MELBOURNE, Australia (PSF) — What just happened. The only things that felt normal about this race was the fact that Max Verstappen took home the win and Fernando Alonso captured another podium finish. In what was perhaps the ugliest Formula One race in recent memory, there was a record three red flags in Melbourne. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari), Alex Albon (Williams), Kevin Magnussen (Haas), George Russell (Mercedes), Logan Sargeant (Williams), Nyck de Vries (AlphaTauri), Esteban Ocon (Alpine), and Pierre Gasly (Alpine) all were unable to finish the race leaving only 12 drivers who completed the Grand Prix. This race could only be described as controversial and chaotic. Here are some of my lingering thoughts after since the Grand Prix’s conclusion.

What Is Going On At Ferrari?

Here we are after three rounds of the F1 season and the boys in red find themselves with just 26 points currently standing in P4 in the championship. 30 points separate them from Mercedes who sit in P3 and just 14 points is the gap from McLaren who currently stand in P5. 20 of Ferrari’s points have been produced by Carlos Sainz who is fifth in the Drivers’ Championship and just six points have been scored by a pre-season World Champion favorite Charles Leclerc who is tenth in the championship at the moment. The story for the Ferrari team the past few seasons has been equal parts luck and incompetence. But when the misfortune and unreliability from a mechanical and strategic standpoint lasts so long, it is fair to no longer see this as bad luck, rather it is just straight up poor performance. The latest installment of Ferrari woes features both drivers. For Charles Leclerc, he didn’t even last a single lap in Australia as he was over aggressive and clumsy finding himself searching for a gap that didn’t exist between the Aston Martin cars of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll which inevitably got him punted off the track by Stroll and Monegasque’s car was beached in the sand. This is now the second time in three races that Leclerc has a DNF (did not finish). For Carlos Sainz, he also achieved zero points in the race. In a lap 57/58 restart after a red flag, Sainz mishandled the car going into Turn 1 and went right into the side of fellow Spaniard Fernando Alonso which gave him a 5-second penalty that dropped him eight places to finish in 12th when it was all set and done. There was controversy about this decision by the FIA because during that same race restart, the two Alpines of Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon came together and they both crashed out in a dangerous part of the track prompting yet another red flag, to which none of the crashed out Alpines were penalized. Since this incident came without a full racing lap being completed, the FIA opted for the order of the cars on the restart to return to the original positions they were in before the prior red flag (obviously promoting the cars that were behind the crashed out cars). So with this decision to revert the grid order and not give any Alpine driver a penalty, one can argue that if you essentially pretend that the incomplete racing lap didn’t exist, wouldn’t Sainz’s incident with Alonso not exist either considering the restart would put Alonso ahead of Sainz anyways? Regardless, it was an error made and a costly one be it.

NyCk Disappoints

Before the season started I gave some of my predictions for this season as well as a couple predictions beyond this year. One of those predictions was that between the two AlphaTauri drivers, it would be 28-year old rookie driver Nyck de Vries who would outperform his teammate Yuki Tsunoda who is in his third year with the team leading to Tsunoda’s departure from the team. Since we are only through three races this year, to say that I was wrong is a bit unfair. However, so far, this prediction is not looking good whatsoever. Tsunoda has been the better driver so far and it is clear as day. With a couple a P11 finishes to start the season which was already way ahead of where the car’s true performance lied, Tsunoda brought home a P10 finish to give the team their first point of the season. De Vries on the other hand finished P14 in the first two rounds and did not finish in Australia. Nyck plain and simple has not looked good so far. Perhaps I was still riding the high of de Vries’s sub-in Monza magic in the Williams last year that saw him collect points in his first race in F1. To say that de Vries has been a disappoint so far would be an understatement. However, the jury is still out on de Vries for me personally, but the higher ups at Red Bull may not be as patient as me. With the Red Bull Junior Team having an abundance of young talent with Liam Lawson, Ayumu Iwasa, and Dennis Hauger, the margin for error for a 28-year old rookie driver in de Vries is likely much smaller than most other rookies in the sport of Formula One.