FORMULA 1


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8 hours ago, ayepatz said:

Is is just me, or does passing other cars in the pit-lane seem a little like taking a shortcut?

If the cars on track are speed restricted, surely nipping through the unrestricted pit-lane is a wee bit cheaty?

Although, I do applaud the Dick Dastardly/Wacky Races spirit. ?

Where there are loopholes to be exploited you can bet anything, the teams are across it. 

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AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX: VETTEL STEALS IT FROM HAMILTON

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Sebastian Vettel powered to victory in a tense Australian Grand Prix and ultimately entertaining race, the Ferrari driver winning a race of two halves… one in which he chased Lewis Hamilton and then a second-half whereby the German stole the lead and was in turn chased by the Mercedes driver after the men in silver blundered on the pitwall.

Vettel capitalised from the Mercedes miscalculation during a safety car period which resulted in the Ferrari unexpectedly taking the lead, with Hamilton in second filling his mirrors until the field was unleashed again.

On the restart Vettel scurried away with Hamilton glued to his tail, the pair pulling away from the field rapidly, but the reigning world champion overdid it in his chase and dropped back. With a handful of laps remaining the Mercedes ran out of steam.

Thus Vettel scored an unlikely victory at the Melbourne season opener as he did last year and indeed it was he who wiped the smile off Hamilton’s face as Mercedes were left scratching their heads on how their fumble cost them a certain win at Albert Park.

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It was a timely victory for Vettel and Ferrari after Hamilton and Mercedes showed massive pace a day earlier in .

And also fortuitous because the safety car periodclearly provided the unexpected good fortune that resulted in him emerging behind the pace car ahead of Hamilton.

Thereafter Vettel did well to fend of a sustained attack from Hamilton who was calling for maximum mode to attack and was well within the DRS zone behind the Ferrari, but a mistake saw him drop back two seconds and thereafter Vettel was unchallenged as he claimed the first big trophy of the season.

During the podium interviews, Vettel told MC Mark Webber, “We got a bit lucky obviously with the Safety Car. I really enjoyed it. I hoped my start would be a bit better but it didn’t really work so had to settle for third. At the end of the first stint I lost a bit of the connection to Lewis and Kimi ahead.”

“I was praying for a Safety Car and then there was a car stopped in Turn 4 and then the Haas stopped in the exit of Turn Two and when I saw it I was full of adrenaline.”

“The race is frozen but to come into the pits on the limit and when I got out ahead I knew it was difficult to pass. He kept the pressure on, especially the beginning of the last stint but the last five laps I could enjoy a little bit more,” added Vettel sporting the biggest smile in Melbourne.

On the podium, Hamilton was graceful in defeat and summed up, “It’s been an incredible weekend, to arrive and have the performance we had today. Big congratulations to Sebastian and Ferrari. Today they did the better job.”

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“We have to go back to the drawing board and work on it. We still have great pace and during the race I could apply pressure at the end but it is so hard to overtake here. At the end it was live to fight another day and save the engine,” concluded the world champion.

Starting from second on the grid, Kimi Raikkonen had one of his strongest showings in some time on his way to third and almost a perfect afternoon for his Ferrari team.

The Finn chased Hamilton off the grid and was well entrenched in second until the safety car stint played against him and he had to settle for third after resisting a latye race attack from Daniel Ricciardo in the Red Bull.

Raikkonen said, “It was OK. We didn’t have the most luck but what can you do. Luckily it was Seb who got the luck and it was our team at least.”

“I think I had decent speed all day long, it’s just difficult to pass. The Safety Car is pure luck but we could hold onto third place. I’ll take it, I’ve been happy with the car.”

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Ferrari powered Haas drivers Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean were stars of the first stanza of the Australian Grand Prix, running fourth and fifth at one point in the afternoon. But Magnussen was first to go as he parked at the side of the circuit on lap 22.

A couple of laps later Grosjean was released from his pitstop with a loose wheel and was forced to stop on track which triggered the race defining virtual safety car and the subsequent safety car period.

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Neither Haas driver finished but they showed on the day that they have it in them to take the fight to the top three teams, and most likely the team that is right now the Best of the Rest. No points from Albert Park is a cruel blow to the American outfit.

Local hero Ricciardo turned eighth on the grid to fourth when the chequered flag waved, the Red Bull driver narrowly missing out on becoming the first Australian to celebrate on the podium in his home race, instead, he matched Mark Webber’s feat with fourth place.

Late on Ricciardo’s feisty chase of Raikkonen for the final podium position – which included the fastest lap of the race on lap 54 – had the appreciative crowd on their feet cheering him on, but in the end he ran of laps.

The Australian told reporters afterwards, “I obviously tried to do all I could with Kimi. It’s a tight track, it is tricky to overtake but we set the fastest lap and that’s really good signs for things to come in the next few weeks.”

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“I think we’re really close to Ferrari’s pace. We had the fastest lap so we were definitely one of if not the quickest car on track today. Hopefully that’s representative moving forward, I think we’ve still got to find pace on one lap but the race pace is good,” he added.

His teammate Max Verstappen had a forgettable race by his standards, a tardy start followed by a spin while in fifth lost him a few places and did not help his cause, but he did fight back to finish sixth which will be a disappointment for Red Bull who were no match for Mercedes and Ferrari at this first race of the season.

Verstappen reflected, “Suddenly I had a lot of issues with the car, balance problems, we found out after four or five laps something broke off the car, and all the time in the middle of the corner was losing a lot of grip and at one point I got caught out at Turn 1 and spun.”

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“With the circumstances we were in, the damage we had, we still scored some points. As soon as we were in clean air the pace was good. We don’t need to worry, we just need to focus on getting a clean qualifying and then in the race everything should sort itself out,” added the Dutchman.

It was a big race day for McLaren as they herald in their new Renault-power era and their star driver Fernando Alonso – benefitting from the safety car period – delivered by finishing fifth, beating both the works Renault cars in the process.

The McLaren MCL33 is no Red Bull RB14, but it was handy and robust enough for Alonso to flex his muscles for a change and led the team to a double-point finish with Stoffel Vandoorne enjoying a steady, albeit unspectacular race, to ninth place.

Alonso reported, “It was more or less expected to be honest. We knew we had a strong race pace and better than Qualifying. We capitalised on some of the problems that others had. We had attacks from Verstappen all the last 20 laps and we were able to defend.”

“I’m happy, it was great work from the team, the integration of our power unit in two or three months and we redesigned some of the car last winter. Now we are here, both cars in the points, fifth place so happy and a good starting point,” concluded the Spaniard.

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Nico Hulkenberg finished seventh on an afternoon in which Renault showed signs of a resurgence. Their early pace was handy but petered off towards the end. His teammate Carlos Sainz was tenth, the pair running around those positions throughout the race.

Starting from 15th was always going to be a tough ask around Albert Park which is notoriously bad for overtaking, Valtteri Bottas’ race was compromised when he crashed out of qualifying 24-hours earlier.

Having to play catch-up all day, he recovered to finish eighth but will be well aware that the pressure will be ramped up as two Ferrari drivers on the podium alongside his Mercedes teammate Hamilton will only exacerbate his shortcomings this weekend.

After finishing fourth in the 2017 constructors’ championship a no point haul for Force India drivers Esteban Ocon and Sergio Perez will be a disappointment for the Pinks, who circulated on the wrong side of the midfield throughout the day.

It was a tough weekend for the rookies of which Sauber’s Charles Leclerc was the best with his 13th place finish, while Brendon Hartley placed 15th (and last of those running at the end) as the new Toro Rosso-Honda project received a massive reality check in their first race together as Pierre Gasly in the other Toro Rosso ended with a DNF due to a power unit issue.

Sergey Sirotkin’s grand prix debut for Williams ended after four laps, while his teammate toiled on the wrong end of proceedings on his way to 14th. A woeful start to the season for the Grove outfit.

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Blow-By-Blow Report

Hamilton led away comfortably at the start, dismissing a brief challenger from Raikkonen as they made their way through the first corners. Vettel held third place but behind Magnussen got the jump on Verstappen who dropped to fifth ahead of Grosjean, Hulkenberg and Ricciardo.

At the back of the field, Hartley had a major lock-up into Turn 1 and pitted at the end of lap one. The New Zealander took on soft tyres in a bid to reach the end of the race on the yellow-banded set.

Ricciardo was soon past Hulkenberg to take P7, but further ahead team-mate Verstappen was struggling to put pressure on Magnussen. The result was a rapidly degrading set of tyres and on lap 10 the Dutchman lost control into Turn 1 and spun. He dropped to eight behind Hulkenberg.

At the front Hamilton was attempting to build a gap, but both Raikkonen and Vettel were tenaciously hanging on and by the end of lap 15 Hamilton only had three seconds in hand over the Ferraris.

On lap 22 Magnussen made his first stop of the race, but almost immediately afterwards he pulled over at the side of the track. The Dane reported an engine issue but Race Control later stated that the team had possibly released Magnussen unsafely.

That boosted team-mate Grosjean to fourth but under pressure from Ricciardo and on fading ultrasofts the Frenchman also pitted. Again though, as soon as he rejoined the circuit, he immediately pulled over and stopped in a mirror image of the Magnussen incident, this time with the front left wheel of Grosjean’s car not being properly attached.

With Grosjean’s car at the trackside on lap 24 the Virtual Safety Car was deployed. Ferrari seized the opportunity and pitted Vettel for soft tyres. Hamilton, though, lost a huge amount of time under the VSC and when Vettel emerged from the pit lane he swept into the lead.

The VSC was replaced by the real thing as Grosjean’s car was cleared and when racing resumed Vettel held his lead over Hamilton, with Raikkonen third and Ricciardo fourth. Alonso had vaulted up to fifth place under the SC and was being shadowed by Verstappen who had also recovered from his early woes.

The second half of the race became a cat and mouse battle between the Ferrari and Mercedes driver, with Hamilton regularly getting to within DRS range of the leader only for Vettel to drag the gap back out to beyond a second.

Six seconds further back, Raikkonen kept Ricciardo at bay in the same manner, with the Australian getting to within DRS range and the Finn pulling away as he carefully managed his defence of the final podium position.

Behind them, in the battle for fifth place, a little under two seconds covered three Renault-powered drivers in the closing stage, with Alonso leading Verstappen and Hulkenberg.

With 10 laps remaining Hamilton got on the radio to his team saying that he was going to attack for the lead. The attempt came to nothing, however, as the Briton suffered a heavy lock-up at Turn 9, losing almost two seconds to Vettel.

He clawed half that back over the next two laps and with seven laps remaining was 1.5s behind Vettel. A lap later and the deficit was just one second.

But there Hamilton’s charge ended. On the next lap he was 1.3 slower than Vettel and then drifted to 4.4s off the Ferrari, and having been warned about high engine temperatures, Hamilton voted to save the engine on his car and settled for a safe second place.

A handful of laps later Vettel crossed the line to take his 48th career win ahead of the Briton. Raikkonen clung on to third place ahead of Ricciardo, while Alonso gave McLaren a positive start to life with Renault power by keeping Verstappen at bay to take fifth place.

With the Dutchman sixth, Hulkenberg finished seventh ahead of Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas, McLaren’s Stoffel Vandoorne.

The final points position went to Sainz, who battled to the finish despite suffering from nausea caused by the fluid in his drinks bottle during the race.

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VETTEL: IT WAS OUR TURN TO GET LUCKY

Hamilton, Vettel, podium

Karma was unkind to Lewis Hamilton after he told Sebastian Vettel how he enjoyed wiping the smile off the German’s face during the qualifying press conference a day earlier, but it was the reigning world champion’s smile that disappeared when the Ferrari driver snatched an unlikely victory at the season-opening  from the Mercedes team that seriously blundered their strategy..

The  on Saturday went like this:

  • Hamilton: “I was waiting to put a good lap in. To wipe the smile off your face.”
  • Vettel: “He’s free to have a party tonight – hopefully, we’ll have the party tomorrow.”

During the post-race interviews, Vettel did not milk the tete-a-tete of the previous day but was instead honest in his recap of a tense and intriguing race, “We got a bit lucky with the timing of the Safety Car and obviously that was the key to our win.”

“We had other races last year where it went the other way. It worked for us this time. No doubt Lewis was faster in the first stint and he was fast again in the second stint. I was hoping for better from my start and I struggled a bit in the first part of the race where I had to let them both go a little bit – that wasn’t planned!”

“I was praying for the safety car. When I saw a Haas had stopped in the exit of Turn 2 I was full of adrenalin – even though the race was frozen – to come into the pits with everything on the limit and race to get back out.”

“They told me it was really close with Lewis and when I got out ahead I knew it would be difficult for him to pass. On the soft tyres, I felt happier with the car and was able to control things as Lewis did his utmost to keep pressure up.”

“He never really got close enough to try and do anything and it’s not the easiest track to pass on – again, I’ve been on the other side of that in other years, but this year it worked in our favour and I’m very happy for the team.”

“We are not yet where we want to be, but this result gives us a good start and a good team result, so for everyone back home it gives is the motivation to press on,” ad the Ferrari driver.

It was Vettel’s second victory in a row at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, which means he tops the points standings for the first time since last year’s Belgian Grand Prix.

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WOLFF: IT WAS DOWN TO A SOFTWARE BUG OR AN ALGORITHM

Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel

Mercedes are blaming a software glitch for botching up Lewis Hamilton’s lead during the Australian Grand Prix and handing a most unexpected victory to Ferrari whose Sebastian Vettel capitalised on the mistake to take home the big trophy from the season’s first race.

Hamilton followed up his supreme pole-winning lap a day earlier with a strong start and run down to Turn 1, asserted himself in the lead and then powered away increasing the gap steadily to around three seconds when the virtual safety car was deployed.

At that point, the race had been in the bag but Ferrari got the maths spot on and reacted fast, by the time the dust had settled he had catapulted the silver number 44 to take the lead, where he remained until the end of the race.

As reality dawned, Hamilton’s exchanges with his engineer were peppered with frustration:

  • “What just happened guys?” says Hamilton
  • “Why didn’t you tell me Vettel was in the pits?”
  • “Did I do anything wrong? Should I have gone faster?”

Then later when pursuing Vettel at race speed his patience wore out while waiting for word to attack the Ferrari:

  • “Can I push yet?”
  • “Let me know what you want.
  • “I’m going for it!”

Mercedes (as well as the billions watching live and on TV) were left scratching their heads, but the confusion was shortlived as the culprit was rapidly found according to Toto Wolff, “Lewis did nothing wrong. It was down to a software bug or an algorithm that was simply wrong.”

The team chief referring to software that the F1 world champion team has been using with good effect for the past four seasons, but this time out in the heat of the race, glitched out at a very inopportune moment for the team and in the end cost them victory.

Wolff elaborated, “We were trying to build enough of a gap to [Kimi] Raikkonen to avoid the undercut and we were trying to have enough gap to the Haas to have the Safety Car gap.”

“Everything was under control. We took a bit of a risk of putting Lewis on a soft [tyre] to go to the end, but it was the only choice to avoid Kimi jumping us. The pace was good.”

“Then we calculated the VSC gap which was needed [if one was activated]. Our computer said 15 seconds was the necessary time in order to jump us.”

“The drivers oscillate within one second in the delta. Then suddenly the cameras showed us the pit exit. Sebastian came out in front of us. The software or system we have been using for five years just gave us the wrong number.”

“Lewis knew that he needed to make it to the end on the tyres and drove to the target and without that [glitch] we probably would have had the gap. The only thing we could have done was try to push more after his pit stop and try to create a bigger gap.”

“But knowing that the tyre needed to go another 40 laps or so it was very important not to stretch that too much and he was going quicker than Sebastian anyway. So the gap grew.”

“And we knew that the gap was good enough that even under VSC we would still maintain the lead. If we knew it would have been three or four seconds more we would have pushed a bit more with the tyres with the risk at the end of the race – but we would have done it.”

Wolff refused to blame the VSC and live safety car system for the blunder, “I think, like always in motor racing, with the VSC or normal Safety Car, sometimes you are lucky and sometimes it bites you. Today we were bitten. It’s very hard to take because we had the pace and for whatever reason – we need to find out – we lost the win.”

“You know it’s these moments that make you stronger,” he added philosophically. “We got punched in the face today and we got punched in the face yesterday [with Valtteri Bottas’s crash], against everyone saying that we would run away easily with 20 victories or whatever. I always said that wouldn’t be the case – it is very close at the top and I guess that’s the message that everyone will want to hear,” concluded Wolff.

It was Vettel’s fourth triumph at Albert Park in five years that Hamilton has been unable to convert pole position at the venue on Saturday to victory on Sunday.

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SAINZ: I NEARLY HAD TO VOMIT

Carlos Sainz

A water bottle malfunction left Renault’s Spanish Formula 1 driver Carlos Sainz feeling sick to the stomach and ready to throw up in his helmet during the Australian Grand Prix on Sunday.

Sainz finished 10th in the season-opener in Melbourne, after starting ninth, and said the problem had made it a difficult afternoon.

“I had the drinks bottle pumping water to my mouth since lap one, and unconsciously I was drinking and drinking and drinking,” he told Sky Sports television.

“I just got full of water in my stomach and I wasn’t feeling good… at some point during the safety car (period) I nearly had to vomit.”

“So from there on it was just about making it to the finish,” added Sainz, whose teammate Nico Hulkenberg finished seventh to get Renault off to a double points start.

“It’s a positive start for the team and I’m very happy with the performance of the car. It’s a good job to take home a strong haul of points and we have something to build on ahead of Bahrain,” added the Spaniard in his race review.

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ALONSO: RED BULL WILL BE THE NEXT TARGETS

Fernando Alonso

The preseason did not get off to the best of starts for McLaren, practice and qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix was so-so for their drivers Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne, but in the race they scored a double points finish in their first race with Renault power which has the Spaniard fired up and even more ambitious.

Speaking to reporters in Melbourne after finishing fifth, his best result in over a year, Alonso summed up, “It was definitely a good race, especially from where we came. The last three years were difficult and I think the winter was difficult too. We switched to the Renault power unit very late last year, so we had a very quick reaction from the team to redesign some of the parts at the rear end.”

“Now we come here and both cars have scored points, in the top five and we should be proud of that. I think there’s a lot more to come from McLaren, this is the first race of this combination – McLaren-Renault – some of the updates will come in the coming races, so hopefully we can look up a little more. Red Bull will be the next targets.”

“As I said on Thursday, I think this is going to be our lowest performance level of the year. I think it’s going to get better and better with races.”

“Obviously today we got lucky with the two Haas retirements and Carlos [Sainz] had a problem at Turn 9 and then there was a Virtual Safety Car and we overtook Verstappen. So let’s say that four or five places were just because the conditions were in our favour, but we did no mistakes, we capitalised on everything, so a perfect job by the team.”

For his efforts at Albert Park, Alonso was voted Driver of the Day by fans no doubt inspired by the double F1 world champion’s feisty defence of an attack by Red Bull’s Max Verstappen late in the race.

Alonso explained, “I would have preferred for the last few laps not to have had him behind me because he’s always a threat – he’s a very aggressive driver on overtaking moves. I knew I had to be very careful and make no mistakes. But that was fun!”

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VERSTAPPEN: SOMETHING BROKE AND I LOST GRIP

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Max Verstappen finished sixth fastest at the season-opening , after a somewhat lacklustre performance by the Dutchman in what appears to have been a damaged Red Bull.

Starting from fourth, Verstappen was overtaken by Kevin Magnussen and on lap ten, while chasing after the Haas, Verstappen spun on lap ten and dropped down the order to eighth.

With both  around the half-way mark, Verstappen was promoted up the order but had to settle for sixth, coming out second best in a gritty late race tussle with McLaren’s Fernando Alonso who finished fifth.

Verstappen reflected on his afternoon Down Under, “The start was quite okay. Then I got pushed a bit on the wrong side, causing Magnussen to go round the outside. That can happen.”

“After five, six laps, I was suddenly having a lot of understeer while running behind of Magnussen. Something had broken off from the car causing me to lose a lot of grip in the middle of the corners.”

“Then I took the first corner and lost the car. After a 360 degree spin, I was able to continue on and even lucky to not have lost even more positions.”

“During my pitstop, the team saw the damage as well. The parts had come off before I had the spin. Nobody knows how this happened. This made me lose all the grip and the car was hard to drive. The team was actually surprised that I was able to maintain those lap times.”

Verstappen explained that catching Alonso was one thing, but getting by the McLaren was another, “You are just not able to overtake here, but that was to be expected. Even if you are a second or a second-and-a-half quicker, there is just no possibility.”

“These things can happen. Given the circumstances, with the damage we had, we still scored some decent points. As soon as we were in clean air, it went well. The speed also was fine, so we don’t have to worry.”

“We only need to focus on doing a flawless qualifying and everything should pan out well during the race. Up to the next one,” concluded Verstappen.

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RICCIARDO: BEING CLOSE TO THE PODIUM IS ENCOURAGING

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Another , another near-miss for local hero Daniel Ricciardo who was again denied an elusive podium at Albert Park in Melbourne, finishing fourth behind Ferrari’s winner Sebastian Vettel, runner-up Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen.

The Red Bull driver qualified fifth but was  after they slapped him with a three-place grid penalty for a minor infringement during Friday practice that forced him back to eighth for the start.

He did well to battle past Nico Hulkenberg’s Renault early on and was soon up to sixth after teammate Max Verstappen had a 360-degree spin.

Botched tyre changes for both Haas cars saw them retire in quick succession, helping Ricciardo up to fourth but Ferrari’s Raikkonen proved too hard to dislodge, leaving the Australian frustrated again.

Ricciardo told reporters, “I think probably the most frustrating thing was if it was a lonely fourth I would have said: Alright, that’s the best we can do, but the pace we had (was good).”

“With a few laps to go I tried (to pass Raikkonen) and we were fast. So that was a good thing, but also a frustrating thing because if we started further up the grid I think it could have been a different story.”

“There were a couple of times I had a look at Turn 3 but Kimi was wise to that and could see what I was planning. Towards the end, I applied more pressure on him but he was able to up the pace as well,” explained Ricciardo who set the fastest lap during his pursuit of the Ferrari late in the race.

The result was Ricciardo’s second fourth-place finish at Albert Park after his 2016 effort. He also finished runner-up behind Nico Rosberg in the 2014 race, his first for Red Bull, but on that day was disqualified for a technical breach that was no fault of his own.

“I’m happy with the way I drove and we had a very fast race car. It’s not often I sit behind someone for most of the race but it’s a tight track and one of the more tricky ones for passing.”

“I think we’re pretty close with Ferrari and our race pace is strong, which I thought would be the case, so we just need to get a few more tenths out of Qualifying and then we should be looking good.”

“Being so close to the podium and getting fastest lap is definitely an encouraging way to start the season. I want to thank all the fans for coming out and supporting us today and now it’s definitely time to go and put my feet up for a couple of days after a busy week!” added Ricciardo.

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Haas double Australian GP retirement 'heartbreaking' - Kevin Magnussen

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Kevin Magnussen described Haas’ Australian Grand Prix outcome as “heartbreaking” after both he and team-mate Romain Grosjean retired from strong positions.

Haas built on its pre-season and practice promise by locking out the third row of the grid in Australia, and Magnussen jumped Red Bull’s Max Verstappen off the line to capture fourth.

Magnussen held the place through the first stint while Grosjean profited from Verstappen spinning to move into fifth, as he fended off the other Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo.

However, Magnussen slowed as he exited the pits after his first stop and he parked his VF-18 at Turn 4, while a similar fate befell Grosjean a few laps later.

Haas has yet to determine the exact cause of the respective retirements, though specific attention was given to the wheel guns, with Grosjean’s exit suspected to be due to a loose wheel.

“It’s a very tough one to swallow for the whloe team with both cars not finishing in such good positions,” rued Magnussen.

“There was so much anticipation coming up to this race and then being in such a good position, it’s so heartbreaking to finish like that.

“But we’ll get on top again and we’ll fight back and do it all again.”

Grosjean was nonetheless buoyed that Haas was in a position to claim a potential haul of 22 points, and says its current disappointment will soon lift if such pace can be replicated elsewhere.

“All weekend we had good low-fuel pace and good high-fuel pace,” he said.

“I mean today I had great pace, I could have stayed a bit more with the frontrunners if I had been ahead of Kevin at the start of the race.

“Right now everyone is down and we need to analyse everything and see if it is a problem with the guns or the mechanics, we didn’t have any problems in winter testing so it’s a bit strange.

“It’s a lot of points lost today, but if we can repeat that performance over and over, we’ll forget this one very quickly.”

Haas was fined a total of €10,000 for the respective unsafe releases.

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Haas blames lack of practice for pitstop blunders

Haas blames lack of practice for pitstop blunders

The Haas Formula 1 team is planning extra pitstop practice ahead of the Bahrain Grand Prix, after suggesting poor preparation contributed to the problems that ruined its race in Australia.
Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean were looking set to finish inside the top six in Melbourne, before a pair of "heartbreaking" unsafe pitstops put both cars out of the first F1 race of the season and cost Haas a €10,000 fine.

Team principal Gunther Steiner said a lack of pitstop practice had likely contributed to the mechanics cross-threading wheelnuts at the stops, and insisted the team would work harder on its procedures ahead of the next race.

"This weekend was very tense for us – we had some issues in FP1, FP2, we didn't have a lot of spares, so we didn't do a lot of pitstop practice, and that could be one of the reasons," Steiner told TV crews after the race.

"It was just a bad pitstop. The wheelnut got on wrong and it was cross-threaded. We couldn't catch it early enough. You work in a 2.5s window to do this and we were very unlucky.

"We had on the wheel gun the same guys as last year, which never missed it, so it is one of these things.

"We need to work harder on it – more practice. When we get to Bahrain start as quick as possible practice there and the guys can boost their confidence."

Steiner suggested Haas being a relatively new team "doesn't help" in such situations, but urged his squad to remain confident given the strong pace its cars showed in Australia, where they qualified best of the rest behind Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull.

"They need to keep the confidence," he added. "This is a freak incident. We need to keep our heads up. We know we have a good year in front of us, we need just to analyse what happened and how can we make it that it doesn't happen again.

"It is unbelievable – the same problem at two stops, one on the front wheel, one on the rear wheel, but it happened, it's real.

"A very disappointing end to the day for us, but the pace was good, the car was running strong – that's the thing that keeps the spirits up.

"We go to Bahrain with our heads high and try just to minimise these mistakes on the pitstops."

MIKA: I feel gutted for HAAS, I was so pleased to see them up there and even hoped a couple DNF's out front or something in order to see at least 1 HAAS on the podium. But I disagree with Steiner about Being a relatively new team.... are you kidding? New to Motor sport? Even relatively new to F1, they've gone through 2 previous seasons!

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Plastic bag to blame for spoiling Sergey Sirotkin's F1 debut

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A plastic bag lodged inside Sergey Sirotkin's rear brakes spoiled his Formula 1 debut at the Australian Grand Prix.

Sirotkin started from 19th place on the grid and remained towards the back of the pack when he pulled off and parked his FW41 down the Turn 13 escape road.

Williams chief technical officer Paddy Lowe said: "Our provisional analysis is that a plastic bag has been collected on the circuit, completely blocking the brake cooling, so that the right rear corner caught fire and eventually failed the hydraulics circuit.

"His brake pedal went to the floor and he had to go down the escape lane.

"That was the end of his race which is very unfortunate because it was his first F1 race and what he really needed to do was get some distance behind him so he could come back for the second event with race experience our objective, which we didn’t achieve for him today."

Sirotkin believes sandwich bag led to retirement

After a tough debut weekend, the 22-year-old expressed disappointment at the result, having lost the opportunity to gain experience in race trim.

Sirotkin added: "It didn’t go as expected and I’m not even talking in terms of the results, which we obviously wanted to achieve but didn’t. I’m talking about the learning, which we didn’t get. It’s a bit of a shame and I’m quite disappointed with that because it’s not ideal and it was not the easiest weekend for me.

"It was quite important to do a good race. Preparing for the Bahrain weekend, at least I know I have a good chance so we’re looking forward. In just two weeks we’ll be back at the track and we’ll work harder than ever. I’m sure we’ll get to where we deserve to be."

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Kimi Raikkonen: 'It was Seb who got all the luck'

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Kimi Raikkonen has admitted that it was Sebastian Vettel who "got all the luck" at the Australian Grand Prix after the four-time champion won the opening round of the 2018 season.

Raikkonen qualified in second place and challenged Lewis Hamilton for the lead on the opening lap of the race before settling into second position, pitting on lap 18 onto the soft compound tyre in order to try and perform the undercut on Hamilton.

The undercut failed, however, and Raikkonen settled into third with Vettel now out in front although he had not yet pitted.

The deployment of a Virtual Saftey Car for Romain Grosjean played to Vettel's advantage and the driver pitted, emerging in the lead which pushed Raikkonen down to third.

Coming under immense pressure from a hard-charging Daniel Ricciardo in the closing stages of the race, Raikkonen held on to take third place and complete a double podium finish for Ferrari.

"Well I think it was ok, obviously not… we didn’t have the most lap but what can you do? I mean luckily it was Seb who got the luck and it was our team at least so… I think I had a decent speed all day long and just difficult to pass," said Raikkonen post-race.

"I got a good second corner and then just tried to follow and see if we can do something in the pit stop and then the safety car was pure luck but yeah, we held onto third place, cut some pressure in the end but Red Bull with a little bit more fresh tyres but yeah, I’ll take it, third place, I think I’ve been happy with the car and it’s nice to go onto the next race.”

Through the efforts of Vettel and Raikkonen, Ferrari lead the Constructors' Championship with 40 points, 18 points ahead of Mercedes who currently lie in second. 

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Valtteri Bottas left frustrated by overheating issues in Australia

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Mercedes' Valtteri Bottas was left frustrated by high engine temperatures through the Australian Grand Prix, impacting on his recovery drive through the field.

The Finn was forced to start the race from 15th on the grid due to a gearbox change after a hefty crash in the final part of qualifying left his W09 heavily damaged.

Starting so far back in the pack meant Bottas picked up more dirty air than usual, accentuating cooling requirements, and leaving him unable to utilise the strength of the Mercedes package.

"It was a bit of a frustrating day, said the Finn. "I got some points, but not as many as I was hoping for, even starting 15th on the grid.

"We had a good car, it felt just like in qualifying, the team did a really good job on that. Unfortunately, we just couldn't make anything out of it because it is so difficult to overtake on this track.

"I also struggled a bit with overheating issues on the engine when I was following other cars, so I had to back off many times. It's been a disappointing weekend and certainly not an ideal first race, but we still have 20 races to go.

"We need to learn from this weekend and try again in two weeks in Bahrain."

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff mentioned it was always going to be a hard race for Bottas, he sympathised with his driver given his situation around the Albert Park circuit which is synonymous for being one of the hardest circuits of on the calendar for overtaking.

"On Valtteri's side, we knew this would be a tough race to make up much ground. The margins between teams are closing up and this is one of the most difficult circuits to overtake on in the entire season. He made three passes on track and benefited from the VSC too, but then was stuck in a DRS train in the final laps."

MIKA: Mercedes don't seem to excel when behind another car really... They tend to overheat more than some others?

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US broadcaster ESPN forced to apologise as 'technical issues' hit its F1 coverage

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US broadcaster ESPN has apologised to its viewers after several technical glitches hit its first Formula 1 telecast.

ESPN has replaced NBC as the sports broadcast partner in the United States for the 2018 season, but issues plagued its first broadcast prompting fans to take to social media to vent their anger, forcing the media giant to apologise.

ESPN blamed "technical issues" which meant 20 minutes of the promised pre-race build-up was missed as a static shot of Turn 9 was shown on the screen for five minutes before cutting to an episode of sports show E:60.

Although eventually rectified, viewers also complained of poorly timed ad breaks. With ESPN carrying the UK’s Sky Sports F1 feed, it has no control over replays and commentary and as such, if action is missed during ad breaks – of which there aren't any on Sky – then viewers aren't provided with a recap when the break has ended, leaving them in the dark.

This happened with Romain Grosjean's retirement which caused a Safety Car and then again during the race restart, both of which weren't broadcast due to poorly timed advertising breaks.

That was followed by an abrupt end to the broadcast during Sky's post-race analysis whilst presenter Simon Lazenby was mid-sentence.

ESPN issued the following apology, promising steps would be taken to ensure the problems weren't repeated during future broadcasts.

"We deeply apologise to Formula 1 fans for the technical issues that caused them to miss the first 20 minutes of the pre-race show for the Australian Grand Prix. We are sorry that our first F1 telecast did not go as smoothly as we would have liked but we are taking steps to prevent those same issue from occuring in the future. We thank the fans for watching and for their incredible passion for Formula 1."

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FIA explains why Verstappen avoided Alonso pass penalty

FIA explains why Verstappen avoided Alonso pass penalty

Max Verstappen was asked to let Fernando Alonso through because the Dutchman was 0.1 seconds behind the Spaniard as the pair entered a yellow flag zone during the Australian Grand Prix.
The incident occurred on lap 26 when the virtual safety car came out due to Romain Grosjean's Haas being stranded on track.

McLaren driver Alonso was leaving the pits when Verstappen swept past on the track to claim fifth place.

The Red Bull pit wall realised that Alonso had reached the yellow flag first, albeit by a tiny margin, and asked race control about the incident.

Although he had technically passed under yellows, race director Charlie Whiting used his discretion, as it was such a close call.

He agreed that the pair should swap places while running under the VSC, which led to some urgent gesturing from Verstappen, as initially Alonso didn't know that he could re-pass.

The swap ultimately decided fifth place, as Alonso stayed in front to the flag.

"Red Bull said, 'We think Fernando was in front'," said Whiting. "I wanted to check because it's not completely clear. I asked the timekeepers to confirm which car was first, and they said Alonso by a tenth of a second.

"And hence that's why it was difficult to actually see with the naked eye – unless you've got the facility to replay it slowly, and that sort of thing.

"We've got to make sure of course, and once we were sure, I said to Red Bull Max has got to let Alonso past. Before I could get on to McLaren and say we've told Max to let Fernando past, Max was saying, 'Come on then!' [waves].

"And we hadn't got the message to Fernando. We've done that before, when it's not clear to the drivers it's not fair [to penalise them]."

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Hill, Mercedes in Twitter spat over F1 exit threats

Hill, Mercedes in Twitter spat over F1 exit threats

A declaration that Mercedes and Ferrari should break away from Formula 1 has led to a Twitter spat between Damon Hill and the title-winning Silver Arrows squad.
The 1996 world champion took to Twitter to urge the sport's two big teams to make good on threats to form a breakaway series, complaining that "massive industrial complexes are ruining the sport" and adding that "the FIA have lost grip of F1."

The tweet sparked a response from Mercedes, suggesting that Hill wasn't complaining when he was winning "with top of the line Renault-power", which led to Hill pointing out that he was in fact driving for a Williams squad considered "disgusting garagiste upstarts".

Expanding on his thoughts over the 'industrial complexes' from the two biggest teams, Hill told Motorsport.com that Mercedes and Ferrari were not longer treating Formula 1 as a sport.

"Ferrari and Mercedes are acting in concert to try and create conditions under which they would stay in the sport," said Hill.

"Well, if you would have accused them of working together in the past they would have denied it, but now here they are paired up nicely to try and get conditions under which they would continue to stay at the front of the pack.

"Now, my argument is that it's a sport that should be trying to create at least the opportunity for all of the competitors to have a reasonable chance of competing.

"That's always been a difficult problem for out sport, because it rewards the dominant disproportionately."

Damon Hill, Sky TV, Nico Rosberg, Mercedes-Benz Ambassador and Simon Lazenby, Sky TV Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari SF-71H Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes-AMG F1 W09 passes Ferrari SF-71H

Hill added that the threats from Mercedes and Ferrari to walk away from F1 are little more than political posturing, and that the FIA should stand its ground.

"Look, I just think it's a negotiation tactic," he added.

"Would they be prepared to compete in a championship where they wouldn't have such favourable conditions? Where they had conditions that were more equal?

"If they're not prepared to do that, maybe they shouldn't be here.

"They could blow every team out of the water. The industrial manufacturer complex idea I was using is because they gave far more resources than any Formula 1 team could possible imagine unless they are another manufacturer. So if you're going to bring such enormous resources, someone has to set the rules.

"Someone has to at least say 'okay we can't let that go on, we have to bring into play some sort of boundary'.

"That's the FIA's job, and they don't have the power to do it because it was relinquished."

"Ultimately I'm coming from this position: Drivers have careers too, and this is the pinnacle of our sport. That's what we continue to say and that's what drivers set their goals at. Globally, its presenting itself as the Everest.

"So you can't lock out 99 per cent of the competition. You have to find a way to open it up. And I know it's an impossible task, because there's only a few people who could ever be competitive. But at least there needs to be an attempt to broaden the base of the pyramid a little bit."

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Honestly mercedes seems to fumble the ball quite often.  I think toto is an idiot.

They should clean house of all the "execs" they just make too many mistakes.  

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1 hour ago, Cep said:

Honestly mercedes seems to fumble the ball quite often.  I think toto is an idiot.

They should clean house of all the "execs" they just make too many mistakes.  

Fair enough, but I wonder what mistakes you're referring to, to come to such a conclusion? :) 

Mercedes have won 4 drivers and 4 Constructors championships the past 4 years under Toto Wolff.

Mistakes will always be made by anyone in competitive sport but I think 63 race victories [out of 79 races], 71 pole positions is a pretty big call to his CV as Team Principal.

Let's not forget that mistakes are made by many in a team such as Formula 1 that do not necessarily reflect on one's management of a team.

Valtteri Bottas dropped the ball in Qualy and had an epic shunt.

Look at HAAS yesterday, perfect race, ball dropped by a couple guys in the pits. That's not Gene Haas's fault, but I suppose reflects on the entire team as a whole. I wouldn't expect Gene to fire Gunther Steiner for it. 

Firing staff and team Principles for errors is not good for the sport, I personally have not enjoyed all the movement in Ferrari since Sergio took over. Majority of his changes haven't amounted to positive progress, more a distraction if anything. Ferrari have lost a lot of key players to other teams as a result. 

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Good points.

I think i just have a hatred for management in general lol.

But i do think you or i or a monkey could have been there and merc would have won all those races just the same.  When you have the best car and the best driver it should be hard to lose.

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29 minutes ago, Cep said:

Good points.

I think i just have a hatred for management in general lol.

But i do think you or i or a monkey could have been there and merc would have won all those races just the same.  When you have the best car and the best driver it should be hard to lose.

I appreciate you reading and contributing @Cep :) The only management I don't get for Mercedes is Niki Lauda.

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AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX: TEAM REPORTS & PHOTOS

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Teams and drivers report from the Australian Grand Prix weekend, Round 1 of the 2018 Formula 1 World Championship, at Albert Park in Melbourne.

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Mercedes

Lewis Hamilton, 2nd: “I did everything I could today, but it’s not what anyone expected to happen. I’m still in a little bit of disbelief as I don’t really understand what happened yet. Once I get back with my engineers they’ll do a debrief and obviously I’ll find out why. This weekend there was so much talk about party mode or if Ferrari would be quick enough. I don’t think the gap was as big as it seemed yesterday, it’s just that I had a good lap and maybe Sebastian didn’t have a good lap. But today they were very, very quick. I put up a bit of a fight towards the end but they were within a tenth of us today. At least in my heart I know that I gave everything this weekend. I’m sure the team is feeling pain right now but we will regroup and we’ll work on it.”

Valtteri Bottas, 8th: “It was a bit of a frustrating day. I got some points, but not as many as I was hoping for, even starting 15th on the grid. We had a good car, it felt just like in qualifying, the team did a really good job on that. Unfortunately, we just couldn't make anything out of it because it is so difficult to overtake on this track. I also struggled a bit with overheating issues on the engine when I was following other cars, so I had to back off many times. It’s been a disappointing weekend and certainly not an ideal first race, but we still have 20 races to go. We need to learn from this weekend and try again in two weeks in Bahrain.”

Toto Wolff, Head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport: “This was one that got away and it’s a bitter pill for us all to swallow. Following Lewis’ pit stop, we believed that we had the scenarios of both the Safety Car and the Virtual Safety Car covered, so that Sebastian could not pit and come out ahead of Lewis on track. We should have been several seconds safe, then suddenly saw on the TV screens that we were not. Of course, under the VSC sometimes you benefit and sometimes you lose out – but it was clearly a problem on our side and we need to analyse that to understand what happened and correct it. It’s all the more frustrating because we had the pace today to win. Lewis was in control through the opening stint, then after the pit stop as well, and looked on course for a strong victory but it wasn't to be. On Valtteri’s side, we knew this would be a tough race to make up much ground. The margins between teams are closing up and this is one of the most difficult circuits to overtake on in the entire season. He made three passes on track, and benefited from the VSC too, but then was stuck in a DRS train in the final laps. Congratulations to Ferrari on their win today; for us, it’s a tough one to take, but there are lots of lessons to be learned so we can come back stronger next time.”

James Allison, Technical Director: “Having come to Melbourne with high hopes, it will be a long journey home for us, knowing that we under-delivered as a team. The pace we saw during the weekend was promising for the season ahead but it counts for nothing if you don’t handle correctly the cards that the race can deal to you – and, today, we didn’t. We need to analyse our mistakes, correct them and we look forward to getting to the next race and starting to put things right.”

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Ferrari

Sebastian Vettel, 1st: “Today has been our day. The Safety Car helped of course, but apart from that, I think we did everything we could do as a team. So when something happened, we were ready to react. We did our job before the race, evaluating different scenarios, and then in the race we had the pace as well. Lewis was under pressure, he was fast, but not as much as he needed. As for me, I need a little bit more of confidence with the car, which is not where we want it to be yet. There is a lot of work to do, but it is great to have both cars on the podium today. Yesterday in qualifying the car came alive, but it was still a little bit tricky, so we have some homework to do. I still need to drive around the issues more than I want to. I know exactly what I want, and we need to work on it. I believe the car has the potential we need.”

Kimi Raikkonen, 3rd: “A win with two cars on the podium is a very good start of the season for the team. Maybe I have been a bit unlucky today, but at least the luck came to our team. Third place it’s not exactly the result we wanted, but it’s only the first race and the big picture is not too bad. So I happily take the third place. Overall I was pretty happy with my car today, the speed was there all day. It’s nice to have a good feeling. For sure there are things to improve, but if the feeling stays like this we’ll have all the tools to fight. And this is the most important thing. This is a quite special track in many ways, so let’s see what happens in the next race. Bahrain it’s not very straightforward either; from year to year we have seen that the hot conditions don’t give a 100 percent true picture. We need to be patient and do our best wherever we go.”

Maurizio Arrivabene, Team Principal: “A nice win and a great job from the team, both back in Maranello and here at the track, which led to a fine Sunday for all of us, our drivers and our fans. We have picked up a significant number of points in both the Drivers’ and Constructors’ championships. There is still a long way to go this season, but today we can be happy, knowing that each and everyone of us has done their very best, according to his role, to achieve this result. Now we will start to prepare for the next race, aware there is plenty to do; work which we will tackle with humility and determination.”

Sergio Marchionne, Ferrari Chairman: “There could have been no better start for Ferrari in this championship. Listening to Italy’s national anthem echo around Melbourne was an emotional moment for us all, and for every fan of the Scuderia. It’s the best possible reward for the team, which built a competitive car and used a perfect strategy to take advantage of the way the race evolved. Congratulations to Sebastian and Kimi, both drove a great race. Of course there’s still a long way to go in the series, with 20 more Grands Prix. So it would be wrong to celebrate too much. We know that we still have a lot of work ahead of us, but the first step has been taken in the right direction.”

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Force India

Sergio Perez, 11th: “It was quite an unlucky weekend for us, but there are still positives to take from this race. We came close to bringing home a point although it was just out of reach. I was pushing throughout the whole race and especially chasing Sainz in the final laps. I got really close to him, but it wasn’t enough. Overtaking in Melbourne is very difficult – you could see the same with Bottas who couldn’t pass me during the first stint. The Virtual Safety Car also didn’t help us at all, but that’s just how things go sometimes. I am still happy with my performance and the job we did as a team. We will need to move on and keep improving, but I believe we will soon be in a position to battle for points. Hopefully our improvements will come as early as Bahrain. It’s a race where you can overtake and strategy plays a bigger part compared to Melbourne.”

Esteban Ocon, 12th: “Not an easy race today. It was very difficult to overtake and even though I managed to jump ahead of Lance [Stroll] on the first lap, everybody quickly spread out until the safety car. I had a fight with Bottas for a while and after the safety car restart I was close to making a move on Sergio. We certainly had better race pace compared to our qualifying pace, but we are just missing some performance to be up there in the top ten at the moment. Things can turn around quickly in Formula 1 and we will keep pushing over the next two weeks to bring something extra to Bahrain.”

Robert Fernley, Deputy Team Principal: “Ultimately we didn’t have the pace this weekend to fight in the top ten and so we’ve ended our day on the cusp of the points. It’s early days in the season and with twenty races to go there will be plenty of opportunities to develop this car and show our strengths. As I said yesterday, we’re on a learning curve with the developments we introduced this weekend and there’s more in the pipeline for Bahrain. Both drivers drove well today, but the luck didn’t play into our hands with the timing of the safety car, for example. Following other cars closely was tough and Sergiom n was right on the tail of Sainz in the final few laps but there was no way to overtake. We will work hard to be stronger at the next race in Bahrain.”

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Haas

Romain Grosjean, DNF: “We had a good car all weekend. I was happy with our low- and high-fuel pace. I had great pace today, and I’m sure I could have stayed a bit more with the front runners if I’d been in front of Kevin early in the race. We’ll now analyze everything and work out what happened exactly. We’ll come back stronger as we always do. It’s a lot of points lost today, but if we can repeat that performance over and over, we’re going to forget this very quickly.”

Kevin Magnussen, DNF: “It’s a very tough one to swallow for the whole team. To have both cars not finishing – having been in such good positions and with so much anticipation – it’s just heartbreaking to finish like that. We’ll get on top again. We’ll fight back. I’m beyond disappointed right now, but we’ll get over it.”

Guenther Steiner, Team Principal: “It was a disappointing end to a very promising weekend. We had two failures on the pit stops – didn't tie the wheels on correctly, so we had to stop the cars. As much as you don’t want to say it, it’s racing. It happens, even though it shouldn't. It’s almost unbelievable to have this in one race, and on two cars, while running fourth and fifth. It’s very disappointing. The good thing we can take away from this is that the car is competitive. We just need to get our heads up again, to get well prepared for Bahrain. We’ll focus on that one and get our pit stops sorted out.”

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Red Bull

Daniel Ricciardo, 4th: “I woke up this morning happy because it’s race day and it’s been too long since we raced so, already before the race I was just happy and smiling. It’s a long wait and in the week leading up to this race, you talk so much about the race and it’s like, let’s just do it. I’m happy with the way I drove today and we had a very fast race car. It’s not often I sit behind someone for most of the race but it’s a tight track and one of the more tricky ones for passing. There were a couple of times I had a look at turn three but Kimi was wise to that and could see what I was planning. Towards the end I applied more pressure on him but he was able to up the pace as well. I think we’re pretty close with Ferrari and our race pace is strong, which I thought would be the case, so we just need to get a few more tenths out of Qualifying and then we should be looking good. Being so close to the podium and getting fastest lap is definitely an encouraging way to start the season. I want to thank all the fans for coming out and supporting us today and now it’s definitely time to go and put my feet up for a couple of days after a busy week!”

Max Verstappen, 6th: “The start was ok but I got a bit unfortunate at turn one and ended up in the wrong position so lost out on fourth. I tried to follow as best I could but experienced a few issues with the feeling of the car. I think at about lap four or five I sustained a bit of damage on the car, I’m not sure what from as I didn’t have any contact or hit any curbs hard. When I jumped out of the car I could see some damage and I also think something broke off so we need to investigate what that was. The issue made it hard to hold on mid corner which eventually led to me spinning and then struggling for the rest of the race. Luckily I didn’t lose too many positions due to the spin and still managed to have a battle to the end. It is still really hard to get past the cars ahead as soon as you are within a second. This track is hard to overtake also but when you have limited grip it is extra hard. The car has been running and feeling really good all weekend so it’s a shame to have the damage and then the bad feeling during the race. We are happy to score some points considering the circumstances, as soon as we had clean air the pace was good. Looking ahead I think if we can have a good Qualifying and clean start then everything else should sort itself out in the race and we can be competitive.”

Christian Horner, Team Principal: “A strong recovery from Daniel from P8 on the grid to P4 at a track that is incredibly difficult to pass on. I think the only pass of the entire Grand Prix was the one he made on Nico Hulkenberg. What we could see in the closing stages of the race was that he was pushing Kimi very hard and he had very good pace, demonstrated by posting the fastest lap, which is encouraging for the season ahead. Max’s afternoon was a frustrating one for him. He made a good start initially but then got boxed in on the right hand side and dropped a place to the Haas. He picked up some damage to the floor on lap four or five that compromised the performance of his car quite significantly but he kept pushing and, despite a spin, was able to bring the car home in sixth place, having fought with Fernando for over 20 laps. He was always within a second but had no opportunity to overtake. We also saw some fantastic work from the pit crew, starting the 2018 season as they mean to go on and scoring the fastest pit-stop of the Grand Prix.”

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Toro Rosso

Brendon Hartley, 15th: “It wasn’t a great race for me today, I locked the brakes into Turn 1 at the start and flat-spotted the tyres, so I had no choice but to pit because it was probably the biggest flat spot I’ve ever had. Then on the second stint I had a puncture, so it was game over from that point onwards and I think I had a little bit of damage on the rear from that, so I was driving around by myself all day. It was always going to be tough to get into the points today.”

Pierre Gasly, DNF: “It wasn’t a great start to the season for me. After Turn 12 the engine just switched off, it came back on again but I was really slow and I couldn’t upshift. I tried to return to the pits and then I was told to stop. It’s a shame, especially since we didn’t have anything go wrong in testing. I think everyone in the team is disappointed to have an issue at the first race but we need to look at the positives and learn from the negatives to come back stronger in Bahrain.”

Franz Tost, Team Principal: “As we had a successful test in Barcelona, we expected of course a much better race result in Melbourne, but for various reasons we couldn't get it together. For sure it didn't help that it was raining in FP3, because we would have needed a dry track to evaluate the tires and to find out if our set up changes were going in the right direction. As for Qualifying, Brendon did a reasonable job but Pierre had a problem in Turn 3 so today we had to start from the back of the grid. Pierre had a good start and gained some positions, but unfortunately we faced a power unit issue that forced him to retire. As for Brendon, he locked the front tires in braking for the first corner – he got a flat spot and we had to call him in to change the tires and from then onwards he was at the back of the field. Now we can put behind a disappointing weekend – we have a lot of work to do to hopefully achieve a better result in Bahrain.”

Toyoharu Tanabe, Honda F1 Technical Director: “It is disappointing that Pierre Gasly had to retire on lap 15 with an MGU-H problem. We now have to investigate the precise cause and then we have a few days of hard work to ensure we do not have a repeat of the problem at the next race. As for Brendon, after his early pit stop, because of a flat spotted tyre, he raced consistently, but with the difficulty of overtaking here he was unable to move up the order. It was a tough start to the season, however we have to move on from this and keep a positive frame of mind as we immediately start preparing for the second round of the championship.”

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Renault

Nico Hulkenberg, 7th: “We should be pretty happy with today. The pace of the car was strong and competitive, but we know we still have a lot of work to do. I’m happy with how the weekend has progressed, Friday wasn’t great for me, but we’ve turned it into a decent result and a satisfying Sunday. We got lucky with retirements, but also unlucky with the safety car, but that’s racing and taking six points home is a just reward for the team’s hard work.”

Carlos Sainz, 10th: “It’s a positive start for the team and I’m very happy with the performance of the car. It’s a good job to take home a strong haul of points and we have something to build on ahead of Bahrain. Personally, I struggled a bit out there as I had a drinks bottle issue, the result of which was making me feel pretty unwell. The first stint was also a bit difficult with too much oversteer on the car, especially as there was a lot of wind out there today. We keep learning and we’ll be putting the work in ahead of Bahrain.”

Cyril Abiteboul, Managing Director: “It’s a satisfying result, not perfect by any means, but it shows we’re in line with our targets of making progress. Clearly, for a good result, everything must be smooth, from pit-stops to reliability and this double top-ten finish illustrates a solid start to the season. We’re pleased with today and the result gives us something to build on. In the race, the safety car hurt us slightly, but that’s racing and sometimes these things benefit you. Our focus on reliability has been illustrated with all Renault-powered cars finishing inside the top ten today, which is a good positive. We know it’s going to be extra tight in the midfield battle, and that motivates us to keep working hard.”

Fernando-Alonso-McLaren-GP-Australien-2018-Melbourne-Rennen-fotoshowBig-b02f7d05-1155228

McLaren

Fernando Alonso, 5th: “It was a good race today, especially considering where we started. The last couple of years have been difficult, and I think the winter has been difficult as well. We switched to the Renault engine quite late and the team had to react very quickly to redesign some of the parts at the rear end, and now we’ve come here and both cars have scored points – one in the top five. We should be proud of that, but I think there’s a lot more to come from McLaren. We didn’t maximise the full potential nor squeeze everything out of the package today. This is only our first race together with Renault, and some updates will come in the next few races. We can start to look ahead a little bit and Red Bull will be the next target. As I said before, this race is probably our lowest performance of this season as things are going to get better and better. Obviously, today we got lucky with the two Haas cars retiring, Carlos’ [Sainz] problem in turn nine, and then overtaking [Max] Verstappen under the Safety Car. Let’s say four positions came thanks to some favourable conditions, but we made no mistakes and we capitalised on everything. A perfect job from the team.”

Stoffel Vandoorne, 9th: “It’s a great result for the team to have both cars in the points today. It’s a big contrast from last year, and I think there’s massive potential for the future. From my side, I was a little bit unlucky with the Virtual Safety Car, as I think we could have finished even higher up, but for the opening race I think we can be very happy. I’m very optimistic for the rest of the year. We know there is more to come from us this season, and the partnership with Renault is still very new. This was our first race, we know that there are new parts coming over the next couple of grands prix, and I really hope we can show that on track too. The baseline is good, we have something to work with and now we need to keep improving and deliver more performance, and ultimately points. Our performance in the race was pretty good – we were fighting with the Renault and Red Bull cars which is positive, and we think there is definitely some margin for progression. “It’s a great start to the season, and after this race I feel there’s a lot of potential for the future. We need to be ambitious as a team, and I’m looking forward to seeing what’s around the corner.”

Eric Boullier, Racing Director: “A good result for us today. We benefitted from every opportunity that was thrown at us – the first being Haas’ double retirement. We really feel for them because we know what this is like; a double DNF is hard to take, but this is racing. As we said yesterday, we knew we had some potential and further speed to unlock from the car today. We took every chance we could and both drivers drove superbly. We showed good pace, enjoyed some good fights, and we completed two decent pit stops which helped us keep our strategy on track. I want to say a huge thank you to the whole team, here and back in Woking, not only because we’re encouraged by the potential our car has shown in the first race of the season, but also reliability-wise we had a trouble-free weekend, which is a relief after the issues we had in winter testing. It’s all thanks to a huge amount of hard work from everyone in the team, who have done a remarkable job since Barcelona. Now we need to keep pushing, and work on readying the upgrades we have in the pipeline as soon as possible. Our priority is to get closer to our nearest competitors in front, especially those who have the same engine in the back of their car.”

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Sauber

Marcus Ericsson, DNF: “It was a disappointing race for me after the good job done during the race weekend. I had a solid start and the car felt really good – really strong and I was ready for the fight. Unfortunately, on lap six I had a hydraulic issue on my car and I had to retire from the race. Now, the team will analyse all the data. We were in the fight and this is positive so all I can do is to look forward to Bahrain.”

Charles Leclerc, 13th: “I am very happy about my day. The start was not ideal – I had to catch up with the competitors ahead of me and slowly work my way forward. We maximised our potential and had a consistently good pace. I was able to overtake some of the cars, which was fun. Overall, it has been a positive weekend. We have made good progress since Friday and are at a good starting point. I have learned a lot and feel confident going into the next round in Bahrain.”

Frederic Vasseur, Team Principal: “The balance of the whole race weekend is positive, especially considering the good progress we have made since Friday. Regarding the race we have mixed feelings because Marcus was doing an impressive job after a good start. We will now analyse all the data. Congratulations to Charles for his first race in Formula 1. It was important for him to finish and he did a great job with tyre management and fuel saving. All in all, it’s a good feeling for the team and we are very motivated as we look forward to Bahrain.”

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Williams

Lance Stroll, 14th: “We were in the wrong mode on the first lap and that is the reason Ocon got me. We also have none of the extra power we need for the safety car restart which is where I lost the place to Leclerc. We are just basically trying to get the car to the end of the race instead of racing. There was a lot going on today with big issues that cost us a lot of race time. I hope we can find the solution before Bahrain.”

Sergey Sirotkin, DNF: “It didn’t go as expected and I’m not even talking in terms of the results, which we obviously wanted to achieve but didn’t. I’m talking about the learning, which we didn’t get. It’s a bit of a shame and I’m quite disappointed with that because it’s not ideal and it was not the easiest weekend for me. It was quite important to do a good race. Preparing for the Bahrain weekend, at least I know I have a good chance so we’re looking forward. In just two weeks we’ll be back at the track and we’ll work harder than ever. I’m sure we’ll get to where we deserve to be.”

Paddy Lowe, Chief Technical Officer: “That wasn’t an afternoon to remember. Firstly, for Sergey, very early in the race he had a failure of the rear brakes. Our provisional analysis is that a plastic bag has been collected on the circuit, completely blocking the brake cooling, so that the right rear corner caught fire and eventually failed the hydraulics circuit. His brake pedal went to the floor and he had to go down the escape lane. That was the end of his race which is very unfortunate because it was his first F1 race and what he really needed to do was get some distance behind him so he could come back for the second event with race experience our objective, which we didn’t achieve for him today. In Lance’s case, we were struggling a lot with pace throughout the afternoon. Like a number of other teams, we’re managing fuel consumption. Our fight was for 13th and unfortunately Lance lost the position to Leclerc under the safety car restart. He had a number of attempts to retake the position but with managing temperatures we had to drop back two or three times and we never made it stick.”

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Pirelli

Mario Isola, Head of Car Racing: “There were effectively two halves to this Grand Prix, before and after the safety car, which helped to decide the outcome thanks to a clever pit strategy from Ferrari. In the end, we saw a very close race to the finish, with the top five places fiercely contested all the way to the final lap. Most drivers opted for a one-stop strategy, with the quite long safety car period mid-race also helping these tactics by minimising wear and degradation. The behaviour of all three compounds – each used as race tyres – was definitely positive. Two cars even finished the race on a one-stop strategy without using the hardest compound available.”

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