan Taylor (@jordan10taylor) March 24, 2024
Feels a bit off that the only driver to beat the reigning, three-times world champion to a grand prix victory in the last 21 rounds doesn't have a contract for next year. Superb performance by @Carlossainz55 this weekend.#F1 #AustralianGP #RaceFans pic.twitter.com/L4vZfWn8nl
— Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine) March 24, 2024
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Comment of the day
Fernando Alonso should have taken a leaf out of Nikola Tsolov’s book, says Depailler:
If only Alonso had waited until Russell was alongside and pushed him off the track he would have only got a three-place grid drop.
Depailler
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Guilherme Teixeira, Marc, Thomas Lindgren and Thomas Lindgren!
On this day in motorsport
- 40 years ago today Alain Prost won the Brazilian Grand Prix while Ayrton Senna was the race’s first retirement on his grand prix debut for Toleman
Kribana (@krichelle)
25th March 2024, 0:53
I still say that Alonso deserved that penalty. Once I saw the telemetry, I was 100000% sure he would get a penalty. Arguably one of the most disgusting behavior since Brazil-Saudi Arabia 2021 from Verstappen against Hamilton. It still shows that Mercedes need to massively improve their car.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
25th March 2024, 5:20
They need to improve the strategy as well, perez wasn’t competitive and was behind russell: by pitting russell, who I know had old tyres, but seemed to be able to continue, they gave up all hope to beat perez immediately and they must know how hard it is to overtake alonso without a big tyre deficit, so a repeat of singapore 2023: throwing away track position and in the best case scenario you still can’t get where you were before, worst case you come back with nothing, which happened both times…
Edvaldo
25th March 2024, 3:33
Mercedes has been looking poor quite frequently the past 3 seasons. But this race they looked like they dont belong at the top anymore. Not even close. And the fact that both drivers care to mention how faster Perez’s Red Bull is should bring them back to the ground. Before talking about fighting Red Bull they have major things to sort on the car.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
25th March 2024, 5:17
It reminded me a bit of the schumacher\rosberg mercedes period, they had just a midfield car.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
25th March 2024, 5:14
“40 years ago today Alain Prost won the Brazilian Grand Prix while Ayrton Senna was the race’s first retirement on his grand prix debut for Toleman”
Way to make us feel old, even those who weren’t born yet!
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
25th March 2024, 5:15
I mean, senna was the top driver before schumacher’s arrival and I’ve been watching most of schumacher’s career and senna began 40 years ago, damn!
AlanD
26th March 2024, 2:20
Whilst I would have watched Senna’s first race, I don’t remember it, but back then there was no social media etc so we didn’t really know much at all about new drivers. By the time of Schumacher’s first F1 race, I remember that much more clearly. He came in as a last minute replacement for Gachot which had been in the news because Gachot was locked up for assault, he qualified 7th which was amazing and had Murray Walker singing his praises nineteen to the dozen, and then he burnt out his clutch on the warm up lap and couldn’t start the race.
Retired (@jeff1s)
25th March 2024, 6:48
What a joke of a COTD, what a joke of a choice by the publication.
Referring to the Tsolov F3 shove aside act as a fun thing, as if Alonso had not 20 years of experience in F1 – opposite to Tsolov. Obviously penalty should be harsher for driver at the pinnacle of motorsport than for a driver learning in the junior category.
That was a dirty move. Penalty. Move on. And doing that to the man you are partying with shows Alonso’s value which is « Me, Myself and I ».
Keith Campbell (@keithedin)
25th March 2024, 9:59
@jeff1s CoTD is clearly tongue in cheek, but also a valid point. One incident was deliberately ramming an opponent into the wall in non-race conditions, the other was slowing down erratically aiming to get a better exit and arguably to cause dirty air to disturb the car behind, but with no obvious, deliberate intent to cause an accident.
But regardless, i’m curious whether you think the level of experience should be a factor in determining penalties. Do you think that a very dangerous manoeuvre worthy of an outright race ban for an experienced driver, should be a lesser penalty for a rookie? To me, the point of the penalties is to ensure safety and fairness in competition. If you start factoring in experience levels and your expectations of driving standards then you will potentially allow dangerous inexperienced drivers to compete and be more reckless than experienced drivers who would know they need to drive to a higher standard.
Retired (@jeff1s)
25th March 2024, 10:26
« To me, the point of the penalties is to ensure safety and fairness in competition. »
You said it all, but safety and fairness were not found in Australia.
Tsolov should’ve been banned,Alonso penalised and a red flag should’ve been waved not to repeat a deadly crash that happened in Belgium 2019.
And yes I would ban someone with knowledge more harshly than someone without or less.
slowmo (@slowmo)
25th March 2024, 10:36
Also seems likely the COTD was to foster further debate on what is a controversial subject. It was merely highlighting the comical aspect whereby a very real intent and attempt to damage another driver is penalised less than a potential incident.
Some drivers have tested the limits on what would be allowed in wheel to wheel racing to such an extent that the you concede or we crash mentality has become systemic in the sport. Lets be clear though, the true people at fault were the FIA in allowing it.
We’ve seen numerous incidents of drivers going into corners and being punted out at the apex as the “gap” closes over the last 4 years. All that follows is a bunch of finger pointing every time and the FIA even invented silly rules of engagement to try and get it under control. All the rules did was ensure drivers now position their car so they are in the “right” and then use that right to force others out of the way.
For me driving standards in the sport have never been lower and the biggest cause of that has been the introduction of the 5s penalty and listening to the drivers asking for the stewards to let them race. The 5s penalty should be consigned to the history books and we should start to see stuff like the drive through used again more often. Also they need to stop giving a free pass for lap one incidents. Once drivers face the prospect of an actual penalty that will seriously harm their race, their driving will improve dramatically very quickly.
Keith Campbell (@keithedin)
25th March 2024, 11:48
@slowmo I mostly agree, especially on first lap penalties. I can understand giving some leeway for lap 1, turn 1 incidents where there are multiple cars around and drivers can’t necessarily know or anticipate what every car around them will do, but a lot of lap 1 incident occur later in the lap and/or only involve two cars and should be judged no differently than the same incident later in the race. If a driver makes a misjudgement due to cold tyres or brakes then that’s still their error. I don’t see why they should get a free pass just because an incident happens to occur on lap 1, unless there are other mitigating factors.
As for driving standards, it depends what you’re referring to. I think in terms of overall driving levels and competence then the current field as actually about as strong as it has ever been, but I think you’re referring to their attitude when it comes to wheel to wheel racing, and then i can see with safety standards as high as ever and a lenient approach to issuing penalties, that the risk/reward ratio has changed and caused drivers to be more reckless or to try and game the rules to their advantage. It will be interesting to see if increasing the standard, small penalty up to 10 seconds will have much impact on how drivers approach racing this season.
MichaelN
25th March 2024, 11:56
Absolutely, and this is often passed over, intentionally or not. The point of harsher penalties is not to have more of them, but rather fewer as drivers adjust their approach to the new sheriff in town.
Also fully agree that F1 has let driver standards slide, such that it has set the tone for entire generations of juniors. This can only be fixed from the top down.
Mayrton
28th March 2024, 7:43
Well in all fairness; looking at Silverstone ’21 Alonso would have been better off with exactly doing that. Make contact. Send him into the barriers. Get only 50% of the penalty he got now. Seriously, these stewards.. where do they find them? How can we allow such bias? It’s 2024. I had hoped as mankind we would be a bit more advanced by now.
Broderick Harper (@banbrorace)
25th March 2024, 11:14
Hamilton’s move to Ferrari, is making more sense with every F1 session.
It could be that one of his great attributes, is knowing when to move on and which team to move to.
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
25th March 2024, 16:53
you make your own luck.
Mayrton
28th March 2024, 7:44
Absolutely agree. It is a quality in itself.
Vulture
25th March 2024, 17:11
As much as I dislike Alonso but at the same time appreciate his skill, he was in clearly in the wrong. When I seen it I thought nah he wouldn’t do that. Then even Russell was saying like nah he wouldn’t do that. Well he did. I know exactly what Alonso is doing, he is taking every opportunity to go as low as Verstappen set the bar and mostly got away with, and why not. F1 is going through a disgusting period in many ways.
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
27th March 2024, 23:54
its clear this team has no clue. probably because its been falling apart since Brawn left before 2014. it takes years for higher ups to get replaced, for nepotism/PC to set in and hostility to grow against honest and more capable peeps, but thats what merc smells like.