Heroic Sainz wins ahead of Leclerc! It’s a Ferrari double in Australia, 20 years later.
Carlos Sainz dominates the Australian Grand Prix! For one race, the Spaniard gave up his Rossi shoes with number 55 to wear those of number 1 Max Verstappen. Absolute domination, from lap 2 until the end of the race. First position abandoned only after exiting the first pit stop. For the rest, 57 laps of absolute domination, almost “orange”. Verstappen’s retirement certainly affected the Spaniard’s race but Sainz’s weekend was consistent starting from Friday. Fast in free practice, very fast in the fastest lap on Saturday, a feeling he immediately found with his car, unlike his teammate, never really in tune with the redhead in this 3 Australian days. And to think that just 16 days ago Sainz was in the operating room for that bad appendicitis. Well done Carlos, today you really did the phenomenon!
Who knows what a contrast of emotions for Sainz. Racing separately at home and at the same time being the only Ferrari driver to have won at least one race in the last two years. It was literally impossible not to think about these dynamics during today’s race, given that everything had been amplified by the retirement of Hamilton, who up until then had driven an anonymous race, and by the difficulties of Leclerc, who was in difficulty all weekend. The one who didn’t seem to care at all was Sainz himself, author of an impressive match, one of those never in question. Not a mistake, not a mistake. Simply perfect race. For the future ex-Ferrari driver who will do anything to be regretted.
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The Australian weekend undermined Red Bull’s immortality. Verstappen had said it, “I don’t feel as comfortable as I did in Bahrain and Jeddah”. We all thought of the usual catchphrases, especially after the monstrous pole position on Saturday. Instead, evidently, there was a grain of truth. The dominators of the first two weekends really struggled, beyond the mechanical problem Max had. Perez, who started fifth, was only able to get going for a handful of laps, otherwise an anonymous race for him. An empty lap, like in Singapore 2023, when Carlos Sainz won again at the time. It happens even to the best but this year (maybe) it’s there a slightly more substantial competitor.
Max Verstappen’s number of consecutive points-scoring races stops at 43. No records, for once. Hamilton’s 48 races are safe and it will be really difficult to replicate these numbers, despite the absolute Dutch domination of this motoring glory. Judging by the angry post-retirement reaction, we have no doubt that the Dutchman will continue to dominate for a long time, leaving little or nothing to his competitors. Not today, though. Today is the day of the red holiday.
“There are no more retreats.” It was the cry in unison from everyone in the industry after the Bahrain Grand Prix. First time in history in which all drivers managed to bring their car to the finish line during the first grand prix of the season. Monstrous reliability, despite the very few days of testing in the pre-season. Curious, almost an anomaly. In fact, the issues came home to roost today. The explosion of the brake compartment of Verstappen’s Reb Bull and theengine failure what happened to Lewis Hamilton took us back to the Formula 1 that was, when retirements were the order of the day and were a determining factor in winning titles.