The season’s first Grand Prix is always exciting because it’s when fans start to get a feel for how the next few months of motor sport might pan out. Of course many of the teams are still ironing out teething problems with their machines, so it’s not really easy to predict anything.
Nevertheless we’ve taken eight possible omens from the first race at Albert Park in Melbourne. It was a traditional triumph for Lewis Hamilton, but the balance of power seems to be shifting further down the pack – albeit in a haze of knackered-engine smoke.
1. The grid is going to look a lot smaller this year.
With Caterham gone and the rebranded Manor Marussia team opting out of racing this weekend, the grid was already down from 24 cars to 20 by qualifying.
“Flying Finn” Valtteri Bottas suffered a back injury and pulled out of the race early, while McLaren’s Kevin Magnussen and Red Bull’s Daniil Kvyat didn’t survive the formation lap. By the end of the race 11th place was also last.
2. Hamilton may already be on his way to championship number three.
After all the over-heating engines and over-excited youngsters at the start (see below), tension was pretty much non-existent for the rest of the race as Lewis Hamilton secured a crushing victory.
By the end Nico Rosberg was just 1.3 seconds adrift, but he never really had a chance of success. The two Mercedes’ nearest challenger was Sebastian Vettel on his debut for Ferrari – 34.5 seconds behind Lewis.
3. Vettel could be the man to revive Ferrari’s fortunes.
Let’s be fair, Vettel may have been aeons away from Mercedes in Melbourne, but he put in a far better performance than either Alonso or Raikkonen managed for the team in 2014.
It means that Vettel has already equalled the number of podium finishes Ferrari achieved all last season. More importantly, he managed to see off Ferrari’s natural rivals Williams, in the form of fourth-place Felipe Massa.
4. This season’s new drivers look characteristically reckless… but promising.
Young drivers in their first season can be an utter liability in a Grand Prix (who remembers Sergio Perez’s debris-strewn debut championship?) The lights had barely gone green and new Sauber driver Felipe Nasr had already clipped the back of Pastor Maldonado, sending his Lotus careening into the bumpers.
The new guys in the Toro Rossos were trying their luck too, with Carlos Sainz Jr in particular causing problems for more seasoned drivers in the middle of the pack. Eventually Nasr finished fifth and Sainz ninth. However Toro Rosso’s other driver Max Verstappen – aged just 17 – had to pull over on the 32nd lap.
5. Lotus’s bad luck looks set to continue.
After a very promising 2013 season, Lotus’s dismal fortunes last year saw them finish below everyone except liquidated Caterham and Marussia, and equally dismal Sauber.
That spate of bad luck looked set to continue in Oz, despite a much better car fitted with Mercedes engines. After Maldonado was clipped off the track at the second corner, Romain Grosjean retired with a power-unit problem.
6. Magnussen isn’t going to get his chance to impress his way back onto the McLaren team.
Car reliability is always an issue at the start of a season. But it was particularly sad to see the first-race curse strike Kevin Magnussen, as this is probably going be his only race this season. The Dane is standing in for on-the-mend Fernando Alonso, but his car gave up the ghost on the formation lap.
7. Jenson Button looks set for another mediocre championship.
Button always said his aim was to get his notoriously unreliable McLaren-Honda to the end of the race. That may not seem a particularly heady ambition, but since his team mate Magnussen’s car didn’t make the race start we can kind of respect where he’s coming from.
Even so, in the first race of his 16th F1 season, Button finished 11th – which in this sparsely populated race meant last. At one point, however, Jenson did clatter into the side of Sergio Perez’s Force India. It was an unexpected move from the most gentlemanly of drivers.
8. This whole Felipe Massa / Felipe Nasr situation is going to get confusing.
The FIA has made commentators’ jobs that little bit harder this season by allowing Nasr to join his veteran Brazilian compatriot on the grid. And it’s not just us struggling with the pronunciation – we’ve already heard the BBC’s Ben Edwards loudly emphasising the “N” in Nasr’s name.
9. Even Lewis Hamilton isn’t slick enough not to get starstruck by Arnie.
But actually you can forget all this motor racing nonsense, because the best thing that happened in Melbourne that afternoon was Arnold Schwarzenegger appearing on stage to conduct the winners speeches.
Hamilton looked genuinely shocked to find The Terminator standing beside him – but the banter was soon following.
“I thought you were taller,” quipped the race winner.
“I’m not wearing my heels,” quipped the Austrian body-builder turned movie star turned US politician turned movie star again.
Then a series of (presumably) improvised skits quickly reduced to the lowest common denominator – namely Arnie shouting “I’ll be back” at the crowd. They loved every minute, and we’re demanding an 80s action hero for ever podium from now on.
Source: SNAPPA
