It feels like an eternity since Valtteri Bottas took the chequered flag at Albert Park in March 2019 – the last time the Australian Grand Prix was held in Melbourne.
Ricciardo’s first home race with Renault
Australian GP was Daniel Ricciardo’s first race after leaving Red Bull in 2018. His Renault career began dreadfully, with disaster striking the Australian only seconds after the season-opening race. When the lights went out at the Australian Grand Prix on Sunday, Ricciardo was forced into Albert Park’s grass, losing his front wing and ending up at the bottom of the group.
The wing was replaced, but there was more damage to the side of his car, which looked to slow down his racing speed as he struggled to catch up. Eventually, on lap 31, he retired as Bottas converted a lap one pass of teammate Lewis Hamilton to take the season’s first chequered flag.
Unexpected Mercedes 1-2
The defending world champion Lewis Hamilton came in second, 22 seconds behind Bottas. It was his fourth straight runner-up result at Albert Park after four poles in a row. On his way to the bottom step of the podium, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen showed a strong pace, while Ferrari were again outgunned despite promising pre-season performance. Sebastian Vettel finished fourth after being overtaken on the track by Verstappen, while newcomer at the time, Charles Leclerc, recovered from an early off to finish fifth.
Doom and gloom: Covid-19 fears
As the COVID-19 outbreak spread, every major sport faced a crisis in March 2020, when it recognized it couldn’t go any farther. Australian Grand Prix was the first round of many to fall. If the 2020 Formula One season had started a week earlier, the Australian Grand Prix that year might have provided temporary relief from the dread of Covid.
The race’s demise was drawn out in what had increasingly appeared to be an inevitable decision.
Rumours and counter-rumours circulated Melbourne when the first McLaren team member was diagnosed with the coronavirus on Thursday evening. Still, the silence from F1 management and the sport’s governing body, the FIA, was as perplexing as it was deafening.
On Thursday night, the teams gathered and decided whether to race. Mercedes, Red Bull, AlphaTauri, Racing Point, and Alfa Romeo voted in favour of racing, while Ferrari, Renault, and McLaren voted against. Williams and Haas F1 refrained. However, following negotiations with headquarters, Mercedes and Racing Point changed their minds, and the vote swung from 5-3 to 4-5.The traditional first-event euphoria had vanished in a matter of hours on a dreary Friday morning. So instead of Friday practice, the paddock was quickly dismantled, and fans arriving at the gates were instructed to turn around.
Since 1996, when Formula One gained the Australian Grand Prix, Melbourne has been the season-opener. Only twice, in 2006 and 2010, it hasn’t been the curtain-raiser. This year is round three, with the earliest date ever of April 10. However, there is a strong chance of returning to being the opener starting in 2023.