Is the “new” Formula 1 too dangerous?
At least after the Melbourne race, there are several drivers warning of serious accidents in the future. In Australia, they were already lucky that there wasn’t a violent crash between Franco Colapinto and Liam Lawson at the start.
“The biggest concern for me during the race is the first lap. With SLM [Straight-Line-Mode], it felt really unsafe when everyone was on the back straight,” emphasizes Carlos Sainz.
With SLM, the front and rear wings fold, which is why the car loses a significant amount of downforce. This makes it correspondingly more difficult to control the car – which, according to Sainz, can quickly become dangerous in the chaotic opening phase.
“Lap 1 and overtaking don’t seem particularly safe with SLM at the moment,” Sainz warns, emphasizing: “In my opinion, we shouldn’t need active aerodynamics for racing.”
The solution is merely a “band-aid” because the engine is too weak – and possibly at the expense of safety.
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End of the day
With that, we have finally reached the end of the Australia weekend here in the ticker. The next edition will be available on Friday, just in time for practice and sprint qualifying in China.
FP1 is scheduled for 04:30 CET, so we’ll be back with you in the early morning hours. On our portal, of course, things will continue as usual over the coming days.
Have a nice rest of Monday, have a good start to the new week, and see you then!
Data analysis: Could Ferrari have won in Australia?
Russell: Melbourne no benchmark
George Russell also believes that the new Formula 1 regulations should not be immediately demonized after the first race. “Is it perfect at the moment? No,” Russell told Sky after his victory.
“But it’s the first race under the new rules, and it’s probably the worst track for it. So I think we just have to have some patience,” the Mercedes driver emphasizes.
“And even if the driving might not have been particularly fun, it did provide pretty good entertainment on TV. You just can’t have everything,” says Russell.
So let’s wait and see what the situation looks like in China this weekend.
Wolff: We shouldn’t be too “nostalgic”
Some drivers in the field are already wishing for the old Formula 1 cars back. Toto Wolff can’t quite understand this and emphasizes: “I haven’t heard any of the drivers speak particularly positively about the last cars and say that they were the best cars.”
“We tend to be very nostalgic,” says Wolff, who believes that the past should not be glorified. “We need a great spectacle, the best cars in the world, and the best drivers. It has to be exciting for the fans,” says the Mercedes team principal.
“One perspective is the drivers’ view, which is an important perspective. But Stefano [Domenicali] would say that for him, only one single metric counts, namely whether the fans like it. That’s what we have to look at,” says Wolff.
Will China be a gamble?
The first sprint of the year is coming up this weekend, and there is only one practice session for drivers and teams. “That won’t be enough,” warns Pierre Gasly, who explains: “Whoever gets the best start [to the weekend] has a huge advantage.”
“That was already the case with normal sprint races,” the Frenchman recalls. And under the new regulations, this will now apply even more than before. “I think it will be a very difficult challenge. But it will be the same for everyone,” he knows.
Because there is only one 60-minute practice session on sprint weekends, there is hardly any time to set up the cars correctly. And with the new cars, that has become even more difficult.
Leclerc: Updates will be crucial
The fact that Mercedes is ahead at the start of the season is obviously not ideal from Ferrari’s perspective – but according to Charles Leclerc, it’s not a disaster either. He himself is at least “positively surprised” after the opener, he emphasizes.
“I think this championship will be won through further developments and upgrades anyway,” he explains. Meaning: Whoever is ahead at the beginning of the year doesn’t necessarily have to be at the end.
Ferrari still has “a lot of work” ahead of them, but like his teammate, he assumes that they can close this gap. Leclerc also knows from his own experience that a good start to the season doesn’t have to be worth much.
In 2022, he won two of the first three races and already had a 46-point lead over Max Verstappen. In the end, the Dutchman still became world champion superiorly.
How Mercedes outclasses all opponents
We just talked about Mercedes’ current lead. But why were the Silver Arrows so strong in Melbourne? The key to success lies in the highly efficient energy delivery.
Saturday’s data analysis already showed this. In a direct comparison between Russell’s pole lap and Oscar Piastri’s fastest McLaren lap, the GPS data proves: The Mercedes was faster in almost every corner.
You can find our complete analysis here.
The ratings are in!
Of course, our popular driver ratings are back again this year. Here you can see how our expert Marc Surer and we as the editorial team rated the drivers in Melbourne:
Photo gallery: Melbourne: The driver ratings from Marc Surer and the editorial team
Hamilton: Can close the gap
Although Ferrari is missing about half a second according to Vasseur, Lewis Hamilton emphasizes optimistically to Sky: “I firmly believe that we can close this gap.” However, it “won’t be easy.”
“A lot of work is still needed to close this gap because it’s quite large, especially over a single lap,” says Hamilton, who nevertheless leaves Melbourne with a positive feeling, according to his own statement.
“We still have a lot of work ahead of us to catch Mercedes. But it’s not impossible,” he emphasizes and explains: “Of course, we’re not as fast as Mercedes. We still have a lot to do, but we’re in the middle of the fight.”
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Vasseur: Mercedes half a second ahead
In the early stages yesterday, Ferrari was able to keep up with Mercedes, but Frederic Vasseur emphasizes to Sky: “I think Mercedes was stronger than us all weekend.”
“However, it was a good starting point for us. We know where we stand, and we still have a lot of work ahead of us, many improvements to make before the next race,” said the team principal.
“We have to correct the small mistakes we made in China, but overall I think the gap to Mercedes is about half a second,” Vasseur reveals.
“I don’t know if it’s a bit more or a bit less,” he says, but it’s “roughly” in that range. “We still have a lot to improve, but the result is decent and a good start to the season,” he emphasizes.
Lawson annoyed by Perez
Yesterday there was a small duel on the track between Liam Lawson and Sergio Perez. The Racing Bulls driver believes that the Mexican drove a bit too hard.<
