VIDEO | The MOST chaotic Friday in F1 history? - Friday Analysis
Friday’s practice sessions in Melbourne will go down as one some of the most chaotic in Formula 1 history. But what have we actually learnt from them, if anything at all?
Chaos Down Under
Friday’s sessions were baffling. Red flags for a loss of GPS, something I didn’t even know was possible, rain hampering running during FP2 and just all round chaos down under. So, the picture of the rest of the weekend is not much clearer than before, and if anything, it might be harder to read.
Top speeds
One thing we do know, however, is that the Red Bulls are red-hot favourites. Due to the fragmented nature of FP1 and FP2, it’s hard to read into the long runs, so this week, we’ve taken a look at the top speeds of each team.
You’ll be surprised to hear that the Red Bulls are miles clear. And I don’t just mean miles clear, I mean there’s a ravine between them and their nearest rivals, which is Alpha Tauri, believe it or not, 6km per hour slower. In terms of their rivals, Mercedes are nearest, 7km per hour slower, followed by Ferrari at 8km per hour, and Aston Martin at 9km per hour. The gap is huge, and it feels like it’s getting bigger! Red Bull have even brought updates to Melbourne, getting better before anyone is able to catch them.
The Albert Park sectors
What about Albert Park the sectors. We’ll start in sector two, as sectors one and three are similar. The style of the circuit in sector two is comparable with Saudi Arabia, and therefore it is not a surprise to see Max Verstappen's Red Bull set the fastest sector time. The Red Bull car has an impressive straight-line speed, and it showed with Verstappen’s 17.619, the standard on Friday in sector 2.
In sector one, Max Verstappen was also clear with the fastest time, and in sector three, it was his teammate Sergio Perez. These sectors are a little bit twistier, with some medium and slow-speed corners, more reminiscent of the technical sector two in Bahrain. It has to be noted that in sector three, both Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso were closer to Red Bull's fastest time. Interestingly Hamilton’s fastest sectors actually put him second, behind Max, but I wouldn’t read into that too much.
Telemetry
A quick look into the telemetry, and it's even more bad news for Ferrari and Aston Martin, with the two challengers not coming off the throttle earlier than Verstappen. In fact, the Dutchman is braking slightly earlier than both Leclerc and Alonso going into turn nine.
So, we’re hoping the other teams can fight back, but it really is Red Bull’s race to lose, and you’d be unwise to bet against them qualifying on pole and winning on Sunday. Only time will tell, but Red Bull are red hot.
