Perez concerned by Red Bull failures but “sure we will turn things around”

In brief

Retirements costing us a lot of points – Perez

“It’s certainly a concern,” admitted his team mate Perez, who finished second. “We’ve lost a lot of points already in these first three races that in the end can make a huge difference in the championship. So we are obviously aware of it.

“All the team back home in Milton Keynes, here, are working flat out to try to come up with solutions. We don’t know exactly the issue on Max’s today. We will see. I’m sure we will turn things around and hopefully we can start again from zero when we go back to Europe.”

Stewards take no action over Alonso-Magnussen incident

Kevin Magnussen was cleared after the stewards investigated whether he forced Fernando Alonso off the track during yesterday’s Australian Grand Prix.

“After [Magnussen] passed [Alonso] at turn three, Alonso had a run and was attempting an outside pass on Magnussen going through turn four,” the stewards explained. “The cars went through turn four essentially side-by-side but at the exit Alonso was off the track.

“The drivers agreed that this was hard racing with no clear breach of the regulations. The stewards agree and take no further action.”

Super Formula season opens at Fuji

Reigning champion Tomoki Nojiri and Ryo Hirakawa shared the wins in Super Formula’s double-header season-opener at Fuji Speedway. Nojiri left with a two-point lead at the top of the standings over his fellow race winner.

Nojiri’s Mugen team mate Ukyo Sasahara had a weekend to forget, stalling on the grid at the start of both races.

Turn 15 of Rome track “like running through gravel” after asphalt breakup

Formula E drivers said that asphalt break-up on the wide, curving turn 15 hairpin in Rome was so severe it was almost undriveable by the end of the second race.

Robin Frijns, who came third despite several incidents at the hairpin, said that it was “like driving through the gravel because you hear the sand or whatever it is in the tyres and on the car and it feels really terrible, kind of like you’ve got different tyres.”

Double Rome race winner Mitch Evans said “I think it’s a lot of it’s the new tarmac they put down, that was a new patch. There’s another new patch at turn nine, which was breaking up slightly as well. I think they just don’t leave it long enough to set, the cars have a lot of weight and over time it just starts to break up.

“But yesterday I didn’t really notice it, today was horrendous. So I think if they’re going to do repairs, they just need to do it a lot earlier.”

Ticktum “not happy” after scoring first Formula E point

Dan Ticktum took his first Formula E world championship point in the second Rome race, following a penalty issued to Oliver Askew. However, speaking to RaceFans, he said that “Everything that did happen went wrong for me and all I did was just not crash so yeah, ok, maybe it’s good for the team to get a point, but I’m honestly not very happy at all.

“There was literally about 10 events in that race and every single one just didn’t go my way, you just couldn’t make it up.”

Quotes: Hazel Southwell

Social media

Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:

|@GeorgeRussell63 responds to @Max33Verstappen's complaint the Safety Car was too slow:

"We don't have that issue with the Mercedes AMG Safety Car.

"On a serious note, the Mercedes AMG is like 5s a lap quicker than the Aston Martin Safety Car, which is pretty substantial." #F1 pic.twitter.com/OfAhKVYaOd

— RaceFans (@racefansdotnet) April 10, 2022

There were two races on the circuit timetable, but Formula Italia (🇮🇹's GB4) did not appear at Mugello this weekend for its planned inaugural round.

If drivers can be signed for the first-generation Formula 4 series, then it will get underway at Enna-Pergusa next month.

— Ida (@wood_ida_) April 10, 2022

• Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory

Links

Motor racing links of interest:

Ricciardo leaves Melbourne in good spirits (Auto Action)

Obviously he slowed down quite a lot, so the team said... be sensible. So I had to control myself a little bit.

• McLaren told Ricciardo to stay behind Norris due to fuel worries

Record-breaking Australian GP lays baseline for 2023 (Speedcafe)

In total, the four-day crowd of 419,114 is a record for the event since moving to Melbourne in 1996, when 401,000 fans attended across the four days.

'I'm trying to find my centre again' - O'Ward (Racer)

I’ve obviously been not as focused as I have been in the past with everything that’s going on and I’m trying to block it out as much as I can and it’s just not easy. It’s hard to do.

First-time fans flock to Melbourne grand prix (The Age)

'My missus got into it from Drive To Survive,' the 35-year-old said at Albert Park on Saturday. 'Since then, having a perfect co-companion has made it much easier to support it. She might be more obsessed than me.'

Australian Grand Prix allows Melbourne to set aside pandemic (The Guardian)

It would be premature to say that the domestic resumption of Formula One on Australian shores marks the end of Covid-19 (the 9,510 cases and one death in Victoria on the day of the race made that much clear) but with thronging crowds and exhilarating racing, it was at least momentarily possible to forget the turmoil of the past two years.

We always endeavour to credit original sources. If you have a tip for a link relating to single-seater motorsport to feature in the next RaceFans round-up please send it in via the contact form.

Comment of the day

The stewards were correct to point out the shortcoming with the Safety Car rules after yesterday’s Australian Grand Prix, says @Hawkii:

Masi decided before the day was even over after the Tuscan GP that everything was safe and nothing needed changing. Today’s incident was proof that it needed looking into, not instantly dismissing.

Good to see the stewards recognising these incidents for what they are – the rules not keeping up with the cars performance requirements – give the drivers a chance.
@Hawkii

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to Aniket Garg!

On this day in motorsport

• 35 years ago today Nigel Mansell put his Williams on pole position for the season-opening Brazilian Grand Prix