Christian Horner: "It was a complicated race made up of three parts. The first start didn't go our way but in the restart Max was able to hold position, battle Lewis for the lead and really control the race from there. While the marshals are always acting in the interest of safety, and driver safety is paramount, the restart at the end of the race was a little frustrating. Thankfully, it didn't cost us anything, we had great pace with the car and Max was on great form. For Max to claim the victory was testament to his driving, but equally, credit must go to the Team both here and at home, all of whom worked together to deliver a great race. Checo also drove phenomenally well, bringing home the fastest lap and securing P5 in the end. It was a great recovery, from the back of the grid, in the pits, on a track where it is very difficult to overtake. All in all we are very happy with our performance and thrilled to bring home a win on our 350th race at a track we haven't won at in 10 years."
Scuderia Ferrari leaves Australia without any points, having clearly demonstrated that it has made progress in terms of race pace compared to the opening two rounds. Charles Leclerc had to retire after going off the track immediately after the start. Carlos Sainz dropped out of the points because of a five second time penalty imposed on the final lap, taking him from 4th to 12th, having produced an aggressive drive to charge up the order.
Carlos got away well from fifth on the grid, while from seventh, Charles tried to pass Lance Stroll at Turn 3. The Canadian had to move over on the Ferrari to avoid a car ahead of him and that sent the SF-23 into a spin that ended with it stuck in the gravel. Shortly afterwards, the Safety Car came out for a second time, after Alex Albon hit the barriers. The team therefore opted to get the compulsory pit stop out of the way and switch Carlos from the Medium tyres to the Hards, with the Spaniard rejoining in 11th place, all set to move up the order as others pitted later, a strategy also adopted by the then race leader George Russell. But the race was then red flagged to allow the debris to be cleared, thus nullifying the advantage of Carlos' well chosen strategy. The lone Ferrari took the ensuing standing start from the sixth row.
At the restart, Carlos, still on the Hard tyres, went on an overtaking spree, despatching Oscar Piastri, Lando Norris, Yuki Tsunoda, Nico Hülkenberg, Lance Stroll and Pierre Gasly in quick succession, so that by lap 25 he was up to fourth place. He then ran at a consistent pace in the SF-23, thus keeping in touch with Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso, while still managing to look after his tyres, clear proof that recent work at Maranello and on track, mainly in terms of race pace is beginning to deliver.
With fewer than ten laps remaining, Kevin Magnussen brought out the second red flag of the afternoon. There was another standing start with only two laps to go. Carlos lined up on the second row and got a perfect start, coming alongside third placed Alonso going into Turn 1. The two Spaniards collided, with both of them able to continue and Carlos up to third place. But then it was chaos further back with both Alpines in the barriers. Another red flag, but the stewards deemed the race would still have to complete the planned 58 laps and those cars still able to run completed the last lap behind the Safety Car, which pitted so the queue of cars could take the chequered flag. Carlos was fourth across the line, but classified 12th because of the 5 second penalty imposed following the coming-together with Alonso. The world championship resumes in four weekends' time with the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on 30 April.
Frederic Vasseur, Team Principal: Today's result, not scoring points, does not reflect the progress we have made as a team. We have taken a step forward in terms of pure performance and even more importantly, we had a decent and consistent race pace on the various tyre compounds, including the Hard. Only yesterday's qualifying did not match our potential.
Our initial reaction is one of frustration, with Charles clearly unlucky to be involved in a racing incident at the start. It was a good call to bring Carlos in under the first Safety Car, but following the red flag, he had to start again from P11, from which he recovered very well. The penalty had a devastating effect on the final result for him but despite this, we go back to Maranello knowing that we are moving in the right direction and we now have three weeks to keep working on optimising and updating the SF-23 for the coming races.
Lewis Hamilton finished second whilst George Russell retired from the 2023 Australian Grand Prix. On a wild afternoon in Melbourne, the race was interrupted by three red flag periods, a new F1 record, one Safety Car and one Virtual Safety Car.
A strong getaway at the initial start saw both George and Lewis pass polesitter Max Verstappen and running one-two in the opening stages.
George pitted from the lead on lap 7 under the Safety Car; the red flag was thrown only a lap later though, comprising his strategy. Lewis therefore took the subsequent standing start in first having switched to the hard tyre under the red flag.
George quickly began his recovery, making up three positions and running fourth when a Power Unit failure ended his race on lap 17. Lewis, having been passed by Verstappen, was running second ahead of Fernando Alonso and managing his tyres to the end.
With a handful of laps remaining, a second red flag led to yet another standing start. Lewis kept out of trouble and, despite a third red flag and rolling start procedure after a crash-filled restart, took the chequered flag in second place.
Toto Wolff, Team Principal & CEO: We had strong pace today and it was really close with the Aston Martins and the Ferraris. That is good news for us, and I think we have made a step forward this weekend, both on one-lap and race pace. We maximised what we have, and we need to now comb through the data and continue to learn about the car. This will help bring the upgrade packages and that will be the key in challenging the leaders more often.
It was unfortunate with George; he had a great stop from the lead and changed onto the hard tyre. It was absolutely the right call, and he would have been very much at the front. With the red flag his race was not so good anymore. He still could have made it to the front though, so he was unfortunate to have a Power Unit failure.
Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director: It's great to get the first podium of the year with Lewis, but it was a day of mixed fortunes for the team. Lewis drove a difficult race well and had to find a fine balance between tyre management and defending. George had put together a strong weekend and was unfortunate that the Safety Car became a red flag. Things then got worse with the Power Unit issue. The pace of the car has been better than at the first two races; we've made some changes to the setup for the circuit but hopefully we can take some of that learning into the upcoming races.
BWT Alpine F1 Team leaves Melbourne without points after an incident-packed Australian Grand Prix, which was red flagged three times and featured three standing starts.
Pierre Gasly ran the majority of the race in fifth place and was on par with rivals ahead chasing the podium places. Esteban Ocon was also running in the points towards the latter stages after fighting his way up the pack, which included a sublime move on the outside of Turn 9 on Oscar Piastri, until a late red flag for Kevin Magnussen's Haas hitting the wall.
That left a two-lap sprint from a standing start to the end of the race. Pierre ran wide at Turn 1 at the third restart of the afternoon, which forced an unstable entry back onto the track. Esteban looked to capitalise on a strong exit from Turn 1 and was unfortunate to make contact with the rear of Pierre's car as both drivers picked up speed on the exit of Turn 2. The collision between both cars forced both drivers out of the race.
Up until that point, Pierre changed tyres from Soft to Hard, under the first red flag on lap seven for Alex Albon's Williams, aiming to go to the end of the race, while Esteban pitted on lap two for Hards, under the Safety Car for Charles Leclerc's stranded Ferrari, with the same objective.
Otmar Szafnauer, Team Principal: "While it's disappointing to leave here with zero points, we can be satisfied and positive with the performance of our car today. We showed we can race with our close rivals ahead and, indeed, close cars down and be clinical when it counts. Pierre drove very well today, running much of the race in fifth place and in the fight for a podium alongside the Mercedes, Aston Martin and Ferrari. We must take the positives of this and use it as motivation going forwards. Esteban was certainly unfortunate with the sequence of events early in the race, but he did a good job to climb his way back into the points with some well-judged overtaking moves. It was unfortunate to have both our cars come together at the third standing start and I'm glad both drivers are OK given the nature of the incident. We'll keep moving forwards and these hard moments are what brings the team closer together. We're already looking forward to Baku where an upgrade is planned."
Andrea Stella, Team Principal: "An eventful race today in Melbourne. We managed to stay out of trouble and were able to score our first points of the season. Even without the three red flags, it was good to see that we were in condition to race well and make good overtaking moves, so there's plenty of positives. At the same time, we know we have to stay realistic and have a lot of hard work ahead. Both trackside and back at the factory, we'll use the energy from this double points result to make us even more determined to deliver a quicker car. Thank you to everyone trackside, at the MTC and our colleagues at HPP for their hard work."
Melbourne, 2 April 2023 - Alfa Romeo F1 Team KICK brought home two points from a chaotic Australian Grand Prix in which three red flags conspired to keep fans on the edge of their seats until the very end of the race. Zhou Guanyu kept his cool through the drama to cross the line in tenth place, immediately upgraded to P9 following a 5s penalty to Carlos Sainz ahead. Valtteri Bottas just missed out on the points in P11.
The two points claimed by Zhou bring the team's total to six so far this season, as Formula One goes on a four-week hiatus ahead of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix at the end of the month.
Alessandro Alunni Bravi, Team Representative: "Today's race shows the importance of fighting until the very end of the race. We kept pushing, we executed the race well and we placed ourselves in the position to capitalise on the opportunities when they came our way: luck is only getting a chance, we had to seize it. We were actually quite unlucky with the timing of the first red flag: we had both cars on the right strategy to fight for the top ten, but the stoppage, and the free stop it gifted everyone else, effectively jeopardised our afternoon. Both Zhou and Valtteri had a solid race, without making mistakes, and on a track like this it meant they were there or thereabout at the chequered flag. Two points are a good return in what has been a challenging weekend: we need to make the most of this little break before Baku to understand how to recapture the pace we had in Bahrain, analyse the data from the car, especially with the new upgrades our team at home was able to produce for this race, and get back stronger for the next rounds."
Mike Krack, Team Principal: "What a race! There was just about everything you could imagine this afternoon so to come away with third and fourth places - and 27 points - is a brilliant reward for the team. It was not an easy race to navigate with the early red flag putting extra emphasis on managing the Hard tyres. Almost everyone was trying to run until the end and it was very close throughout the top ten. Fernando stayed close to Lewis, but with similar race pace we could not get close enough to challenge for second. Lance raced hard all afternoon, survived various battles, and did an excellent job looking after the tyres. Then there was the chaotic restart and I have to say it was a relief to see the starting order reinstated. I know some drivers and teams really lost out in the mayhem, but we got a bit lucky with both cars being largely undamaged allowing us to finish the race under the Safety Car. Big congratulations and thanks to the whole team at Silverstone and here at the track for another strong and faultless performance with both cars and our third podium of the year. Today we celebrate and enjoy this result, but tomorrow our attention turns to the next race in Baku."
Jody Egginton (Technical Director): "It was a very difficult race for us. Both drivers pushed hard to extract all they could from the package, but we couldn't manage to get the cars moving forward as required. The pace of the car was not there on all compounds, and we struggled for straight-line speed, as such, we weren't able to attack nor hold position in some phases of the race. We leave Melbourne with a lot of data to go through and a lot of work ahead of us in order to be best prepared for Baku."
Dave Robson, Head of Vehicle Performance: It was a remarkable race but ultimately it was a missed opportunity for us. Alex built on his excellent qualifying display to make more positions at the start and was looking good for a comfortable top ten finish. Unfortunately, touching the kerb at high speed in Turn 5 led to a small snap and a spike in tyre temperature, which led him to lose the car at the next corner.
We tried a different initial strategy with Logan, but the early red flag rendered that ineffective. Although he had some decent pace, he was unable to benefit from the unusual way that race developed ahead.
We leave Melbourne frustrated that we couldn't take advantage of our good pace and turn it into points. However, the whole team can be heartened that the car worked very well this weekend and we will be able to put ourselves into similar positions in future races, starting in Baku in a few weeks' time.
Red Bull's Max Verstappen won the Australian Grand Prix for the first time in his career. In an action-packed race, the reigning world champion led two other world champions past the chequered flag: Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton and Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso. All the podium finishers ended the race on the P Zero Red soft, following a tyre change one lap from the finish.
The Australian Grand Prix was interrupted by three safety car periods and three red flag periods, including a red flag just a lap from the finish, leading to two standing starts and a final rolling start. The virtual safety car also made an appearance, due to a car stopped on the exit of the pitlane.
The race strategies were largely influenced by the frequent safety car periods and other race interruptions. The top three started on the P Zero Yellow medium and then went onto the P Zero White hard at the first neutralisation. The last three laps were instead run on two different sets of soft tyres.
A total of 10 drivers completed the longest stint on the hard tyre, covering 47 laps on this compound, including all three podium finishers. Alpine's Esteban Ocon kept the same set of hard tyres that he had fitted on lap one without changing them during the first red flag period, completing 54 laps on the same tyres. Alfa Romeo drivers Valtteri Bottas and Guanyou Zhou, also used the same set of hard tyres for more than 50 laps.
AlphaTauri's Nyck De Vries was instead the driver to complete the most consecutive laps on the two other available compounds: 37 on the medium and nine on the soft.
Red Bull's Sergio Perez set the fastest lap of the race, using the hard tyre (1m20.235s), and was also one of the drivers to complete the longest stint on this compound. Alonso and De Vries were instead fastest on the medium and soft tyres, setting times of 1m22.603s and 1m21.183s on these compounds respectively.
Mario Isola - Motorsport Director: "This was a truly eventful Australian Grand Prix, with three red flag periods as well as a safety car and a virtual safety car. All these occurrences effectively defined how the strategies shook out, while in terms of tyre behaviour, the compounds performed as we expected them to, with the hard C2 tyre playing a leading role. When the first safety car came out after Albon went off on lap seven, some drivers who had started on the mediums switched to the hard - followed by others once the red flag came out to allow the track to be cleaned. Despite not having much information over long runs - very few drivers strung together stints of longer than 10 laps or so in free practice - the C2 showed itself to be a very consistent tyre in terms of degradation and not far from the pace of other nominated compounds, fulfilling all the demands placed on it. The fact that we saw all three compounds on the starting grid highlights how bringing the C4 tyre to Melbourne this year was the correct choice, as it was judged to be a valid race tyre as well as becoming the protagonist of the final run to the flag, thanks to two red flag periods that were almost consecutive. Both this compound and the medium showed good performance today, albeit over relatively short stints, with higher temperatures and a more rubbered-in surface."
