Formula 1 got something of a pressure release moment with Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz brilliantly winning the 2024 Australian Grand Prix and ending Max Verstappen’s latest dominant season start for Red Bull.
The world champion was undone by a rare mechanical issue aboard one of Red Bull’s cars and Sainz picked up the pieces fantastically for Ferrari, on a day where it may have won in any case, such was its treatment of the tyres on a tricky surface and layout in typically tough conditions here. That said, there was little action to speak of all race.
But Verstappen’s DNF and Sergio Perez’s latest absence from the lead fight means Red Bull’s quest to better its win rate from 2023 will likely have to wait for another year, with a 21-race winning streak required to break the team's own record breaking 95.5% success rate last term.
F1 also learned exactly how Sainz had made his brilliant recovery from missing the Jeddah round with appendicitis and his compatriot Fernando Alonso was in hot water with the stewards post-race. Elsewhere, there was controversy at Williams, a management boost for McLaren and more off-track debate over key issues facing the championship.
All that and more is included here in the pick of what we learned from F1’s 2024 visit to Melbourne.