The Ferrari nightmare

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In the summer of 2022, Ferrari secretly asked Christian Horner (Red Bull) and Andreas Seidl (then McLaren) if they wanted to become team principals in 2023! Both canceled, but the Reds wanted to get rid of their Maranello veteran Mattia Binotto. And so the ambitious Fred Vasseur (54) from Hinwil came to Italy. As a savior of the world title lost since 2008? “When a season starts, you only have one goal: to win,” the Frenchman trumpeted into the microphones. After three races, Vasseur would be happy if he had at least a podium finish and not 97 points behind Red Bull-Honda!

Leclerc ran the engine at full speed in Bahrain

The start of the season in Bahrain gave no indication of anything bad in qualifying: Leclerc and Sainz started from the second row. But the Monegask’s engine flared up in the 40th of 57 laps and the Spaniard finished fourth. In Jeddah there were even starting positions 2 and 4. But Leclerc had to drop ten places due to an already illegal power unit change and only finished seventh. Sainz finished sixth but was over half a minute behind.

Reliability fears caused Ferrari to drop to starting positions 5 and 7 in Melbourne a week ago. The horror continued. A light touch from Stroll sent Leclerc into the gravel trap. An innocent foul by Sainz on Alonso in the frenetic closing stages of the safety car cost the Spaniard 4th – the five-second penalty dropped him to 12th place. Just 6.5 seconds behind winner Verstappen!

Vasseur and the right way

For the permanent optimist Vasseur, nothing from the outside is a big problem: “We are on the right track!” Well, Ferrari had its worst start to the World Championship in 2009 (the year after the last title!) – with three clear rounds from Kimi Raikkonen (the last Ferrari champion in 2007) and Felipe Massa. In Australia, Malaysia and China.

Verstappen, Hamilton, Alonso as Senna, Prost and Piquet once did

Australia 2023 experienced only the second Formula 1 podium with three multiple world champions: Verstappen, Hamilton, Alonso. The premiere was in 1991 in Phoenix: the winner was Senna ahead of Prost and Piquet. Verstappen now has 37 wins for Red Bull, Vettel (38 wins) may already be overtaken in Baku.

Source : Blick