When you remove the driver that has won 19 of the last 20 races, it becomes an exciting race. Ferrari looked like pros today. Incredible. Carlos is workhorse. Coming off surgery to bed rest and recovery to a race victory is an inspiring performance. It's reasonable to draw questions in if Ferrari made the right choice. Whether that's dropping Sainz for Hamilton, or should they have kept Sainz over Leclerc? Leclerc's race was compromised by the early but necessary pitstop. However he looked to be a step behind Carlos since quali. For Carlos to once again be the guy standing on the top step and Leclerc is supposed to be this phenom... it doesn't help Charles' case. Nevermind the negatives, this was an extremely positive day for Ferrari and finally the Ferrari fans can celebrate a tremendous result. McLaren looked very strong, very close to Ferrari's level. Lando still has an edge in the race over Piastri but a great performance for the team. They are very open that high speed corners are their strength so we should expect them to do well at similar tracks this season. Red Bull had a very rare DNF with Verstappen on lap 3. Given even with a stuck brake and an imbalance Max was able to pull nearly 1 second in a lap, it's fair to assume he still would have won the race. Perez again proves that the Red Bull is overall not a massively dominant car, but also that he still is underperforming to what the car is capable of, even in his hands. His grid penalty obviously didn't help, but he should have been fighting for a podium. Aston Martin definitely appear to be the 5th best team, but not by much. They are close enough to be in the hunt with the right circumstances. Stroll had a good quali and delivered a result we should expect. Alonso got lucky with a VSC and put him in good position in the race. It was strange that the team kept him on the mediums for so long when they could have pitted him around the same time as Perez for a new set of Hard tires. Telemetry did prove that Alonso "brake checked" Russell on the final lap and deserved a penalty. Especially given the corner it was done on, a very narrow spot that several incidents have taken places. The issue is the penalty he was given is very inconsistent as usual. Alonso gets a 20 second penalty for braking early yet not having any contact with another car. Yet we've seen cars crashing out others and only given a 10 second penalty. It's very hard to argue a penalty was not deserved since Alonso's actions were deliberate. VisaRB can be very happy with a great result. Yuki promoted to P7 after Alonso's penalty. He continues to improve as a driver. Ricciardo continues to disappoint. It's such a mystery to how he has lost so much performance or why he ever had any. Haas deserve a huge pat on the back. The worst race car of 2023 and now they can fight for points. Double points is massive and could be huge in the constructors championship. So aggressive driving by Hulkenberg, but at the end of the day both drivers deserved their result. Williams had a no brainer decision to put Albon into Logan's car. We can all agree it sucks for Logan, but the reality is he is the worst driver in F1 and pretty much always finishes dead last of the running cars. Albon on the other hand is capable of points and really the teams only shot at a decent result. 11th place with a car that grained the tires... he was close. Alpine are in desperate need of some big updates. Predictions have been proven true that the car is among the worst on the grid. Gasly put in a valiant effort but a small mistake giving a 5 second penalty and simply a poor performing car meant no good result was possible. Sauber have got to figure out their wheel nut issues. It's to the point it looks like they have no idea what they are doing. In a game where tenths matter in the pits, they are losing 10+ seconds regularly. Unacceptable. Mercedes are going to be fuming after this one. Again a very strange strategy to pit Russell early and then keep him on a set of hards for so long, just to pit late for his last new set. It doesn't optimize the tire usage. Last lap he surely got caught out by Alonso, but he was still half a second behind and he needs to a better job to not crash the car. Hamilton suffering an extremely rare engine failure. He is having a woeful start to the season. Driver of the Day: Carlos Sainz. Even without the pain of recent surgery he still drove an incredible race. The fact it's even worth speculating that he could have challenged Max in a straight fight speaks volumes.
Fyi Horner confirms Max's first PU can be used again after it was replaced for precautionary measures during the AustralianGP.
I wonder whether the unusual mechanical issue of Max's car has something to do with a bad preparation, the team being impacted by the internal mess they've put themselves in.
If it's really a binding brake issue, this is due to faulty installation on the car during reassembly. The same components have done thousands of miles, and are changed regularly, one presumes, so are up to the task. It could be a failure of the "brake-by-wire" system going to one wheel ?
I would suspect one or more of the pistons in the caliper were "stuck" and would not retract all the way. It could be a simple part failure.
That's bordering on lack of prep, and shouldn't happend on a $million car in a championship winning team! Each and every part on a F1 car is supposed to be checked and rechecked. Even a brake caliper coming from a supplier had to be dismantled and checked. Possibly the caliper on that wheel wasn't cooled properly and overheated, causing pistons to seize. Maybe the brake cooling duct wasn't fitted properly, etc ... Parts don't suddenly fail; one has to find the reason. In any case, Red Bull lost many points with that oversight, translated in several $millions in the end.
Excellent as per usual. your point about Max very much echo's my own. For him to stick that close to Sainz despite a stuck brake caliper says a lot...I'm trying to get my head around it, and when you consider how far back Perez finished from the podium it truly puts it in perspective. Eventually it gave way off course and that was that...Cool explosion though. Sainz was absolutely amazing the whole weekend. Hats of to him. Amazing the guy still has doubters. Seriously doubt it. The brakes are essentially off the shelf parts and is likely a manufacturing fault.
I’ve always felt and said that Sainz is the better driver of the Ferrari pairing. More proof today. Carlos is a very focused individual and a skilled driver. His dad is the exact same. Impressive drive today.
Even then, parts coming from outside suppliers are checked and tested in the aeronautic industry. It should be part of quality control routine in an F1 team like Red Bull. That oversight yesterday costs them $millions.
Carlos certainly improved his reputation these last few years at Ferrari, and proved to be quite a challenge for the "blue eyed boy" Leclerc
Red Bull has been working with different brake setups this year (Brembo discs and Alcon calipers IIRC) and Checo had a brake fire in testing at Bahrain. so maybe Max’s issue is related to that?
Max experienced a hydraulic component failure in the right rear brake. Btw, the brake assembly is supplied by Brembo.
Carlos is driving with a chip on his shoulder for sure. Dude is focused! Questionable move by SF to say the least.
Having been told by Ferrari that he will not be kept at the end of this season, Carlos Sainz has 2 points to make. To show Ferrari what they will be losing, and demonstrate to any future employer that he is worth recruiting. It looks that he is in a good frame of mind to do that. I wish him well.
Carlos is a very impressive driver. I love the way that he can run the strategic calls at the same time as driving so brilliantly. I think he could pretty much pick his team for next year. Will he go back to Red Bull?
I say Ferrari's '25 lineup should be Sainz and Bearman Jettison the underperforming (and IMO mentally defeated) LeClerc and tell Hambone to F right off
