The Australian Grand Prix will live long in the memory for Ferrari fans as they achieved their first one-two of the season.
Carlos Sainz looked like a man with a point to prove as he took full advantage of Max Verstappen’s brake failure.
Commentating on the race for Sky Sports F1, Martin Brundle was less impressed with one of his potential rivals.
McLaren will be pleased to have achieved a third and fourth-place finish although if they had played their strategy differently, Lando Norris could have finished ahead of Charles Leclerc.
They both made significant ground on their rivals Mercedes who recorded no points in a race for the first time since the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in 2021.
The Australian Grand Prix was a nightmare for Lewis Hamilton and Martin Brundle has suggested that once again he couldn’t get to grips with his car throughout the weekend.
Brundle worried about Hamilton during Australian Grand Prix
Whatever is going wrong for Mercedes this season, it doesn’t appear as if they’re any closer to fixing their ‘fundamental’ issues.
Lewis Hamilton couldn’t even get his car into the final session of qualifying and was heard on the radio questioning the decision to start on the soft tyres.
He only managed to make up one place before pitting but ultimately his strategy didn’t matter.
The 39-year-old ran wide heading into turn one after his stop and just couldn’t get to grips with the car.
There are reportedly disagreements within the team on the direction to take with the car.
That won’t matter too much for longer and Hamilton might be glad to see his future team Ferrari dominating proceedings in Melbourne.
Brundle’s assessment of Hamilton’s Australian Grand Prix is very much justified, with George Russell looking much more comfortable in the car.
Hamilton 2024 F1 season going from bad to worse
Before his unfortunate retirement, David Croft said: “Lewis Hamilton, heading down towards turn one, on the hard tyre, struggling for grip and struggling and turning into that corner and not able to stay on the track.”
Brundle added: “Lewis hasn’t been on top of this car all weekend, it just will not respond.
“It’s not giving him trust and confidence in turns like that, turns one and two at high speed and Lewis really struggling.
“We saw him [do that] so many times through there.”
Tough times ahead for Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes
It’s hard to see when things are going to get better for Mercedes right now.
Ferrari have a much quicker car at the moment and will be high on confidence following their brilliant result in Melbourne.
Even McLaren look out of reach at quicker circuits, meaning their battle is likely to be with Aston Martin as it was today.
Hamilton has started slowly in previous seasons before, but Brundle witnessed during the entirety of the Australian Grand Prix weekend a level of difficulty the 39-year-old hasn’t had to deal with for a very long time.
He appeared to be in higher spirits going into the weekend, but that would have soon changed once he got on track.
The post ‘Really struggling’: Martin Brundle says 39-year-old racer’s car just would ‘not respond’ during Australian GP appeared first on F1 Oversteer.