The third round of the championship takes place this weekend at one of the most popular venues in the championship – the Albert Park circuit in the Australian city of Melbourne.
With question marks over each of the top three teams in the championship, for very different reasons, there will be plenty of intrigue heading into the next round of the championship.
Will Bearman be back in Sainz’s Ferrari?
Carlos Sainz Jnr missed the second round of the 2024 Formula 1 season in Saudi Arabia after a sudden bout of appendicitis left him physically incapable of participating following emergency surgery.
Thankfully for Sainz and Ferrari, his surgery was successful. But that does not mean that he will be fit and ready to race in Melbourne this weekend. Back in 2022, Alexander Albon was forced out of the Italian Grand Prix at Monza in near-identical circumstances. While the Williams driver returned to the cockpit for the following race weekend in Singapore, he later admitted after the season that he had not been at 100% physically until he finally got to rest up in the off-season.
Sainz has 22 rounds still to run in his final season with Ferrari. Although he naturally will want to compete in every single one of them, he runs the risk of not being fully fit and pushing himself through a long season if he is not fully recovered. Currently, Ferrari have not yet confirmed whether or not Sainz will resume his seat at Albert Park this weekend.
If not, Ferrari will have several options for his replacement. They could give a grand prix debut for reserve driver Robert Shwartzman, or even former F1 driver and current Ferrari WEC hypercar race Antonio Giovinazzi for more experience. But after Oliver Bearmanstepped in last minute to take points in seventh in Jeddah with only an hour of practice, and is on-site for the F2 round, there’s every chance Ferrari will pick the man who’s already raced the car.
No end to Red Bull controversy in sight
On the face of it, Red Bull should be in the best position of any of the ten teams on the grid. They have not just won the last two constructors’ championship titles or the previous three drivers’ titles, but they’ve started 2024 with back-to-back one-two victories to crush any hopes that their dominance will be ending any time soon.
But amidst all the success on track, the team continues to be in crisis off it. Allegations made against team principal Christian Horner…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at RaceFans…