A crazy restart
The Race Direction management of the 2023 Australian Grand Prix of F1 is destined to leave aftermaths that will accompany F1 until the end of April when in four weeks it will return to the track in Baku in Azerbaijan, the fourth act of the calendar, the first with the Sprint on Saturday. The red flag was displayed three times, only on the last necessary occasion, a necessity resulting from a restart from a standstill two laps from the conclusion that the previous one had in the 2021 edition of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix of a finish of a few kilometers starting from a standstill after the failure of a rear tire of Max Verstappen in the straight.
The compromise to save face
Having put the riders in the position to be able to attack from a standing start with soft tires had predictable consequences. Carlos Sainz hit Fernando Alonso, Logan Sargeant ended up in contact with Nyck De Vries, Perez also went off the track in Turn 1 and the two Alpines ended up in contact at the exit of the first chicane. The picture was completed with Stroll’s long lap in Turn 3. A disaster that forced an obligatory red flag which, however, did not coincide with the conclusion of the race, restoring the classification to the previous lap. In fact, the race ended behind the Safety Car, with the standings relating to the previous neutralization with fewer drivers who had not brought their car to the pit lane following accidents. Carlos Sainz was also penalized by five seconds for contact with Alonso and therefore dropped out of the points at the finish line.
Stoner’s attack
“FIA, you embarrassed yourself today with F1. What a totally unnecessary mess. Please, everyone, remember that this is a sport first and entertainment second. Not the other”. With this tweet, two-time MotoGP world champion Casey Stoner expressed his total disappointment at the wicked decision to have the riders restart from a standing start for a two-lap race.
The previous Rossi-Marquez at Sepang in 2015
On the occasion of the 2015 MotoGP class Malaysian Grand Prix, which went down in history for the no-holds-barred duel between Valentino Rossi and Marc Marquez for third position, concluded with the Honda rider’s crash at the penultimate corner after the Doctor had voluntarily tried to block him and then take advantage of a very low speed acceleration to definitively detach the Catalan, Casey Stoner had tweeted underlined that MotoGP could not avoid making an exemplary decision. In essence, the Australian evoked a black flag for Valentino Rossi which was never shown against the Doctor.
