The first race of the season got over last week in Melbourne
and if we are to take anything from it the pecking order is still not too clear
and I guess we will know the true order only by the European Leg of the season.
Jenson Button managed to win the race while Hamilton after a good pole
performance managed to come only 3 and should be disappointed as his teammate
in an identical car has outperformed him during the race once again. Hamilton
as a driver is drastically going down while Button ever since his title win
with Brawn has improved a lot as a driver and with the right machine could be a
very serious threat for the title.
Vettel & Red Bull who many expected to smoke everyone
once again will find this season tougher than they though it will be but in the
end Vettel coming 2nd in a car which was slower than McLaren is a
good result and I do expect Red Bull to catch up with McLaren very soon. Webber
also had a pretty decent result in coming in 4th but one thing is
certain and it may just be the 1st race of the season but Vettel
already looks like a better driver and Webber winning the title is something
which looks like will never happen anymore.
Ferrari as expected had a horrible race but Alonso salvaged
it for the team by coming in 5th in a car which truly does not
deserve to be in the top 10 itself. Ferrari needs to do something real soon as
a driver as good as Alonso just cannot go about driving car which is bad
compared to the title contenders. Also it is time Ferrari drops Massa as he is
not good and with Massa in the other car the team by the end of the season will
struggle to even finish in the top 3 in the constructors table.
Mercedes & Lotus have made lot of improvement and though
it is still early days and Mercedes for all their talk in the end failed to
score points but the car does have potential and if the team can solve the
mechanical issues they can challenge for podiums while Lotus traditionally have
always had good starts but it is up to the team to capitalize on this and as
far as the Australian GP is concerned despite their bad luck and poor planning
during qualifying the team managed to score points and Kimi is rusty but by the
team the European leg comes he will be up to speed which means that the big
teams has to worry about Lotus as Kimi in a fast car is always a threat.
Sauber looks pretty decent and if they just manage to
continue their progress they can take away crucial points from top teams and it
is also a very important season for both Kobayashi and Pérez as a few seats
will be vacant next year and a very good performance could see them land up
with good seats in top teams. Williams is one team which had made a huge
improvement from the previous year and at one stage it was looking good for
even a 5th place with Maldonado but then he rather lost it in the
last lap and despite him showing good speed there were crucial points which the
team cannot lose. Always a decision to go with 2 pay drivers is not a good one
and this may hurt the team in the end of the season.
Daniel Ricciardo is his debut Australian GP scored points in
his home race while teammate Vergne making his debut for the Toro Rosso team
had a decent race and managed to bring him the car in the 11th
place. Force India another team which was supposed to be fast will have their
hands full this year as they have set high ambitions of finishing 5th
this season and this will be a tough ask as the likes of Sauber, Williams and
even Toro Rosso looks string while Mercedes and Lotus have improved a lot.
Among the 3 new teams Marussia finished the race while
Caterham despite the pre-season hype had issues and looks like another season
where they will be quicker than Marussia and HRT while they will fail to catch
up with the middle pack as the middle pack has just become faster. HRT is an embarrassment
at this level and they fail to qualify for the race with the 107% rule being
enforced upon. They look like they will yet again fail to qualify in Malaysia
and the campaign looks like a long tough one for them.
Still early days but one thing is certain is that Red Bull
will not dominate the season as it did last season while Ferrari is in real
danger of being in the mid-pack if they do not do much to improve the car.
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