Red Bull’s aura of invincibility goes up in flames to ignite F1 championship race – The Guardian

The smouldering tyre sat stacked on top of another behind the Red Bull garage, the stench wafting up past the flutes and canapés of Albert Park’s corporate hospitality above. Its demise disappointing for fans of Max Verstappen, but a source of optimism for the rest of the Formula One field.

It was on lap three of race three of the 2024 season that Red Bull’s aura of invincibility burst. Verstappen had won nine straight races and when he streaked off from pole looked likely to make it 10. That would also have been three from three in 2024.

But within minutes he had complained on the radio he had “lost the car” as smoke billowed from his rear right. Moments later he was in the pits, a fire extinguisher dulling the flames.

On the track, his teammate Sergio Pérez was struggling against the Ferraris and McLarens. Off it, the press descended upon Verstappen in the paddock. The pit crew wheeled out his unused tyres from his garage, one stack almost toppling into a cameraman when the trolley dug into the grass. All weekend, the cloud of controversy was never far from the beleaguered team principal, Christian Horner. The signs had been ominous.

“It’s such a long way to come,” Horner had said loudly to a group of hangers‑on in the paddock before the race. But it was worth the trip for the resurgent Ferrari, after Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc made it a one-two for the prancing horse, with Leclerc also recording the race’s fastest lap. The red car had looked competitive all weekend, and on Sunday comfortably held off the chasing McLarens and the Red Bull of Pérez.

The race had finished under yellow following a late accident involving George Russell. That meant Mercedes finished without a point, after Lewis Hamilton was forced to retire early in the race. Hamilton had struggled all weekend and missed Q1, starting outside the top 10 in his final appearance for Mercedes in Melbourne before he leaves for Ferrari next season. He looked most comfortable on the back of a steward’s motorcycle after his DNF. In the Albert Park infield it toot‑tooted the VIPs away, before the English driver slid on to his scooter for the trip down the paddock.

The day belonged to another in the driver merry-go-round. Sainz celebrated the chequered flag after nursing his tyres in the later laps. The Spaniard had his appendix removed two weeks ago, missing the race in Saudi Arabia. He is due to leave Ferrari at the end of the season to make way for the arriving Hamilton. “Life is a rollercoaster”, Sainz said down the radio on his victory lap.

Back in the pit lane, the red overalls were jubilant, but the celebrations this year were somewhat different. Fines of A$17,000 (£13,480) were threatened for any fans who set foot on the track, after the dangerous invasion last year while cars were still lapping. The crowds that had once filled main straight are no more, and now the podium presentation can only be viewed from the grandstands opposite.

The change was a blow to tradition, but Melbourne’s Formula One glitz has been retained. The Hollywood actors Zac Efron and Eric Bana, as well as Guenther Steiner, an icon of the Netflix series Drive to Survive, were prominent in the paddock, making the most of the sunshine that appeared for the first time this weekend in the hours before the start of the race.

Yet the major attractions were the drivers. The local favourites Daniel Ricciardo and Oscar Piastri strolled to the garage not long before the race. “Get ’em Danny,” one local fan shouted, as Ricciardo was asked to sign another’s orange McLaren polo branded with “PIASTRI” on the shoulders.

Amid the grid civilities after the national anthem, it was the hand of the younger Australian that several dignitaries reached for first, leaving Ricciardo – who started at the back of the field – on the outer.

The new pecking order was made obvious as Piastri cruised to the finish in fourth. His senior teammate Lando Norris bested him but was himself a beneficiary of McLaren’s hierarchy. Midway through the race, Piastri had track position in front of his teammate before the order came on the team radio to swap positions.

Ricciardo had a more difficult day. After his best lap was taken off him in qualifying, he started from the back. The 34‑year‑old clawed his way to 12th after starting on soft tyres. His teammate Yuki Tsunoda once again finished up the track, in seventh, after a penalty pushed Fernando Alonso down the order for causing George Russell’s late off.

But this was finally a day that Formula One didn’t need to look to the midfield for its drama. Amid the swaying gum trees in the sun of Albert Park, largely thanks to Red Bull’s inferno – later diagnosed as a faulty brake – the championship has new life.