F1 Today – Australian Prixview – 30/03/2023
Verstappen reveals extent of illness in Jeddah
Max Verstappen said he felt physically limited in the cockpit of his Red Bull Formula One car during the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix weekend as he struggled to recover from a virus.
A fortnight ago in Jeddah, the Dutchman missed the media day on Thursday, before taking part in practice. In the race, he recovered from fifteenth, following a driveshaft failure in qualifying, before finishing the race second. Verstappen played down his illness at the time, but in Melbourne, he revealed how much he was struggling over the weekend.
he said ahead of this weekend’s race in Australia, “I refused to believe it myself for a long time because at home I was really ill — I could barely walk around and it felt like I was missing a lung. I got to the weekend really believing it [the illness] was gone, because normally when you get sick then two or three days after you’re alright and you can do your workouts.”
“When I jumped in the car in FP1 even just one performance lap I felt like I had to recover for two laps to breathe normally. So it definitely did affect me throughout the weekend, which I didn’t like because it was one of the first races that I was physically limited, and that’s really frustrating when you’re in the car.”
Going into this weekend’s race in Melbourne, he says he is confident that he has made a full recovery.
Sainz explains Ferrari’s problems with form
Carlos Sainz has outlined the specific problems hurting Ferrari’s early form, after the team conducted a detailed analysis of its poor form in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. Ferrari’s season hasn’t started how they would have hoped with Sainz’s fourth place in Jeddah being the best result from the teams opening race.
That has left them fourth in the constructors behind Aston Martin, Mercedes and Red Bull, thanks partly due to reliability. Ahead of this season, Ferrari decided to alter the aerodynamic profile of the car trying to match the straight-line speed of the Red Bull, which they struggled to do last year.
But this has come at the expense of peak downforce levels on the SF-23 and so it consequentially struggles more in the corners compared to its predecessor.
When asked by Motorsport.com to explain what he and team-mate Charles Leclerc are feeling behind the wheel regarding Ferrari’s early 2023 issues, Sainz replied: “Honestly our analysis from the first few races is [that] there’s no fundamental issue with the car, it’s just a very peaky car, a very unpredictable car in the race.”
“[It] eats the tyres quite a lot. So, it’s just [that] we need to improve our package. It’s just too peaky and we need to find a way to calm it down a bit, which is what also makes the car difficult in the race. The good thing is that everyone knows it.”
He says the team are pushing in the same direction convinced that Ferrari in the medium term. Sainz added that he’s waiting to see if the upgrades improve the feeling of the car, one area where the team has struggled in its tyre degradation. Sainz says they can’t race because the car is difficult in dirty air.
Saying, “We eat the tyres so it doesn’t allow you to push in the race to overtake people or we need to tyre manage a lot. This means in the race you are a bit stuck – you cannot play around too much. We know exactly where our weakness is and hopefully, this will improve and allow us a bit more flexibility.”
Although he is ahead of Leclerc in the driver’s championship, Sainz has not managed to match the qualifying speed and results in the only area it seems where Ferrari can really bother Red Bull.
This has evoked memories of Sainz’s tricky time getting up to speed with the F1-75 a year ago, but he insisted the situations are in fact not comparable. Explaining, “In a way, I miss 2022 because at least we knew I had a car under my belt that was able to win races and pole positions.”
Adding “This year, the feeling of the car is a bit better, especially in the races. I’m not struggling with anything in particular on the driving side, it’s that I haven’t put together any good laps yet, any good qualifying laps.
“Long time” before Mercedes can fight Red Bull – Hamilton
Lewis Hamilton says “it could take a long time” before Mercedes can compete again with Red Bull. The German manufacturer has started to redesign its car, after starting a second consecutive season off the pace.
Red Bull has dominated the start of the season, taking two one-two finishes in the first two races, and are clear favourites again at this weekend’s Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne. But the seven-time champion said: “It is going to take us the rest of the year to potentially close that gap.”
He added, “If you look at the Red Bull, it is just going to continue to evolve most likely. Some cars do plateau in terms of performance. At some point, it can’t just keep going. But maybe it can. They have a great team around them and I am sure they will continue to add downforce.”
For the first time, Hamilton started to give a bit of understanding of his struggles, and how he feels uncomfortable with the positioning of the cockpit. He said: “I don’t know if people know, but we sit closer to the front wheels than all the other drivers. Our cockpit is too close to the front.”
“When you’re driving, you feel like you’re sitting on the front wheels, which is one of the worst feelings to feel when you’re driving a car. If you were driving your car at home and you pulled the wheels right underneath your legs, you would not be happy when you’re approaching the roundabout.
His team-mate George Russell added: “I am not going to say we are terribly optimistic. We recognise Red Bull are a second down the road at the moment.”
During the race in Bahrain he said on team radio, the engineers “didn’t listen” to him with regard to the design of this year’s car. Explaining what he meant, he said “I listened to the team and that was the direction they said we should go. Had I known the feeling I would have in it, it wouldn’t have happened. And it has to change for the future – 100%.”
He added that a characteristic referred to in F1 as the “aero balance” – a reference to the centre of aerodynamic pressure and how it affects the car’s behaviour changes through the stages of cornering – was “just too far forwards”.
Hamilton, however, expressed his belief that Mercedes would get back into competitive shape eventually. The first significant design changes to the Mercedes car are due for the race after Australia, in Azerbaijan at the end of April.
However, these were planned before Mercedes made the decision during the first race weekend of the season that they had to change the design philosophy of the car because the gap to Red Bull made them realise they were on the wrong track.
Adding “We have shown in the past that we can develop quickly and hope that is the case that as the potential of the car opens up, we will full steam ahead in that direction.”
News in Brief
Verstappen clothing brand blocked
Max Verstappen’s hopes of starting a clothing brand have been dealt a blow, after Nike successfully argued the name would cause confusion with their own brand.
The Red Bull driver had planned to call his fashion brand ‘Max 1’ but Nike argued it would be too similar to their Air Max shoe range. The dispute was referred to the Benelux Office of Intellectual Property, which has sided with Nike following an investigation.
Piquet Sr to pay £780,000 in damages to Hamilton
A Brazilian court ordered Nelson Piquet Sr to pay £780,000 in damages to Lewis Hamilton. The three-time champion made racist and homophobic comments towards the seven-time champion in November 2021, at the height of Hamilton’s bitter title rival Max Verstappen, the partner of his daughter Kelly.
Porsche formally ends plans to enter F1
Porsche has confirmed they have formally put their plans to enter the sport on ice to focus on Formula E. Motorsport-Total.com, Porsche has now decided against pursuing options in Grand Prix racing. This comes after earlier this year a planned deal with Red Bull collapsed over a dispute over Red Bull’s concerns about its independence
More on those stories in This Grand Prix on Sunday
Talking points Melbourne
Round three of the season brings F1 to Melbourne and following Red Bull’s domination in the opening two races; make them the favourites. However the team has only managed one win at Albert Park in the last decade and they will be hoping to stop what are this early phase in the year looks to be Red Bull steamrolling to both championships.
Charles Leclerc won the last years and will be hoping to repeat that result this year after struggling compared to both Red Bull and Aston Martin drivers in the opening two flyaway races of the season.
Verstappen leads by virtue of a fastest-lap bonus point in Saudi Arabia, but his team-mate Perez will be gunning for his title as Fernando Alonso and Aston Martin follow closely, hoping to turn two podium finishes into more.
Mercedes and Ferrari have so far seemed to be a step behind, both teams will hope this is the weekend where they can begin to close the gap to Red Bull.
McLaren will be hoping that home support for their rookie Oscar Piastri can give them the boost they need to get off the bottom of the Constructors’ Championship after a pointless two races.
Piastri from down under
Oscar Piastri heads into his first home race at the Australian Grand Prix this weekend in Melbourne under the expectation by many to not just be Australia’s, but F1’s next big thing. This weekend he looks to score his first points for McLaren at his first race in Albert Park.
Australian journalist Stewart Bell spoke to Sky Sports about the view from down under as F1 and Piastri go into round three of the 2023 season. He says that the country is behind him as proven during the pandemic when a lot of people tuned in to watch him in F2 and F3.
He said, “Piastri’s journey to the McLaren seat was less than ideal, with the public shocked by each new detail – like his tweet stating he wouldn’t drive for Alpine in 2023. F1 is a ruthless sport, and Australians could see Daniel Ricciardo wasn’t delivering beyond highlights like his Monza win.”
Bell says the pressure on Piastri to deliver is stratospheric, but consistency is what counts, with McLaren having a long way to go to be competitive. He says it will be difficult for Piastri to cut through as he is a more serious character and not in a winning drive.
Adding “But, Aussies also love seeing other Aussies deliver on the world stage, and if Piastri can keep Norris honest this year, his band of believers will slowly grow with his confidence.”
Bell says he believes Piastri needs to be himself, and get the stand-out results to establish himself. He says fans will back him if he can continue to deliver on-track. Asked about being partnered with Lando Norris was a blessing or a curse, he said both because he is a “fantastic benchmark for Piastri. But, measuring up to Norris over a season – it’s the Everest-sized challenge he’s locked into”
If he could be champion Bell, pointed out that sporting history is full of people who didn’t fulfil their potential for a variety of reasons.
Asked what gives him conf confidence in his ability, he added “Piastri’s talent is crystal clear because of those junior series titles – with F3 and F2 won back-to-back in 2020 and 2021, matching the meteoric rises of other F1 top guns like George Russell and Charles Leclerc.”
If he scores his maiden F1 points on home soil, the crowds will go bonkers! Something his manager Mark Webber did in 2002 when he finished fifth for Minardi.
McLaren hoping ‘B-spec’ arrives before the summer break
McLaren is planning a “kind of B-spec upgrade” to its 2023 car, which will arrive before the summer break as the second of three major upgrades. The team started the season with a draggy car after taking the wrong direction in floor development last winter.
Amidst the tight midfield battle, the team is yet to score a point, although its regression in results has so far been compounded by reliability issues and on-track incidents. They have said from testing onwards where they admitted they would be on the backfoot until at least Baku when upgrades, including a new floor, are introduced
Team principal Andreas Stella revealed its Baku update is just the first of three major upgrade packages, with a second update coming before the summer break amounting to “a kind of B-spec”.
Stella said, “In terms of development [the Baku package] is just the first step. We would expect definitely another major upgrade, which will interest more areas of the car and be much more apparent. That is what somebody may call kind of a B-spec car.”
“Then we expect to have a further round of upgrades in the second part of the season after the shutdown. So we have three main steps: Baku, later on – I don’t want to commit to any date but before shutdown – and then after shutdown.”
McLaren is hoping that the upgrades will provide a few tenths of a second so that we put ourselves in a more realistic position. While the Baku spec was already signed off before the reshuffle was carried out, Stella thinks the team’s ‘B-spec’ MCL60 will already benefit from the changes.
The weekend ahead
This weekend the big question is whether anyone can catch Red Bull, they have looked really strong since the start of the season. We know that Albert Park was changed last year to improve overtaking and it has become in my view a high-medium speed street circuit, but its an older circuit with grass and gravel.
I would expect close racing, but I think we need to see if Aston Martin and Ferrari have closed the gap. Although I expect that won’t be clear until Baku, Red Bull are just so strong at the moment and while this is a different circuit and conditions to Sakhir and Jeddah its likely they will be still the team to beat this weekend.
Albert Park can throw up surprises given its nature making it another race where communication is key, we get accidents leading to safety cars and red flags. That means like we always say with street circuits, anything can happen and reacting to events is key. In theory, this is a one stop, but in practice the chances of a safety car turn this into a two-stop.
Aston Martin you need to believe are in the battle with Ferrari and Mercedes, its unlikely to see that bubble burst. They have been on the podium in both races this season which is likely to continue into the start of the European season, unless there is a huge leap by Mercedes and Ferrari.
Ferrari, won this race last year, but it on paper looks hard and they need to get everything right if they are to beat Red Bull on track. They did have a decent car in testing but now Red Bull have taken the sandbags off it appears Ferrari has dropped even further behind.
Mercedes I think nearer than they were to Aston Martin, but we know that Fernando Alonso has made a brilliant start to the year. But we know there’s like this in built weakness going back a decade with street circuits, we know it can take them a bit longer to get up to speed