Australian GP Weekend Recap & Reactions
Pre weekend thoughts
WE ARE SO BACK
rain.
General thoughts on headlines
One of the headlines from the early week was that McLaren got their head on straight and paid Mr. Piastri. This coming off of the conversation Christian Horner saying he would sign Oscar before Lando. So, Zak decided to lock in and pay that man to make his driver duo untouchable for the foreseeable future. McLaren leaning into the consistency that this will bring in the future, paired with an extremely talented driver lineup, no doubt they are coming home with a driver world championship and another few constructors titles before either of their contracts are up. Off track, we are in for many more years of content that the McLaren chaotic duo provides. Also, Oscar you better have apologized to your mother for not telling her about the contract extension during breakfast.
It’s not really a headline but for me it most definitely needs to be discussed. Maybe, it’s just me but this week alone I have felt that Lewis has allowed his personality to thaw. He seems to be moving with a lighter energy going into this year. Between his Ferris Bueller video and him finally joining Tiktok, I believe we are witnessing a renaissance of Sir Lewis Hamilton. It’s not that he’s been devoid of personality because that is simply not the case, but I believe this move to Ferrari has him feeling more comfortable with sharing that side of himself to us a bit more. I, personally, am very here for it.
Friday
What we can take away from our Friday? Ferrari and McLaren were seemingly our main competitors for the weekend. Though, there was massive diversity among the top 10 in both FP1 and FP2 with the team representation, which definitely made it interesting going into qualifying. For sure, Carlos came out with something to prove but seeing both Williams so high up in FP1 - I’ll say it - the delusion was riding high and I had a tweet drafted saying I told you so. But the fan accounts on Twitter would have bullied me off the app. In FP1 though, my personal highlight was seeing the massive street sweeper that they brought out onto the track to clear the gravel. So extremely dramatic but so effective. I expect nothing less for the first red flag that happened less than 30 minutes into the season.
Saturday
I can’t help but feel so bad for Ollie. The amount of stress and nerves going through your body on your first official F1 weekend and this happens? It actually made me upset. I had the overwhelming urge to call into all major media outlets to tell them it was off limits as a storyline going into Sunday but I am choosing to see it as the beginning of his redemption arc video.
FP3 was officially the “welcome to the chat Max” moment. Red Bull has been quiet up until this point of the weekend outside of Marko deciding to spew off some rookie takes that are causing their PR team to work overtime.
Onto qualifying, where my overwhelming take away was that Ferrari has until midnight (NYC race start time) to figure out whatever the problem is or I will not be able to sleep peacefully. This will make my already awful sleep schedule even worse and the people in my life do not want me in a sleep deprived state. So, Ferrari, there is a lot riding on this.
Speaking of the Ferrari’s and where they qualified, everyone better be giving Alex Albon his flowers. He was able to qualify P6 ahead of both of them and ahead of Carlos who was showing out in the practice sessions. I just think that whatever success Williams ends up having this season, I need everyone to be praising Alex just as much as anyone else for the work that was put in not only this off season but the loyalty over the last few years.
I saw a very funny tweet that said something like, “you just know Daniel put a crazy curse on the RB 2nd seat.” Every year, I find it becoming more and more true. That organization is so trigger happy with dropping their drivers and it gives almost zero stability. I need everyone there to recognize that they signed a generational talent. The odds of them signing 2 at the same time? Slim. So, let their 2nd young driver develop and build some stability in your organization because Max is threatening to dip from the sport every other week. All of this to bring me to the point of, Liam probably has 5 GP’s before they hit the panic button and remove him. If he is unable to stand out amongst the rookies after getting out qualified by all of them except one? Good luck. I do love this for Yuki though, even if I do hope he manages to move to a team who recognizes his potential.
This last bit is more of a plea into the void as I’m writing this section before race time in an hour. If I hear some whack radio messages coming from the McLaren pit wall due to their inability to understand how to handle a front row lock out? I will put my head through a wall.
Race day
This section was written as I was live watching the GP so all of these topics as they appear are stream of conscious based on the events of the race
Okay, just right off the bat I should say: I am a fan of the new graphics. I have seen so many different reactions (mainly negative) but I think they are something cool and different. There seems to be a bit of video game influence to them which to me is so much more interesting than all other major sports graphics. Y’all complaining about these graphics would scream, cry, and throw up over the scorebug for this years Super Bowl.
All weekend we heard everyone freaking out over the possibility of rain come lights out. For those who don’t know, rain is what everyone in this sport considers ✨the great equalizer✨ because it essentially throws out everything we saw over the last 2 days and puts everyone on the same level. Lucky for us, the rain had stopped before lights out but sadly for Isack due to the wet conditions of the track and some bad luck - he wiped out before he was able to start in his first grand prix. I was looking forward to seeing him race especially considering he was able to qualify the highest out of all rookies at P11. A special shoutout to Mr. Hamilton for finding Isack and speaking with him after the whole ordeal, that was an amazing moment.
The first lights out of the season really hits different. Before I was even done typing that sentence we have another rookie crash. Jack Doohan in his first GP start AND his first home race. I can’t even get thoughts out of my brain before they are showing another car crash. I feel guilty about this one because I have been singing the praises of Williams and so for that, Carlos I am so sorry.
Well, we waited for a race for so an eternity and just to give us a lesson in patience, the racing gods gave us safety car laps for our first 7 laps of the new season. What I do need all drivers to remember during safety car restarts is that Max is, as my friend Leah accurately put it, a Great White Shark. I would agree and maybe offer up a Cheetah. He will stalk down whoever is in front of him during a restart and pounce at just the right moment. Lando was able to hold him off but he did kind of show his cards a bit before hitting the main straight. I just know if I were driving in front of him during a Safety Car restart? I would simply accept my fate.
Kimi performing solid racing moves is exactly the type of racing I was hoping to see from a rookie today.
Obvious winner for radio interaction of the day goes to Charles, “Let’s add that to the words of wisdom.”
Maybe it’s my unresolved issues with this but anytime I see a McLaren radio message graphic pop up, it really causes your girl to tense up. Even worse? “Free to race. You know the rules.”
This safety car is coming at the most ideal time because this is perfect window for the pitstops. There is something so satisfying over a double stack being executed successfully, I truly believe it’s one of the most impressive actions to take place in this sport.
I can’t exactly comprehend what even just happened on the track but as I am writing this if the race ended right now: Max, Lewis, and Yuki would be on podium. I am so massively confused. Someone please give me a replay. And we have another safety car! Remember that stint last year where we all joked we forgot what the safety car actually looked like? Yeah, let’s not that do that again this season.
Good, clean racing in the last few laps is exactly how I needed this race to end.
Post race thoughts:
this track took metaphorical lives and very real, expensive cars
what actually just happened.
I may have to post a little check in to discuss any leftover headlines or reactions to the race but right now I need to sleep it’s 2 am.
Please leave your thoughts and reactions to the race weekend! Would absolutely love to hear them.
Have a fantastic week and talk soon!
