Red Bull Motorsports
F1
F1 to 10: Australian GP early retirement can’t discourage Max Verstappen
The brakes were put on Max Verstappen’s winning streak in Melbourne – but his determination is still going strong. Here’s how the Australian Grand Prix was for Red Bull Racing.
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1. Australia in exactly 75 words*
Max Verstappen’s nine-race Formula One winning streak came to an end at the Australian Grand Prix, the reigning world champion retiring from the third round of the season in Melbourne after suffering a brake problem on lap four. Team-mate Sergio Pérez finished in fifth to retain Oracle Red Bull Racing’s first place in the constructors’ standings after a race won by Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, with teammate Charles Leclerc and McLaren’s Lando Norris completing the podium.
* 2024 is the 75th season of the F1 world championship
2. The Australian GP in six pics
Albert Park sparkled in front of an event-record crowd
© Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool
Verstappen nailed the start, but his lead was short-lived
© Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool
Verstappen was an early spectator for the first time in two years
© Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool
Verstappen didn't lead a practice or qualifying session until it mattered
© Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool
3. That Albert Park anomaly, again
Pérez repelled the Aston Martin drivers to take fifth
© Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool
For all of Oracle Red Bull Racing’s success elsewhere in a 20-year history that features 115 victories, Australia has always been a location where the established order has flipped, with Verstappen’s 2023 win at Albert Park just the second on the team’s Australian report card after Sebastian Vettel triumphed in Melbourne in 2011.
The hoodoo struck again under sun-drenched skies on Sunday. Verstappen’s brilliant circuit-record pole lap 24 hours earlier counted for little after his right rear brake became stuck soon after the start, which resulted in Sainz passing him for the lead on Lap 2.
Two laps later, with smoke pouring from the back of his car, the Dutchman had to call it a day. Remarkably, it was his first non-finish since Australia 2022, 43 races ago.
With all but three of the 26 previous races in Melbourne being won from the first two rows of the grid, a post-qualifying penalty was doubly costly for Pérez.
The Mexican’s late lap to take third became sixth on the grid after he was penalized three grid places for impeding Nico Hulkenberg’s Haas, and Pérez threatened to a push forward to podium contention before stalling out and finishing fifth, behind the podium trio and McLaren’s home hero Oscar Piastri.
With Leclerc finishing second and snaring an extra point for the fastest lap of the race with three laps remaining, Pérez lost second place in the drivers’ standings to the Monegasque. Verstappen, despite his rare non-score, stays on top with 51 points from the opening three rounds.
4. Tsunoda gets RB off the mark
Tsunoda took Visa Cash App RB's first points of 2024
© Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool
The Visa Cash App RB Team scored points for the first time this season in Melbourne, with Yuki Tsunoda upstaging home hero Daniel Ricciardo with a composed run to eighth across the line, which became seventh when Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso was issued a 20-second penalty after the race.
Tsunoda set up his weekend by muscling into the top 10 in qualifying on Saturday, and looked set to finish in ninth before a dramatic last-lap crash for George Russell (Mercedes), who was battling with Alonso, elevated the Japanese driver one place as the race finished behind the safety car.
Ricciardo’s best chance to get his season going in his backyard went awry when his best lap in qualifying was scrubbed for a track limits infringement, leaving him in a frustrating 18th place on the grid.
The Australian moved forwards steadily in the race and set a fastest lap time that was just one-tenth of a second slower than Tsunoda as the laps counted down, but had to make do with 12th in his 10th Australian GP.
5. The number you need to know
19: Sunday’s race was the first time Verstappen hasn’t won when taking pole position from his past 19 poles; the most recent occurrence was the 2022 Austrian Grand Prix.
6. The word from the paddock
We had a lot of good races in a row, a lot of good reliability, and I knew that the day would come that you end up having a retirement.
7. The stats that matter
Drivers' Championship top 5
Position
Driver
Team
Points
Gap
1
Max Verstappen
Oracle Red Bull Racing
51
-
2
Charles Leclerc
Ferrari
47
-4
3
Sergio Pérez
Oracle Red Bull Racing
46
-5
4
Carlos Sainz
Ferrari
40
-11
5
Oscar Piastri
McLaren
28
-23
Constructors' Championship top 5
Position
Team
Points
Gap
1
Oracle Red Bull Racing
97
-
2
Ferrari
93
-4
3
McLaren
55
-42
4
Mercedes
26
-71
5
Aston Martin
25
-72
8. Away from the track
It’s the video we can’t stop watching – a drone with a maximum speed of 350kph, fast enough to keep up with world champion Max Verstappen around the Silverstone Circuit in England.
How? Red Bull Drone 1 is clearly no ordinary drone, and Ralph Hogenbirk (aka Shaggy from the Dutch Drone Gods) is clearly no ordinary drone pilot – he’s a staple in the Drone Racing League and has filmed the frantic and frenetic Red Bull Valparaíso Cerro Abajo downhill. Matching Max in the Oracle Red Bull Racing's RB20 car, though? That’s a whole new challenge. Add some rain, and its no wonder Shaggy said the experience was “hectic.”
Watch Shaggy shadow Max around the track in the video below.
12 min
World’s fastest filming drone chases Max Verstappen
Fast laps like you've never seen before – take flight with a drone that keeps up with F1 car speeds of 300kph+.
9. Where to next, and what do I need to know?
Round 4 (Japan), April 5-7
Circuit name/location: Suzuka International Racing Course, Ino
Length/laps: 5.807km, 53 laps
Grands Prix held/debut: 33, 1987
Most successful driver: Michael Schumacher (six wins)
Most successful team: Ferrari, McLaren (seven wins apiece)
2023 race recap: 1st: Max Verstappen (Oracle Red Bull Racing), 2nd: Lando Norris (McLaren), 3rd: Oscar Piastri (McLaren)
10. Inside the wide world of Red Bull Motorsports
Brad Binder prepares for the 76th season of MotoGP™
© Gold & Goose/Red Bull Content Pool
A MotoGP™ bike goes HOW fast? Over 360kph – no typo – when it’s in the hands of the world’s best as the premier two-wheel championship in the world kicked into gear in Qatar on March 10, rising star Pedro Acosta taking all of one race to show the hype behind his graduation as last year’s Moto2 champion was real by running towards the front from race one.
Between that opening race in Qatar and Valencia on November 17, the new motorcycle world champion will be crowned over the course of 21 races. The search is on for the successor to Italian Francesco Bagnaia, who was crowned world champion in the 2022 and 2023 MotoGP™ seasons and won first time out this year in Doha, too.
Fastest bikes, fine margins, state-of-the-art technology and – oh yes – 128 decibels of sheer sporting thrills, there are plenty of fast facts to brush up on to increase your knowledge and enjoyment of MotoGP™, and we have them all right here.
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