by VALERIO BARRETTA
F1 Melbourne, the report cards of those promoted
1. Carlos Sainz. Beyond the rhetoric about heroes, whose RAL certainly does not reach ten figures, Sainz's issue is an issue that goes beyond sport. This is a man who has been shown the door. Kindly, but at the door. And now he wants to prove to Ferrari that he has backed the wrong horse. Two races, one behind an impregnable Red Bull and the other leading a one-two that reawakens F1 as the alarm clock did with us at 5am. Melbourne reminds us that Red Bull may win, but they can make mistakes. And if he gets it wrong, like in Singapore, he's there Smooth Operator to punish her. On the controversy “Sainz had to be kept“: from a fan's point of view, the consideration is there; as a starting point or journalistic provocation, too. However we cannot re-read history in hindsight: choices must be judged by what has been seen up to that moment. Would a confirmed Sainz have started the season in such a decisive manner? Would a Hamilton still in Mercedes suffer like this? History is not evaluated retroactively: events change people and influence what happens next, we don't start from the future to change history. In February, Hamilton was a unique opportunity and it would have been illogical to miss it.
2. Yuki Tsunoda. A 6-0 away to Ricciardo without even going through the Australian Open. Again in Q3 (also knocking Hamilton out), this time the points also arrive. Perfect weekend and hierarchies in RB perhaps definitively clarified.
3. Logan Sargeant. He understands how the smoke turns in the 2025 key and silently suffers the harassment of Albon, who goes to the wall and takes away his car for the whole weekend. But anyway, no one would have noticed his presence.
F1 Melbourne, the report cards of those who failed
3. The anti-Max. Absent-mindedly mentioning Kick Sauber (more names than unscrewed dice) and Alpine, let's get straight to the big fat. Because here, in theory, in the rare cases in which Max remains at zero, the first to take advantage of it should be Sergio Perez and Charles Leclerc. In Singapore and Melbourne, however, Checo he didn't emerge from the mediocrity into which Verstappen relegated him, while Leclerc had to applaud Sainz at the finish line. Then he is also unlucky, for goodness sake, because when he was second to Verstappen he never had a problem: there were perfect races by Charles overshadowed by Schumaxer, and even Bearman took the cover for him in Jeddah. For Leclerc it's not a serious failure (from even less serious report cards), and anyway how can you fail someone who comes second. But the wasted opportunities are becoming a bit too many for a driver who turns 27 in October: five victories in 126 GPs are few, Max had 10 in 129 at Abu Dhabi 2020 (without ever having the title car, which Ferrari at least at the beginning of 2022).
2. Mercedes. With Hamilton the risk is that of leaving himself very badly: beyond the superficial declarations, it is humanly normal that the #44 is thinking ahead to Ferrari and can't wait to abandon a team that gets the car wrong for three years in a row. Russell meanwhile wonders if he will live a life of gregariousness: he was parked for three years at Williams, he lived with Hamilton and now that he can get rid of him they talk to him about Max in Mercedes. Convinced of having “finally a car“, they are the fifth force in the World Championship, also surpassed by McLaren and Aston Martin who were light years away. Few ideas, but confusing.
1. Daniel Ricciardo. He exits in Q1 while Tsunoda goes to Q3 twice in a row. In no man's land while the partner takes the limelight. If Yuki hadn't shouted at him in Bahrain, no one would have realized that Ricciardo was a driver in the 2024 World Championship. A somewhat difficult start to the season for someone who is currently in the top-5 of the drivers on the 2024 grid with the most victories. This is nothing more nothing less than Ricciardo 2022: at least there, however, he took his pay from Norris and not from Tsunoda. But he laughs, and imagine if the others who beat him don't laugh. Everyone is happy, right?
#Report #Cards #Australia #podium
