2018 Australian Grand Prix Race Report
- Muhammad Humais
- Mar 25, 2018
- 4 min read
Updated: Jan 19, 2019
So, 2018 season kicked off on 25th of March, it was held in Australia as usual, 2018 season brought changes, new logo, new rules, new graphics and the biggest of all HALO. HALO was criticized by many fans and some teams even mock HALO, FORCE INDIA and McLaren got themselves some flip flop sponsors.
What unusual we saw this year was, race starting at 10:10 AM (Pakistan Standard Time, +5 GMT) instead of sharp 10 AM. Many fans were angry at this and criticized Liberty Media for changing F1 so much. This year Australia had 3 DRS instead of 2, the 3rd DRS was added after the 12th turn, it’s a small DRS but Riccardo managed to overtake Hulkenburg at turn 13.
So, lights were out at 10:10 AM, Lewis Hamilton got a good start and managed to keep both Ferraris in their starting position. Brandon Hartley pitted on the first lap of the race and went for soft tires. Kevin Magnussen got a good start and jumped from 5th to 4th position. Haas are much stronger this year than Force India and Toro Rosso this year. Kimi was matching Lewis’ times but couldn’t manage to overtake him despite having a better chassis. The reason was same, Turbulence Air. Home hero Daniel Riccardo managed to pass underrated German, Nico Hulkenburg, at turn 13 using DRS. On lap number 6, we saw the first retirement of the race and it was Williams’ underdog, Sirotkin, who retired due to brake issues, no VSC or SC was deployed, but double yellow flags were waved. Poor start for Williams as one of their new driver retiring on his debut race. Then the second driver to retire from the race was Sauber’s driver, Marcus Ericcson, who retired due to a Hydraulic Issue, Marcus hasn’t scored a point in 49 races now. What surprising we saw in this Australian Grand Prix was that the Mercedes Driver, Valtteri Bottas was struggling to make pass the Force Indias. Force India was performing to the expectations of the fans and the both finished the race out of points.
What amazing we saw again was Max Verstappen showing his skills and saved the car from a potential DNF. He took the kerb on turn 2 way too aggressive and spun, he lost some positions and was in position no. 8 after spinning. This year’s Australian Grand Prix saw more overtakes than last year’s Australian Grand Prix where there were only 5 overtakes. And then it was the Honda who retired again but with a different constructor, the victim of Honda this year was Toro Rosso not McLaren. Gasly retired on lap no. 16 due to an engine problem which forced him to park his car in pit. Verstappen told his engineer that he was oversteering way too much than usual. Ferrari’s iceman, Kimi pitted on Lap no. 19 and went for soft tires, then on lap no. 20 it was Mercedes’ driver, Lewis Hamilton who pitted for soft tires.
Kevin Magnussen pitted on lap no. 23 but luck wasn’t on his side today as he retired due to a lose nut, the crew was responsible for the DNF.
Then his teammate, Romain Grosjean pitted for supersofts but retired due to a lose wheel nut, a terrible day for Haas, both of their cars were performing more than expected but a small mistake by the pit crew caused both of the cars to retire. Romain’s retirement brought VSC, Ferrari pitted their 1st driver, Sebastian Vettel, who was leading the race with 13 seconds with Lewis Hamilton behind him. The VSC played in important role in Ferrari’s victory today. On lap no. 26, there was a full SC which gave Lewis the chance to overtake Vettel but the turbulence air coming from the back of Vettel’s car caused him to slow down. Another incident that took place during the safety car was, Max Verstappen overtaking Fernando Alonso but Max gave the place back to Fernando Alonso. After 32 laps, Vettel was leading the race with Lewis being in 2nd place and Kimi in 3rd place. Lewis engineer gave him permission to use Strat 14, which gives the car more power but causes the ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) to wear more quickly. Lewis was pushing way too much and he made a mistake at turn no. 8 or maybe 7, he went into the gravel track and lost 1 second, he was now 2.2 seconds behind Vettel. When Lewis said he was going to push to the limits he meant that he doesn’t care about the PU temperature and tire pressue. In the last 10 laps, Renault driver, Carlos Sainz wasn’t feeling well, so Perez’s engineer told him to push and put pressure on Sainz, but Perez was way behind Sainz. Lewis was slowing backing off and he was now 5 seconds behind Vettel. Sebastian Vettel went on to win the race with 5 and half seconds ahead of Lewis Hamilton.
What we learn from this race is that winning the race is not important, you don’t need to punish the PU in the very first race of the season. That is why Lewis backed off in the last 5 laps of the race. He went from 1 second gap to 5 second gap.
Muhammad HumaisSenior Motorsports Reporter, Member news desk.
In his own words, “17-year-old Pakistan
Formula One fan and sim racer. Ayrton Senna my inspiration. Dare to be the greatest.”
Humais can be easily reached by the following address: Gmail: humaismuhammad55@gmail.com
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