A Melbournein the saga of madness staged by some F1 Frankstein, vince Verstappen and this is no longer news. This year goes like this. We’ll have to get used to Max’s cold smile and Horner’s ecstatic one, as if enjoying Miss World on the podium. According to Hamiltonand watch out for Mercedes which is making great strides and revolutionizing the car. Terzo Alonso, who has now subscribed to the podium. The Ferrari? Sainz twelfth, i.e. last, but finished there by a decision of the judges after an excellent race finally, in a splendid comeback from eleventh place, caused by an unfortunate pit stop with a red flag in tow, to fourth. Leclerc out of the race after three corners barely, spin and car on the gravel. The best Ferrari seen so far has collected zero points, a result that speaks volumes about many things, about the faults of Maranello – wrong car, aerodynamics to change and slowness in understanding it – and about bad luck, such a big bad luck that the SF-23 won’t give up anymore. “We’ve made clear steps forward and plan to improve even further from now on,” says Vasseur. Given how it’s gone up to now, it would be better to be more cautious and covered up. According to someone already from Baku, at the next Grand Prix, we should see a completely renewed Red on the track. According to others, we have to wait for Imola, if not Barcelona. In one case or another, there’s no question of winning this year.
Even if the way F1 is managed now, losing or winning risks becoming a lottery, that’s not what really matters. Fun is the most important thing, the show. As we saw in Melbourne, in a crazy Grand Prix faked by the race judges in function of a spaghetti western to be shot on a racetrack. Three red flags, three starts and a Far West final, a saloon brawl with the corpses of cars strewn across the course, for the sole benefit of a quite delirious spectacle, because then it’s off again – and four! – returning to the previous positions, as if that circus madness of racing cars that rev up and fight with clanging of scrap metal had never existed. Too bad for the Alpines who destroyed their single-seaters and for Sainz punished by a penalty and relegated to last position for something that was later cancelled. If this is the Formula One of the future, let’s avoid talking about sport again. It is a demented show, without logic, with the rules that change at each grand prix in an absurd and random way. Two years ago Verstappen thus stole a world championship from Hamilton. This year Red Bull’s dominance is so great that they can even invent anything they like, so it would be impossible to prevent them from winning and upsetting the standings. But for all the rest what’s the point of this madness? At the heart of this insane show, then, there is the misfortune that pursues Ferrari, a little black cloud of Fantozzi that follows it wherever it goes. There is one every time. AND for Charles Leclerc it is truly a cursed season: the car that was supposed to be «the fastest ever», as Benedetto Vigna had shot a bit recklessly on the day of its presentation, and which up until now was going even slower than last year, the withdrawal in Bahrain, the seventh, anonymous and mortifying placement in Saudi Arabia and now this bad luck in the Australian Grand Prix.
In Melbourne his race lasted a few hundred metres, just long enough for a perfect start that was taking him from seventh to fourth place, then a spin at turn three and SF-23 stuck on the gravel. Charles was trying to overtake Fernando Alonso on the outside, when Lance Stroll in the other Aston Martin ran slightly behind and braking suddenly lost control of his car, ending up touching the front of the Monegasque’s Ferrari. The redhead number 16 stops there watching the race pass before his eyes. The Race Direction certifies that it was «a race contact» and that no investigation will be made for this. For Leclerc it is really a very hard blow. The Australian GP shows that something is improving in the performance of the SF-23, Red Bull is still a long way off, but at least they are returning to last year’s times, within reach of Aston Martin and Mercedes, and a driver as fast as here the little prince could also aim for the podium. Of course, despite Melbourne’s step forward, there is still one unsolved problem, that of tire management, which the single-seaters from Maranello continue to have to a much worse extent than the other cars. But today really could have been redemption day. And instead it ends that Charles’ morale is under his feet and now he must find the strength within himself to raise his head. «He doesn’t shoot the right one …», he says, with a disconsolate face and sad eyes. «In turn three there was space on the outside when braking, nobody made a mistake and it’s nobody’s fault, it was a racing accident. But the frustration is great, there are three grands prix that one doesn’t go well, everything has always gone wrong, between the problems and the penalty and today this accident. The season is long, but we really have too few points and we have to bounce back».
Now we go on break. In Maranello they will have some time to run for cover. They have to correct a bad car and change the aerodynamics to improve tire management. See you in Baku. And between the words in the wind and all the bad luck there is, it’s better not to get too many illusions.