Red Bull’s 10 race podium streak comes to an end at the 2024 Australian Grand Prix. Max Verstappen suffered from a brake failure, and Sergio Perez suffered from a general lack of pace throughout the race.

It is the first time in 11 races that neither Red Bull finished in the podium places, and also the second time Carlos Sainz became the benefactory of the Austrian team’s lack of pace. Verstappen started the race well, but issues with his left rear brake eventually led him to having a poor exit before T7.

Sainz, with DRS, easily breezed past the Red Bull. Moments later, the first puffs of blue smoke started spewing out of the Red Bull’s left rear brake duct. The issue ended up being terminal, and the Dutchman retired from the race.

Leclerc, who qualified sixth but benefited from Perez’s three-place grid drop, ended up starting fifth. Unfortunately, he never really had the same pace as his Spanish team mate. Sainz doing a stellar job, like he did in Singapore last year, to control the race and keep the gaps up.

Norris finished ahead of Piastri. The two McLarens were on differing strategies due to the early VSC (more on that later), which initially saw Piastri leapfrog Norris. The team then requested they swap positions since Norris had a significant tyre life advantage, which would give them the best shot at fighting Leclerc for P2.

Perez finished in fifth, and struggled for pace generally, with Russell in the Mercedes and Alonso in the Aston Martin managing to match the Mexican driver at certain phases of the Grand Prix. 

Alonso finished P6 on the road, but was subsequently demoted to P8 after a post-race penalty for driving standards. Stroll ends up finishing sixth. Tsunoda drove a fairly quiet race, bringing the car home in seventh.

And with two Mercedes cars (Russell lost the car in a battle with Alonso, Hamilton had an early PU failure that triggered the VSC) and Max Verstappen out, the Haas and Sauber teams are the ones that could really profit from the chaos.

Ultimately, it was Haas that walked away with two cars in two championship points paying positions. Sauber continues to have their pitstop woes, with both cars suffering wheel nut issues. And as for Alpine, well, they only aren’t last because of all the issues the other teams have suffered throughout the weekend.

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