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Max Verstappen has another pole, but is the field catching up to Red Bull?
The field is set for the 2023 Australian Grand Prix. After a thrilling qualifying session, Red Bull has their third-straight pole position of the 2023 season, with Max Verstappen starting out front.
Here is how the field will roll off at the start of the Australian Grand Prix, as well as what to watch for in the race itself.
Red Bull needs magic for the second-straight GP
In qualifying ahead of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Verstappen suffered a driveshaft failure, knocking him out of the second qualifying session. Verstappen began the Grand Prix in P15, but managed to fight his way through the field and finish second.
If Red Bull is to secure their third-straight one-two finish, they’ll need his teammate to have a similar charge on Sunday.
Sergio Pérez suffered a severe lockup in Q1, sliding into the gravel near Turn 3, bringing out the red flag and ending his day early. Pérez will now start dead last.
Making matters worse for him — and putting that third-straight front-row lockout in jeopardy, is that Pérez has not seemed comfortable, or confident, this weekend. After his early exit from Q1, he radioed into the pit that “we need to sort that issue, it was the same [bleeping] issue” that plagued him during free practice.
Whatever that issue is, Pérez and the team need to sort it out in a hurry.
The woes continue for McLaren
The dominance from Red Bull at the start of the season has perhaps a mirror image.
The struggles we have seen from McLaren to date.
Things did not improve for the team during qualifying on Saturday. Favorite son Oscar Piastri, starting in his first Australian Grand Prix just miles away from where he grew up, was eliminated at the end of Q1. His teammate Lando Norris managed to qualify for Q2, but could not stick around and was eliminated at the end of Q2, and will start the Grand Prix in 13th position.
Changes have already come to McLaren’s leadership team, with a new Technical Executive Team being put in place to replace the single Executive Technical Director model. In addition, both the drivers and Team Principal Andrea Stella have promised upgrades to the MCL60, perhaps ahead of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in a few weeks.
But it seems like McLaren might face at least one more tough weekend before their turnaround can begin.
Is the field closing up?
Throughout both Q2 and Q3, the commentators on F1TV had one main thought.
“2023 Formula 1 is tight.”
At one point during Q3 Verstappen was in provisional pole ahead of Lewis Hamilton by just 0.009 seconds. At that same point, Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz Jr. was in a provisional P5, just 0.146 seconds behind Verstappen.
Now, some of that bunching within the field might have been due to some issues Verstappen was fighting during Q3. He seemed to be losing grip — and wobbled a bit in Turn 13 — and then radioed in regarding problems when downshifting.
That opened the door for other drivers to challenge for pole position. For a while. But then Verstappen still pulled away, securing pole position and extending his time ahead of the driver in P2.
Still, the field seems a little tighter this morning, which brings us to that team sitting behind Verstappen.
Has Mercedes put it together?
While the discussion during Q2 and the first half of Q3 on F1TV settled on whether the field was tightening up, the discussion at the end of Q3 raised this idea:
“Is Mercedes the big winner?”
George Russell came across in P2, just behind Verstappen, and just ahead of his teammate, as Hamilton qualified in P3 for Mercedes.
Since their season-opening struggles in Bahrain, Mercedes has slowly been improving. Russell and Hamilton finished in P4 and P5 respectively in Saudi Arabia, and now they have their first front-row start of the 2023 campaign thanks to Russell’s effort.
Alex Albon is your darkhorse for the Australian Grand Prix
One of the biggest surprises during qualifying, particularly in Q1, was Alex Albon of Williams. At one point during the first qualifying session Albon was up in P2, just behind Verstappen, before sliding back to P8 at the end of Q1.
Albon made it all the way to Q3, and will start the Australian GP in eighth position.
But he could be a darkhorse for the Grand Prix, and the reason why is the middle sector. Albon was particularly strong through that portion of the track, which really has just one turn — Turn 6 — and the rest of the sector consists of more bends than corners or turns, allowing drivers to fly through that portion of the track, before they encounter the right-hander at Turn 11, midway through the third sector.
It was a strong run for Albon, and he is worth keeping an eye on in the Grand Prix itself after that performance.
