The first race of any new season featuring a car overhaul is ripe for hot takes and vitriol. The gamut of reactions from the drivers, team personnel, and fans after the Australian Grand Prix is as mixed as the flavors of ice cream. The hard part is sussing out whether the consensus is based on reality or perception bias owing to success or failure. Consensus is an elusive concept.
The drivers have their typical spread, with some hating, some liking, and some feeling that it is too soon to be able to figure things out conclusively.
George Russell won the race and said “We had a difficult and chaotic start and from there, were yo-yoing with the overtakes between Charles (Leclerc) and me. I could have perhaps used my energy more smartly to defend when I first overtook him and that cost me when he passed me back.”
The comment that he could have been more smart with the car’s energy is one that points to the inexperience the entire field probably felt. That thought is something that even second-place finisher, and second-year driver Kimi Antonelli offered.
Even with his freshly rebuilt car, he offered, “There is a lot we’ve learned about our car and how to operate within these new regulations this weekend.”
The team finishing one-two, and looking like the class of the grid has reason to feel good and walk away with a friendly and welcoming perception of the new regulations. So perhaps dropping back in the results will provide some clarity. Esteban Ocon, who finished in 11th lamtented the same kind of back-and-forth that Russell did, but with exasperation.
Ocon said afterwards, “Once you use the boost button and you have not managed to overtake, or even if you overtake, you are just vulnerable again on the next straight. The other guy is going to overtake you again, which happened with Pierre [Gasly] three times.”
Defending F1 champion Lando Norris sounded almost crestfallen in his assessment, stating, “It’s chaos, you’re going to have a big accident, which is a shame, that’s not a nice position to be in, but there’s nothing we can really do about that now.
“It’s a shame, it’s very artificial, depending on what the power unit decides to do and randomly does at times. You just get overtaken by five cars or you can just do nothing about it sometimes.
Between Ocon and Norris, there is a lot to take away from their comments. But getting the perspective of four-time champion Max Verstappen should add more to the overall sense of things. Verstappen has been outspoken since last year in his dislike for the changes, and he stayed the line.
Verstappen stated, “Chaos. Honestly, I don’t really find the right words for it I think.”
That Norris and Verstappen both used the word chaos is kind of funny. Were they copying each other’s homework? But the fact that they never commented on how chaotic previous years in F1 were seems like a nod to the immediacy principle. Racing at its heart is an attempt to work with chaos to one’s advantage.
As for the strategy of holding a position with boost, that seems like a tactic that drivers and teams will have to work on throughout the year. Perhaps what had been the norms for overtaking are no longer in play. The new car may encourage teams to rethink how they race the track in ways they hadn’t been doing.
Further, the passing among cars is exactly what the rules were intended to do. Where dirty air have been such a deciding factor, drivers now have tools that help them do the work they couldn’t previously. That sounds like a win.
Let’s examine the strategy from another perspective. Ever since F1 removed fueling as part of the race, teams have done their best to maximize fuel strategy. Combined with tire efficiency, drivers have rarely raced flat out for the duration of a GP. Some drivers and fans have complained how those factors ruined the racing. Some might even call it artificial.
Which leads to the sagacity of Pierre Gasly. Gasly, who finished tenth for Alpine, recognized the driving was different than his previous years in the series but touched upon the thing that everyone should be thinking about.
“I think we do need to give it some time, see different tracks,” Gasly let out after the race.
Such a comment seems almost too astute to be true. And next week the Chinese Grand Prix gives the opportunity of a sprint race and the GP to start seeing what can be done with this artificial, chaotic, sport of F1 that no one seems to like.
As a writer and editor, Ava anchors the Formula 1 coverage for the site, while working through many of its biggest columns. Ava earned a Masters in Sports Studies at UGA and a PhD in American Studies from UH-Mānoa. Her dissertation Chased Women, NASCAR Dads, and Southern Inhospitality: How NASCAR Exports The South is in the process of becoming a book.
It seems to be the expanded role the battery plays is the biggest problem. Why is that such a big deal to the FIA? F1 is no longer about being the fastest and being on the edge. It’s playing with the battery. Are we still playing the climate change game?
I honestly can’t decide what I think of the new regs, and I think Gasly hit the nail on the head. We likely won’t really know until we’ve seen this deployed on all types of tracks, and teams have had an opportunity to learn and adjust.
The good: The initial start was better than was expected. A couple of cars had issues, but this has been the case for nearly every F1 iteration. It was nice actually seeing creative engineering play a role, with Ferrari having a very real advantage off the line.
Whereas Australia tends to be a processional race, passing was possible this Sunday, as the statistics showed. I believe there were roughly 3x as many passes as last year.
Attrition was surprisingly low for the first race after complete rules changes. Not much different than races last year, and nowhere near the historic highs in F1.
The bad: There seems to be far too much for the drivers to pay attention to in the car. I can’t imagine driving at maximum speed while constantly monitoring the steering wheel readout and making near constant changes.
My impression was that once Russell and Antonelli got out of overtake range of the Ferraris, the Mercs were on another performance planet from the field, and were just maintaining the gap. I suspect the mid-season rule change, to close the engine compression loophole Mercedes found, will tighten up the field a bit.
Slightly off topic, but AppleTV needs to work on their interface. I could start the race on delay, FF/RW/Pause, but if I left the race paused for more than a few minutes, it would revert to the start screen, with no option to resume where I had left off. Had to FF from the start back to where I was. Oh well, 1st world problems to be sure. Access to the F1TV app is free with the Apple sub, so I also had access to the F2 and F3 races. AND NO COMMERCIALS IN THE BROADCASTS ONCE THE RACES START.
Anyhoo, glad F1/F2/F3 are back. Nice watching races where every lap matters, unlike NASCAR with its two hour qualifying races (stages 1 and 2), followed by a short stint that matters. I didn’t even bother with the NASCAR races this weekend.