Will the porpoising hinder them in the race?
It was a long qualifying session in Melbourne to set the grid for the race, and in the end, it was Leclerc who came out on top; however, it didn’t always look like this was going to be the case. Their car is clearly superb in the corners, especially in sector 3, but the Red Bull was right on their tail. It took a perfect lap from the Ferrari driver to finally get it done. Sainz had another bout of cruel luck today, with not only a Red Flag coming out just before he got to the line, but his car then wouldn’t start, which meant he couldn’t warm up his tyres, and this ruined his other lap. Hopefully he can fight back tomorrow! As for Charles, with two Red Bull’s behind it won’t be easy in the race, especially with 3 DRS zones.
As we saw yesterday, Red Bull were more on the edge of the car’s performance, which led to them making more mistakes. That being said, the lack of porpoising they have could really help them in the race. On race pace there isn’t much between the two cars, so the start, and getting within one second of Leclerc will be crucial for the Red Bull’s.
After a worrying Bahrain, McLaren are back where they ought to be, and Norris even beat the Mercedes today. It looks like they are back to the pace that was suggested at Barcelona testing. It will take a lot for him to hold off the Mercedes, as I expect them to have better race pace overall. Ricciardo was beaten once again by Lando, which will hurt at home for him. Can he make up for it in the race?
Mercedes was able to improve as expected after practice, and will be right in the fight for 4th or 5th in the race. On high fuel the porpoising should be less of an issue, which will help them. The gap between Lewis and George was less than a tenth, which shows how well Russell is doing at the moment. Alpine may have had a great day, but it could have been better, if a hydraulics issue hadn’t ended Alonso’s lap. He has been on fire all weekend, and it could continue tomorrow! Expect them to join the battle for 3rd best team! Ocon does need to step up against his older teammate, especially with Piastri waiting in the wings.
Alfa Romeo weren’t able to repeat their exploits of the previous two weekends, possibly due to improvements from other teams like McLaren. They will likely need to rely on issues ahead, in order to score points. AlphaTauri are in a similar situation, they could well be praying for some chaos and Safety Car’s in the race!
Mick Schumacher did what he needed to do, by pushing back after being thoroughly beaten by Magnussen in the first race. It sounds like it is an off weekend for them, as opposed to a fundamental issue with the car. Points are probably off the cards this weekend. The two slowest teams decided to make their weekend worse, by crashing into each other! It was a hard one to call really, as the circuit does tighten up there, and Stroll wasn’t far off the racing line when they hit, but it was still clumsy from him, so the penalty isn’t too harsh. That compounded a horrible weekend for Aston Martin, who might be low on parts soon!
So, have the track changes had the desired effect? We will have to wait and see, although the signs already look good, in fact maybe too good, which may have led to one of the DRS zones being taken away. This does have the potential to be the best Australian Grand Prix for a long time!
-M
Meaning of Motorsport 