George has been maximising his finishing position all year long, so it was only a matter of time until he won a race. And he dominated in Canada, withstanding early pressure from Max Verstappen, then henceforth never looking at threat. This year’s Mercedes may not be able to challenge every weekend but give George a good car and he is a champion in the waiting.
2. Andrea Kimi Antonelli-
Kimi finally got a podium in Formula One, becoming the third youngest podium sitter in the sport’s history. Whilst he was not on Russell’s pace in qualifying, he was right there in the race. If anything, Kimi put more pressure on Max Verstappen ahead than Max did to George. Kimi may not be a complete driver yet, but it’s performances like these which make Mercedes see him as a future superstar.
3. Fernando Alonso-
In his midfield Aston Martin, Fernando outqualified Lewis Hamilton. Whilst he couldn’t match the pace of the Ferrari in the race, Fernando was easily the best midfield driver of the weekend, finishing best of the rest in seventh.
4. Nico Hulkenberg-
Whilst not matching the heights of his fifth-place finish in Spain, Nico delivered another strong performance to emphasise that Sauber is a serious midfield force again. Whilst only occupying ninth place, the team is eight points away from sixth and could easily challenge for best of the rest with more consistent performances.
5. Esteban Ocon-
Haas did not have the ultimate pace around Montreal. However, Esteban Ocon was able to make a bold one stop strategy work, taking his hard tyres further than most. He was rewarded with a ninth-place finish, the best on his strategy.
Oscar bounced back from an average Monaco weekend to reclaim his status as the highest performing McLaren driver. In Barcelona, Oscar easily dominated qualifying and always had the pace to keep Lando behind during the race. With his win, Oscar extended his championship lead to ten points.
2. Charles Leclerc-
Charles sacrificed his qualifying for the race in Barcelona, yet quickly showed that he was the faster Ferrari driver. After Ferrari let Charles past Hamilton, he never looked at threat from the Mercedes drivers behind. Then after the safety car, Charles took advantage of Red Bull’s decision to place Verstappen on the hard tyres to overtake him and take third place.
3. George Russell-
Russell recovered from a Monaco blip to record another top five finish in Barcelona. He was the victim of dangerous driving from Verstappen, who drove his car into the side of Russell in anger. However, Russell was lucky to not receive any significant damage from this collision, whilst Verstappen earnt himself a ten second penalty. Therefore, George took a well-earned fourth place.
4. Nico Hulkenberg-
Nico Hulkenberg was already fantastic before the safety car, having run in the top ten for virtually the whole race, after starting in fifteenth. However, after the safety car, the advantage of brand-new tyres allowed Nico to carve through the field, eventually passing Lewis Hamilton on his way to fifth place. This was Sauber’s best result since 2022 and a fantastic morale booster for the erstwhile struggling team.
5. Isack Hadjar-
Hadjar continued to impress in Barcelona, taking a seventh place to boost his team up to sixth in the standings. Meanwhile, his teammate appeared to be picking fights with anyone he came across.
Max had one of the greatest starts I’ve seen in Imola, timing his braking to perfection to pass Piastri around the outside. From there, he showed superior pace in clean air and took advantage of perfect safety car timing to take his second win of the season.
2. Lando Norris-
Whilst he had a poor qualifying, Lando made up for it in the race. Unlike his teammate, Lando didn’t reactively stop early. This proved to be the right choice for the frontrunners, as traffic nullified the advantage that fresher tyres brought. Taking this strategy allowed for Lando to overtake his teammate after the safety car restart, ending a three-race streak of being beaten by Oscar.
3. Alexander Albon-
Albon had an outstanding race in Imola and for a while looked like he might drag his Williams onto the podium. Staunch defending from Charles Leclerc prevented that from happening and Albon had to settle for fifth, but this was still his joint best performance of the year.
4. Charles Leclerc-
Charles took advantage of an excellent strategy to undercut the slower cars he was behind. Unfortunately, terrible luck with the safety car timing relegated Charles to sixth place behind his teammate. But he was still obviously the stronger Ferrari driver throughout the race and deserved better.
5. Fernando Alonso-
Fernando Alonso put together a fantastic qualifying to start the race in fifth place. He looked set on for his first points of the year, but a poor strategy and atrocious luck meant he had to settle for eleventh. But he was still, in my opinion, one of the five best drivers of the weekend.
It’s been a while since I’ve written one of these blog posts. In that time, there have been two races, both won by Oscar Piastri, who has established himself as the current title favourite. Yet, the always tenacious Max Verstappen has fought hard to defend his title, taking pole in both events despite a clear car disadvantage. And in both races, he has faced controversial first lap incidents with the McLaren drivers.
In Saudi Arabia, Max used the high-speed advantage evident in his Red Bull to take pole by one-hundredth of a second from Piastri, whilst Lando Norris crashed out in qualifying and had to start the race from tenth. Yet at the race start, despite being on the dirty side of the grid, Oscar had a fantastic launch and looked set to take the lead. Max, however, was not about to give his position up. He outbroke himself and cut the corner to stay ahead of Oscar. But, because Oscar got a better launch and didn’t back down, the stewards handed Verstappen a justified five-second penalty. Without this incident, Max would likely have won the race, as the dirty air made cars extremely hard to follow, which negated the McLaren’s race pace advantage. Saudi Arabia was a huge test for Oscar, who proved that he could match Verstappen in battle. Yet come Miami, his teammate was to lose out in a similar situation.
Last year, Lando Norris struggled to get one up on Max. From Austria, to Austin, to Mexico, it seemed like Verstappen was always able to assert his dominance in contentious situtions. Thus, when the front row in Miami was occupied by Max and Lando, it seemed to be the perfect opportunity for Lando to best Max in the way Oscar had in Saudi. However, once again, Lando fumbled his opportunity. He tried to pass Max around turn two, a risky manoeuvrer that could easily go wrong. Thus, when Max got a snap of oversteer, Lando was pushed onto the curb and lost a handful of positions. And crucially, Lando found himself behind Piastri, who was in third. Max occupying first place made the first half of the race quite exciting, as he defended his positions aggressively against the quicker McLarens. Yet, even in this sequence, Oscar was able to pass Max far more effectively than Lando proved, which allowed Oscar to open up a gap that Lando was unable to close. Thus, due to poor positioning at the start of the race and through the battles against Verstappen, Lando lost a race on a weekend in which was the quicker McLaren driver. And now, Oscar has become the first McLaren driver since Mika Hakkinen to win three races in a row and has a sixteen-point lead in the championship. If Lando wants to win this title, he has to turn the narrative around very quickly.
There was some hope for Ferrari fans at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. Whilst Hamilton had a poor performance, Charles Leclerc pulled off an amazing tyre strategy. He took his mediums further than anyone else and then used fresher, grippier tyres to overtake his way to the podium. It was Ferrari’s first podium of the year and provided some hope that their season might begin to turn itself around. Then Miami destroyed all of that hope, because the Ferrari was comfortably the fifth fastest car. The team couldn’t even run their race properly. Hamilton, who had started on the hard tyres, found himself behind Leclerc after his stop. Since Lewis was on fresher mediums, he had a chance to make his way up the order. Yet, in typical fashion, Ferrari took three laps of dithering before deciding to swap the cars around. Once they finally had, Hamilton’s tyres had been cooked behind Leclerc and he was not able to make any progress. This scenario has happened to Ferrari so many times and they seem unable to make obvious decisions. It’s really not a difficult task, the teams have meetings before the races, in which they are supposed to plan what to do in different scenarios. Yet whenever Ferrari is in any scenario, they seem to need to have a committee meeting before making their minds up. I do not expect this to change and every time it happens; it loses the team valuable points. The car is bad enough without them sabotaging themselves every other weekend, yet the team never learns.
Under James Vowles’ leadership, Williams have had a turnaround. A few years ago, they were the worst team on the grid and were happy to score points. This season, they have been the best team in the midfield and have scored in all but one race. In both Saudi and Miami, both cars found themselves in the points. In Saudi Arabia, Carlos Sainz brought back his tactics from Singapore 2023, keeping Albon in his DRS to prevent the quicker Isack Hadjar from being able to overtake them. It led to a solid eighth and ninth finish. Then in Miami, the team really shone, mixing it up with the top teams throughout the weekend. Whilst damage relegated Sainz to a ninth-place finish, Alex Albon’s pace was outstanding. He beat both Ferraris and one Mercedes to finish fifth. Whilst Williams has stopped developing this year’s car to focus on 2026, they have established themselves as a serious midfield threat. If it wasn’t for the fact that I’m an Alex Albon’s fan, Ferrari’s year would have broken me by now. Instead, I can watch the races to see one of my favourite drivers prove why he’s one of the sport’s best.
Last weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix felt like a turning point within McLaren. Oscar Piastri was outstanding, taking a comfortable pole, followed by a win that never looked in doubt. Lando Norris, on the other hand, qualified in sixth and had a scruffy race to third place. Lando still leads the championship by three points. But after seeing Lando get penalised after starting outside his grid box and finishing behind George Russell, whose car was broken, it feels like Oscar is becoming the favourite to win the championship. This is a stark contrast from last year, where Lando, despite having quite a few scruffy weekends, was easily the faster McLaren driver. Whilst Oscar showed flashes of pace and potential, I did not expect him to take the step-up required to become fight for the championship. But, after witnessing the last four weekends, I’ve been proven wrong in my assumptions. Furthermore, the signs of Oscar’s ascension have been evident since Round One of this season.
Oscar was unfortunate to lose out at Round One in Australia. Whilst Lando outqualified him and Max Verstappen overtook him at the start, once Oscar got past Max his pace was stunning. He quickly caught up to Lando and whilst team orders prevented him from making a move at that point, Oscar appeared to have a good chance of winning. However, when the race’s second spell of rain came, everything fell apart for Oscar. Both McLaren drivers went off the track after being the first to hit a wet patch, but Oscar came off worse, as he slid onto the grass and struggled when recovering his car. Whilst he put on a comeback drive to ninth after the safety car, Oscar was twenty-three points behind Lando in the championship afterwards. For Oscar to turn things around, he had to impress quickly.
At Round Two in China, Oscar was the stronger McLaren driver. After a decent sprint in which he finished second to Lando’s eighth, Oscar pipped Russell and Norris to take his first pole position. He then comfortably led the whole race, whilst Lando held on to finish in second, despite some awful brake problems towards the end. Oscar’s weekend in Shanghai showed that he could be the stronger McLaren driver throughout an event. After this win, he was only ten points behind Lando in the championship and had moved up from ninth to fourth.
Round Three in Japan left me wondering what could have been if Oscar had hooked everything together. The race proved to be a processional affair, with qualifying largely determining where people finished. Lando was OK in qualifying, putting together a decent lap. But Oscar had the potential to be stunning. He was so quick in sectors two and three. Unfortunately, he made a costly mistake at turn two, so despite his superior pace, could only qualify third, behind Lando and pole sitter Verstappen. The three drivers finished the race in that order, despite calls to the team from the faster Piastri to let him past Lando. Thus, Oscar lost three points to his teammate and now sat thirteen points behind, though had jumped past George Russell to third in the championship.
Then came Round Four. Where everything came together for Oscar. He had such a convincing performance in Bahrain. Whilst Lando was lucky to finish in third. Furthermore, as this short rundown of the races has demonstrated, there’s a case to be made that Oscar has been faster in every weekend this season. Now sitting second in the championship, only three points behind Lando, there’s a good chance he takes the championship lead this Sunday. Whilst it is not over for Lando, who is a very quick driver with great potential, Oscar is the more consistent and faster driver at present. Lando really needs to turn things around, or Oscar could start running away with this championship. But, if the two drivers fight, they need to keep it clean. Because Max Verstappen is still shadowing them and will take every opportunity he can to be in the championship hunt. Oscar and Lando may be the favourites for the championship now, but they both could still easily lose.
P.S. The Bahrain Grand Prix was the first truly great race this season. Whilst the wet conditions made for fun in Australia, the best F1 races are those where there are multiple different tyre strategies. I hope that Pirelli learnt the lesson from the Japanese Grand Prix and continue to bring the appropriate tyres to each race weekend, which thankfully appears to be the case for this weekend’s race in Saudi Arabia.
Red Bull were in the spotlight for all of the wrong reasons before the Japanese Grand Prix. After just two races, Liam Lawson was dropped from the senior team and replaced with Yuki Tsunoda. I believed that Tsunoda would have been the right choice for Red Bull last winter.[1] But Liam was not given a fair chance, two races under incredibly difficult circumstances were not enough to judge his full potential. Furthermore, by putting Tsunoda in the car now, he has missed the entirety of pre-season testing, so his full potential will be less apparent than if Red Bull signed him last year. Red Bull seems to be a very uncertain organisation and their indecision on their second seat is proving to be embarrassing. Prior to the grand prix, it seemed like nothing could help Red Bull avoid a constant stream of bad headlines. However, Max Verstappen’s performance in Japan brought some much-needed positivity.
McLaren had the fastest car in Japan. The drivers should have been able to lock out the front row. But on Saturday, Max Verstappen’s lap was perfect. He drove his Red Bull to the absolute limits to record a shocking pole position. Part of this was helped by the McLaren drivers underperforming. Lando’s lap was clean, yet unremarkable, whilst Oscar’s lap would have been fantastic, if he hadn’t made a major mistake at turn two that destroyed his chances of pole. Yet, no other driver would have been able to take advantage of the situation in that Red Bull. It has proved to be so difficult to drive, it should not be anywhere near pole and only was due to the excellence of Max. Once Max had pole and didn’t lose the lead at the start, the race never looked in doubt. Some people, for example 1997 F1 champion Jacques Villeneuve, have pointed to McLaren’s strategy as being overly cautious and lacking a race winning mentality. But I don’t believe that there was anything McLaren could have done to win the race. Japan, a track already difficult to overtake on, proved almost impossible to thanks to the lack of significant tyre wear. So, whilst McLaren could have attempted an overcut with Lando, or let Oscar by to challenge Max at the end, I do not believe either of these strategies would have worked. Max’s exhilarating pace on Saturday won him the race. And he now sits only one point behind Lando in the drivers’ championship. Don’t count him out.
On the other side of the garage, things were less smooth sailing. Yuki Tsunoda showed more potential than Lawson had in his two races, lapping close to Verstappen in practice and the first part of qualifying. But during Q2, Yuki did not prepare his tyres correctly and consequently, had to start the race in fourteenth. Subsequently, the lack of overtaking opportunities resigned Yuki to a frustrating race. Whilst he was able to overtake Liam Lawson at the start and undercut Pierre Gasly at the pit stops, Yuki spent the rest of the race stuck behind Fernando Alonso and finished in twelfth. There should be better results to come from Yuki this season. But the Red Bull’s incredibly narrow operating window caught him out this weekend. To succeed where Verstappen’s previous teammates have failed, Yuki needs to ensure that twelfth place in Japan does not foreshadow a string of mediocre results.
Whilst Max was the most impressive driver at Suzuka, the second most was also a Red Bull driver, albeit one driving for the junior team. Isack Hadjar had showed impressive form in his first two weekends, though had failed to convert his pace into point scoring positions. But that all changed in Japan, not without suffering on Isack’s part. Because in the first part of qualifying, Isack’s seatbelt was too tight, causing him severe pain in an unfortunate area. The fact that he managed to get out of Q1 with this pain was impressive enough. To persevere and outqualify Lewis Hamilton by the end of qualifying was remarkable. And whilst Isack lost a place to Lewis in the race he still finished an impressive eighth place, occupying the top of the midfield. Isack had a lot of doubters when he came into F1 at the beginning of the year, including some senior figures within Red Bull. In three weekends, he’s successfully silenced all the critics and put himself on the map as a driver to watch. I personally am quickly becoming a fan of Isack’s and I’m excited to see what performances he can string together throughout the year. Depending on what happens with Yuki, he may even end up being Max Verstappen’s third teammate this year.
So, it was an eventful weekend for Red Bull. Bad PR overshadowed by an emphatic win, a teammate swap tentatively appearing to pay off and a rapid rookie stealing the headlines. Red Bull may not always bring us the most positive headlines, but in a weekend that should have been dominated by McLaren, all the attention was on the team from Milton Keynes.
Oscar had a fantastic bounce back in Shanghai after his spin in the rain at Melbourne. He was comfortably the best McLaren driver throughout the weekend, took the lead from pole and never looked under threat throughout the race. If he strings together weekends like this, Oscar can challenge for the championship.
2. George Russell-
George was the only driver throughout qualifying and the grand prix who was able to challenge the McLarens. Whilst the pace of Lando made impossible to keep behind, George kept himself within reach. This nearly paid off at the end of the race, as given one more lap, Lando’s brake problems would have allowed George to finish in second. As it was, he had to settle for third, but George was still brilliant.
3. Esteban Ocon-
Ocon was the best midfield driver in the race. Whilst qualifying eleventh, great tyre wear, good strategy and a daring overtake on Kimi allowed Esteban to be classified in fifth, earning ten points for the Haas team that looked nowhere in Australia.
4. Alexander Albon-
Albon led the race at one point, something I forgot about until rewatching the race highlights. Whilst this was due to an offset tyre strategy, Albon kept his early form from Australia going, outperforming his teammate Carlos Sainz in every metric to finish in seventh place. In two races, Alex has silenced every doubter and as a fan, I think it’s wonderful to see.
5. Oliver Bearman-
Whilst not shining in qualifying, Ollie more than made up for it in the race, using a hard-to-medium tyre strategy to great effect. His overtakes at the hairpin were very impressive for an F1 driver of little experience and they allowed him to take eighth, an extra four points for Haas.
Haas embarrassed themselves in Australia. Their car showed a fundamental weakness in high-speed corners that exposed them as the slowest car by far. After punching above their weight in 2024, it appeared it would be a while before they were fighting for points in 2025. Whilst the Shanghai circuit doesn’t possess the high-speed turns of Melbourne, I still expected the team’s weekend to be mediocre at best. But I was wrong.
Haas were not the fastest midfield team during qualifying at Shanghai. That honour went to the Racing Bulls (who qualified in seventh and ninth), with the Williams of Albon (in tenth) also appearing slightly quicker than the Haas. Esteban Ocon qualified in eleventh, but cleared the Williams to run behind the Racing Bulls during the opening stint. After the pit stops, Esteban found himself ahead of the Racing Bull of Isack Hadjar and behind the Mercedes of Andrea Kimi Antonelli, but made a fantastic move on the grass to jump past the Mercedes car, where he would remain until the end of the race. Esteban was running in a net eighth behind Yuki Tsunoda, but that became a finishing position of seventh when Racing Bulls made the mistake of pitting their cars twice. Capping off Haas’ fantastic day was Oliver Bearman’s performance. He had not qualified as well as Ocon, which led Haas to elect to place him on an alternate hard-to-medium strategy. This would give Ollie fresher tyres than the cars ahead late on in the race, yet he still had to make moves on a track where it proved difficult to overtake. Ollie duly delivered, making decisive moves at the hairpin on car after car, whilst saying ‘ciao’ on the radio to his competitors. Ollie’s overtaking earned him a tenth place and another valuable point for the team.
Ferrari also had a difficult time in Australia, suffering a weekend full of bad pace and poor strategic calls.[1] Initially, their weekend in China looked to be heading in a positive direction. In the short sprint race, Lewis Hamilton had taken pole position and managed his tyres perfectly to win. Yet, by Saturday’s qualifying session things were less positive. The McLarens showed their pace after failing to maximise in the sprint, George Russell put in a fantastic lap to take second place and Max Verstappen managed a slightly faster lap than the Ferraris as well. This left the Ferrari drivers in fifth and sixth on the grid. In the race, they were not very impressive. Whilst clearing Verstappen at the start, both lacked race pace, Lewis due to a poor setup and Charles due to losing his front wing endplate after contact with his teammate. Charles was not able to overtake George Russell for a podium, likely due to the downforce loss he suffered from his damage. Furthermore, by the end of the race, Max had found some pace and made his way past the Ferrari cars. Thus, they disappointingly finished in fifth and sixth. At least, they finished there initially.
After the race, both Ferraris were disqualified, for two separate technical infringements. Charles’ car was found to be underweight and Lewis’ was found to have excessive plank wear. The team blamed the switch to a one-stop strategy for Charles’ disqualification, an explanation that made little sense, as many other teams switched strategies whilst avoiding disqualification. Additionally, Charles’ car was a whole kilogram underweight, something that seems unlikely to be due to tyre wear alone. Fundamentally, the team failed in its calculations. Ferrari can provide any excuse or explanation, but their main rivals did not make the mistake that they made. Ferrari’s own blunders caused this disaster, blunders that are losing the team valuable points in the championship.
So, Ferrari are really disappointing their fans in 2025. Whilst Haas have relived theirs. Furthermore, the Ferrari disqualifications had the effect of making Haas’ day even better, as it led them to be classified in fifth and eighth. This is actually the Haas team’s second-best result in their history, only behind the 2018 Austrian Grand Prix. And for the second week in a row, the highest Ferrari-powered driver in the championship is not a Ferrari driver, as that honour now belongs to Esteban Ocon. Which is incredibly embarrassing for Ferrari. It appears that after all the hype surrounding Lewis Hamilton’s move to the team, their season is slowly unravelling.
Lando Norris dominated the weekend in his McLaren. He withstood the pressure from his teammate Oscar Piastri and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen to win and take the championship lead. What was really impressive regarding Lando’s weekend was how confident he seemed. In interviews, he just seemed to have a certain spark of determination that projected that he knows he can win this championship. He may have made a couple small mistakes along the way, but in contrast to situations that occurred last year, they were not race losing mistakes.
2. Max Verstappen-
Verstappen continued to prove his relentlessness, even when provided with inferior machinery. He was the only driver that meaningfully challenged the McLarens and he came within a second of winning the race. This was mostly due to the late race safety car, but nevertheless, Verstappen reminded everyone that he can never be counted out of a race win, even in a Red Bull that was at times a second a lap slower than the McLaren.
3. Andrea Kimi Antonelli-
Whilst damage to his Mercedes during qualifying led to Kimi starting in sixteenth, he proved his doubters wrong on race day. Kimi made fantastic moves throughout the field on a track where it’s incredibly difficult to overtake, with his late race overtake on Alex Albon being a personal highlight. He did have a spin along the way but quickly recovered to finish fourth on his debut. This was a fantastic result and justifies the hype surrounding Kimi, he truly is a top-level talent.
4. Alexander Albon-
After everyone hyped new Williams signing Carlos Sainz, it was teammate Albon who shined in Australia. He outqualified Sainz and was running in seventh during the opening stint, whilst Sainz had crashed out on lap one under the safety car. Seventh place would have been a great result for Williams, but it became even better when the team called the switch to intermediate tyres perfectly, allowing Alex to move into fourth. This became fifth when Kimi overtook him, but was still Alex’s best finish for the Williams team since he joined in 2022.
5. Yuki Tsunoda-
Yuki really should have finished the race in the top five. He had a superb qualifying, putting his car in fifth on the grid. Running ahead of Albon during the opening stint, all the Racing Bulls team needed to do was to pit Yuki at the right time for intermediate tyres. Unfortunately, they didn’t, and Yuki finished the race in twelfth. But that isn’t representative of his drive, as Yuki was outstanding all weekend.
It was a bitterly disappointing weekend to be a Ferrari fan. Whilst the McLaren certainly felt like it was the quickest car during testing, the Ferrari appeared to be a potential challenger. But that was not what transpired in Australia. The McLaren won the race, whilst the Ferrari left the event with only five points. Ferrari wasn’t even the highest scoring Ferrari-powered car, with that honour going to Nico Hulkenberg’s Sauber. The only question left to ask is, what happened?
Answering what happened regarding the McLaren is an easier deduction. They seem to have a dominant package, that can hold on to its tyres in a way that McLaren’s rivals cannot replicate. This allowed them to master sector three in qualifying where other cars faltered and whilst Max Verstappen was able to split the McLaren drivers early on, he eventually struggled to keep up. After Oscar Piastri passed Max, the McLarens were lapping around a second a lap faster than the Red Bull. The only thing that prevented them from wrapping up a first and second were the safety cars and changeable conditions, with heavy rain forcing Oscar into a spin that relegated him to finishing in ninth place. The fact that Max Verstappen was within a second of winning the race is just a testament to the relentlessness that won him the last four championships. But if the McLaren’s pace is replicated throughout the whole season, Max won’t even be able to get a whisker in the title fight.
Ferrari’s performance was awful. They qualified badly, taking seventh and eighth and then in the race made an unwise decision not to switch onto the intermediate tyres when it rained heavily late on. This led to a finishing position of eighth and tenth. The Ferrari looked like an embarrassment of a car. But it didn’t on Friday. On Friday, Ferrari looked like McLaren’s closest challenger. And what was most confusing was that there were several corners that Ferrari were faster at during Friday’s practice than they were during Saturday’s qualifying. This has led to speculation that Ferrari had to make a setup change that compromised their performance, speculation backed up by team principal Fred Vasseur’s assertion that we have yet to see the real Ferrari.[1] However, I am not getting my hopes up. Even if the lack of performance was due to necessary changes, this indicates that Ferarri either does not know how to set up the car, or that the car has an incredibly narrow setup window, neither of which are good omens for the season ahead. Lewis Hamilton did not join Ferrari in expectation of performances like the one we saw in Australia. But knowing the recent history of Ferrari, this was exactly the disappointment many Ferrari fans expected.
So that’s the disappointment of Australia over. Not that the race itself was disappointing, it was filled with fun and chaos. But that real Ferrari better show up in China. Otherwise, fans will start asking Fred Vasseur if the real Ferrari is in the room with us right now.
Ryan's Lil' F1 Blog 