What’s the biggest question facing each F1 team?

Formulation 1 has hit the pause button.

With the cancellation of the Chinese language Grand Prix, there may be now a giant hole between the Australian Grand Prix and the subsequent race, the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on the finish of the month. That offers groups, drivers, followers, and sure media an opportunity to catch their breath, take inventory of the place issues stand, and see if fortunes can enhance by Baku.

What may the groups look to handle over this prolonged break?

We are going to try to reply that, and extra, with a have a look at the one burning query going through every crew. We’ll begin on the backside of the desk and work our method towards the highest.

Williams: 1 level
Can they discover any racing consistency?

Williams really obtained off to a good begin this season. Each rookie Logan Sargeant and veteran Alex Albon confirmed promise throughout pre-season testing in Bahrain, after which Albon completed within the factors within the season-opening Grand Prix, coming in tenth.

Since then, nevertheless, it has been a a lot totally different story. Albon has endured back-to-back DNFs, first in Saudi Arabia when his FW45 suffered a brake challenge which compelled his retirement.

Then in Melbourne, Albon was as soon as in opposition to robust in qualifying, particularly within the first qualifying session when he was as excessive as P2. He made it by to the third qualifying session, finally qualifying eighth. It was his highest qualifying consequence since becoming a member of Williams.

Nonetheless, his Australian Grand Prix would finish early, as he spun by the gravel on Lap 7 and retired. For the reason that Grand Prix, the crew has pointed to a spike in rear tyre temperature, attributable to Albon going by Flip 5 just a little sooner and driving the kerb just a little bit extra, as the rationale for the crash.

Nonetheless, the back-to-back early exits have the crew sitting on that lone level from Bahrain. With Sargeant nonetheless getting his footing in F1, Albon discovering racing consistency will likely be an enormous enhance to the crew.

AlphaTauri: 1 level
Was Australia a breakthrough of types for Yuki Tsunoda?

Picture by Peter Fox/Getty Photographs

After a pair of Eleventh-place finishes to begin the season, together with a hard-fought battle with Kevin Magnussen of Haas within the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Yuki Tsunoda broke by with the primary factors of the season for AlphaTauri, ending in tenth place within the Australian Grand Prix.

Was that end an indication of issues to come back for Tsunoda, or a mere perform of the chaotic end to the Grand Prix?

Whereas it is perhaps the latter, given the retirement of George Russell and the five-second penalty imposed on Carlos Sainz Jr., it’s value noting that because the Australian Grand Prix, AlphaTauri Staff Principal Franz Yost spoke very extremely of Tsunoda, making the case for him to maneuver as much as Purple Bull for the 2025 season:

If the end in Australia is certainly the beginning of a breakthrough for Tsunoda, it might very nicely put him on observe for such a transfer just a few seasons from now.

Alfa Romeo: 6 factors
Can they discover any race tempo?

Because of Valtteri Bottas’s eighth-place end in Bahrain, and Zhou Guanyu’s ninth-place end in Australia, Alfa Romeo presently sits eighth within the Constructors’ standings with six factors on the yr.

Nonetheless, there may be actually room for enchancment, and Bottas is hoping the crew makes use of this prolonged break to search out what they’re lacking proper now.

Racing tempo.

Talking after the Australian Grand Prix, Bottas had this to say about the place the crew is, and what’s lacking. “It has [been a difficult weekend]. Positively off the tempo from the place we thought we needs to be,” Bottas mentioned after Melbourne. “So, one thing to look into. I’m really glad that there’s a little bit of time earlier than the subsequent race so we will work out one thing.”

Bottas additionally shared this on social media:

If the crew certainly finds some racing tempo over the break, and into the subsequent stretch of the season, they may push increased up the mid-table.

If not, nevertheless, it may very well be a protracted season for Alfa Romeo.

Haas: 7 factors
Can they pull off double factors in a race?

Within the newest season of the Netflix docuseries Drive to Survive, Purple Bull Staff Principal Christian Horner made the case that for a crew to achieve success in F1, it wants each drivers contributing.

That’s true not only for the groups on the prime of the desk, but additionally for the groups in the midst of the pack.

Maybe the largest factor lacking proper now at Haas is consistency from each drivers. Each Magnussen and Nico Hülkenberg completed out of the factors in Bahrain, after which Magnussen fought his method into P10 in Saudi Arabia.

That script flipped in Melbourne, with Hülkenberg selecting up his first factors of the season, whereas Magnussen’s late-race scrape with the wall set the stage for the late crimson flag, and the frenetic end to the Grand Prix.

If Haas might get each of their drivers to place collectively a robust week, and begin posting some double-points races, we’d see just a little magic from Guenther Steiner’s crew this season.

Alpine: 8 factors
Was the collision between Gasly and Ocon a harbinger of doom?

Picture by Qian Jun/MB Media/Getty Photographs

When the information got here out on the finish of final season that Pierre Gasly can be becoming a member of Alpine for the 2023 season, many questioned about how he would coexist together with his new teammate, Esteban Ocon.

In spite of everything, the 2 grew up close to one another and have been racing in opposition to one another for years, relationship again to their karting days. However the friendship they solid in these early days was examined as the 2 pushed for spots in F1.

In a 2018 episode of the Past the Grid podcast Gasly lamented how the 2 had grown aside. “Simply to see the way in which we grew up and the place we are actually, it’s simply implausible. So I believe we actually respect one another as a driver, however sadly there may be not the sensation that we had previously, which was way more pleasant,” mentioned Gasly on the time.

Their pairing provided an opportunity to show their relationship round. “It’s a possibility for each of us to get again to an identical relationship that we had previously,” Gasly mentioned in an interview with F1.com after the transfer was introduced. “What was the chance that two six-year-old children from Normandy, France, residing 20 minutes from one another, would find yourself 20 years later as team-mates in a French crew? I believe that’s unbelievable and a really particular story.”

Ocon shared that sentiment. “Now we’re team-mates in a crew from Normandy and we’re each from Normandy, so I believe we will write an ideal story collectively.”

Nonetheless, the late-lap collision between the 2 has introduced these pre-season considerations to the floor. Was that actually a one-off incident, or an indication of issues to come back? After Melbourne, each drivers, in addition to Staff Principal Otmar Szafnauer, categorised the collision as a pure racing incident. “It was actually a racing incident,” Szafnauer acknowledged. “Who’s accountable for one thing like that? Hindsight you look again at it and say nice, shouldn’t have crashed however there are occasions you possibly can’t keep away from it, issues occur in entrance of you the place you will have a choice of ‘I both run into this or run into that’ as a result of you possibly can’t keep away from it.”

“It’s a disgrace that they got here collectively,” Szafnaur continued. “So far as making an attempt accountable one or the opposite, I don’t suppose that’s the appropriate factor to do; the appropriate factor to do is to study from it. There’s a lot chaos there and also you’ve obtained to make fast choices.”

If the troublesome finish to the Australian Grand Prix was certainly a one-off for the Alpine duo, the crew can handle to push their method additional up the desk.

if not, nevertheless …

McLaren: 12 factors
Was Australia actual, or a mirage?

It’s wonderful how a lot can change over 58 laps.

Heading into the Australian Grand Prix the temper was darkish round McLaren. They have been sitting on the backside of the Constructors’ standings, but to safe a single level over the primary two races of the season. That brutal begin led to questions over panic across the crew and a few modifications in management.

However then, the darkish clouds parted, if just for a day. McLaren notched double factors in Melbourne, with Lando Norris ending sixth and hometown hero Oscar Piastri coming throughout the road in P8, the primary factors end of his F1 profession.

Was their success in Melbourne merely a product of the chaotic end, or an indication of higher days to come back?

Staff Principal Andrea Stella mentioned at first of the season that Baku was his goal for when issues would flip round for McLaren. Staff Papaya is hoping that the method really began just a little sooner than anticipated.

Ferrari: 26 factors
Is that this a misplaced season?

Picture by Mark Thompson/Getty Photographs

By virtually any measure it has been a brutal begin to the 2023 season for the Scuderia.

However can they handle to show issues round?

Ferrari has confronted reliability points all through the primary weeks of the season, culminating in Charles Leclerc taking a ten-place grid penalty for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix when the crew put in the third management electronics unit on his SF-23. They noticed each drivers wrestle with race tempo in Jeddah, after which each Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jr. completed out of the factors in Melbourne. Leclerc was maybe a bit too aggressive on the opening lap of the race and ended up within the gravel, after which Sainz was given a five-second penalty for his collision with Fernando Alonso on the late restart, dropping him out of the factors.

Ferrari has since appealed the penalty to FIA, however for now, they sit fourth within the Constructors’ standings.

Making issues worse, the reliability questions will not be going away after the MGU-Ok on Nico Hülkenberg’s Haas failed close to the tip of the Australian Grand Prix.

Can new Staff Principal Frédéric Vasseur flip issues round this season, or is 2023 going to be a misplaced season for Ferrari?

Mercedes: 56 factors
Have they really righted the ship?

Talking of turning issues round …

Mercedes Staff Principal Toto Wolff referred to as the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix one of many crew’s “worst” days in racing. Since then, nevertheless, the Silver Arrows appear to have righted the ship. Each George Russell and Lewis Hamilton completed within the prime 5 in Saudi Arabia, and the pair certified in P2 and P3, respectively, for the Australian Grand Prix.

Sadly for Russell, a strategic choice to pit underneath an early security automotive backfired when the crimson flag got here out, that means Russell had sacrificed the race lead for naught. Issues went from unhealthy to worse for Russell when his W14 suffered an engine failure, knocking him out of the race fully.

Nonetheless, whereas Hamilton couldn’t maintain off Max Verstappen for the win, he was capable of maintain off Fernando Alonso to complete in P2, his first podium of the 2023 marketing campaign.

With Ferrari floundering in the meanwhile, Mercedes appears to have discovered their footing. And with enhancements to the W14 anticipated by Baku, the Silver Arrows might discover themselves persevering with this upward development into the summer season.

Aston Martin: 65 factors
Can they push for a title?

Following his third-straight podium to begin the season — the primary time since 2013 that he had secured three-straight podium finishes — veteran driver Fernando Alonso mentioned pushing for second place was the subsequent step for 2023.

However can Aston Martin push even increased?

The hole to Purple Bull appears substantial proper now, however Aston Martin has maybe been the story of the F1 season, a minimum of so far. They have been the darlings of pre-season testing, and now groups like Mercedes and Ferrari want to catch as much as Aston Martin, and never Purple Bull.

Can Aston Martin push their technique to the highest? It would take some slippage from the Bulls, however with this prolonged break — and the way in which Alonso, Lance Stroll, and the AMR23 are performing to this point — it might occur.

Purple Bull: 123 factors
Have they got something to fret about?

Picture by Mark Thompson/Getty Photographs

I imply, that’s the greatest query going through them, proper?

The RB19 is the category of the sphere, as each different crew admits every week. Regardless of Max Verstappen’s qualifying points in Saudi Arabia, he nonetheless charged up the sphere to complete in P2, simply behind teammate Sergio Pérez. And when Pérez slid off the observe in Q1 in Melbourne and ended up ranging from pit highway, he too labored his method by the sphere, finally ending fifth.

And sure, there may be the potential for pressure between the 2 drivers, particularly if they continue to be one-two within the Drivers’ standings. Nonetheless, Horner brushed these considerations apart not too long ago. If he certainly can preserve the peace between Verstappen and Pérez, it needs to be easy crusing for Purple Bull.

Except the remainder of the sphere places this prolonged break to good use.

Till then, nevertheless, maybe we will curiosity you within the new Purple Bull/Blenders eyewear assortment. Father’s Day and commencement season are simply across the nook. When you’ve obtained a Purple Bull fan in your life…