Red Bull hopes to take on Ferrari

Many observers believed that Red Bull had been hiding their true performance throughout the winter tests and would arrive in Melbourne with a transformed car to prevent their rivals from copying Adrian Newey’s innovations. However, it must be noted that at the end of this first day, the team has not yet regained its past peaks.

Ricciardo: FP1 → 3rd, 1:24.886 (19 laps) / FP2 → 5th, 1:24.650 (27 laps)

For his home event, Daniel Ricciardo had a satisfactory first session, finishing third, behind the two Mercedes drivers. However, while he is more than six-tenths behind Lewis Hamilton’s time, he is only eight-hundredths behind Valtteri Bottas, which gives him hope for the rest of the weekend: « Mercedes clearly looks fast, but it’s more Lewis than Valtteri, who seems to be in the group with Ferrari. I think we can be there too. Pole position might be complicated, but I think we can be right behind with the right settings and the right lap in qualifying. If Lewis does a perfect lap, it will be difficult to take the pole from him, but we are not that far off. »

However, the second session went less well, with setup changes that did not necessarily pay off. He ended up more than a second behind and had to settle for 5th fastest, behind the two Mercedes and the two Ferraris: « We looked pretty strong this morning and tried several things this afternoon but I don’t think it worked. I would like to learn a bit more about this afternoon’s session and combine it with our strengths from this morning. Then I would be satisfied. »

Verstappen: FP1 → 4th, 1:25.246 (19 laps) / FP2 → 6th, 1:25.013 (8 laps)

Max Verstappen followed a different program from his teammate as his first three stints in FP1 were on soft tires while the Australian focused directly on the super softs. This certainly explains a significant part of the gap between the two men, approaching four-tenths.

Nevertheless, his day’s schedule was cut short during the second session when he went very wide on corner exit. Although he was able to get out of the dust without any issues, his car didn’t come out unscathed as he broke his floorboard: « I went wide into the grass, which unfortunately damaged my floorboard and cut the second session short for me. »

📻 "Yep, I went off there…" Scary moment for @Max33Verstappen at turn 12 #AusGP 🇦🇺 #F1 pic.twitter.com/2mW3DYFObR

— Formula 1 (@F1) 24 March /f1/news/21780-fia-ditches-verstappen-rule-during-braking-phases.html

The young Dutchman nevertheless clearly heard the new FIA directives which meant the “Verstappen rule” had been removed. He therefore intends to fight hard for his place in Sunday’s race: « Mercedes looks fast again. It’s clearly the team to beat, but we need to work tonight to get ahead of Ferrari, which also looks strong. Hopefully, we will have a good start on Sunday to be in front and then be hard to overtake. »