Post Practice Report

Results of the top three in FP3

1. Norris

2. Leclerc

3. Perez

After watching FP1, 2 and 3 here’s the what the pecking order looks like:

Ferrari

Red Bull

Alpine

Alfa Romeo

Mercedes

Mclaren

Haas

Alpha Tauri

Williams

Aston Martin

Red Bull, which many have predicted to be the stars of the weekend seem to be struggling on one side of the garage. Verstappen seemed to not have control over balance of the car, reporting understeer and oversteer at multiple points of the last session.. He was unable to get in a clean lap after Lance Stroll’s crash that ended FP3 early. Perez seemed to be quicker and had a smooth session this morning.

Mercedes doesn’t look to be quite as on the backfoot as last weekend but haven’t brought any upgrades this weekend. Speculation came out that they would bring a new rear wing this weekend. They’re expected to bring some upgrades to the floor and rear wing in Imola or Miami. Both Hamilton and Russell seemed to struggle under braking with both going off track at the same corner. The wonder is why they continue using the small side pod philosophy. It is most likely impossible to go back to the old spec side pods after so much investment in this spec car. It will be interesting to see how their development goes in the future.

Ferrari seems like a force to be reckoned with recently. They continue to have porpoising, but it doesn’t affect the car through the corners like the Mercedes car. Both drivers were continuously in the top 4 during practice. It is looking good for them for qualifying and the race.

Aston Martin is having a shitty weekend. Vettel seems to be having the worst weekend of his career. I’m sure he isn’t feeling great after having COVID-19 and missing the first two rounds, noting that it feels like he’s late to school. He now has missed out on the first two practice sessions because of engine problems and now his crash in this session means he goes into qualifying with only a few laps’ experience on the new layout of Australia.

Alpine’s El Plan seems to be moving forward. Alonso’s pace looks very good, improving throughout FP3. Ocon seems to be a bit off the pace of his teammate meanwhile. The Alpine team brought a few upgrades for this race and they look like they are paying off. They switched their livery back to the original plan of the mix of the Alpine livery like last year and the old Racing Point livery featured on the side pods with BWT sponsors.

Safety car rules

There was a new update of safety car rules this weekend. They specifically noted that drivers cannot go side by side at the end of the safety car period. *cough cough Verstappen cough* After the last three races, Verstappen has gone right next to the leader in the race at the end of safety car periods. It seems this rule was introduced in response to Verstappen’s moves. This is interesting seeing that there is now another rule introduced after behavior on track from Verstappen. He’s been able to get away with many moves that the FIA then rules illegal later. As a fan this really frustrates me. How can one driver dictate so many different rules? Why hasn’t he been punished for his driving?

Reprimands

The new rules with the race directors have added more room for error in the reprimands

There were many different impeding reprimands given out in the practice sessions on friday. None were given today. The limit is five reprimands before a ten-place grid penalty. Why must they use reprimands AND penalty points? Why not just convert the system entirely? Hopefully they work on this for the future.

Predictions for qualifying: 1) Leclerc

2) Sainz

3) Alonso

4) Perez

5) Verstappen