For the last three months, we have had stale weekends. We settled into a normal routine. I, for one, had enjoyed not having to rush back home from buying groceries or watching a movie with my mates. But this Sunday was different, I bought my lunch and came straight home in order to catch the first round of the Formula One Season at Australia. For many in Europe, it was the crack of dawn, for those in America it had just been midnight and for some of us, it was our lunchtime. But everyone was excited no matter the time. F1 was completely revamped by this point. New owners, new regulations, and everybody was facing into the unknown.
And we were in for a treat. The cars looked absolutely gorgeous from all angles, the drivers were enjoying themselves and the paddock itself was very open and public, showing the effect the new owners, Liberty Media have had on the sport already. F1 has managed to embrace the world of social media rapidly, posting videos, hosting fan forums with drivers, team principles and more and not to mention the freedom for drivers and teams to post videos and pictures in the paddock itself. Even sitting on my computer here, I could feel the difference in the atmosphere of the F1 community. It had become more informal.
But while that was great, there was one thing the drivers, teams and all of us had set our eyes on Australia for. The chance to be the first one to take an advantage in this championship. And one man was out of the running even before he managed to reach his grid slot. Australia’s F1 hero, Daniel Ricciardo, had broken down on the way to the grid.
However, apart from an aborted start (due to some miscommunication because of the missing Red Bull), the new era of F1 was underway as the Mercedes nailed the start while the two Ferraris looked slightly hesitant while heading down into turn 1. Behind the leaders, everything seemed calm and peaceful as compared to some of the Australia openers we have had. However, into turn 3, Kevin Magnussen caught too much of the curbing and understeered into the Sauber of Marcus Ericsson and took them both for a trip in the gravel trap. Both didn’t recover and eventually retired from the race. However, on the other side, Australian fans got a glimmer of hope as Daniel Ricciardo managed to fix his issue, an electronic sensor, and went out to race albeit two laps down.
Meanwhile, all of us were treated to an unusual sight. The Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel was actually keeping the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton honest and close. Usually, we see Hamilton streaking away into the distance to the point of no return. However, the Ferrari was staying within the DRS range. This continued on for the next 18 laps before Hamilton took a slightly risky decision in pitting for the next set of tyres, the softs. This turned out to be a bad call as he came out behind the Haas of Magnussen who let him through, albeit holding him slightly, but the next car was where things went wrong. He had to pass Max Verstappen for position.
Max Verstappen, already on old sets of ultra softs and going slower than Vettel, was holding back Hamilton to extreme amounts. Vettel, on the other hand, was basking in the clear air he had received and was going almost nearly a second faster every lap before eventually pitting in for his new set of tyres. However, the damage to Hamilton was done. He was still stuck behind Max Verstappen and Vettel managed to come out ahead of both the drivers. Again, Vettel was in clear air and managed to pull out a 6-7 second gap before Max Verstappen pit, allowing Hamilton to go through. But due to the extensive amounts of dirty air he encountered, that was all she wrote. Vettel managed to pull out a nearly 8 second gap and won the first race of the 2017 Formula 1 Season with Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas rounding off the podium. Daniel Ricciardo, unfortunately, had an engine failure and joined the long list of retirees. Below are the final standings:
1. (5) Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari) 57 laps
2. (44) Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) +9.9s
3. (77) Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes) +11.2s
4. (7) Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari) +22.3s
5. (33) Max Verstappen (Red Bull) +28.8s
6. (19) Felipe Massa (Williams) +1m23.3s
7. (11) Sergio Perez (Force India) +1 lap
8. (55) Carlos Sainz (Toro Rosso) +1 lap
9. (26) Daniil Kvyat (Toro Rosso) +1 lap
10. (31) Esteban Ocon (Force India) +1 lap
11. (27) Nico Hulkenberg (Renault) +1 lap
12. (36) Antonio Giovinazzi (Sauber) +2 laps
13. (2) Stoffel Vandoorne (McLaren) +2 laps
DNF (14) Fernando Alonso (McLaren)
DNF (20) Kevin Magnussen (Haas)
DNF (18) Lance Stroll (Williams)
DNF (3) Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull)
DNF (9) Marcus Ericsson (Sauber)
DNF (30) Jolyon Palmer (Renault)
DNF (8) Romain Grosjean (Haas)
We saw the finger once again as Ferrari lead the constructors for the first time since 2010 and saw a different driver than a Mercedes driver lead the championship since Sebastian Vettel himself at Abu Dhabi 2013. The Tifosi will be ecstatic with this one. And not only them. Most F1 fans will be ecstatic with this, a different team leads the new Era. However, let us not ignore the problems just because of the winner being a “people’s Champion”.
The overtaking has gotten a whole lot worse.What we imagined would be not that different from last year in terms of dirty air and the sort, what we saw today was unbelievable. There was not a single overtake from lap 19 to lap 52 on track. Nico Hulkenberg even said that the dirty air was a joke. While the sport has managed to make the drivers happy by the driveability of the car and the fans happy by making them look good, the whole racing aspect has just faded. Agreed that Melbourne may not be the best place to judge it, but if this is what we will see at a track such as Bahrain, then it may cause some concerns. Another big talking point and take away is the tyre durability. Today’s race showed how durable these tyres actually are. Kvyat managed to take a set of Ultrasofts all the way to lap 35, can you believe it? While I don’t mind durable tyres, if they result in a one-stop (or possibly no-stop at Russia and Monaco, even though you would get DSQ-ed) it’s not going to add any major factor and then the whole thre0e-tyre strategy is just a gimmick.
While this Australian Grand Prix has managed to provide us with a possible title showdown at the end of the season with Vettel and Hamilton, F1 needs to focus om the task at hand and that’s improving the sport. While admittingly, FOM really cannot do much right now, hopefully, it is much better at other tracks because this race was not all that great when you look at the broader perspective. We need overtakes as well as a closer field.
Sincerely,
Aryan D’silva
MOTORSPORT BYTES 