Formula 1

Ferrari and McLaren Capitalize as Red Bull Racing’s Australian Grand Prix Goes Up in Smoke

March 24, 2024
Tyler Tate

Sainz storms to victory amid drama in Australia as Verstappen retires and Russell crashes out.

For only the second time in 500 days, and the only other driver not driving for Red Bull, Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz took the first non-Red Bull win of the season with an impressive display during Sunday’s Australian Grand Prix, taking advantage of technical trouble for Max Verstappen in the opening laps that forced the reigning world champion to retire.

Bidding for a record-equalling 10th victory in a row, Verstappen converted his pole position advantage as the race got under way but soon reported issues behind the wheel, with a compromised second lap opening the door for Sainz to get a run on him and make a move for the lead.

From there, Verstappen’s brake-related woes got worse and, with plumes of smoke exiting the rear of his RB20, he pulled off the racing line to let the rest of the field overtake him before returning to the pits and retiring for the first time in two years.

Sainz went from strength to strength in Verstappen’s absence, building up a solid lead over Lando Norris, team mate Charles Leclerc and home favorite Oscar Piastri as the race developed, eventually taking the checkered flag for the third triumph of his F1 career.

Sainz will no doubt remember his third Formula 1 win, all picked up with Ferrari and on the Scuderia’s all-time winners list it puts him equal with four world champions, Juan Manuel Fangio, Mike Hawthorn, Phil Hill and Jody Scheckter, and in doing so passing 1000 career F1 points.

Unbelievably, the Spaniard seemed to shake off any effects of his appendectomy 16 days ago and immediately put Verstappen under pressure. On lap 2, when the Dutchman was in difficulty, Carlos made the most of it to get ahead and then mustered all his physical and mental strength to keep focussed, running at an incredibly consistent pace. He also was one of the best when it came to managing his tyres. He did three stints, starting on the Medium before pitting on laps 16 and 41 to take on Hards both times. He pitted after his closest pursuers and always had the situation under control, only easing off when he was in the third sector on the penultimate lap, when the race was neutralised after a spectacular crash for George Russell, from which he emerged unscathed. As the icing on the cake, Carlos won the fan vote for “Driver of the Day.”

“What a rollercoaster!,” said Sainz post race. “I’m extremely happy! I felt good in the car right from lap 1 and after overtaking Max (Verstappen), when I was in free air, I started setting a strong pace that took me all the way to the finish line, bringing home the first win of the season. I’m also happy that George is OK after the heavy crash.The team deserves this one-two, we did a fantastic job all weekend, from FP1 to the last lap. We executed a perfect race, nailed the strategy and the mechanics were incredible delivering precise and quick pit stops every single time. Congratulations to everyone! Let’s carry this momentum to Japan! Vamos!”

On the other side, it was a far more melancholy response from Verstappen. “It is unfortunate about what happened today, but we can see so far in the data that as soon as the lights went off the right rear brake just stuck on and locked. It was basically like driving with the hand brake on so, of course, the temperature just kept on increasing and then I could see smoke appear as it had caught fire. This at the time was very confusing as the car was really weird to drive in some corners. At turn three, I braked and lost the rear end of the car; it felt weird on the rear axel, then on turn six and seven it snapped on me. The Team will investigate and we will see if there are any answers but there are some things you can’t control. It’s a shame as the car felt really good in the laps to the grid, but you cannot control these issues and these things happen. Of course, I am disappointed we didn’t finish the race as we had a good shot at winning and the car has been improving throughout the weekend. We knew a day like could come at some point so we need to be proud that we have had a great run with nine races in a row and we can come back stronger for Suzuka.”

Towards the later stages of the race, George Russell had been pushing to complete a late move on Fernando Alonso for sixth position when he dramatically crashed out at the high-speed Turn 6/7 complex, causing extensive damage to his Mercedes and bringing out a Virtual Safety Car to the finish.

The race stewards later deemed that Alonso had played a “potentially dangerous” part in the incident, dropping the Spaniard from P6 to P8 with a post-race 20-second penalty. That decision moved team mate Lance Stroll up to sixth and RB’s Yuki Tsunoda to P7 – giving RB their first reward of the campaign – as Haas took a welcome clutch of points with Nico Hulkenberg in ninth and Kevin Magnussen in 10th.

Williams’ decision to put Alex Albon in Logan Sargeant’s car did not quite result in points as he took 11th, followed by the other home driver in action, RB’s Daniel Ricciardo, and the Alpine of Pierre Gasly, who was hit with a five-second penalty for a pit exit breach.

Kick Sauber endured yet more pit stop problems on their way to 14th and 15th with Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu respectively, while Esteban Ocon was the final finisher in the other Alpine after Verstappen’s early retirement, Russell’s late crash and a mid-race engine issue for Lewis Hamilton.

Hamilton was watching from the Mercedes garage when team mate Russell suffered his crash, with the latter – whose car was pitched on its side in the middle of the track after the left-front crumbled – quickly reporting over the radio that he was “okay”.

With the drivers aware of Russell’s condition, the celebrations started down at Ferrari as Sainz revelled in his journey from a hospital bed to the top step of the podium in just two weeks – shouting his trademark “smooth operator” line as he headed for parc ferme.

The next stop on the 2024 F1 calendar will be the Japanese Grand Prix, with the paddock heading to the Suzuka circuit from April 5-7.