Australian Grand Prix Review: Different Types of Weekends
There are 22 race weekends in an F1 season. Each brings its own set of challenges for teams and drivers. By Sunday, weekends can usually be classified as the following: a Good Weekend, a Great Weekend, a Poor Weekend, a Damage Control Weekend or a Horrendous Weekend. In Australia both on track and in our pool we saw several of these lived out.
Great Weekends. These are usually defined by teams going above an beyond expectations. By this definition, there can be no doubt McLaren and Mercedes had great weekends. Coming into Australia, McLaren was starting to become a bit of a laughing stock, with a certain podcast pair even going as far to put them on there Leavem Lists. While Mercedes was still reeling from Hamilton's Q1 exit in Saudi. At the end of the weekend, not only had Norris found himself starting a surprising 4th on the Grid, but both cars finished the race! And finished a respectable 5/6. A massive moral victory and point haul for the team striving to get back into the midfield battle. Mercedes ended the weekend celebrating a surprise podium finish by Russell, his first true podium, and 4th place finish by Hamilton. A grin must be forming on Toto's face, Mercedes leave Australia not only 2nd in the Constructors…but Russell is 2nd in the drivers standings as well! Not bad for a team apparently struggling.
Good weekends. These are usually defined by teams that do just alright, they meet expectations. Alpha Romero had Bottas finish 8th and rookie Zhou Guanyu finish 11th. For a backfield team looking to get into the midfield fight, this was a good weekend. Ferrari also had a good weekend. You’d think with Leclerc finishing 1st a whole 20 seconds ahead of Perez, it would have been a great weekend, but Sainz couldn’t even complete 3 laps before beaching his car, and the hopes of many pool participants. In the end, Ferrari had a good weekend. Good weekends are boring though, lets move the poor weekends.
Poor Weekends. These are defined by teams, who leave in worse shape then when they arrive. A lot of teams had a poor weekend. Alpha Tuarri had a poor weekend. Gasley just barely finished in a points position, while well-known gym enthusiast Yuki Tsunoda finished 15th (and that was with 3 DNF'S). Alpine had a poor weekend, Ocon finish in 7th place, but Alonso missed out on pole due to a hydraulic failure on the final corner and poor race strategy caused him to finish last. However, the poorest of the poor weekends belonged to Red Bull. From practice to qualifying, the Red Bulls looked to be matching the Ferraris in lap times, but come race day…. lets just say…. engine units can be tricky to make. Mad Max had another DNF (Did Not Finish) thanks again to an engine issue, raising more question about Red Bull reliability. While Perez, salvaged the weekend for Red Bull with a 2nd place finish, he was stuck battling a surprisingly feisty Hamilton for most of the race. A scary sight for a team that seemed to be well up the pace from the Merc a couple weeks ago. Mad Max now finds himself 36 points behind Leclerc in the drivers championship. In all of last season neither Max or Lewis ever had a lead that large.
A horrendous weekend. Defined by teams who just want to go home, and may require trauma counselling when they do. Aston Martin firmly lands in this category. Sebastian Vettel finally got into the car and proceeded to spend more time on the back of the Marshal scooter than in the F1 car. He had an engine failure in FP1 (Free Practice 1) that kept him out until FP3, where he proceeded to crash! His mechanics moved heaven and earth to miraculously get him out for one qualifying lap….that wasn't so good. Then come race day, he rewarded the hard work of these worn out mechanics by sending the car into the wall again! His teammate Lance Stroll not only had several crashes of his own, including one with fellow Canadian Latifi (who himself hada horrendous weekend) but Stroll ended his Sunday with a 3 place grid penalty for causing the Latifi crash and a 5 second time penalty for weaving on the straights. The mechanics might need a team of phycologists to get them ready for the next race.
In our pool we did have a few great weekend. Marstar netted 36 points, the only contestant to score points off all 3 drivers. ITZ Formula One ended up top performer, a crafty Perez pick helped them net 46 points. Both these contestants avoided a wasted Verstappen pick. Speaking of wasted Verstappen picks. Fyshing, Brownie, Meg, Cargo V. Room, S.M.A. and Mahkatz, all feel into the good weekend category. They scored a solid amount of points but all used a valuable Verstappen pick on a DNF (Did Not Finish) performance. That’s going to hurt later in the season. But again, Good Weekends are boring, let’s get to the horrendous weekends. This weekend we had one true Aston Martin worthy horrendous weekend. Matty G, yes formally top of the table Matty G, not only wasted a Verstappen pick on an DNF, but refrained from picking Leclerc the race winner in favor of his teammate Carlos Sainz, who also DNF'd! Now Matty G didn’t go home empty handed he got 6 points from Ocon and the trophy for Poor Performance of the Weekend.
Its another 2 week break till next race, where we return to Europe and Imola, Italy for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. So do your debriefs and take some time to recharge.
