The Spanish Fernando Alonso and his team, Aston Martinhave not had enough preseason to adjust the vibration problems of the Honda power unit in the chassis designed by Adrian Newey. This has been seen in free practice for the Australian GP, the debut of the F1 World Championship.
The Australian Oscar Piastriof McLarenhas dominated the official training sessions with a best time of 1:19.729, beating the Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli (+214) and George Russell (+320) on the Albert Park track.
Fernando Alonso was barely able to test a few laps with his limited Aston Martinwhich is not yet ready to compete with full guarantees -20th at 4.933- while the Mexican Sergio Pérez was barely able to run a couple of laps with his Cadillac, being the only one who could not record times on the track.
Already 15 minutes after starting training, he would enter the court Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martinone of the main negative notes of this start of the season, given the problems in the power unit that Honda itself highlighted shortly before starting the first session.
With this, the Spaniard dedicated himself to testing the car on the Melbourne circuit, limited by the well-known vibrations that affect the British team’s car, while Antonelli, Piastri and Russell continued to set the best times as the minutes passed. The other Spaniard, Carlos Sainzalso had problems finishing 17th at 2.5 seconds.
Piastri beats Mercedes
Piastri kept his eye on the Mercedes, unlike his teammate and current champion, Lando Norriswhich did not go from seventh place by more than one second (+1.065).
For their part, the Ferrari -who had dominated in the first session- remained in second place, with the British Lewis Hamilton posting the fourth best time (+321) and the Monegasque Charles Leclerc the fifth (+562).
The Dutch Max Verstappen (Red Bull) went from less to more in a busy training session in which he reached the sixth time (+637), surpassing Norris himself, as well as the Racing Bulls of the British of Swedish origin Arvid Lindbland (+1,193) and the Red Bull of the Frenchman Isack Hadjar (+1,211).
