Christian Horner: "Our first DNF since 2022 which coincidently was also here in Melbourne. It was not the race we were looking to run. Firstly with Max's car it was obviously really disappointing to have that brake issue. I think actually from the start of the Grand Prix, it felt like the brakes were locked on which obviously created an issue as it is effectively like having the handbrake on throughout the race. And then with Checo, we picked up some floor damage, he lost quite a lot of downforce from the underside of the car and we just became hard on the tyre which is very unusual for us. So yeah, really frustrating to get our first DNF in two years, a lot to understand from that race but disappointing to be leaving here with just a bit less than usual. Huge respect for Carlos though, coming back from surgery and putting in a drive like that is remarkable. It was a great performance from him and Ferrari, they took their opportunity and got the result they deserved."
Both George Russell and Lewis Hamilton failed to finish Sunday's Australian Grand Prix. A tough weekend for the team saw Lewis retire with a Power Unit failure and George suffer a race-ending accident on the penultimate lap.
George had started the race from P7 on the Medium, with Lewis lining up P11 on the Soft. Both drivers gained positions on the opening lap and pitted for the Hard tyre on laps seven and eight respectively.
Unfortunately, Lewis's race ended end shortly after as he suffered a Power Unit failure. The resulting Virtual Safety Car allowed the Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso to jump ahead of George, and with a sizeable gap.
Over his remaining two stints, George closed the deficit and, having stopped a few laps later, used fresh rubber to pressure Alonso for P6. As he fought to pass, he suffered an accident at Turn 6 on the penultimate lap resulting in a double DNF. The stewards investigated the incident after the race with their decision pending.
The team will be working hard to bring more performance to the car ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka in two weeks' time.
Toto Wolff, Team Principal & CEO: That was a disappointing race to end a difficult weekend. After taking a brave decision to start on the Soft tyre, Lewis had made good progress initially. Unfortunately his race came to an end shortly after. We will send the Power Unit back to Brixworth and investigate what caused the failure. For George, it was clear that Alonso braked earlier than he had on previous laps. It is now with the stewards to determine what caused that. Nobody feels positive about where we find ourselves right now, but we are focused on turning this around. It is tough to take but we will remain calm and composed. We have seen others who have shown that when you get it right, things can turn around quickly. That is what we are aiming to do.
Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director: That was a very disappointing end to a tough weekend, with a significant amount of accident damage to remedy ahead of Japan in two weeks' time. We went into the race hoping to make progress forward from our grid positions: with Lewis, that involved starting on the Soft, which helped him gain positions on the opening lap, and George on the Medium. Lewis's race was cut short by a sudden and unexpected Power Unit failure; we had no warning of it and will need to investigate further when the PU returns to Brixworth. For George, he knew he had to complete two long stints on the Hard and find the right balance between pushing the tyre and stretching out its life. It was clear that we were unable to fight with the three teams in front, and he was racing for P6 after Alonso had pitted under the VSC for Lewis's retirement and gained track position. George had an opportunity to get the place back on the final stint and was clearly caught by surprise by the unexpected deceleration in front on the penultimate lap.
It has been a bruising weekend for us, during which we were unable to compete on a single lap or the long runs, and we will be continuing to trawl through the data in the coming days, to see what isn't working and why we are only currently able to deliver flashes of performance from the car. It's clear that we have much to work on, to give both drivers a better tool to work with at the race weekends. We now need to get our heads down, work through the challenges one by one, and aim to deliver a stronger showing next time in Suzuka.
Scuderia Ferrari put together a perfect weekend in Australia with Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc securing the team's 86th one-two finish, its 244th victory. It picked up the maximum 44 points thanks to the Monegasque driver also delivering the additional point for the race fastest lap. It means that, for a 59th season, the team has at least one win to its name and is now just four points behind the championship leader, while Charles is the same distance behind Max Verstappen in the Drivers'. Carlos is 11 points down, having missed one race.
Sainz will no doubt remember his third Formula 1 win, all picked up with Ferrari and on the Scuderia's all-time winners list it puts him equal with four world champions, Juan Manuel Fangio, Mike Hawthorn, Phil Hill and Jody Scheckter. Unbelievably, the Spaniard seemed to shake off any effects of his appendectomy 16 days ago and immediately put Verstappen under pressure. On lap 2, when the Dutchman was in difficulty, Carlos made the most of it to get ahead and then mustered all his physical and mental strength to keep focussed, running at an incredibly consistent pace. He also was one of the best when it came to managing his tyres. He did three stints, starting on the Medium before pitting on laps 16 and 41 to take on Hards both times. He pitted after his closest pursuers and always had the situation under control, only easing off when he was in the third sector on the penultimate lap, when the race was neutralised after a spectacular crash for George Russell, from which he emerged unscathed. As the icing on the cake, Carlos won the fan vote for "Driver of the Day."
Charles also produced a very strong drive, to take a well-deserved second place, which is very important in terms of the championship. Having started fourth, he pulled off a perfect undercut on lap 9 to get ahead of Lando Norris. Then in the final stint, he finished the job, fending off the Englishman who was on tyres that were six laps newer than his own. In the end, he also ensured he picked up another valuable point by setting the fastest race lap.
Fred Vasseur, Team Principal: "Today, I want to congratulate the whole team, because everyone did a perfect job and this one-two is the reward for the amazing work which began last season and is now ongoing both at the track and back in Maranello. Of course, Carlos deserves a special mention because a little over two weeks ago he was undergoing surgery. Now it's as if that never happened and he managed to stay focussed throughout, to round off a sensational weekend.
"Charles also produced a solid performance because, after a less than perfect qualifying, he had to manage the tyres, but he was able to fight back thanks to the performance he got from the car. He did really well in the first and last stints and the fastest race lap he picked up right at the end confirms the progress we have made in terms of tyre management.
"We have been quick all weekend right from the first free practice and I think we have made a good step forward compared to where we were one year ago, when we left Melbourne having failed to score points. We were not disappointed with our results in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, nor are we getting carried away because of this one-two finish. We must continue with this approach in the coming races because that's the only way we are going to get the results we want."
Andrea Stella, Team Principal: "Our first podium of the season has come with a very strong performance here in Australia. Albert Park definitely seemed to suit the MCL38 but finishing P3 and P4 also required the team to do an amazing job delivering performance and reliability, while the drivers were excellent today in how they coped with the tyres.
"It is a big team effort, on both sides of the world. I would like to thank all the men and women at McLaren and HPP who have worked very hard so far to consolidate and continue the positive journey that we started in 2023. I hope the team at home, and our partners, enjoy this podium as much as the trackside team. We now look ahead to our next double header starting in Japan."
Mike Krack, Team Principal: "A strong race in Albert Park today and we have scored 12 championship points. Full credit to both drivers, who converted our grid positions into points, making use of two very different tyre strategies. Lance has driven well all weekend and carried that form through to the chequered flag. Fernando's race benefited from the Virtual Safety Car - it was surprising to see him drop to P8 with the post-race penalty, but we have to accept the decision. This will not distract from a positive day. The calls from the pit wall were spot on and operationally the whole team has been excellent."
Esteban started from P15 on New Mediums, finished P16: Pit-Stops on Lap 9 for New Hards, Lap 16 for New Hards and Lap 42 for Used Hards. Fastest Lap: 1min 21.354secs. Pierre started from P17 on New Mediums, finished P13: Pit Stops on Lap 17 for New Hards and Lap 41 for New Hards. Fastest Lap: 1:21.090secs.
Bruno Famin, Team Principal: "While we did not score points in today's race, we are making progressive steps forwards. There are many areas we must improve - and will improve - as it was far from a clean race for both cars today. That said, we probably maximised the result with what we could control. We must keep closing the gap to our rivals by chipping away in improving across all areas. Both drivers continue to work collaboratively with the team, so credit to them again for their very good efforts. The next race is Japan where we intend to continue showing progress."
Dave Robson, Head of Vehicle Performance: Having not done any meaningful high fuel running until today, we started the race on the backfoot. We knew that graining would be an issue, especially after the mandated tyre pressures were increased on Friday night, however, we didn't do enough to mitigate the issue and this left Alex stuck between front graining and rear tyre degradation.
The car wasn't quick enough in race trim this weekend, which left Alex having to find the laptime by pushing the tyres, which accelerated the degradation and left us unable to fight with the cars that we should be able to race with. For this to coincide with a race with so many fast cars retiring is even more frustrating as there is no reason why, with more experience from Friday, we couldn't have been fighting Yuki for P8.
It has been a difficult weekend for obvious reasons and whilst the attitude throughout the team has been very impressive, we all leave Melbourne disappointed by today's result. We will be in Japan in two weeks' time, and we look forward to tackling the very different demands of the great track in Suzuka.
Jody Egginton (Technical Director): "After some frustrations in the first two GP's, where we showed some positive signs but did not manage to put it all together, it's very satisfying to have delivered a solid event here at Albert Park, with all of the hard work trackside, in Bicester and Faenza being rewarded with points today. Yuki has been strong all weekend here, finishing the job off with a very mature and confident drive in the race, which is very satisfying to see and something I am sure he is very happy about! Daniel's weekend has been less straightforward, but credit to him. He has got his head down and worked very hard together with his engineers to get the car more towards his liking. Although the result does not show it, there are some good signs of progress, which I expect we can start to capitalise on in the next events, with the target of getting him into the fight at the sharp end of the mid-field battle as soon as possible. Looking at the first three events, overall, I feel we are building a solid understanding of our car and are looking forward to the next phase of the season. However, with the midfield being very tight, we will be focused on making each update count and executing weekends like this one to build on this solid result."
Laurent Mekies (Team Principal): "It's a very positive result for us today. Yuki executed a fast and well-controlled race to top the whole midfield group and got us our first points of the season. He did not put a foot wrong all weekend, and with calm and determination got faster session after session. Daniel's pace was also strong, and we can only regret that we had to start from the back. He fought his way back to P12, and there were certainly points available today for him as well, had he started from a better position. The team performed very well all weekend and it was only by getting a near-perfect weekend that we could score points here, given how tight the mid-field is. So, a big well done to everyone in Faenza, in Bicester, and at Honda. We go to Japan with some good encouragement from the Australian round here, and we are very conscious of how hard we will need to push there to get again a very tiny edge onto the midfield."
KICK Sauber F1 Team saw the team's convincing pace come to nothing as technical issues relegated Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu to 14th and 15th place respectively. After a strong start that saw Valtteri fight within reach of the points and Zhou, starting from the pit lane, rapidly catch up with the pack, it was a frustrating end to the afternoon for the team: work remains to be done, but the progress in performance is at least a positive that will continue to motivate the team to push hard and resolve the outstanding issues.
Alessandro Alunni Bravi, Team Representative: "First of all, we need to apologise to our drivers, especially to Valtteri, who in the first part of the race showed he could match the top ten drivers and was clearly fighting for a points finish, thanks to a good start and strong pace. As we said before the race, we had implemented mitigation measures for our pit stop issue, something that has improved the situation but, as we have seen, not completely solved the problem: what happened to Valtteri is a slightly different, but linked, issue compared to what happened in Bahrain or Saudi Arabia, but one for which we paid a really high price and that completely ruined Valtteri's race. We clearly lost a big opportunity to score points, as he would have been there or thereabout with Tsunoda by the end of the race. Zhou, starting from the pit lane, had a different issue as we saw problems with his gearbox throughout the race: when he came to the pits, he was unable to select the gear, before the car finally stalled. It was not the driver's fault but another frustrating circumstance that damaged our race. As a team, we need to take our responsibilities when these things happen: it's the only way we can improve. It's really tough not to score points when we had the potential to do it, as we saw we had the performance to be ahead of Haas, RB and our other direct competitors. We need to keep working hard, even harder to fix these problems. We regroup, we stay united with our drivers and our team back home in Hinwil and trackside, and together we do all we can to come back stronger in the next race."
MoneyGram Haas F1 Team successfully raced to a double points finish at the Australian Grand Prix, Round 3 of the 2024 FIA Formula 1 World Championship, with Nico Hulkenberg finishing ninth and Kevin Magnussen 10th at the Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit - Albert Park.
Hulkenberg started from 16th on the grid on Pirelli P Zero White hard tires and ran a long first stint, pitting on lap 17 for Yellow medium tires during a Virtual Safety Car (VSC) period for Lewis Hamilton's stricken Mercedes. Hulkenberg emerged in 12th and passed off-set teammate Magnussen, before coming in on lap 36 for hard tires. The German jumped Williams' Alex Albon through the pit stop phase to hold 10th spot, which became ninth when George Russell crashed out in his Mercedes on the penultimate lap of the 58-lap encounter.
Magnussen took the start from 14th on medium tires and also ran a two-stop stint, switching to hard tires on lap seven, before pitting again on lap 34, taking on another set of the hard compound. The Dane overhauled Albon during the final stint to take 11th place, which became tenth late on following Russell's exit. The result ensured MoneyGram Haas F1 Team captured a double points finish, the first for the team since the 2022 Austrian Grand Prix, and marked a second successive top 10 result in 2024.
Ayao Komatsu - Team Principal: "It was a great day with a double points finish, the first time since Austria 2022. Especially after yesterday's qualifying, I said we expected to have better race pace - but to be able to get double points is better than expected - so it just goes to show that you need to be there. You need to do everything perfect to be able to pick up those last available positions. It wasn't perfect today, so there's some things that we need to improve, but overall, I'm so happy for the team. Both drivers drove a brilliant race, and the pit stop crew, when it was critical, they delivered, they got our drivers out in front of the competition. What a great team effort, I'm very happy."
The third round of the season ended with a one-two finish for Ferrari, Carlos Sainz claiming his first win since Singapore last September, while Charles Leclerc, thanks in part to the extra point for the race fastest lap, is second in the Drivers' classification on 47 points. Ahead of him on 51 is Max Verstappen, despite the fact the Dutchman posted his first retirement after 44 consecutive points finishes, the last non-finish for him being here in Melbourne back in 2022. Third in the standings with 46 points is his team-mate Sergio Perez, fifth today, followed by today's winner on 40.
It was the Spaniard's third win and his twentieth podium finish, while for his Ferrari team it was win 244 and its 86th one-two. It was also the second for the Sainz-Leclerc pairing, the first coming at the 2022 Bahrain Grand Prix when they took the chequered flag in the reverse order.
All three compounds chosen by Pirelli for this Grand Prix were in use on the starting grid: 14 drivers went for the Medium, three (Hamilton, Ricciardo and Zhou) opted for the Soft and two (Alonso and Hulkenberg) the Hard. As predicted the most popular strategy was the two-stop, running Medium-Hard-Hard. Ocon was the only driver to make three stops but that was forced on him by the need to make a very early first pit stop to remove a visor tear-off from a brake duct.
After making the briefest of appearances in FP3, only for scrubbing-in purposes, the C3 was the most popular choice today, used for almost 80% of the race distance by the 19 drivers on track with this compound. Graining continued to be an important factor and, as expected, this phenomenon did not diminish even though it was much hotter than in previous days and on a track that got increasingly rubbered-in. Significant graining was also evident on the Hard which was never used on the first two days, but nevertheless it was manageable. In terms of stint length, George Russell's second stint ran to 37 laps on the C3 and Fernando Alonso did 24 on the C4.
Mario Isola: "First of all, congratulations to Carlos Sainz and everyone at Ferrari for this one-two which once again demonstrated that in such a competitive sport, where technology is pushed to the limit, one can never take anything for granted. I've got nothing against Max and Red Bull, but clearly a new name on the list of winners, after two years of almost total dominance is good for Formula 1 as a whole, as is the fact that the top four drivers in the classification are covered by just eleven points.
"As for the race, it showed that our decision to bring a trio of softer compounds here compared to last year was the right one. Today's race was busier compared to recent years, with tyre management making the difference. For example, one of the keys to Sainz's success was the ability to lengthen the first stint on the Mediums, which then gave him the edge over his closest pursuers, as the two sets of Hards he used in the second and third stints were fresher. Yes, Carlos was able to drive a good part of his first stint with a clear track ahead of him, while his team-mate for example was in traffic, sandwiched between the two McLarens. All the same, Leclerc managed to overtake Norris precisely because he had stopped first and was able to better exploit the performance of new Hard tyres in the opening laps of his second stint.
"In general, graining was the leitmotif of the weekend, but it was not problematic in terms of tyre performance and in the end, those who did the better job of managing them had the upper hand."
