Australian GP

I reckon it depends to an extent, what other aero designs respond like to input. The Merc does seem to be heavily damaged by this.

Good job they've pretty much deleted their side pods then! Their pace (or lack thereof) definitely must be something to do with the engine as the Aston, McLaren and Williams are all well off the pace too. Maybe the engine design makes it difficult to get sufficient cooling to it.

F1 in 2022 is super. Closer racing, better tyres allowing for that closer racing, and some surprising names in scoring points. One of those was Albon. He did 57 laps on a set of the hard compound tyre, and only pitted at the end to meet the regulations.

It was curious to flashes of pace from the Merc, only for it to fizzle out. Before the first pitstop, Hamilton was trying to overtake Perez. Despite Perez overtaking Hamilton earlier in the stint. The Red Bull reminds me of last year’s Mercedes. They have a fast car, but it has a narrow set-up window and reaching it is difficult. I don’t think Verstappen’s gloominess about his car after qualifying was staged; he was either locking up or struggling to turn into apexes all weekend. The Ferrari looks a lot more plug n’ play, it gets tyre temperature more effectively and holds onto its tyres better during a stint as well.

I was glad to see Stroll get a penalty for weaving. That sort of direction change has no place with open-wheel cars. Talking of Aston, no wonder Stroll Snr is allegedly trying to offload the F1 team to Audi or whoever. I think he is has found out, success in motorsport requires a little more than money and rebranding.

The decision to ditch the DRS zone along the new flat-out section before turns 9 and 10 was a good decision. A bit like sections in Saudi it was flat, but it wasn’t straight. The concern there is the downforce loss with DRS, and going offline to pass – especially as the marbles build-up during the race.

I liked the way that new race director Eduardo Freitas handled things. No tolerance to Stroll’s weaving, and using the virtual safety car to immediately neutralise the field after going to the actual Safety Car period itself. They do a similar thing in SRO sportscar racing and it works well, because the field immediately slows under VSC, as opposed to under Safety Car where drivers race around trying to reach the Vantage.

I don't disagree with that, Mike. The sort of weaving that Stroll was doing wasn't racing. Sometimes you find that drivers do that in junior formula. Especially with the closing rate of DRS it needs to be clamped down on in F1. Its not to say that racing needs to be penalised, there was plenty of good racing in Melbourne without drivers needing to weave. 

Max has indeed looked calmer since his tainted title. Ferrari will do well to make hay whilst the Maranello sun is shining on them because Red Bull will find more development than them over the course of a long season and add in the scenario of McLaren and Mercedes pinching more points as the season goes on means Ferrari will need to become the one driver team it excels at being before Monaco is finished. Sainz is fuming not only because his luck ran out but because he knows he’ll soon be second fiddle because that’s how it works.

Williams strategy was amazing. OK they relied on a couple of top end retirements to get 10th but to finish in the points, first you must finish, to paraphrase the old racing adage. I reckon Seb’s lap on that scooter was faster than any he managed in the Aston and are we certain Stroll was weaving or is that just how it handles? Talking of which in MotoGP they have long lap penalties, so there’s a corner at each track with an extra radius you must take within a given window which costs a few seconds as opposed to a pit lane speed limited drive through.

The Merc PU looks to be reliable and hopefully so is the red cars’. Poor George: he’s done a Brundle, who joined the fabulously successful McLaren team just as they slumped. Hopefully he’ll get some success in.

In other matters I see Marzipan is arguing for the rights of sportsmen who are penalised for their country’s leaders misdeeds - not really cutting it when his entire career has been made possible by his family’s connections to that leader. He’d just be one of those boys launching shells from five kms away if it weren’t the case.