Can Oscar Piastri Break the Australian Home Race Curse?
Australia has seen plenty of great drivers over the years who’ve achieved Podiums and victories during their careers. However, Australia has never seen one of their drivers finish on the Podium in their home race. Daniel Ricciardo came close in 2014 before he was ultimately disqualified, but does the Aussie crowd actually have some genuine hope in the form of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri? Oscar has started the season well, scoring 16 points in two weekends to sit 5th in the Drivers’ Championship. Given McLaren have faired fairly well around Albert Park in the past, Piastri might just have a chance of appearing on the rostrum!
Lance Stroll Needs to Bounce Back
Lance Stroll was rightly praised for his recovery drive to finish P10 in the opening round of the season in Bahrain. However, Lance was also rightly criticised for crashing out of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix after just 7 laps. I think it’s fair to say that Stroll needs to bounce back, but it’s not going to be easy given his record in Australia. Besides finishing P4 here last year (and even then, that was pretty fortunate), Lance has only finished in the points in Melbourne once (P9 in 2019). There’s definitely a lot of pressure on the Aston Martin driver heading into this weekend.
Carlos Sainz Returns!
Unfortunately, after having to have surgery for appendicitis, Carlos Sainz was forced to miss the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. Luckily for Ferrari, Oliver Bearman stepped in and drove a super race which resulted in an extra 6 points for the team. It now looks pretty certain that Carlos will be back in the car driving this weekend which is actually a miraculous recovery when you really think about it. However, there’s still the big question surrounding Sainz as to whether he’s actually ready to get fully back up to speed this weekend. It should also be mentioned that Carlos hasn’t scored any points in the last 3 Australian Grand Prix’s, but that could well drive him on to score big points.
Can Haas Score More Points in Melbourne?
After just 2 weekends, Haas would probably like the season to end as their 1 point in Jeddah last time out currently has them 6th in the Constructors’ Championship. Haas have clearly sorted out some of the tyre issues that plagued their cars badly in 2023, and now they’ll be looking to score more points in the next few rounds. It’s also worth remembering that besides 2022, Haas have either scored points or DNF’d at Albert Park which I find to be both interesting and rather bizarre! As for their drivers, Kevin Magnussen’s one and only F1 Podium came in Melbourne in 2014 whilst Nico Hulkenberg has finished P7 in five different Australian GP (with a P6 in 2014 also).
Daniel Ricciardo Needs a Strong Home Race
A lot of the talk around Formula 1 since Saudi Arabia is about the performances of one Daniel Ricciardo. Daniel returned to F1 with AlphaTauri last year (in place of the struggling Nyck de Vries) and it was well-documented that Ricciardo was only really there to earn his way back to a seat at Red Bull alongside Max Verstappen. However, Danny Ric’s start to 2024 hasn’t gone particularly to plan as he’s been completely outperformed by his Visa Cash App RB teammate Yuki Tsunoda (someone he should really be beating comfortably) and he’s genuinely just been quite slow. That’s a big concern for both Ricciardo himself and Red Bull Racing as a whole, and it’s critical that The Honey Badger finds a way to turn his form around in his homeland.
My Predictions for Melbourne Qualifying
Max Verstappen
Charles Leclerc
Oscar Piastri
Sergio Perez
Lando Norris
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