The Italian media take huge dig at F1 and give race director a score of 0

Red Bull's third victory came in Australia, confirming absolute domination. In the chaos of Melbourne, Hamilton and Alonso also made the podium, while Ferrari had to face another disappointment. An accident put Leclerc out immediately, while a penalty put Sainz at the back of the pack. Let's see what some of the major Italian media have to say about this. 

Italian branch of Sky Sports

Leo Turrini's ratings do not include any 10s. The Sky journalist gives a 9 to Verstappen, saying that "if nothing else, all the starts prevented him from being banged up" even an 8 to Gasly and a good 7 to Hamilton and Sainz. About the Spaniard, he said: "He deserves a 9 for the way he raced, see the overtaking move on Gasly, but the mess at the last start cost him a wistfully heavy penalty".

Charles Leclerc cannot be judged. For Carlo Vanzini there is also a good element of bad luck, as he believes that "the Ferrari seen in Melbourne was the best of 2023. Net of Leclerc's retirement and the penalty, Sainz was the protagonist of an excellent comeback race."

La Gazzetta dello Sport

The pink daily speaks of "Formula chaos", criticising Race Director's decisions. "The F1 Australian GP finale is a roulette, a chaos officially triggered to ensure safety on the track, but which ended up undermining the drivers' own safety." In another article, Giusto Ferronato wrote: "Probably the understandable hunger for spectacle played a nasty trick on the race, increasingly pressed by the need to guarantee safety and the obvious need to give the public show and uncertainty'.

Ferronato's comment on Ferrari, on the other hand, is very simple: "Race to forget". Although he adds that: "Sainz had defended well, climbing up to fourth place and keeping a good pace compared to Red Bull, Mercedes and Aston Martin, even though it failed to show points, the work at Maranello is not lacking".

Corriere della Sera

According to Giorgio Terruzzi, 'Leclerc is trapped'. "He had exposed himself in favour of a change of direction at Maranello, he has discovered he is facing another car far from glory, another season far from that of Verstappen. Restlessness. He cannot win. He can't leave, assuming he wants to'.

In their ratings, the Corriere is instead very harsh with the FIA and Niels Wittich, who take 'sub-zero' and 'absolute zero' respectively. "He is making it like Michael Masi, the predecessor who had been up to an awful lot of mischief, regret - and it is truly incredible -' they said about the race director. Among the drivers, it is Perez who is the MVP of the day, while as far as Ferrari is concerned there is cautious optimism: "Sainz before the surreal epilogue had managed to have a good pace and at least this is something to take home with a minimum of optimism after his team leaves Melbourne frustrated."

Tuttosport

"Between the record of flags and the anger of Leclerc and Sainz, Verstappen always triumphs" is the summary of Sunday offered by Tuttosport. "What emerged in Australia is that little by little - and even before the long-awaited changes arrive - at Ferrari they are beginning to understand the difficult SF-23: in this respect, the stop will allow the engineers to continue the development work," are the words of moderate hope that Ottavio Daviddi writes instead in the Prancing Horse.

"The stop will be important because it will also allow a sort of reset on the drivers' front. Yesterday Charles Leclerc made a completely avoidable mistake at the start of the race and Carlos Sainz imitated him in the closing stages," Daviddi observed, focusing on the drivers.

Autosprint

Autosprint focused mainly on the red flags and the chaos in Australia. The print edition headlines "Enough!", while the website reads: "Melbourne, the first race of the year on a circuit historically 'at risk' for accidents and safety car phases, represented at a further level that path taken by Formula 1 - evidently endorsed by the FIA - towards a concept of 'entertainment' that has become an abused word and far more prominent than the concept of sport, competition, technical confrontation, of driving.

"The feeling is that the F1 bosses have found the horrendous expedient of breaking up, disfiguring, centrifuging and scarring the race, turning it into something syncopated, chaotic, messy and incomprehensible to mask the real shame of the situation. Which makes it clear that after the attempted trumpeted technological and narrative revolution thanks to the second generation turbo-hybrid, here we find ourselves with two 2023 World Championships, Drivers' and Constructors', already assigned practically after the first braking of the initial race," wrote Mario Donnini.