George Russell claimed victory at the Australian Grand Prix to open the season with a bang as Mercedes showed they are clear early pacesetters under sweeping new regulations.
AFP Sport looks at what we learned from the opening race of the 24-stop calendar: Mercedes came into the Melbourne race as the pre-season favourites and lived up to the billing. After a front-row lockout in qualifying, pole-sitter Russell weathered an early battle with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc to claim a statement victory over teammate Kimi Antonelli.
Russell called the win “very sweet” and team chief Toto Wolff is confident they have a package that can challenge for the drivers’ and constructors’ world title. “To see us take a solid 1-2 in race one with the season ahead hopefully means we can try and fight for a world championship,” said Wolff.
“It will take a lot of hard work and we know our competitors will be chasing us down, but this is exactly how we wanted to start the year.” Melbourne was the first race under F1’s most radical regulation overhaul in years. The cars are smaller and lighter and the power units now 50 percent battery.
Russell said drivers should give the new rules time, but the likes of Lando Norris and Max Verstappen were not impressed.
“We’ve come from the best cars ever made in Formula One, and the nicest to drive, to probably the worst. It sucks,” McLaren world champion Norris raged. “Everyone knows what the issues are. It’s just the fact the engine is a 50-50 (combustion-electric) split and it just doesn’t work.” Williams’ Carlos Sainz said the public criticism by drivers was “self-harming” for the sport and should be kept private.
Just one rookie started their first full season as a Formula One driver in Australia and 18-year-old Arvid Lindblad showed no fear. In his first F1 race, the Racing Bulls driver stormed to a composed eighth, surging as high as third at one point.
The Briton finished ahead of a slew of more experienced competitors including teammate Liam Lawson after showing his potential all weekend. “I know I’m sort of the ‘young kid’ and I’m the rookie, but when I’m in the car, I’m a fierce competitor,” said Lindblad, who has Indian heritage. “I’m going to take every opportunity I get, and I think I showed that.”
Lindblad replaced Isack Hadjar, who moved up to partner Verstappen at Red Bull.
There is always speculation how the midfield will shape up at the start of each season behind the big four of McLaren, Ferrari, Red Bull and Mercedes.
Haas, Racing Bulls and Audi (formerly Sauber) staked an early claim to be “best of the rest” in Melbourne with all three getting cars into the top 10.
Ollie Bearman in his Haas finished seventh, with teammate Esteban Ocon 11th.
“To come away with P7 for the team is unbelievable — only beaten by the top four teams,” said team chief Ayao Komatsu.
“We have a huge learning curve over the next few races but I don’t think we could have started the year any better.”
Silverstone-based Aston Martin endured a horror start after serious issues with their Honda power unit and a lack of spare parts.
Amid fears that extreme vibration in the chassis could cause permanent nerve damage, Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll were never going to challenge.
Team boss and design maestro Adrian Newey said he felt “powerless” as new partner Honda work on the problem.
“It’s not going to be a quick fix,” he warned.