🇦🇺 F1'23: R3 - Accelerate? Litigate!

Another race where the off-track decision making takes centre stage over some of the results on it, but this time, it sort of makes sense? Let’s walk back what happened in Melbourne after three red flags ended with a 12-car parade in Albert Park.

Early on, gravel stopped play after Alex Albon lost control. With the race drifting into an established order, Kevin Magnussen loses a tyre hitting turn 2 and spreading debris over the first sector, causing the second red flag.

Welcome to Chaostown. On the restart, the casualty list reads like an Old Testament battle. Sainz tagged Alonso, Gasly collided with brother Ocon, Perez took to the gravel, Sergeant charged into de Vries. The sheer number of crashes from cold cars piloted by desparate drivers meant another red flag was inevitable, leading to the decision of how the restart would be conducted.

They hadn’t completed a sector, so they went back a lap, but given that some of those cars were strewn across the tarmac, they weren’t available, leading to another change. Sainz was given a penalty on a lap that was never completed, meaning that he then couldn’t fight his way through the field to make the time up, because - so sorry - we appear to have run out of laps.

All that just to see Red Bull win their third race in a row - the first time they’ve ever done this at the start of a season - they came very close in 2011, which was also the last time they took the chequered flag first in Melbourne.

But 2023’s edition may not be the end of the legal wrangling. Haas are going to protest given that Nico Hulkenberg was fourth after dodging the chaos at the restart. They probably won’t get too far on that, and seventh place is still a superb result - their best for almost half a season.

An emotional Carlos Sainz wants to appeal his five-second sanction for hitting Alonso and attempt to restore his position given that - from a standing start - it looked similar to other collisions that had previously been labelled as racing incidents.

It seems like it would be hard to overturn the penalty, with arguments on both sides for racing incident vs causing a collision.

But the most intriguing penalty could belong to Alpine.

Drivers have a penalty points system with any driver collecting 12 in as many months being handed a race ban. Pierre Gasly currently has 10 and was at fault for the collision with his teammate. He has been summoned to the stewards for allegedly breaching the International Sporting Code, which doesn’t feel like a fun meeting for anyone.

A race ban being the result of Gasly’s weekend, after the Frenchman had driven brilliantly during the race would be an unexpected and terrible outcome, but outlines again how off-track decision making can change the very composition of who might actually drive the cars on a Sunday afternoon. He’d also be forced to miss the sprint event and another chance to earn quality points.

And with all this focus on red flags and penalties, it’s easy to forget that there was some actual driving. Some of it was good too! Obviously after writing about how bad McLaren were in the first two races of the season, both their drivers finished in the points, including an eighth place for Oscar Piastri, taking his first points in F1 at his home race.

Sergio Perez started from the pit lane after dumping the car into the gravel in Q1. Perez - already king of the streets - was able to fight back into fifth, mitigating the damage caused by starting from the back. He did get a bit of luck as on that final restart, he was 10th after being introduced to the gravel in turn 1.

And much to David Croft’s disappointment, Yuki Tsunoda didn’t finish 11th to level a record. He would have, had Sainz not had his five-second penalty, but promoted into the final points-paying position, it means that every team has already scored a point - one race quicker than it happened in 2022 (Aston got their first points in Imola last year).

And the other driver getting his first points of the season with Zhou Guanyu finishing ninth - his first points since Italy 2022. The Chinese driver finished ahead of his teammate and took the position as one of three drivers to score despite going out in Q1.

Stories like Perez, Tsunoda and Zhou (and also Hamilton dragging his Mercedes to second) should be the spotlight and focus of celebration for fans, but instead, social media becomes the battleground with fans waiting for the latest bit of headed paper to tell us the consequences of appeals or being summoned.

Formula 1 goes on a bit of a break, with the Chinese GP removed from the calendar, the end of the month brings the teams to Azerbaijan and the streets of Baku. It also brings with us our first Sprint race of the season. The midfield is getting more and more compressed, and this should be celebrated as the increased competition inevitably brings innovation.

But one wonders how much motorsport lawyers are making from this F1 season. Maybe at some point there will be a race weekend where the sport is decided in the cockpit and not by press release.