If you’re a Ferrari fan, the easy is answer is “dull”. The Scuderia have not gotten off on the best foot, but there have been some impressive and unexpected performances up and down the grid over the first 2 races of the year, so let’s talk about them!
Let’s just start with Ferrari. Their pit-iful (pun intended) strategy calls in Melbourne were bad enough, landing them behind Kick Sauber in the Constructor’s Championship with a miserable 5 points between both drivers. I’m not a qualified strategist or engineer or anything of the sort, but personally I think if it rains during a race you should pit for wet tyres instead of staying out on slicks, but apparently not! Regardless, things started to look up when Lewis Hamilton took pole in the China sprint race, and they looked even better when he went on to win; Lewis’ first win in red, his first sprint win, and a first sprint win for Ferrari. Unfortunately, their good fortune ran out on Sunday, starting off with lap 1 contact between the two cars that took the end plate off of Charles Leclerc’s front wing. This is somehow not where it went wrong, because it made the car faster? Ferrari may not be consistent but they do consistently baffle me. Hamilton and Leclerc crossed the line in P5 and P6, a disappointing but not devastating result. The devastation came a few hours later when both cars were disqualified from the race, leaving them pointless and a place behind Williams in the WCC standings. Leclerc’s car was under the minimum weight requirement (as was Pierre Gasly’s Alpine), and the rear skid block on Hamilton’s car was under the minimum thickness required by 0.4mm. I’d like to say that the only way is up for Ferrari, but they just might get out a spade and start digging themselves further down- as I said, they do consistently baffle me. Hopefully they’re getting all their bad luck out now, and they will come back stronger in Japan. Do not hold me to that. Nobody can predict the Scuderia Silliness.
An unexpected dark horse rising out of the ashes of Fernando Alonso’s burning brake pedals is his teammate Lance Stroll, who has had back-to-back top 10 finishes and is currently placing higher than both Ferrari boys in the Driver’s standings. Alonso, on the other hand, has had back-to-back DNFs. Lance’s haters have been awfully quiet these last 2 weeks, and I think everybody is genuinely impressed (or shocked, or amused, or all 3) at his recent performaces. He’s been consistent, staying out of trouble, with good strategy calls from the team: nothing to complain about so far!
Mercedes have had a very strong start to the season, with George Russell earning 2 consecutive podium finishes- much like the Aston Martin, he’s stayed out of trouble and moved in silence all the way to P3 in both races. George’s rookie teammate Kimi Antonelli had an insane drive in Melbourne, qualifying P16 and picking his way through the field in the rain to finish P4, one of only 2 rookies to even cross the line. With these promisingly positive performances, Mercedes are sitting at P2 in the Constructor’s Championship standings, 21 points ahead of Redbull Racing in P3. As I said before, I feel that George and the team are moving in silence, and I don’t want to jinx anything, but let’s just say I’m a very happy Mercedes fan.
Speaking of Redbull, the news broke that week that they have already demoted Liam Lawson back to the junior team, Racing Bulls, and Yuki Tsunoda has finally gotten the call up to the main seat. The twist? The Racing Bulls car is actually really good, and the Redbull is near impossible to drive for anybody other than Max Verstappen, who’s still struggling with the car despite it being tailored to his own aggressive driving style. I can’t help but feel bad for Liam, 2 Grands Prix and a sprint race aren’t exactly enough to prove yourself and adapt to the car- after a DNF in Australia, he finished P14 in the sprint and P12 in the race in China, which in my opinion shows at least some growth and improvement that could have continued had he kept the seat. But on the other hand, Yuki has truly done his time in the junior team and after all those years of experience and hard work, he 100% should’ve just been given the Redbull seat to begin with. If you’re wondering why he wasn’t, look no further than Helmut Marko. No further comments.
On a more positive note, Mclaren have had a great start to the year. Lando Norris won in Melbourne, Oscar Piastri won in China. The car is looking as fast as ever and despite some brief slip n’ sliding and parking practice during the AusGP, Mclaren continue to lead the WCC. There have only been a few teases of the dreaded Papaya Rules, and some of them were slighlty exaggerated by broadcasters showing radio messages at different times to when they were actually given. I’m sure that they’ll rear their ugly head again and cause a multitude of arguments between fans, but we’re doing alright so far.
Williams are practically unrecognisable from the last few years of disappointment, currently leading Ferrari in the WCC with 17 points. 16 of these points have been scored by Alex Albon with a P5 and a P7, and he’s already outscored his points total for the entire 2024 season- actually crazy considering getting out of Q1 used to be something I’d cheer for. Alex even became the first Williams driver to lead a Grand Prix since 2015, and just the ninth driver to lead an F1 race on their birthday- best birthday present ever! Carlos Sainz had a difficult and very short first race in blue after a lap 1 DNF (really glad I woke up at 3am for that), but he scored his first point in China following the triple disqualification. Its extremely poetic that his first point for Williams came at the expensive of Ferrari, and the memes have been so funny.
As for everybody else, Alpine are the only team yet to score a point, Kick Sauber have managed 6 points thanks to Nico Hulkenberg in Australia, and Haas had a great double points finish in China and are just 3 points behind Ferrari right now. Its safe to say that this season is already rife with chaos that will definitely continue throughout the coming races, and its going to be a goooooddd year of racing!
formula evie 
Leave a comment