By Sukhmani Bratch
This season is going to be one to remember if these first few races are an indicator of what’s to come.
Before diving into the races lets begin with the beginning of the year. Silly season is upon us already and we have one of the most surprising seat changes since Sebastian Vettel’s retirement. Lewis Hamilton is moving to Scuderia Ferrari. Many fans are happy for Lewis, who has wanted to drive for Ferrari since he was young. However, many are also disappointed at the fact that it means a current driver will have to leave, in this case Carlos Sainz will be moving to a new team or may potentially not have a seat next year. Although, with his current performance I highly doubt that he will be left without a seat.
It’s lights out and away we go with Bahrain. Of course, Max Verstappen took pole position and won the race, along with Sergio Perez for the Redbull 1-2. They were followed by Sainz and Leclerc, respectively. With this first race, it is difficult for teams to determine whether or not this will be consistent or if they have figured out the mechanics or car properly. However, many people were definitely asking did Ferrari pick the wrong driver for their lineup? Of course, it is too early to tell at this point but only time will tell.
Moving to the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, unfortunately Carlos Sainz was unable to participate due to appendicitis. However, that did not stop Ferrari as Charles made it to 3rd on the podium again only beaten by both Redbull drivers Perez and Verstappen in 2nd and 1st. Ferrari reserve driver Oliver Bearman had a brilliant first race, placing P7, beating drivers like Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton. Everyone on the grid was extremely happy for Oliver. Carlos was guiding him through the race by analysing data and feeding that to Bearman’s engineer. Ollie was also sent a lovely message from Sebastian Vettel, as well as many others, who sent good luck and congratulation messages.
The Australian Grand Prix is always one to remember and this year is no different with a double DNF from Mercedes and a DNF from Max Verstappen, it’s really all to play for. Sadly, Logan Sargeant was not participating in this race after a crash in qualifying from Alex Albon, which wrecked his chassis. The team made the decision for Albon to use Sargeant’s chassis, so the team would have the best chance of gaining points, although this didn’t really work in their favour ad Albon just missed the points coming in P11. As for the podium, you might expect Sergio Perez in the remaining Redbull to make it up there but unfortunately, he only made it to P5. On the podium we had Sainz in P1, Leclerc in P2 and Norris coming in P3, Oscar Piastri also made it up there in P4. Who knows Ferrari and McLaren might be ones to watch over the rest of the season. This weekend really only continued to fuel speculations that Ferrari made the wrong choice in dropping Sainz.
There isn’t much to say about the Japanese Grand Prix, other than another 3 DNFs from Albon, Ricciardo, and Zhou. Otherwise, it was back to regularly scheduled programming: Verstappen and Perez with a Redbull 1-2 and Carlos in P3 followed by Leclerc in P4.
