Furious Alonso Slams FIA After New Evidence Found!
Ferrari really thought they were doing something by dropping Sainz didn’t they? The return of the smooth operator following a smooth operation when his Appendix blew out mid-race weekend in Jeddah saw Ferrari take to the top step, with the Spaniard adding another win to his repertoire, not only making
the Scuderia look pretty foolish in the grand scheme of things, but once again displaying a coolness in races that his teammate just cannot seem to replicate beyond one lap. The Australian grand prix threw up an absolute smorgasbord of racing splendour, with the heights of impressive drives being balanced
out by technical errors and yet another high profile incident in the last lap of the race. Some G’s moved in silence like Lasagne, like Yuki Tsunoda and the McLarens capping off tidy weekends with impressive points hauls, while those that were most vocal after the race sounded like doomsayers,
claiming that the issues were out of their hands and had every sense that the world was against them. Want to know how the Australian Grand Prix unfolded? It was a real rollercoaster, and some drivers should have probably just kept their mouths shut in the Media Pen! And stick
around, because it was a weekend to forget for the two most dominant teams of the last decade, and in dramatic fashion! As it wasn’t just Max’s rear tyre that was explosive over
yes Max reported following the race that he had his issues pretty much from the start with his right rear break being in his words “stuck on”, Sainz capitalised on the very first signs of Max showing vulnerability. Not only that, but in the second stint Sainz did his best
impression of the Dutch driver, by stretching his legs to keep the nearest driver to him, his Ferrari teammate Charles Lecler, firmly behind, opening up an 8 second gap on his 6-lap newer Hard tyres, which he then replicated in the third stint, demonstrating a commanding drive to the end.
Surely this weekend is the moment Carlos Sainz secures his sest for next year. Not necessarily meaning he has a team lined up, but to lose a driver of this quality and poise would be the biggest non-fatal or injury related loss of an active driver since Nico Rosberg, or
potentially even Mika Hakkinen. Supposedly Sainz had little preparation physically for the race, having limited training time and losing a few kilos of weight (including an appendix) over the past couple of weeks. If anyone didn’t know of the plight that Sainz has face over the past couple of weeks
then Sainz’s discomfort would have only become clear upon him gingerly folding himself out of his Ferrari after parking up in P1. Fred Vasseur, clearly happy for Sainz, jokingly said “maybe we should do surgery every week” and Sainz recommended to his fellow drivers that they get theirs taken out
this week in a rather tongue in cheek interview with Guenther Steiner before the podium. The sheer determination on display from the Spanish driver this season, from doing a whole testing day despite his appendix being on the brink, to a verstappen-esque disappearance down the road, has been awe inspiring
and every team on the grid will surely have paid attention. It seems we are yet again witnessing a certified Ferrari-brain moment, by letting go one of the most complete drivers on the grid, trading him in for a seemingly jaded 7 time world champion in the twilight of his
career, and keeping a 1 lap specialist with a lack of killer instinct over a race stint. Whoever ends up with Carlos Sainz as their driver next season surely won’t be able to believe their luck, or possibly Ferrari’s lack of vision by dropping Sainz. Both Red Bull drivers complained
of rear end issues, pointing towards an inherent issue with setup. While it doesn’t necessarily mean that the Red Bulls will be inherently weaker at the hotter race weekends through the season, it might indicate that the front end adjustments made to alleviate the issue from sergio perez was only
figured out in the race due to the limited Free Practice long running. Max had been lagging behind slightly in the practice sessions more inclined to longer running, and then came alive in the short-run elements of the session and subsequently securing P1 in qualifying. The concerning thing for Red
Bull is that upon making the changes that allowed Perez to drive more comfortably and avoid a second rear right blowout for the Milton Keynes team, pretty much any semblance of pace from the number 11 car was nullified. While yes Perez has finished a long way off of his
team mate at every race so far this season, that deficit still landed him in second and clear of the rest of the field. We imagine Max would still be there or thereabouts and likely make the difference himself, but it’s still far closer than pretty much any race over
the past few years outside Carlos Sainz’s last win at Singapore. Is the issue that the car was managing just an anomaly and specific to the weekend? Or could this be something we see in the hotter races through the rest of the year, where high speed and intense heat
could combine to yet again prove troublesome for the Red Bull team. What would have been of most concern for Red Bull is Sergio Perez insisting after the race that the pace just wasn’t in the car, rebuffing any indications that the issues that Max faced was the reason for
his lacklustre performance, as Sergio said: “”We didn’t have the pace unfortunately. We struggled early on and we could see that Ferrari and McLaren were a step ahead of us. I think we couldn’t get the balance. There is some work to do for the coming races. It was a
very unique tarmac. Throughout the weekend we were not able to manage the best possible grip level. “As a team we just didn’t have the pace today, we didn’t have the pace throughout the weekend. We were struggling already from Friday and we never got on top of the management
of tyres.” McLaren secured an understated second row finish, with the Woking team securing their best points haul of the season and calmly keeping Leclerc in range and Perez comfortably behind. Lando Norris seemed early on to have received the short end of the stick despite staying in range of
Sainz in front, as his teammate boxed to cover off the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc, everything levelled itself out by the end of the race though, with Piastri playing the team-game incredibly professionally and allowing the race to play out by letting his teammate on fresher tyres past with a
now expected implacability from the Aussie, who had a tidy race at in his home county, perhaps finally giving the Aussies some hope that they may finally see an Australian on the top step, a feat that has never happened in the 38 events in the land down under. Hamilton’s
misery was only compounded, seeing his teammate handle the car better yet again and the man he is stepping into the shoes of challenging at the front. Even before any signs of an engine issue, Hamilton never truly got to grips with the car, certainly making the opening three races
of this season a time to forget for the 7 time world champion. Despite saying that he’s trying to keep a positive outlook and that it could all be so much worse, Lewis had this to say following his exit from the race: ““I think it’s tough on the spirit,”
he said. “I think for everyone in the team, when so much work is going on throughout the winter for everybody, you come in excited, motivated and driven, and then you’re with the mindset that you’re going to be fighting for wins. “And then obviously that’s not the case. And
then you’re like, ‘Okay, maybe second, third’. No, it’s not the case, and it cascades a bit further down. And you just go through the motions. It’s challenging. Following a rather sullen review on the season so far, Hamilton would go on to give an outlook typical of Hamilton, but
there was certainly an unexpected twist at the end from a man that so often takes the future into his own hands and maintained a dominant sense of control over the sport for 3 quarters of a decade, as Lewis’s positivity seemed to come from one thing. His belief that
none of this is down to him, and the issues the team are facing are inherent to the team, not the driver: “But I continue to be inspired by the people I’ve worked with. They continue to put in the effort and show up and that’s the most important thing.”
He added: “I think it’s easy to get caught up in the moment and be focused on this one thing but the bigger picture is definitely the focus of the moment, and also just realising that you can’t control everything. “Like you get frustrated because you don’t have control, you
can just let go and just be in the moment and that’s really… it’s not great, I’m not happy, but I’m gonna have a great day tomorrow.” It wasn’t all smooth sailing for teammate George Russell, as the disastrous weekend for Mercedes was capped off by yet another last lap
incident by the British driver, and yet again it seemed down to nothing more than a driver error. This marks the second incident of it’s kind in 10 races for Russell, who dropped it under far lesser stakes, chasing Fernando Alonso for P6. After the race however, it seemed that
all wasn’t as simple as just “George just dropped it”, with Mercedes requesting the stewards take a closer look with the team having suspicions of Alonso brake checking Russel in the run up to the incident, with it being clear that George seemed to lost downforce as he closed up
on Alonso, causing the car to go loose. George took responsibility for the incident, however made his suspicions known in an interview following the race as he said: “”My take is that I’ve gone off and that’s on me, I was half a second behind Fernando, 100m before the corner
and suddenly he came towards me extremely quick and I was right in his gear box. “We are off to the stewards which is a bit bizarre in a circumstance like this. I’ve got nothing more to say I need to see everything but a bit disappointed.” When asked if
Alonso brake tested him, he added: “It’s clear that he braked 100m before the corner and then went back on the throttle again, and took the corner normally. I’m not going to accuse him of anything until we’ve seen further. “We’ve already seen the data of that, so I’m not
going to accuse him of anything until we’ve seen further but I was right behind him for many, many laps – half a second behind him approaching the corner and then, suddenly, he slowed up very dramatically and got back from the power. Following the trip to the stewards it
was announced that Fernando Alonso would recieve a 20 second time penalty, dropping him back to P8 (which in turn has promoted Tsunoda and team mate stroll to P7 and P6 respectively) due to driving erratically. We’re yet to hear much reaction about it, but Fernando recieving 3 penalty points
and through assosiation more or less being given the blame for such a dangerous crash really is not a good look for the 2 time champion who is currently doing some soul searching about his position in the sport. I guess George wasn’t entirely to blame for the incident after
all, perhaps he could have handled the series of events better, but he has been gifted a get out of jail free card by Fernando Alonso’s slap on the wrist.
