Valtteri Bottas dominated, Mercedes flew, Ferrari struggled, and Honda finally got a podium. Motorsport Week takes a look at the on-track, and off-track, talking points from the Australian Grand Prix.
Fairy-tales do happen
Valtteri Bottas couldn’t buy a win in 21 races last year but after just one event of 2019 he sits pretty atop the standings off the back of an emphatic victory. It marked a return to form for Bottas, who cut a drained and exhausted figure in Abu Dhabi last November as he repeatedly questioned himself and was starkly honest about his 2018 deficiencies.
Bottas enjoyed a prolonged winter break in Chile and his native Finland, grew a beard, and returned determined not to have any regrets at the end of 2019. Chapter 1 of 21 delivered a performance he could scarcely believe, lost for words at the manner in which he had dominated at Albert Park, a circuit at which he has never thrived. Such was Bottas’ supremacy that he had the confidence to attack for the fastest lap – and was rewarded with the bonus point, even though Mercedes boss Toto Wolff had prohibited such an approach during their pre-race meeting.
“Since I started to work with drivers 15 years ago, I try to comprehend what is going on in their brains and I don’t,” said Wolff. “How he recovered from being written off, not up for the job in the second half of the season last year to scoring one of the most dominant victories that we’ve seen in recent days shows us that human potential, how much it is a mind game. For me, it’s a bit of a fairytale: don’t let others break you, believe in yourself and he has showed that the whole weekend, not one single session that he wasn’t good enough.”
Now they can fight
It has taken four years, a junkyard full of broken and battered components, surely hundreds of millions of dollars, and three teams, but finally Honda has returned to the Formula 1 podium.
Red Bull-Honda’s pace was one of the big question marks of pre-season testing but in Australia the nascent partnership underlined its title ambitions with a strong performance, Pierre Gasly’s miserable weekend aside. Max Verstappen was able to split the Ferrari drivers while in race trim had enough grunt to overtake Sebastian Vettel, even if being equipped with fresher rubber was a boon.
Considering how early it is in the relationship, not to mention Albert Park historically being one of Red Bull’s weakest circuits, and this was a very promising start to 2019 for the operation. There was no doubt one or two wry smiles post-race when Red Bull chiefs took a glance at Renault.
Fallible Ferrari
Regarding Ferrari as pre-season favourite was not unjustifiable hype – the SF90 really did look that good at Barcelona. It only heightened expectations and consequently raised the shock levels that Ferrari was never in contention throughout the weekend. Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc both pointed to balance issues with the SF90, with Vettel openly admitting the car lacked grip and feel compared to the two weeks at Barcelona. The big question was why. The answer is not yet known.
“When you are in such positions, your car is not well balanced in the corner, you are not exiting as properly as you should,” said chief Mattia Binotto post-race. “I think all that analysis will be done in the next days. I think it’s too early a stage for us to have a proper judgement.”
Vettel and Leclerc both emphasised their belief that the SF90 has inherent pace that was not unlocked in Australia; for the sake of the title fight the wider Formula 1 community will be hoping that’s the case.
The midfield will swing on a sixpence
It’s perhaps possible that the midfield group is even tighter than in 2018, with McLaren back in the mix, Toro Rosso showing promising pace, and Haas and Renault not as far in front as they may otherwise have suspected. Haas held a comfortable advantage in terms of one lap pace and again spearheaded the pack in race trim, but Kevin Magnussen still had to contend with Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg for much of the encounter.
Renault’s pace was a disappointment for it appears to have stagnated and is mired in the midfield, whereas by now it should realistically be bridging the gap to the top three if its long-term title aspirations are to be viewed as attainable. Just three seconds covered Hulkenberg, Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen, Racing Point’s Lance Stroll, Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat and Red Bull’s Pierre Gasly, while McLaren’s Lando Norris and a handful of other drivers may well have been in that mix without getting stuck behind outlier Antonio Giovinazzi. It bodes well for a tantalisingly competitive midfield battle in 2019.
Danny ran into some complications
Ricciardo’s Renault debut was bathed in unjustified optimism from local media through the build-up and consequently concluded in massive disappointment. Ricciardo was understandably centre of attention at Albert Park and in Melbourne itself during the race week – but on-track fortune was not forthcoming.
A seat problem impacted his FP2, qualifying was firmly so-so, while his hopes of a characteristic race charge ended with an amateurish mistake at the start, bouncing onto the grass and shattering the front wing. Few debuts for new teams have gone that wrong that soon. Most shunts at least happen at Turn 1.
It even went wrong pre-race when Ricciardo was unable to throw a handful of caps over the fence to spectators. Perhaps local fans will have to cope with a little less Ricciardo in 2020 after he quipped “I’m just drained. Just trying to please everyone this week and I don't look after myself. I'll change it for next year.” Onwards and upwards…
Williams facing a long road to recovery
Five different teams occupied positions six to 10, while McLaren was also firmly in that hunt, but Williams was some way adrift of the midfield pack all weekend. It does not bode well for their 2019 prospects. George Russell and Robert Kubica both spoke of a car with potential but are having to effectively use Grands Prix as test sessions in order to experiment with the direction of the FW42, following the late birth of the car.
Russell spoke of a “fundamental” problem that needs addressing – which could take months, or longer – while Kubica was sanguine about Williams’ position, feeling that some of the shortfall was his own personal shortcomings and then car damage in race trim.
Australia can be an outlier and it would be a shock if the gap to the rest remained at well over a second for long, given the greater improvement trajectory possible when starting from so far back. But given the chasm, the fact that only Williams was slower year-on-year, and the relative stability of the regulations for 2020, it might even be worth putting a large portion of resources onto 2021 design as soon as those regulations are finalised.
For Charlie
The biggest shock of the weekend sadly came off-track, with the devastating news on Thursday morning that FIA stalwart Charlie Whiting had died overnight after suffering a fatal pulmonary embolism. There was widespread grief at his passing, indicative of the manner in which Whiting was loved and respected throughout the paddock, having held the roles of Race Director, Safety Delegate and Permanent Starter.
Each driver paid their respects and relayed some personal stories, while Formula 1 teams carried tributes on their cars, and FIA and Formula 1 personnel sported black armbands. The FIA was already in the process of long-term planning for Whiting’s successor(s) and that is something that will have to be fast-tracked (itself not easy off the back of Laurent Mekies' and Marcin Budkowski's defection to teams) but Australia was about paying respects to a great man, who will be sorely missed.
2021 regulations
Formula 1 and the FIA have been working on the package for the next cycle of regulations, which will begin in 2021. This covers not only the sporting and technical regulations – which are governed by the FIA – but the commercial agreements and other potential arrangements, which falls under the umbrella of Formula 1 through owners Liberty Media.
Formula 1 teams, Formula 1 chiefs and the FIA will convene for meetings of the Strategy Group and Formula 1 Commission in London on March 26, where the package will be presented. Will there be agreement? Probably not. There will be 10 different opinions in the room from teams, let alone the respective desires of Formula 1 and the FIA. Depending on exactly what is presented, the following Bahrain Grand Prix may well be dominated by any fallout, even if Liberty is keen to keep discussions private.
Netflix and Chill
Netflix’s Drive To Survive series was released on March 8 and many Formula 1 folk took the opportunity of the longest flight of the season to view the 10-part documentary. The feature was largely well-received within the Formula 1 community, with some standout stars emerging, most notably Haas’ Gunther Steiner.
Carlos Sainz Jr. revealed he had gained 15,000 social media followers in the wake of the documentary – substantially more than in the average week – while Toto Wolff quipped that he had no idea there was such animosity between Christian Horner and Cyril Abiteboul. Wolff also suggested that Mercedes may change its stance and become involved in the second season; Netflix’s main focus last weekend was on Robert Kubica, with the Pole wearing a microphone throughout his comeback event with the beleaguered Williams team.
A great place to start the season
It’s not difficult to see why Melbourne kicks off the 2019 season. The charming cosmopolitan city has endless cafes and restaurants in its vibrant centre while just a free tram ride away is Albert Park, in which the leafy circuit is located. The fan zone had plenty of activities throughout the weekend – including the stage on which Formula 1 and Supercar drivers appeared – while in other areas there was a Jurassic World complex, Batman, and a football arena for kids.
The Melbourne Walk is also one of the highlights of the year, with the drivers ambling along Formula 1’s equivalent of the red carpet – surrounded by jubilant fans – to reach the paddock gates from the car park. The Supercars themselves provided a dollop of support action and only a bizarre warm-up clash in the third race denied reigning champion Scott McLaughlin a clean sweep of the four races as he continued an imperious start to the season.
