Australian Grand Prix results: Max Verstappen furious over ‘unacceptable’ DNF

Max Verstappen will leave Australia in a foul mood, after a disastrous exit from the Melbourne Grand Prix led to him slamming Red Bull.

World champion Max Verstappen slammed his exit from the Australian Formula One Grand Prix as “frustrating” and “unacceptable” after suffering his second retirement for the year.

In a disastrous result for the Red Bull star, Verstappen said he was not even thinking about the championship battle after his title defence was dealt another early blow after he was forced to retire on lap 39.

It was Verstappen’s second DNF for the year after he was forced to retire from the opening race of the season in Bahrain.

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A downcast Max Verstappen comes to grips with his early retirement from the Australian Grand Prix. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

Verstappen’s result came as his teammate Sergio Perez finished second to claim his first podium of the year.

Verstappen’s day came to an end when he was forced to park his Red Bull at the side of the track as he was running second to Leclerc.

The Dutchman quickly jumped out of the car and shut the engine off as the fire extinguishers were deployed to douse smoke coming from the car.

A clearly frustrated Verstappen conceded the team was already “miles behind” and the team could not afford results like this if it was to fight for the championship this year.

“We are already miles behind, so I don’t even want to think about the championship fight at the moment, I think it’s more important to finish races,” Verstappen said.

“Of course today was in general just a bad day and not really having the pace and just managing my tyres and trying to just bring it to the end because it looked like quite an easy P2 anyway.

“And I knew I could not fight Charles, there was no point in trying to put pressure on him, but yeah, I did not even finish the race.

“It’s pretty frustrating and unacceptable.”

Max Verstappen looks on as his car goes up in flames. Picture: Getty

Before the Australian Grand Prix, Verstappen sat third in the championship standings behind Leclerc and Carlos Sainz following his win in Saudi Arabia.

After his Melbourne DNF, Verstappen has dropped to sixth, 46 points behind Leclerc.

Verstappen, who had been unhappy with his performance admitted he knew there were issues with the car before the race.

“I knew there was a problem, for sure,” Verstappen said.

“There was always going to be a question mark of finishing the race but these kinds of things, if you want to fight for the title, can not happen.”

Red Bull boss Christian Horner said he was “deeply frustrated” after Verstappen’s result.

“We need to get on top of it, we can’t accept DNFs but we need to understand what the issue is and we have got to address it,” Horner said.

Perez admitted the team’s third race-ending mechanical failure for the year was “certainly a concern”.

“We have lost a lot of points already in these races that in the end can make a huge difference in the championship,” Perez said.

“We are obviously aware of it, all the team are working flat out to come up with solutions.

“We don’t know exactly the issue for Max today. We will see and I’m sure we will turn around things and hopefully we can start again from zero when we get back to Europe.”

Verstappen struggled for pace even before his car troubles forced an early exit. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

MERCEDES CONCEDE TITLE HOPES ARE GONE

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has conceded his team’s chances of challenging for this year’s championship are already “mathematically” against them after their early season struggles forced a significant “mind set” change following years of dominating F1.

As the once all-conquering Mercedes outfit battled to adapt to the sport’s new regulations, Wolff said he was confident the team’s challenges would not have any impact on how long seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton continued to race.

Conceding the team was still “literally testing” at the third race of the season in Australia, Wolff said he was confident the form woes would only be a “blip” and not a long-term “downward spiral”.

After the opening two races, George Russell and Hamilton sit fourth and fifth in the drivers’ standings as Ferrari pair Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz lead the fight.

Mercedes' British driver Lewis Hamilton has struggled this season

Asked if he felt Mercedes could still challenge for this year’s championship, Wolff said maths was against them, but racing could still keep them in the game.

“I am thinking about the next 20 championships,” Wolff said.

“If you think a little bit in the short term, the regulations will probably stay stable for the next four years so whatever we do has a huge influence on how we are performing in the next 100 races.

“Are we going to fight for this year’s championships? My expectation from a pure probability stand-point is no. Too slow.

“From a pure racing perspective within, yeah, because we just need two DNFs from the other teams and we get on top of our lessons or our car and then we are right there.

“If it were math then the probability would be largely against us, 9-1, but it’s racing so maybe the probability is 7-3. So I will stick with that and say that the chance is still alive.”

Before Max Verstappen’s world title win last year, Mercedes had won the previous seven world drivers’ championships - six to Hamilton and one to Nico Rosberg.

Wolff said the team had quickly had to adjust its expectations.

“We needed to change our mindset, we’ve had such a great run over eight years,” he said.

“What is really difficult to say is just accept that this is where we are, don’t try to beat yourself up just because your expectations are wrongly set.

“What is the long-term plan here? For me, it’s not a project, I am a co-owner of this team, and rather than thinking in sessions and weekends, I need to think in years.

Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team's team principal Toto Wolff has all but given up

“And that means there will be years like this one where we will be having really bad weekends, but these weekends are necessary to learn.

“Literally, we are testing at the moment. Albeit with the stop watches on and the cameras on.

“Our expectations are set lower, they have been recalibrated.”

“I don’t sleep and I don’t sleep because of jetlag, I am not sleeping because I am beating myself up on how to get on top of these things. It’s such a miserable state of mind.”

Mercedes’ best result in the opening two races was Hamilton’s third place in Bahrain after both Red Bull drivers retired inthe closing stages

Wolff was confident Hamilton was up for the challenge of turning the team’s fortunes around, confident the 37-year-old would keep racing for a “few years” as yet.

“You can only walk away if you don’t like what you do anymore. That’s the whole thing and he loves doing that,” Wolff said.

“It’s also a great challenge now. You have come to Mercedes when it wasn’t great. You have won six titles (with Mercedes),the team got it wrong now and you are part of the rise again.

“I see an upbeat Lewis when we are starting the day and we are trying to do things and I am seeing a downbeat Lewis … when the session has gone worse than we expected,” he said.

“It’s just about the expectation management. This needs to be a blip and not a long-term downward spiral and it will be a blip but that is why we need to get it right now, not on the stopwatch, but mentally.”

WHY ARE FERRARI SO STRONG?

BY Julian Linden

Ferrari long road back to being the fastest car in Formula One only got moving when it fell so far behind it became one of the slowest on the grid.

It was just two years ago that the most successful team in F1 itself at rock bottom, finishing sixth in the 2020 constructors’ championship.

It was the Italian manufacturer’s worst result in 40 years but proved to be the turning point for this season’s early success.

Unable to keep pace with Mercedes and Red Bull in 2021, Ferrari made a head start on getting the legendary red car back up to speed for 2022, when the new regulations kicked in.

With teams limited to how much money and testing they could do, Ferrari made 2022 its major focus at their plant headquarters in Maranello.

And the move has paid off with the famous prancing horses re-emerging as the team to beat this year, finishing first and second in Bahrain then second and third in Saudi Arabia.

“I‘ve always believed that Ferrari had the right people and the right mindset to be where we are right now,” driver Carlos Sainz said.

“But we needed a blank sheet of paper because Red Bull and Mercedes, with the previous regulations, they just had a very big advantage on the rest of the field.

“We felt like that gap was very difficult to cut back without a reset and this reset has given us the opportunity and we’ve used it in a very good way.”

Ferrari are having a terrific season

WHAT’S NEW IN 2022

With 20 races still to come after Sunday’s Australian Grand Prix, no-one in the Ferrari garage is getting carried away just yet, although the early indicators are all good.

Not only does the new car have plenty of speed, with Sainz’ teammate Charles Leclerc claiming pole position in Bahrain and starting on the front row in Jeddah, but the reliability has been impressive.

With both Red Bulls failing to finish the season opener, Ferrari has enjoyed back-to-back double podiums as well as providing the fastest lap of each race so far.

Leclerc’s win was Ferrari’s first in any race since 2019 and the calm manner in which he held off Max Verstappen was an ominous warning to the reigning champion he means business.

The last Ferrari driver to win the world title was Kimi Raikkonen in 2007 while the last time the team won the constructors’ championship was 2008 but former driver turned expert commentator Martin Brundle says Ferrari has all the ingredients to break the drought as long as their drivers keep their wits when problems inevitably arise.

“They have got to be on top of all of that,” Brundle said.

“If they can do that and not drop the ball anywhere, then they will be genuine world championship contenders but they can’t afford a weekend off.“

Things have been going smoothly so far and all the early signs are trending in the right direction although no one is under any illusions that things will get tougher as their rivals catch up

STAYING AHEAD OF THEIR RIVALS

Red Bull have already shown their cars are also super quick while everyone in the paddock thinks it’s only a matter of time before Mercedes irons out its issues.

The challenge for Ferrari is to ensure they also keep improving and stay in front but a wary Sainz believes there’s still more performance to come from the power unit.

“‘We’re confident we can develop our car,” he said.

“We know we have a great car ... and I think we have great people, and we are prepared – but we don‘t know. So, we are still cautious and are expecting a bit to see what happens.”