2024 Australian Grand Prix Heroes and Zeroes

[Jericoke]

Heroes:

Max Vertappen's brake failure.  I know, celebrating someone's failure is poor taste, but it added some much needed interest to the 2024 season.

Carlos Sainz.  There are a LOT of skills involved in being a top F1 driver, and responding to adversity is a big one.  Sainz has been cast aside by a team he's driven well for.  Knowing his future is in his hands, he has stepped up.  AND THEN he has an appendectomy, and comes back to win his next race!  There is no one more dialed into driving F1 right now.  Most drivers would hate to have this sort of adversity, but it seems like it's just what Sainz needed.

Charles LeClerc.  Second place in the second best car.  Well done Charles

McLaren.  They've put together a great team.  It's no mistake other teams are trying to copy their success.  I think the other teams forget this was a LONG haul to get McLaren from their bottom of the barrel days to their modern pretty good-ness.  Norris and Piastri are talented drivers, getting good results from their good cars.

Alex Albon.  Finishing 11th in your teammate's car might not feel heroic, but finishing 11th in a car developed by a team that honestly isn't being run as an F1 team (which they're working on), that isn't your own car, that the entire time your number one thought is 'don't crash' is quite impressive.  I think with the gloves off, Albon could have done better, but bringing that car home while fighting with Haas' reckless driving is an accomplishment.

Haas.  Double points finish?  I certainly didn't expect that.  I'm not a fan of the drivers, they're still reckless, but they got the job done.

Tsunoda.  VCARB has been a mess so far this year, but solid points is what he needed, and what he got.

Zeroes

Perez.  Is RBR genuinely struggling?  Or is Perez just not up to snuff any more?

Stake.  Of all the millions of dollars of engineering talented involved in F1, getting wheel nuts catastrophically wrong seems so very weird.

Mercedes.  The salary cap was meant to stop a team from dominating.  Job done I guess.  As a Hamilton fan girl it's frustrating to see things go from bad to worse from him.  I'd like to think the team is letting him down, but maybe he really has slipped.

Other thoughts:

Some very visual elements to the race.  Verstappen's brakes exploding in the pit entrance, Russel's car coming to rest like it was folded in half. I've never seen anything quite like either of those in my 30 years of watching F1

I think the F1 drivers as a whole are trying to get away with more and more dangerous moves.  The cars are safe, so no one is (likely) to get killed by a brake test, or a double move, but the sport itself suffers when cars attempting a pass have to think about their safety instead of their pass.

[lkjohnson1950]

I'm wondering if it's Perez, or if the Red Bull doesn't work that well in dirty air. 

[Dare]

Perez had a chance to step and show RB he belongs there
next year....he didn't

Carlos had a chance to show he belongs at Ferrari next
year...he did


Hamilton showed maybe Ferrari won't be the answer he's hoping for

[John S]

Heroes:-

Carlos for all the obvious reasons, and Ferrari to for giving him the car to do it in.

McLaren for being the No 2 team on the day, both drivers fulfilled the tasks they were set. 

Tsunoda, the lad has certainly got the bit between his teeth and galloping on.

Perez for doing the best he could from his starting slot, I'm sure if Max hadn't DNF'd he would still have found it tough going to stop at least one Ferrari, or maybe both from beating him. See RBR in zeros.

Zeros:-

Kick/Stake/Sauber-or whatever, they are becoming the laughing stock of the paddock. Bet Audi bosses who have now handed over all the cash to control the team are looking on dumbfounded.

Danny Ric - Oh Danny boy the pipes maybe calling for you by mid season if this continues. 

Red Bull - for having a rocket ship that eats tyres round Albert Park. Nuff said - normal service will probably be resumed at next race.

Fernando - sure you may have been planning a defence to a George overspeed lunge at that corner (turn 6), but for such an experienced hand like you to get it so wrong is perhaps more than just embarrassing. 

[cosworth151]

Personal High Point - Haas double points finish. 
Personal Low Point - Haas dropping 1 place in the Constructor's standings in spite of the above.  :'(

It was nice to see a car drop out with a mechanical problem. It's hard to believe the cars can actually running at ten tenths and still be so bullet proof.