Winning after missing a race: who succeeded before Carlos Sainz in 2024 F1 Australian GP?

Carlos Sainz immediately returned to victory in the 2024 Formula 1 Australian GP after being sidelined by appendicitis in Jeddah. However, the Spaniard isn’t the first to lead the pack across the finish line after missing one or more races.

The history of sports is brimming with fascinating tales like the one scripted by Carlos Sainz in the 2024 F1 Australian GP. Men who, amidst athletic endeavors, see the opportunity to surpass their limits or overcome the adversities fate presents.

Just two weeks before the race at the 5.278-kilometre Albert Park Circuit in Melbourne, the Spaniard had to skip the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix due to a sudden appendicitis. Less than 15 days later, the Spaniard showed up in Melbourne not even sure if he could race. Successfully passing Thursday’s medical check and the two Friday practice sessions, the weekend then went smoothly.

On Saturday, he secured the front row alongside the usual Max Verstappen, albeit with a small mistake on the final lap that dashed his hopes of snatching a pole position seemingly within reach for Ferrari. On Sunday, after Max Verstappen’s retirement due to brake disk problems, Carlos Sainz had no rivals and dominated, crossing the finish line as the undisputed leader. His face at the end of the race revealed both the enormous fatigue just endured and the immense joy for the accomplishment just achieved.

However, the Spaniard is not the first driver to prove immediately victorious following a hiatus of one or more races. To find out the name of his predecessor, we must rewind to 1997. Gerhard Berger, representing Benetton that year, missed three races in the middle of the season. The Austrian had to undergo sinus surgery and was afflicted by the tragic death of his father, who was tragically killed in a plane crash.

After sitting out the Canadian, French, and British Grands Prix, Gerhard Berger returned to the cockpit of his Benetton in the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim. To everyone’s surprise, the former Ferrari driver clinched pole position with a 23-millisecond advantage over Giancarlo Fisichella‘s Jordan and, on Sunday, dominated by crossing the finish line with a 17-second lead over Michael Schumacher’s Ferrari.

This represented his tenth and final career victory, and at the end of the season, Gerhard Berger decided to hang up his helmet for good.

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Before and after him, other champions came close to achieving the feat after being forced to take a break. Describing these drivers as illustrious is an understatement. How can we not mention what Niki Lauda did in 1976, when less than a month and a half after the Nürburgring fire, he returned to Monza after missing the races in Austria and the Netherlands? The Ferrari driver guided his 312 T2 to an incredible fourth place in the Italian GP.

Two years after Gerhard Berger’s achievement, Michael Schumacher could have emulated him. In 1999, the German champion had to withdraw from six races after his leg was fractured in an accident at Silverstone. He returned to the cockpit of his Ferrari in Sepang, the penultimate race of the Formula 1 season and the first Malaysian GP in history.

Despite the long break, the German did exactly what he wanted that weekend. Pole position on Saturday with a one-second lead over Eddie Irvine’s other Ferrari and all the others. In the race, he dominated before relinquishing the lead to his Maranello teammate, who was in the title fight, and escorting him to the checkered flag.

For the last episode, we come almost to the present day. It’s 2020, the year of the pandemic, and Lewis Hamilton was forced to wave the white flag. In the latter part of the season, after clinching his seventh title in Turkey, Lewis Hamilton also dominated the subsequent Bahrain GP but had to skip the Sakhir GP due to a positive Covid-19 test. Returning to the car in the season finale in Abu Dhabi, the German driver only managed third place but still made it to the podium.

Winning comebacks in Formula 1 are therefore a true rarity. To say that the club of drivers who can boast of belonging to this circle is small is truly an understatement. Carlos Sainz’s feat therefore rightfully belongs among the greatest comebacks in the history of the premier motorsport category.

Carlos Sainz, Ferrari