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The F1 Australian GP is now done and dusted. We have Charles Leclerc leading the championship standings by a whopping 34 points. Max Verstappen and Red Bull have a lot of soul searching to do right now as the team has neither the reliability nor the speed to fight for the title.
Having said that, there was a lot more that happened in the race beyond the fight for the lead. Many across the F1 paddock will be filled with joy after the Australian GP, while others will be having that bitter taste in their mouths.
In this piece, let's find out who were the winners and losers of the 2022 Australian GP.
2022 Australian GP: Winners and Losers
Winner
Charles Leclerc and Ferrari
Charles Leclerc can do no wrong in that Ferrari. The driver has not qualified off the front grid even once this season. Having said that, there needs to be accolades given to Ferrari because, at least for now, it appears that the Italian squad is the only one that has its ducks in a row.
Red Bull cannot complete a race distance without breaking down, Mercedes has messed up big time, and McLaren was probably never supposed to be a contender. Leclerc has the best machinery in F1 right now and he's ensuring he makes the most of it.
Ferrari and Charles Leclerc are runaway championship favorites right now and there seems to be no stopping them.
Loser
Max Verstappen and Red Bull
Max Verstappen suffered another DNF in the Australian GP. This leaves him a whopping 46 points behind Charles Leclerc in the championship. At the moment, Leclerc can literally take a race off, go on a holiday, and still come back as the leader of the championship.
On Red Bull's side, one thing seems evident: the team is not in a position to fight for the title right now. The car is not as fast as the Ferrari and its reliability is in the dumps. The team needs to fight the battle on these two fronts right now because even if it is a 23-race season, that Ferrari is not easy to beat.
Winner
George Russell and Mercedes
Mercedes does not have the car to fight for the title at the moment. Until it becomes a title contender, however, it is doing everything it possibly can to maximize whatever points it can score every weekend and stay in the championship.
The Australian GP was another example of the team having two drivers extracting the maximum possible performance from the car.
George Russell, on his part, was slightly fortunate to gain places with the safety car. Had he not had the pace, however, he would not have been able to keep Lewis Hamilton behind. Russell is proving himself every time he steps inside the car and Mercedes will be happy to see that its future is secure.
Loser
The Spaniards of the F1 grid
The Australian GP was a horror show if you are a fan of Carlos Sainz or Fernando Alonso. Sainz was unlucky with the timing of the Red Flag in qualifying as it dropped him down the order for the race. To make things worse, a pre-race steering wheel change didn't help the matters as Sainz had a poor start because of that. In the end, the Spaniard made a mistake and beached his Ferrari, capping off a weekend where he fell a further 26 points behind his teammate.
For Alonso, anything that could go wrong went wrong at the Australian GP. The Spaniard had the pace to contend for a podium at the Australian GP. This is why one could understand the consternation of the Spaniard when he ended up with no points from the Australian GP.
Alonso suffered a hydraulics issue in qualifying and then an injured thumb before the race. The ill-timed safety cars didn't help either. Ultimately, despite having so much potential, he finds himself with nothing to speak for the weekend. Luck has not been the best friend of the two-time world champion this season.
Winner
McLaren
McLaren needed the result in the Australian GP to prove to itself that its return to form in Saudi Arabia was not a fluke. The car looked competitive throughout the weekend and Norris was even able to outqualify both the Mercedes.
McLaren was a backmarker in Bahrain and did not have any hope of scoring points in that race. Since then, the team has bounced back and should now be considered the fourth-fastest team on the grid. If we're talking about comebacks and making up ground, McLaren has to be the benchmark for that this season.
Loser
Aston Martin
Aston Martin is now last in the standings. The team had a torrid time this weekend with multiple crashes for Sebastian Vettel, followed by Lance Stroll's clash with Nicholas Latifi. The race didn't fare much better as Vettel crashed out of the race while Stroll finished outside of points once again.
To make things worse for the team, Alex Albon pulled off a masterful drive to score points for Williams, lifting them to 9th in the standings. Aston Martin was a midfield contender last season and even fought for podiums at times. This was a true reflection of the fact that the team needed a complete overhaul if it is to reach the heights it desires.
Winner
Alex Albon
Pierre Gasly just found another competition for that second Red Bull seat at the Australian GP. Alex Albon has been pegging away at Williams, the car is arguably the slowest on the grid and the best he can do is beat Nicholas Latifi (whenever he doesn't crash).
At the Australian GP, however, Williams and Albon sensed an opportunity and pounced on it. Opting to start on the hard tires, Albon was able to execute a left-field strategy of running the entire race on the same tires and pitting only on the last lap. There won't be many times this season where a Williams will score points but at the Australian GP, Albon produced a special drive to earn it. A drive that might make the rest of the grid stand up and take notice of the Thai-British driver.
Loser
The Albert Park layout
The worst possible thing that could have happened to the Australian GP was what happened at the Saudi Arabian GP. The race in Jeddah was a spectacle and it made everyone in the paddock stand up and applaud the new rules. To make things more interesting, the Australian GP was going to have 4 DRS zones which gave rise to suggestions that the race might end up having too many overtakes.
To add to that, rumors of a rather abrasive new surface leading to multiple pitstops were a talking point and so was the new modified layout. The race was built up as one that would have multiple overtakes and close racing. As it turns out, the race was rather a throwback to some of the old Australian GPs. The changes in the track layout didn't yield any more overtakes, the surface wasn't abrasive at all, and the 4th DRS zone was removed.
While it was a captivating race in parts, the way Lance Stroll was able to block 5-6 cars behind him in the latter stages of the race revealed that both the rules and layout changes had not helped with the wheel-to-wheel action.
