Weekend tip: Swiss fans can join in the excitement
FORMULA 1 AND FORMULA E At the Australian GP, Ferrari and Alfa Romeo Sauber did well on the first day of practice. In Rome, Edoardo Mortara from Geneva defends the world championship lead in Formula E.
Formula 1 returned to the Albert Park Circuit this weekend for the first time since 2019, or 756 days after the scheduled Australian GP in March 2020, which was cancelled at short notice due to the Corona pandemic.
Ferrari still very fast
On the first day of practice, the 20 drivers and their ten teams familiarized themselves with the track changes. These make the track even smoother and faster than before. Charles Leclerc in the Ferrari set the fastest time of the day with 1:18.978 after teammate Carlos Sainz had been the fastest in the first practice session on Friday morning.
Defending champion Max Verspannen (Red Bull) and the Spaniard ended up setting the second and third fastest times, while George Russell and Lewis Hamilton bumbled to 11th and 13th.
The chief engineer of the team that had been so spoiled by success for so many years put the problem in a nutshell.
Andrew Shovlin: "We're having a hard time getting the tires up to temperature here. That's the most important thing we have to work on overnight."
Bottas keeps up well in the Alfa-Sauber C42
For Saturday's qualifying and Sunday's third round of the World Championship, the Ferrari vs. Red Bull duel is more likely to continue than a Mercedes advance under its own steam.
Fortunately, the Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team also quickly got into gear in Australia. Valtteri Bottas was seventh fastest on the 5278-meter track, only around 1.1 seconds off Leclerc's best time, while Zhou Guanyu was a second faster (15th). Ferrari and Sauber fans can therefore hope for a good weekend.
Swiss television will show the battle for grid positions live on SRF two from 7:55 to 9:10 a.m. on Saturday, April 9, and the first Australian GP in three years early Sunday morning, April 10, from 6:50 to 8:55. Commentators are Oliver Sittler and Marc Surer.
Home game for the Swiss world championship table leader
Formula E is still struggling for recognition among motorsport fans because electric racing is not associated with any emotions for them. However, most of the races are turbulent and varied, and if a Swiss driver is leading the world championship standings, that should generate a certain amount of interest in this country.
For dual citizen Edoardo Mortara, whose father is Italian, Rome is a home race. The announcement by Venturi Racing and Maserati that the Monegasques and the Italians will be teaming up from Season 9 onwards should motivate the Geneva native, who leads the 2022 World Championship after three rounds of the season, even more.
Two races on accident-prone track
Two races will be held in Italy's capital city. The 3.380-kilometer track in the Esposizione Universale di Roma district is the second-longest in Formula E history.
In total, the typical wall-lined street circuit, which runs around the Obelisco di Marconi and behind the iconic Colosseo Quadrato, has 19 corners. There is a lot of up and down, plus fast sections, slow 90-degree corners and a tight chicane. Incidents that herald yellow phases are inevitable.
German-speaking TV viewers have the choice of watching the two races, each starting at 2 p.m. Swiss time, on MySports One, on Pro7 or on ORF1, as well as on the Internet on ran.de to look at.
