Team TRTPower Rankings: AUSGP
The 2023 Australian Grand Prix was massive.
You know it. We know it. So why wait? Delve into the HOT, the NOT and the WHAT from an incredible week-long festival of fast in Melbourne with the latest edition of TRT’s (You Could Insert Your Brand Name Here!) Power Rankings!
ABOUT THE RANKINGS: The TRT Power Rankings are compiled by your nominations from social media and edited by the TRT editorial team. They’re designed to give a balanced, as fair as possible critical overview of those things that excelled and those things that struggled, at each event. It’s (mostly) a democracy, and what you nominate generates the order, so have your say next event via our social media channels, @theracetorque on Facebook, Twitter and Insta. Look for the call out each evening and get commenting!
HOT
1. The F1 race
It’s clear that the F1 race was polarising and it certainly went to extremes, but it certainly wasn’t lacking in theatre.
The start – the first one – was superb with the Mercs gang-tackling Verstappen and relegating him to third. Then there was the potential of Russell going off-sequence on pit strategy and getting track position later.
The initial restart was compelling, again, and when things finally settled down there was some good battling going on through the field – Tsunoda scrapping with Piastri, Checo charging through and so on. A year on from 2022’s race having 10 more overtakes than the previous three combined, this year continued that trend of feisty F1 at Albert Park.
And then the end. Whether you liked it, loathed it, or are still trying to work out what the hell occurred, you can’t deny it wasn’t entirely dramatic. Very F1. Very good.
2. Albert Park
It might feel like the Australian Grand Prix is a car race, but really, it’s an event, a place to be seen, a must-do.
Melbourne is the only city in the world to have F1 and a Grand Slam Tennis, and the F1 has evolved to match the festive feel of the Australian Open.
The evolution of the meet over the past few years has been incremental, but it’s very noticeable.
The polish applied to the show since Liberty Media took the reins of the circus has breathed fresh air into the meet.
The event itself is a highlight on the calendar for various aspects, including the sheer quantity of fan interaction that is provided.
Albert Park is spectacular, the circuit is in mint condition, and the backdrop of Port Phillip Bay and the city skyline is the sort of stuff that makes people from around the world want to move here.
As for the crowd, it was simply mighty. Good grief, there were a lot of people (see: NOT).
But they were incredibly knowledgeable and engaged – during the F1 sessions, the oohs and aahs when anything notable happened were loud and clear.
Netflix and chill during lockdown might have brought F1 to a new audience, but now they are here, you feel this grown audience has gone all-in on loving the sport.
F1 is the peak of motorsport, and right now, this is peak F1.
3. Max Verstappen
He’s the complete driver at the moment. One-lap pace mighty, ruthless race pace and even when things don’t go well – like the first two starts – he gets them right eventually, too. Even in the best car, he is in remarkable touch and his response in Q3, having been challenged early, was proof positive of that.
There’s a reason he’s the world champion, and probably will be again.
4. Supercars action
Holy smokes, when the Supercars were actually racing, there was some bloody good stuff showcased on the track.
Also, in qualifying trim, the cars being pushed over the limit is spectacular – they look loose, they move and dance, it’s the sort of stuff that makes you want more, because you simply don’t know what the outcome will be.
This Gen3 stuff has much potential, and we’re here for it.
5. F2/F3
Based on how full the grandstands were when these cars were out – despite quite early starts – it seems like they were popular additions to the program. Seriously, has Albert Park ever been as racy as it was when either category was on track? People go to the AGP to be entertained and it was impossible to not be by the stepping stones to the big show.
6. Erebus
Who had Brodie Kostecki at the top of the points after two rounds?
Results of second, first, first and third were brilliant – once that maiden win was brought up, it clearly didn’t take long for the second.
Will Brown too is fifth in points with a couple of podiums for the weekend, and it could have been better had he not spun into the fence in the finale while going for the lead.
Leading the teams’ title points, can they maintain the rage?
7. Hamilton/Alonso
Nearly 700 Grands Prix betwixt them and still as sharp as ever. There wasn’t much in the way of overtaking in their battle for second, but there was loads in the intensity of it as Alonso nibbled and nibbled away at the DRS window only for Hamilton to respond in kind by setting a slightly quicker lap. If these two get in a position to battle for a win this year, it could be blockbuster.
8. Red Bull Ampol
Newcastle is now a distant memory.
SVG left Melbourne with results of first, second, second and fourth, while Broc Feeney picked up a podium and a win, with the duo now third and seventh in points.
Here come the Bulls…
9. Oscar Piastri
Took all of the pressure and attention in his stride, leaving the weekend with points from the house brick McLaren.
Really impressive stuff from a kid that just turned 22 this week.
10. The Thunderdome
We are here for anything Thunderdome, so to see the old girl dusted off for some Supercars laps, with F1 drivers, in the wet, was pretty bloody great.
MORE HOTS
- Race two from the Carrera Cup was an absolute belter, with wet weather playing havoc. Elbows out stuff from a quality heavy field, 2023 should be a great season.
- Coverage! Between 10 and Fox you got the works this weekend with a more casual, broader overlook from the free-to-air people and the usual Sky F1 in-depth stuff from Fox Sports. Plus, if you had the F1 app you could have your choice of three commentary teams, though if Craill finds out you weren’t listening to him, he’ll be gutted.
- JLB eighth, sixth and fifth, and it could have been even better without his car chucking him at the scenery in race two. Top-ten in the points.
- Bryce Fullwood, third in qualifying for race three, and would have been on for a podium had it not been for pit stop clusters twice in two races.
- Andre Heimgartner, too, with a fifth and a second in the final races to sit fourth in the standings.
- Thomas Randle, 12th, eighth, ninth, 11th, the pick of the Tickford drivers.
- Valterri Bottas: the most popular Australian in F1.
- Having our little mate in the F1 commentary box again.
WHAT
The F1 race
Like seriously, what on earth was that?
Look, we wore sensible slacks to the race track. But really, we are totally here for Lewis, this is actually so hot right now.
Ever wonder what happened to FT5000?
Turns out, it now lives in Melbourne’s Crown Casino…
Wait, that’s not Dan Ricciardo…
It’s a fine he could easily afford
NOT
1. The F1 race
Of course the race goes in Hot and Not? How can it not? The ending was good old-fashioned FIA over-complication of the rule book and just didn’t need to happen that way – a simple Safety Car would have been the best option, or at the least, a Safety Car restart – which the Race Director has the option to do – rather than the full-blown race start malarkey that we experienced.. which then caused another red, and the subsequent silly scenes of the teams burning money by running cars again for a single lap behind the SC to the flag.
To be fair.. it was a very F1 thing to do.
1a. Like seriously, what was the ending of that race?
.. and has it even finished yet?
2. People on the track
Disgraceful, completely unacceptable.
While the organisation and the security contractors do need – and surely will – to be culpable for this, ultimately the responsibility to not be a dickhead falls to the racegoers who invaded the circuit before they were allowed.
It’s made pretty clear by messaging over the PA and on big screens when and how fans can enter the track post-race. It’s understandable that some may miss the message, but really, that’s no excuse.
It’s pretty common sense stuff that you don’t go onto a hot race track until you are allowed, and they need to remember it’s not them that will be punished – it’s the event itself. It’s happened before in Melbourne, and you’d think if it does again it’s not outside the realms of possibility that it could be banned by the FIA, which means a few persons’ stupidities could impact the enjoyment of a post-race track walk by thousands.
AGPC needs to fix this. The security companies need to do a better job. But ultimately, people just need to be smarter and use some common sense (heaven forbid) to not put themselves and the event at risk.
3. Mustang fires
Ugly, and expensive. Nick Percat stopped ASAP when he realised the BBQ was taking over, while James Courtney kept on trucking until the inferno was properly raging.
No doubt the brain’s trust will work on a solution that will see standing starts return, but you hate to see it.
The angst around the situation and the rolling start on Sunday was a black eye.
4. Booing at the F1 podium
Australia is better than that.
In a word: embarrassing.
5. Expensive weekend for Supercars
First there was Thursday practice, when both Tim Slade and Shane van Gisbergen came to grief, and let’s be thankful nobody was near SVG when he lost it at high speed coming through the back straight sweeps.
In race two, Jack Le Brocq was sent into the wall at high speed following a failure.
Then more significant damage was to follow when Mark Winterbottom smote the wall at turn five, followed shortly afterwards by Macauley Jones and Anton De Pasquale at the same spot.
The fragility of the cars and the relative repairability of the architecture is now under the spotlight. Is that an easy fix?
6. When you are the undercard…
An eight-lap race? That was a bit of a reality check for the Supercars tribe, who are typically dictating the schedule to the supports.
Also, the far distant location of the truck park ground at the gears of those who had long commutes in the paddock.
The AGP is the big show, Supercars need to be there to race in front of 444,631 people, but in the modern age, there is clearly a price to pay.
And it’s not as if moving the Supercars to the end of the program would solve anything – look at Carrera Cup having their final two races cut short.
7. Ford
It’d be easier to understand the parity picture a bit better if the Ford teams put their best foot forward.
For instance, after Anton De Pasquale qualified on pole for race one, the Ford camp were seemingly sharked by the Triple Eight/Erebus pit stop two tyre play late in the race.
In race two, James Courtney went bowling at turn one, above, which knocked out the two leading Fords of Cam Waters and David Reynolds, then Courtney himself was relegated from a podium post-race for his part in the incident.
In race three, Davison likewise lost a podium finish for his pit lane tyre touch.
On Sunday, the Fords were utterly anonymous, which as we have established, is as bad as it gets, with talk turning straight to parity.
Then the cars also caught on fire, which took two of their aces out of the running. Poor Courtney has missed two races in two events, while Nick Percat remains last in the points.
Mostert scored a couple of fourths, and the lost podiums show that the package had potential…
Additional NOT: Ford now has Daniel Ricciardo as an ambassador. Cue the cliched, inevitable, hackneyed ‘Which team will he drive for at Bathurst..’ stories in 5,4,3…
8. Supercars tyres blues
Supercars and Dunlop probably need to have a rethink of this one.
A year on from a massive-deg weekend on a new track surface that resulted in tyre issues galore, the hope with the mixed compound format would have been a juggle between the super soft and the hard.
Instead, the super soft was capable of enduring the entire first race, which was the longest, with zero issues.
Also, the over-complication of the rules for the weekend, ultimately became a drama.
Although written with the best of intentions, wet races did not require a swap between the two compounds, however, when multiple races were declared wet after teams had already committed to the hard for the first stint, they were effectively doomed.
Then there was the situation where some clever teams only swapped two tyres instead of four – good for them, but for the punter at home, it makes it hard to follow.
Are compulsory tyre stops in races as short as 70km necessary, especially when they clearly run the risk of being time certain and safety car interrupted?
Also, do we need compulsory pit stops to spice up the racing, when the racing has stepped up in spice organically?
An idea for 2024: follow the KISS principle.
9. Speeding, or not speeding under safety car
When a car is parked on the road, just the other side of a blind corner, with the safety car on circuit and half the field belting past at full speed to get back to the pits, it sure made for uncomfortable viewing.
What’s the solution? Some sort of VSC until the field is caught up to the safety car? That’s what F1 does.
Will that in turn take any strategy out of the racing, as nobody will pit long in case they get screwed by the safety car?
It’s a thorny situation with no easy answer.
10. So. Many. People.
How many punters at Albert Park is too many?
At many times over the weekend, it was genuinely difficult to get around, especially at some of the key bottlenecks, such as bridges and road crossings, with pedestrian traffic management seemingly breaking down at times.
EXTRA NOTS
- Chales Leclerc, didn’t get past turn three before he was Strolled into the gravel
- Alex Albon, big shunt
- Starting a race single file behind the safety car. Clearly happened for a reason, but a dud look for the sport. Never has there been so much head-shaking as Sunday morning in the Supercars’ GP paddock…
- F1 tyre changes during a red flag counting as an official swap
- An Australian flag for Heimgartner’s podium
- Whatever happened to the light to differentiate the Supercars tyre compound?
- Why was the lap away from the grid for race four a race lap and not a warm-up lap?
- CoolDrive for running the wrong drop gear, a slower one, in qualifying, and subsequently being disqualified from race one and qualifying for race two
- Thursday Carrera Cup, needlessly messy, a shame
- F3/F2 biffo, especially under safety car…
TWEET
Accurate
We’ll miss Uncle Doug
This is the merch we really wanted…
Rad
How does this happen?
Really?
Dan fever
Good sport
Bring back the celebrity race
MEME
1. The F1 race
🙁
