This week saw the F1 circus head down under for the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne. The race will almost certainly be discussed for weeks to come, perhaps for the wrong reasons. The FIA also made various rule clarifications and tweaks and are also set to make some more in the coming weeks. There’s also been some changes to the potential team entries for the 2026 season.
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Porsche’s push to join Formula One in 2026 has been put on hold. The German car maker has been exploring joining the sport in time for the new 2026 engine regulations. They were previously talking with Red Bull, but talks broke down following the retirement of the company’s vice-president of motorsport at the end of 2022. Porsche will instead be focusing on their other involvements, which include WEC, IMSA and Formula E.
An equal-gender racing team has unveiled their plans to join Formula One in 2026. Formula Equal, run by former BAR team boss Craig Pollock, has proposed entering a team that will employ 50% men and 50% women, from the engineering level all the way to the board level. Although the team is currently in their early stages, the team is currently in talks with a “Gulf area country” to base the team in the Middle East, likely Saudi Arabia.
If you’re in the market for a luxurious motorhome, Force India’s paddock motorhome from 2018 is being sold online in Germany. Originally costing $4.8m, you can get this motorhome, equipped with a full kitchen, dining area and office space, for just $538,000. The only downside is that, as seen in the time lapse setup video included in the listing, you need some trucks and a crane to assemble and disassemble it.
McLaren has recruited Mariano Alperin to join their growing aerodynamics department. Alperin has extensive Formula One experience, currently serving as Aston Martin’s head of aero performance. Prior to joining Aston Martin in 2019, he worked for BAR, Honda and Sauber. He will likely be on a gardening leave for the rest of the season before joining McLaren at the start of 2024.
McLaren is working to release a “kind of B-spec” upgrade to their car before the Formula One summer break. It will be the second of three major upgrade planned for the season, with the first set to arrive in time for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. The team got off to a rough start this season with an under-performing car and is now working to catch up to their rivals.
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff insists that Mercedes will not release any major upgrades to their car until at least the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix in mid-May. There were previously rumours that Mercedes would release their first upgrade package before the Azerbaijan or Miami Grand Prix.
Formula One CEO Stefano Domenicali sparked some discussion in an interview last weekend for SportTV, in which is suggested cancelling free practice sessions. Some have supported the idea, claiming less practice would help reduce costs, allow teams to conserve power unit components and potentially give more time to the junior support series. People against the idea insist it could create errors during the race due to a lack of data and have insisted that the practice sessions are critical for car development, given that teams are already banned from mid-season testing.
The FIA has banned jacks touching the cars while serving penalties during a pit stop. The clarification came after Fernando Alonso was briefly dropped from the podium after being given a penalty when the rear jack touched the car while serving his penalty for starting out of position on the starting grid at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. Esteban Ocon was also penalized for a similar violation at the season opener in Bahrain. Aston Martin appealed the penalty, citing previous instances where the rule was not applied and also some vague language in the rules. The FIA has clarified that going forward, any touching of the car (including by equipment) will be considered “working” on the car and will be subject to a penalty.
The FIA will begin enforcing a regulation that prevents team personnel from climbing the pit fence during post-race celebrations. It has become common practice for team members to climb and lean over the track to congratulate their driver as they cross the line. This has been against the rules for some time, but has not been enforced by the stewards. Article 2.3.2 in Appendix H of the FIA Internation Sporting Code, which applies to all FIA-regulated motorsport, bans team personnel from doing this. While it’s unlikely that any violation will lead to an impact on the race results, it’s likely that teams may be fined.
The FIA widened the grid slots at the Australian Grand Prix to prevent penalties saw in both of the previous rounds of the 2023 season. The width of the grid boxes was increased by 20cm. Additionally, the FIA tested a new guide line that was added to the middle of some of the grid slots at the circuit, designed to help the drivers line up correctly.
FIA is racing against the clock to finalize the new sprint race regulations ahead of the first sprint weekend of the season in Azerbaijan. The general idea behind the changes is to make the sprint race a standalone event with no impact on the main Sunday race. Previously, drivers qualified for the sprint race and the result from the sprint race was used to determine their starting grid for the main event on Sunday. However, it’s currently being considered to hold qualifying for the main race on Friday and qualifying for the sprint race on Saturday morning, or vice versa. The sprint race would only be for extra points and have no impact on the main race. However, other details surrounding parc ferme are still being ironed out.
Max Verstappen led the first free practice session of the weekend on Friday, ahead of Lewis Hamilton. The session was halted to fix a GPS outage that caused a lot of confusion and near-misses during the session. A second red flag also hindered the session when Logan Sargeant’s Williams stopped on the track.
Fernando Alonso led the way in the second practice session of the weekend in the afternoon. He was quickest 20 minutes into the session before rain arrived and prevented any other driver from improving their time. Charles Leclerc was second fastest ahead of Verstappen and George Russell.
With the track dry on Saturday morning, Max Verstappen was back on top ahead of Fernando Alonso, Esteban Ocon, George Russell and Pierre Gasly. Sergio Perez had a bad session in the second Red Bull, being trapped in the garage for the first 20 minutes of the session was suspension work was performed on the car. He then had a few moments when he struggled to brake in turn 3.
Verstappen earned his second pole position of the season in qualifying on Saturday, beating Russell, Lewis Hamilton, Alonso and Carlos Sainz. Q1 was red flagged early as Sergio Perez spun into the gravel due to a braking issue, ending his session before he was able to set a time. Both Perez and Valtteri Bottas were forced to start the race from the pit lane because they made changes under parc ferme rules.
Max Verstappen won the race for the first time in his career, despite losing the lead to both Mercedes drivers due to a poor start. Charles Leclerc’s race was over after three corners, turning in on Lance Stroll and beaching himself in the gravel. The incident brought out the safety car. The race resumed with a Mercedes 1-2 led by Russell before another safety car caused by Alex Albon’s crash. Russell and Sainz pitted under the safety car, which turned out to be a bad call because the red flag was waved to clean gravel from the track. Hamilton maintained the lead of the race in a standing restart, causing a traffic jam and near-misses at the rear of the field when crawling to the grid for the restart. Once DRS was enabled, Hamilton was a sitting duck and Verstappen took the lead of the race. Russell, whose race was ruined by the earlier red flag, retired from the race when his engine caught fire. Verstappen maintained a comfortable lead for the rest of the race, despite running wide into the grass while trying to set the fastest lap. A few laps from the end of the race, Kevin Magnussen clipped the barrier on the exit of turn 2, bringing out the safety car. The race was eventually red flagged to prevent it from ending under the safety car. This led to a chaotic standing restart which saw many drivers crash in the first corner, including both Alpine cars. Sainz picked himself up a penalty for spinning Alonso out of P3, which put the Ferrari driver out of the points. Lance Stroll also ran wide into the gravel at turn 4 after finding himself in P3. The race was again red flagged and after a long discussion it was decided that the positions would rollback to before the restart because the drivers did not complete the first sector. This didn’t help drivers who had crashed out of the race, as the race was later finished under the safety car. Click here to read a full summary of the race.
After the race, Haas appealed the results, insisting that the chaotic restart should have counted. It was in their best interest to do so, since it would have saw Nico Hulkenberg finish P4. The FIA rejected their appeal, leaving Hulkenberg in P7.
The Weekly F1 Recap on Racing Clothesline is a series published every Monday. Each article breaks down the previous week's Formula One headlines into bite-sized pieces, perfect for casual fans to keep themselves in the loop.
