Extreme tyre degradation plus Fernando Alonso’s late scraps with Carlos Sainz and Lewis Hamilton injected excitement into the Bahrain season opener. Max Verstappen recovering from 15th to second did similar for Saudi Arabia before the red flag chaos unfolded in Australia. Those events aside, the on-track action has left plenty to be desired. And when there was no such smokescreen in either of the Baku sprint or full grand prix, valid allegations of them being boring affairs were rife from viewers.
The lack of drama also hasn’t been lost on the paddock. Mercedes driver George Russell reckons 2023 is already “less exciting” and singled out events in Azerbaijan for being as “dull as we all expected”. Meanwhile, Pierre Gasly reckons the criticism is a touch premature and that plenty of action might arrive imminently. He compares it to watching a movie, saying: “If you go to the cinema and after 15 minutes the movie is shit but then the last hour and a half is amazing.”
