If you were writing a script for a new Formula 1 season, there is probably a front row that you would want to put together earlier this year. Lewis Hamilton before Max Verstappen.
And while it may just be for the sprint race, it is a prospect ahead of the Chinese Grand Prix.
What really piques the appetite is the fact that we see early fluctuations in all team forms. McLaren looked most comfortable throughout Friday until it became important at the end of SQ3. After that, I couldn’t get a car in the front row. Oscar Piastri is nearby and maybe Rand Norris was there if he had finished his lap nicely, but the feeling of peaking the car is one of the reasons he didn’t.
So, in this early stages of this year when McLaren appears to be advantageous, it will be very important to get all the opportunities and earn points on the board.
Additionally, they could also be helped by others by acting a bit as a rear gunner. Neither wants to do that role, but both believe that if they are running in the lead, there will be a car fast enough to win a sprint race. Verstappen will not be an easy pass for either Piastri or Norris if they hold position from the line. Similarly, Hamilton doesn’t just swing through McLaren.
However, you don’t have to go back far to get the feeling that this isn’t on the card.
“To be honest, I’m a bit gobsmacked, I’m a bit retrieved to it,” Hamilton said. “After last weekend, I didn’t know when I would reach this position. It was a tough start to this week. I wanted to come here with aggression and put my car in a really great place.
“Through the winter tests, and obviously in the final race, and even today, I can’t believe we’re on the front end before McLaren.
Ferrari didn’t get the Australian setup right and was never competitive in key sessions at Albert Park. McLaren said he was surprised, and so was Toto Wolf, the principal of the Mercedes team. However, the evidence came from a messy, confused team that was not tallied by more recent Ferrari standards.
The call to strategy was not rewarded with changing conditions, taking just five points from Sunday’s race. The fallout focused on the long road Hamilton and his team were really facing gel, especially when the other aspects weren’t working at 100%.
But as Norris arrived in China and told people to “settle” about the fast start McLaren made, Hamilton had previously conveyed a similar message to being too harsh with Ferrari. For one, she emphasized how much work she still needed as radio exchanges with race engineer Riccardedami was in use, but the 40-year-old felt she had unfairly overlooked how well she was working in such a short time.
It is also true that Hamilton’s comments contrasted with how other drivers have treated race engineers in the past – because he was extremely polite with feedback and requests – but the fact that they were featured was not wrong.
That said, Hamilton himself acknowledged after taking the sprint pole and that the previous race was a “disaster” and that radio messages should not be used critically, but he offers a clear example of the challenges Hamilton himself has warned up so far this year. There is a lot of experience that needs to be gained from both sides about how to make the most of each other, and most of it will be deployed in the public domain.
Hamilton, for example, never completed a race simulation in preseason Tests, and his first run in Australia was in very tricky conditions, catching so many drivers and teams. It was very easy to make a mistake from both the back of the wheel and the walls of the pits.
An additional focus on that aspect is because it is where Hamilton is expected to be the strongest. Ask the driver in the paddock or former driver and tell them about the possibility of a pace that Charles Leclerc is making a lap. Often there was a prediction that Hamilton would struggle to match teammates in qualifying and become a major threat in the race.
Therefore, Hamilton and Ferrari practice their learning and sprint poles in just five days to deal with Australia’s difficulties.
Not only did Ferrari not see him having a completely fast car, but he also doesn’t mind noting that he expected Hamilton to take pole position this season, as the car is good enough. It wasn’t on my bingo card because he only set the pace in the second qualifying session.
This could be a short height that will provide McLaren with the opportunity to learn from that error, especially in another qualifying session to track on Saturday afternoon, depending on how the sprint is lurking. But after surprise us today, don’t rule out that the seven-time world champions will benefit even more.
“Wow, holy crap, my first,” he said. “It’s not the main pole, but it really inspires me to come in tomorrow and find more performances and see if I can compete again.”
It certainly is a glimpse of the possibilities Hamilton has with Ferrari, and is the first evidence to make you believe that the partnership can provide something thrilling.