Dramatic Race in Melbourne at the Australian Grand Prix​

The Australian Grand Prix saw the first drama filled race of the season with current World Champion Max Verstappen forced to retire after only 3 laps and both Mercedes drivers suffered in separate incidents which forced them to retire.

BWT Alpine F1 Team had an eventful race themselves. Esteban Ocon was forced to take an early stop with overheating brakes which was caused by a tear off and resulted in him having to pit three times in total across the race.

Pierre Gasly took on a more traditional two-stop strategy but ended up with a 5-second penalty for crossing the line on pit exit, after being reprimanded for the same offence in qualifying.

Reflecting on the race, Ocon Said “It was an unfortunate race today, as we had to make an extra stop to remove a tear-off stuck in the rear brake duct. Before the pit-stop I was running in a group with Alex Albon and Kevin Magnussen, and in front of Nico Hülkenberg. Without that extra stop, we were probably in with a chance of scoring points looking at how the race unfolded. Today, and this weekend in general, the car felt a bit better and shows that we’re making some progress.”

Gasly added “There is no satisfaction to take from today’s result as finishing outside of the points is never where we intend to finish races. We made some progress, though, and we tried to maximise what we had and I’d say we did that today. I tried my best inside the car, it was a difficult race at times, but we stuck with it right to the end. We will all continue our collective hard work. We have some parts coming soon as we keep closing the gap to those ahead of us. It’s been a busy week in Australia and I already look forward to racing in Suzuka, one of my favourites on the Formula 1 calendar.”

The team now prepares for the Japanese Grand Prix at the Suzuka International Racing Course on April 5^th-7^th.