In the round-up: Williams confirm Alexander Albon’s suspicions that a spike in his tyre temperatures contributed to his race-ending crash.
In brief
Turn five error led to Albon’s crash
Alexander Albon claimed his crash at turn six during yesterday’s race came about because his tyre temperatures rose when he ran wide at the previous corner.
“When I lost the car, I was going through slower than the previous lap,” he explained after the race. “I went wide on the corner before and spiked the tyre temperatures, losing grip and [went] into the next corner a bit hot, so I think that’s what happened but we need to look at it.”
The team’s head of vehicle performance Dave Robson affirmed Albon’s explanation. “Unfortunately, touching the kerb at high speed in turn five led to a small snap and a spike in tyre temperature, which led him to lose the car at the next corner,” he said.
Sainz’s penalty “too harsh” – Alonso
Fernando Alonso agreed with Carlos Sainz Jnr’s view that the stewards should not have penalised the Ferrari driver for the collision between the pair during the standing restart at the end of the race.
“Probably the penalty is too harsh, I think, because on lap one, it is very difficult always to judge what the grip level,” he said. “I think we don’t go intentionally into another car, you know? Because we know that we risk also our car and our final position.
“Sometimes you ended up in places that you wish you were not there in that moment. And it’s just part of racing, but I didn’t see the replay properly, but for me, it feels too hard.”
Junior drivers penalised for restart crashes
Formula 2 and Formula 3 drivers were penalised for crashes around Safety Car periods in yesterday’s races.
Victor Martins locked up at the penultimate corner and rear-ended Dennis Hauger at turn 13 as the F2 race restarted with three laps to go. The pair, who were disputing third place at the time, finished out of the points. The Alpine junior was therefore given a 10-second time penalty which demoted him from 16th to 18th, and two penalty points were added to his licence.
In F3, Kaylen Frederick was accelerating and decelerating to maintain tyre temperatures during a Safety Car period, but misjudged his speed differential to Nikola Tsolov and hit the back of his ART team mate at turn three. Frederick, who retired from the race, has been given a 10-place grid penalty for the next race he competes in, while three points have been added to his licence.
The stewards deemed both competitors “wholly responsible” for their incidents. In Frederick’s case they added “drivers must exercise the needed diligence and caution during Safety Car periods, and must not make erratic manoeuvres that would danger themselves or others.”
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Links
Motor racing links of interest:
Gian Carlo Minardi: ‘Every decision is justified under the word “safety” but today, with these decisions, the drivers were once again put in even more danger. They could have easily used the SC and the VSC as always, without making all these pantomimes.’
Jody Egginton: ‘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.’
Alessandro Alunni Bravi: ‘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.’
Hill’s Schumacher revelation is absolutely tragic (News Australia)
‘I wanted to show my support for them and for the family, for Corinna and the children. I know what it was like to have lost my dad when I was 15. It’s an awful thing. He’s still in care. It’s a tough thing to have to bear.’
F1 boss Domenicali heralds F1 Australian Grand Prix (Speedcafe)
‘The growth of the sport is related to the fact that Andrew, under the supervision of Paul Little, did really well – the team did an incredible job. To have more than 450,000 people for the weekend is just massive, it’s just great.’
Correa reaping the rewards of ‘crazy’ feature race but qualifying holding him back (F2)
‘So far, we haven’t started any races higher than P12, which makes it difficult. You’re in the middle of it, so that’s when incidents happen. We just have to get ourselves into the top 10 in Qualifying and we will be good.’
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Social media
Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:
Would love to know what this was in response to 😂 @LandoNorris #AusGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/KKn9RMMUvp
— Henry Leighton (@hen_da_man) April 2, 2023
If you were looking forward to a fight for victory between two multiple champions with plenty of history, you can thank the ludicrously over-powered DRS for ensuring we don’t get it. #F1 #AustralianGP
— Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine) April 2, 2023
@jadeejenkinss No one was harmed in the making of this… From the insane third restart #f1 #ausgp
🏎️ Chaos on the #AUSGP #F1 track at turn 3 after the race.
Stewards and officials trying to get Kevin Magnussen and Charles LeClerc’s cars onto tow trucks while crowds storm the track. pic.twitter.com/XBNnJ3DDL3
— 𝑫𝒂𝒎𝒊𝒆𝒏 𝑷𝒆𝒄𝒌 (@damopeck) April 2, 2023
Just watched the F1 race highlights.
Chaos. But in general I’m not aligned with the reset caused by a red flag after a start accident. Not fair by someone doing a good job avoiding crashes.
I have to think a bit but probably the most fair is to use the mini-loops to organize
— Lucas Di Grassi (@LucasdiGrassi) April 2, 2023
@fia you have embarrassed yourselves today with @F1 What an unnecessary mess.
Please remember everyone, this is a sport first and entertainment second, not the other way around.— Casey Stoner AM (@Official_CS27) April 2, 2023
OK stuff @F1 and all its amateur dramatics, that Texas @Indycar race was epic! And they happily ended the race under full course yellow after Grosjean, who had briefly led, hit the wall fighting for 4th.
They don’t need to ‘race to the finish’ when the racing has been so intense!— Tiff Needell (@tiff_tv) April 2, 2023
Just got around to watching the Indycar race and they kicked ass today. Wish the oval racing was like that more often 👍🏼
— Sage Karam (@SageKaram) April 2, 2023
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Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Jt19, Shreyas Mohanty, William and William Olive!
On this day in motorsport
- 35 years ago today Alain Prost won the season-opening Brazilian Grand Prix while Ayrton Senna was disqualified on his McLaren debut
