So, I have finally managed to get round to watching the Australian Grand Prix, having spent four days trying to avoid the results – a hard task, let me tell you!
It wasn’t the most exciting Australian Grand Prix ever seen, but that was mainly because it was dry and there were no safety cars. It was still an interesting race, especially early on, although there was less action after it all settled down. The race also gave us an insight into the real pace of the teams, although it should also be said that Melbourne is an atypical Formula 1 track, being a temporary circuit and an evening race amongst other factors.
We found out a few things we already thought we knew: Red Bull are lightening fast, especially Vettel; HRT are awful; Virgin’s CFD-only approach is ineffective; the midfield is a bit of a feisty affair.
We also found out a few other things we weren’t sure about: McLaren were much faster than in testing, and, indeed, faster than the Ferrari; Massa is still struggling and Ferrari are looking like only the third-fastest team at the moment; behind them, Renault look very fast, if not as fast.
There were also had a few surprises: Williams were not as quick as they expected to be, Mercedes also. In terms of the midfield, Toro Rosso and Sauber both looked quite handy, whilst Lotus struggled to hang on to the back of Force India.
The race itself was won fairly comfortably by Vettel in the Red Bull in the end. He did likely have some performance in hand – quite hoe much, we still don’t know. Hamilton put in a very strong drive for second, and although Button was compromised by a fight with Felipe Massa for which he also received a drive-through penalty, he can be quite happy that he has a solid car with which he can work this year. Vitaly Petrov put in a storming drive to come home third, a definite improvement on his showing last year. Alonso and Webber will be disappointed to be beaten by Petrov, although both ran a three-stop strategy. Sauber will be very happy with the performance of their car despite the disqualification for a technical infringement.
So what does this tell us about the rest of the season? To be honest, until we’ve been to Sepang, it’s hard to draw too many conclusions. McLaren seem to think they can take the fight to Red Bull this year. Ferrari may be stronger than they seemed in Australia, but we can’t be sure. Certainly, the McLaren seems to be very kind on its tyres – this could be useful. Mercedes and Williams? They have a few question marks against them still… it shall be an interesting season, for sure.
Oh, and I should say, my race predictions weren’t too bad: correctly predicted pole and the winner, although Webber and Alonso were both a couple of places further back.