If you’re not already a Formula 1 fan, now is the time to become one.
For the first time in 45 years, since Alan Jones in 1980, Australia has a real shot of crowning a Formula 1 Drivers Champion.
McLaren driver, Oscar Piastri, a 24-year-old from Melbourne, is currently leading the F1 World Drivers Championship by 16 points over his teammate Lando Norris.
The last race result, a win at the Miami Grand Prix, was a hat-trick of race wins for Piastri, the first time in 28 years since a McLaren driver, Mika Hakkinen, has won three back-to-back F1 races.
In just his third Formula 1 season, 52 Grand Prix race starts, Piastri has six race wins and is leading the Drivers Standings, showing the world that he is a true title contender.
For perspective, his teammate, in the same car, has had 134 race starts and notched up five race wins. I can already hear the Lando Norris fans shouting that the car was no good until last year, and that would be correct. There is no doubt that Norris is vastly more experienced in F1 and a talented driver.
Both McLaren drivers, Piastri and Norris, scored their maiden Formula 1 win last year – from their first wins to coming first and second in the Drivers Championship in about a year is astounding.
The year before in 2023, McLaren came close to last at the Miami Grand Prix, finishing in 17th and 19th out of a possible 20.
In two years, the meteoric rise of McLaren is nothing short of remarkable, and to have an Australian driver leading the charge, is reason alone to start watching Formula 1 now.
The difference between the two drivers, besides Norris being a year-and-a-half older and having three more years F1 experience than Piastri, are their distinct personality traits.
Piastri’s dry sense of humour and unflappable style has him branded the ‘cool, calm and collected’ driver of the grid. Norris on the other hand wears his heart on his sleeve, is often self-deprecating and publicly criticises himself for the smallest mistake, and, when it comes to pressure, it seems to affect Norris and slide off Piastri.
The high stakes, eye-watering budgets, endless off-track dramatics, and sheer ruthlessness are more reasons to tune into Formula 1.
The other Australian driver on the grid, Jack Doohan, has just been brutally axed from Alpine just six races into the season and less than 12 hours after the Alpine Team Principal Oliver Oakes resigned.
With Oakes’ resignation, the fifth change in Team Principal at Alpine in five years, ‘Executive Advisor’ Flavio Briatore ‘temporarily’ takes the helm.
This leadership change is marred in controversy.
The FIA banned Briatore from F1 for life when, as Renault team boss, he orchestrated the infamous ‘Crashgate’ ordering Nelson Piquet to deliberately crash at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix which allowed teammate Fernando Alonso to win. The FIA’s decision was overturned by a French court in 2010 on procedural grounds, alas, the moral and ethical conduct of Briatore will forever be in question.
Doohan, the son of five-time MotoGP World Champion Mick Doohan, never really stood a chance.
When Briatore entered the team, he brought with him young Argentinian driver Franco Colapinto as Alpine’s reserve driver, who comes with about US$25 million in sponsorship and a massive Latino fan base who will spend big bucks on merch. Make no mistake, Formula 1 is as much about business as it is about sport.
While Doohan is relegated to the Reserve Driver role, Colapinto has five races, according to his reported contract, to secure his Alpine seat.
Alpine is not the only team to take a cut-throat stance on alleged driver performance. There’s little doubt that budget and fan base played a role in the decision to swap drivers, because performance-wise, Doohan was only slightly behind his more experienced teammate, Pierre Gasly.
The driver change at Alpine is second driver change this season, and we’re only one-quarter of the way through of the 24-race season.
In April, New Zealander Liam Lawson was demoted from top team Red Bull Racing to their development team, Visa Cash App Racing Bulls, just after the second race of the season in a driver swap that promoted Japan’s Yuki Tsonoda to become Max Verstappen’s teammate.
Lawson’s Vcarb RB teammate, rookie Isaac Hadjar, is out qualifying him and beating him in races; the French Algerian leading the Kiwi 5 points to zero in the F1 Driver Standings.
The off-track antics and its on-track knife’s-edge racing make Formula 1 a compelling sport to follow. It’s as rich, ruthless, dramatic and dangerous as it gets. Time to tune in.
If you’re already a F1 fan and need some tips on how to convert your partner to love the world’s greatest sport, you’ll find some here https://www.haveagonews.com.au/entertainment/tips-to-convert-your-other-half-to-be-a-formula-1-fan/
Dianne Bortoletto co-hosts a weekly podcast And Away We Go F1 Podcast that goes beyond the track limits to talk travel, food and lifestyle surrounding the sport.
