GOOD TO GET STARTED AGAIN, TEAM BOSS WOLFF SAYS AFTER DOMINATING FIRST PRACTICE
Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton sent an early signal that he could again be the driver to beat in Formula One this season, setting the swiftest time in yesterday’s practice sessions at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.
After earlier playing down his team’s chances against Ferrari and Red Bull, Hamilton set a one-lap time of 1 minute, 23.931 seconds on a bright, clear afternoon at the 5.303-kilometre Albert Park circuit, and showed superior long-run pace with the lowest average lap time on ultrasoft tyres, as well.
The gap between Hamilton and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was relatively small, however, with the 20-year-old Dutch driver turning in a fastest lap time of 1:24.058, just over 0.1 behind Hamilton.
“It’s good to get started again,” Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff said. “We’ve had a pretty good test, much better than last year. But you’re never very sure where that will end up in the first race.”
Hamilton’s teammate Valtteri Bottas, who lost practice time after going off the track into the gravel in Friday’s second session, was 0.1 second behind Verstappen in third place, followed by the Ferrari cars of Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel in fourth and fifth, respectively.
Tight battle
“Obviously, difficult to read too much into times, but you start to get a bit of an idea and you can see Mercedes really taking off where they left off [last year],” Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said.
“I’m envisaging a quite tight battle with [Ferrari], but I’m not sure at the moment what the delta is to Toto [Wolff’s] cars.”
Vettel, who pushed Hamilton hard last season and had spoken of Ferrari’s improvement in the off-season, was a surprising 0.5 second behind the defending world champion.
In another big surprise, Romain Grosjean showed good pace in his Haas car, setting a fastest time of 1:24.648, just ahead of Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo. Ricciardo received a three-place grid penalty at his home Formula One race for driving too fast under red flag conditions
McLaren also rebounded from a dismal start to the day to see their drivers, Fernando 1:23.931 1:24.058 1:24.159 1:24.214 1:24.451 1:24.648 1:24.721 1:25.200 1:25.246 1:25.285 Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne, post the eighth- and 10thfastest times, respectively. Both drivers were stuck in the garage for much of the first session with exhaust issues in their cars.
The drivers in the middle of the pack after Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari were as tightly grouped as expected, with less than a second separating Alonso in eighth with Sergey Sirotkin of Williams in 18th. Mercedes boss Toto Wolff said yesterday that Formula One teams have a responsibility to try to overcome their differences over the future of the sport in the face of a threat by Ferrari to quit because of a number of proposed changes.
Bernie Ecclestone, who ran F1 for 40 years before being replaced by new owners Liberty Media last year, has raised the possibility that Ferrari chairman Sergio Marchionne could walk away from F1 and form a breakaway series over Liberty’s future vision for the sport.
Ferrari is unhappy with Liberty’s proposal to simplify engines and redistribute prize money among F1 teams after the current contract with teams expires at the end of 2020.
Ferrari team boss Maurizio Arrivabene would not comment on the specifics of Marchionne’s previous comments at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix on Friday, but said: “My only suggestion, please take him seriously.”
Wolff is also taking the possibility of Ferrari walking away seriously. He said before the Australian GP that he agreed with Marchionne’s concerns and that Formula One can’t afford to alienate Ferrari or lose the team.
“Don’t mess with Sergio Marchionne,” he said. “Formula One needs Ferrari much more than Ferrari needs Formula One.”
Wolff was more diplomatic on Friday, saying he hopes all sides could come together for the good of the sport.
“I think this as much a battle on track as much as it is a fight off track for an advantage,” he said. “It is clear the current governance and how the rules are being made is not very functional. There’s too much different opinions and agendas on the table and we need to sort it for 2021 for the best interest of the sport.”
Christian Horner | Red Bull team principal