Justin: It's to be expected really, as teams get used to new tyres and rules under race conditions. Just look at Bahrain last year...yawn. Then the rest of the season turned into a classic, possibly THE classic. Anyway, thats not to say the 2011 Aussie GP was utter crud, as it wasnt, its just, it was a tad dull in places.
It should be noted that the new moving rear wing rule will take a while for all of us to adjust to - just look at Sutil spinning on the start/finish straight in quali yesterday whilst opening his wing...so to speak. The shift in downforce causes issues for some.
In the race itself the moving rear wing rule saw 2 or 3 overtakes that otherwise may not have happened. Kers came into play more than once too, so with a few more races the FIA may figure out the best places to put the rear wing zone on a track. It's a work in progress. I'm not sure I'm a fan.
The race itself saw Vettel dissapear into the distance, followed some ten seconds down the road by Hamilton. Alonso had a rubbish start and dropped from 5th to 10th, but he then made his way back up the field an finished a non too bad 4th.
Jenson had a tussle with Massa and received a drive through penalty for his troubles. Massa was once again pretty slow. He finished 9th and received somewhat of a verbal bashing from Button afterwards...Button claiming that "Massa was just so slow, he is the most difficult guy to pass"...which I guess could be a compliment, but I don't think it was meant that way.
Petrov started 6th and finished a mighty sterling 3rd. I think he has to get my driver of the day, given what's happened to Renault over the winter and given Petrov's own precarious position in the team at the end of last season. He now essentially finds himself as team leader, given Heidfield finished a piss poor 19th.
Webber had a nightmare day as usual at his home GP. If I was him I'd be thinking "how the smeg am I so slow compared to Vettel?" This wasnt the case at all last year, so Webber has to sort himself out quickly.
Elsewhere both Saubers did very well, with Perez scoring points on his debut. Both Mercedes did not finish, with Rosberg being skewered off track by a charging Rubens.
Coming into the race it looked like Red Bull would be pursued by Ferrari, with the rest following. It looks like, based on this first race, that Mclaren are Red Bull's closest rivals for the moment and Ferrari must be asking themselves what the hell is going on.
Red Bull were not even using KERS. This does not bode well for the rest of the field.
One thing I have noticed, is that many people have been saying "give Vettel his dues, he is a fantastic driver and great champion etc etc". Many...some... don't think he is the best driver on the grid...and I totally agree. He is still the fastest guy in the fastest car. He is fine when leading from the front and is relatively untroubled by other cars, but have I ever seen him in a less than perfect car, wrestling every ounce of performance from it, driving from midfield to the front to recover? Nope. Alonso and (pains me to say it) Hamilton can do this at will.
Onto Malaysia we go, and hopefully the excitement will crank up a notch from here on in.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment