There was a lot for each Formula 1 team to analyse after the Australian Grand Prix with the pecking order looking very different to how many people expected after pre-season testing.
McLaren were the pre-season favourites after three days of running in Bahrain and Lando Norris didn’t disappoint by winning in Melbourne.
However, Max Verstappen was much closer than he would have liked after once again proving he’s more than capable of extracting a car’s maximum potential.
The midfield battle looks fascinating this season, with Williams, Aston Martin and Sauber all recording top-10 finishes.
Racing Bulls and Alpine will be gutted to have missed out after nearly perfect weekends from Yuki Tsunoda and Pierre Gasly.
Tsunoda’s fans were furious with his strategy in particular that denied him one of his best-ever results in Formula 1.
The biggest surprise came from Haas who decided to take the unusual step of fully concentrating on long runs during testing.
Oliver Bearman and Esteban Ocon had to wait until the start of the Australian Grand Prix to discover their true potential and would have been shocked at what they found.
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Haas were ‘totally blindsided’ by lack of performance at the Australian Grand Prix
Journalist Scott Mitchell-Malm was speaking on The Race F1 Podcast after the Grand Prix and speaking about Haas’ performance.
Ocon and Bearman were the last two classified drivers to finish the race and he explained: “That team was absolutely stunned by its lack of pace this weekend.
“I think it’s [been] totally blindsided by the issues that it’s had. It had no high-speed performance at all this weekend, clearly some kind of aerodynamic issue.
“What is unclear at the moment because they don’t even know is whether or not there is just something that is absolutely not working on that car, which means it is simply not producing the aerodynamic performance.
| Position | Constructors’ Standings | Points |
| 1 |
McLaren Racing |
27 |
| 2 |
Mercedes-AMG Petronas |
27 |
| 3 |
Red Bull Racing |
18 |
| 4 |
Williams F1 Team |
10 |
| 5 |
Aston Martin F1 Team |
8 |
| 6 |
Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber |
6 |
| 7 |
Scuderia Ferrari |
5 |
| 8 |
Alpine F1 Team |
0 |
| 9 |
Racing Bulls |
0 |
| 10 |
Haas F1 Team |
0 |
“Or, if something about the way they’ve set the car up, put the cars together, whatever this weekend has just ended in the absolute worst-case scenario for it because there was no sign of this at testing.
“Haas looked really solid in the midfield and didn’t look like it was in trouble at all because from our perspective, there was no sign of this at all, but they were completely surprised by this.
“I’ve spoken to people in Haas and Ayao Kamatsu has said as well that there was no warning of this in testing.”
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Oliver Bearman ‘quite happy’ after the Australian Grand Prix despite finishing last
Six drivers were starting their first full Formula 1 season in Australia and Bearman had arguably the toughest weekend.
David Croft feared Bearman was broken after a heavy crash in FP1 and another spin in FP3 meant he was going into qualifying lacking any real preparation.
A gearbox issue meant he had to start the race from the pit lane, at least helping him avoid the three crashes that took place before the end of the opening lap.
Haas then made a strategy error with both drivers, switching them onto the wrong tyres which will frustrate Ayao Komatsu almost as much as their worryingly poor performance.
Bearman managed to take some positives from the weekend, saying in his official post-race press conference: “The aim of today was to get the laps in and collect data. I’m quite happy with my performance, I felt like I executed things well.
“There are a few things where we lost a bit of time, but when you’re not fighting for points it’s the time to try things, and it just didn’t work this time – now on to China.”
Given how much the grid should have converged at this stage of the current ruleset, the fact that Bearman knew he wasn’t fighting for points when six cars had retired is a terrible place to be in at this point in the campaign.
