This offseason, F1 fans around the world have anxiously been waiting to see the new regulations in action. After reading the new regulations and reviewing the car modifications, it was still all sounding like French to me, but the start of the season at the Australian Grand Prix gave us so much information. Here’s what I’ve learned.
Sources have been going on and on about a 50/50 hybrid engine, but nobody really knew what this would look like on the track, or even in an hour-long grand prix.
First Practice (FP) showed serious engine reliability issues, with Fernando Alonso not even making it to the track until FP2 due to power unit problems. Rookie Arvid Lindblad had issues and got stuck at the end of the pit lane.
In FP2, we saw more of the same issues with Lance Stroll and Carlos Sainz Jr. also returning to the pits with unknown issues. Sergio Pérez faced hydraulic issues after dealing with continuous sensor issues in pre-season.
Other than a few lockups, we saw nearly no other issues in Practice 2, and to me, it started to look like everyone was finally getting used to the new cars. I was hilariously incorrect.
With FP3, Sainz came to an early end with a halt near the pit entry, and a Virtual Safety Car (VSC) was deployed, eventually turning into a red flag to stop the session and retrieve the car. Alex Albon faced issues and had to coax his car back to life after what appeared to be a stallout.
Stroll never made it out to the track, but Andrea Kimi Antonelli managed to bin (or crash) into the wall, nearly destroying his entire car at the end of the session, leaving minimal time to prepare for qualifying, which is every team’s worst nightmare.
Qualifying proved to be extremely interesting, with continued engine issues for Stroll and Sainz, and Max Verstappen crashing straight into a wall over a gravel trap. This allowed Antonelli to make it back out in time to participate in qualifying.
We saw a few more lock-up issues after Verstappen from rookie Lindblad. Gabriel Bortoleto saw engine failure, resulting in a P10 start for him as he could no longer put up a qualifying time.
George Russell and Antonelli put up times that made the other cars look like toys, locking out the front row.
At this point, my impression was pretty much made with the new regulations: there are going to be a lot of issues early on, if not the whole season, while these veteran drivers learn a whole new language with these cars.
Additionally, the Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 team will be extremely dominant if these other teams don’t find a way to optimize these new regulations.
The Mercedes W17, or their current engine build, has been raising controversy since this display of dominance on the track. At top speed in turn eight, Russell is 0.225 seconds ahead of his closest competitor. Andrea Stella and other competitors continue to claim that Mercedes has exploited the engine the most efficiently, but what does that really mean?
To put it simply, Mercedes just used physics. Engines are a combustion system, meaning that they work off explosions. This is done by compressing the fuel and air, creating a spark and expansion.
The FIA set a compression ratio of 16:1 for the constructors that they had to follow, and Mercedes did just that, but with a different material than the other constructors. They used a material that expands in heat (thermal expansion for my STEM girls), creating more space for combustion while the engine is hot and running.
This gives them more power and a significant advantage in that ratio rule. Other teams are in an uproar about this use of a loophole, because the FIA has no regulation on the limits of thermal expansion allowed to be exploited.
In the actual Australian Grand Prix, we saw the effects this engine really can have on the results of a race when comparing the power and endurance of the engine to its competitors.
Before the race even happened on the way to the grid, we saw hometown hero Oscar Piastri collide with the wall, ending his home race before it even started, leaving yours truly a teary-eyed mess. Nico Hülkenberg also secured a Did Not Start (DNS), never having left the pit lane due to unspecified issues.
We saw a great amount of drama, with Did Not Finish (DNF) results from Isack Hadjar, who went up in smoke, Alonso with power unit vibrations, Valtteri Bottas for hydraulic failure, and Alonso again after pitting, DNFing, and rejoining the grid two laps behind the rest. To be fair, it’s not Fernando Alonso if he doesn’t do or say something unhinged.
Verstappen managed to pull a 14-place climb from start to end of the race despite his frustration, and we saw a passionate battle between Mercedes and Ferrari for a 1-2 podium, predictably ending with a Mercedes and Russell win due to the expected chronic failure with Ferrari’s strategy. To my Ferrari fans, I’m so sorry, but as a Mercedes fan, I’ve never been better. Hopefully, you at least got a laugh out of Russell’s Borat impression.
Charles Leclerc, our third-place finisher, was a whole 15.519 seconds behind those top two Mercedes drivers. This is an insane gap between podium finishers, and it leaves me with only one opinion: these constructors need to catch up. If they don’t, we’ll see a repeat of the dominance we saw with our McLaren Constructors’ Cup last year.
This season is going to be a dramatic one from the looks of things right now, and I, along with many others, am so ready to see the drama unfold. I will, however, predict the end of the season: I truly believe that this is George Russell, along with Mercedes’ year. I don’t see a way that they don’t win the championship with the outrageous display of dominance we’ve seen, and I’d love to see the Mercedes teal back in the winning spot.
If you want to get into F1 and don’t know where to start, many creators can help you find your way around the terminology and the track. There are communities of people who spend their time educating and creating content about the sport, and a very large community of women is involved. Now is the time.
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