“Got away with that one!”: F1 drivers’ unheard reactions to restart chaos

The chaos which broke out after the final standing restart during the Australian Grand Prix produced many winners and losers.

The carnage cut a swathe threw the field and elevated several drivers to the front. Nico Hulkenberg briefly looked on course for a podium finish.

But when the race director took the contentious decision to restore the original restart order he and several drivers were dismayed to find themselves relegated the rear again. Meanwhile drivers such as Sergio Perez and Lance Stroll avoided the repercussions of having gone off.

Here’s what they said to their teams about the controversial ending to Sunday’s race.

Max Verstappen

After the last standing restart race leader Max Verstappen was concerned by falling light levels at the track:

Red Bull filled him in on the restart plan while he was out of the car. He led the field to the chequered flag behind the Safety Car, but expressed concern over how slowly it was lapped:

Lewis Hamilton

Drivers and teams were unsure whether there might be yet another standing restart. From second on the grid, Lewis Hamilton had failed to beat Verstappen to turn one (though would have lost the position anyway due to the decision to reset the grid) and consulted with his controls engineer Marcelo Martinelli – ‘Mad Dog’ – how to get off the line better next time:

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Fernando Alonso

Having run third for most of the race, Fernando Alonso was furious about being knocked into a spin by Carlos Sainz Jnr at the restart, and urged his team to press the case for the running order to be reset:

To Alonso and Aston Martin’s relief, he got his position back. Although drivers weren’t allowed to race at the restart, Alonso kept his eye on what Sainz and the others in his mirrors were up to:

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A red flag was thrown after the chequered flag due to a track invasion. Alonso urged Aston Martin to warn his team mate:

Lance Stroll

The reset was also good news for Stroll. He had skidded off at turn three by himself at the standing restart and fell to 12th place. The decision to reorder the cars meant his mistake was undone:

Stroll expressed his relief at getting his position back after taking the chequered flag:

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Sergio Perez

Sergio Perez was in a similar position to Stroll. After going off at turn the timing screens showed he was in 10th place. However he restarted in sixth and finished one place higher than that after Sainz was given a five-second time penalty:

Lando Norris

The red flag which led to the standing restart was triggered by Kevin Magnussen when he hit the wall at turn two, leaving a tyre on the track. McLaren initially considered pitting Lando Norris in response, then thought better of it:

McLaren used the opportunity provided by the red flag to remove a loose item from underneath Norris’ feet in his car.

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After taking the standing restart and moving up to sixth place, Norris was hopeful there wouldn’t be another standing restart. There wasn’t, and although other drivers swapped places around him he kept his sixth place:

Nico Hulkenberg

Haas were so unhappy with the decision to change the order they protested the result of the race, but were unsuccessful. It dropped Nico Hulkenberg from fourth to eighth, which became seventh after Sainz’s penalty:

On his way back into the pits Hulkenberg suffered a power unit failure which forced him to stop. Haas told him to jump out of the car as it was potentially in an electrically unsafe condition.

Meanwhile the race had been red-flagged due to a track invasion. As the stewards later noted, this created a potentially dangerous situation, as Hulkenberg’s race engineer spotted:

Zhou Guanyu

Zhou Guanyu was especially unimpressed by the restart antics, saying drivers hadn’t been able to warm their tyres sufficiently:

The wait for a restart tested his patience somewhat:

Once the plan for the restart explained to him, Zhou was dismayed to learn some of his rivals would regain positions they had lost by making mistakes:

Valtteri Bottas

Like Perez, Valtteri Bottas started the race in the pits and worked he way forward. The crash at the final standing restart elevated him to ninth place, but when the field was reordered he found himself back outside the points, where he finished.

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Carlos Sainz Jnr

Having been given a five-second time penalty, Sainz tried to leave his rivals far enough behind at the finishing line that he would not drop out of the points. He failed, by just half a second.

Furious at the decision, Sainz initially hasten his return to the pits, but had to slow down when the red flag was waved due to a track invasion.

Esteban Ocon

The Alpine drivers bit their tongues after both retired when they collided at the restart:

Nyck de Vries

Like Ocon, Nyck de Vries was also blamelessly eliminated, though in his case his team mate was not the culprit, but Logan Sargeant instead:

2023 Australian Grand Prix

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• I only missed one chance to score points this year – Albon
• Formula 1’s stewards should listen to drivers less, not more
• Mercedes unsure whether gains seen in Melbourne were ‘track-specific’
• Why Ferrari saw a ‘real step forward in pure performance’ in point-less Australian GP