After Race 1: Australia

It’s back! Almost four months on from Abu Dhabi, the Formula One circus made its annual trip Down Under to kick off the new season. And, typically for F1, there was just as much mayhem off the track as there was on it.

Sauber’s horrendous week had a fairytale ending, despite Ian Parkes asking Monisha Kaltenborn if she was too incompetent to run an F1 team – further tarnishing the profession of journalism at the same time. It was a terrible mess and, while I’m personally inclined to believe that Peter Sauber wouldn’t have let this happen, times have changed and the midfield F1 teams are fighting for their lives more than ever – you only have to look at the struggles of Lotus and Force India (and we keep our fingers crossed for Manor).

At the front, meanwhile, Mercedes were rampant. Their dominance was no surprise. Such was their advantage last season, they had ample time to ensure this didn’t change entering the new season (and beyond). It was a sorry sight seeing just 15 cars take to the grid, although it’s something I fully expected to see before last year’s race as the technology was brand-spanking new. Eleven finishers was also a throwback to the sport in the early 2000s and before.

A common sight last year... and this year too
Source: Mercedes AMG Petronas

A reminder to those that haven’t read the F1 Power Rankings before; they’re a mixture of weekend performance and overall momentum. Individual brilliance takes precedence over car performance (as Jules Bianchi and Daniil Kvyat showed last year) but the latter does still play a key factor. Let’s get cracking…

1. Lewis Hamilton

Simply the perfect start to his title defence. After conceding the top of the timesheets to Nico Rosberg on Friday, Hamilton stormed back to take a dominant pole position and strolled away on raceday as he took his seventh win in eight races.

Starstruck: "I'll be back"
Source: Mercedes AMG Petronas

2. Felipe Nasr

If you foresaw this performance from Felipe Nasr, I sincerely hope you put money on it! A fine quali performance saw him line-up in the top ten after Valtteri Bottas’ DNS and he survived being the meat in the Räikkönen-Maldonado sandwich to run inside the top six all day long. Considering Sauber didn’t even hit the track till FP2, it was a scintillating debut drive.

Source: Sauber F1 Team

3. Carlos Sainz

Such has been the attention surrounding his 17-year-old team-mate, it could’ve been easy to overlook the terrific job Sainz did on his own debut weekend. P7 on the grid after Bottas’ withdrawal and he found himself fifth after Turn 1 (granted, he did tap the back of Räikkönen). He dropped back after the SC with software issues before a horrendous pit-stop saw him drop to the tail of the field. He recovered strongly to claim a well-deserved two points. 

Source: Toro Rosso

4. Sebastian Vettel

It’s a funny old sport, isn’t it? Just what must Fernando Alonso have been thinking as he watched a resurgent Ferrari battle to be best-of-the-rest. Vettel edged out Räikkönen in qualifying and cleared Massa using an overcut to claim a podium on his Scuderia debut. The spring in his step is back, as evident by the joyous celebrations with Maurizio Arrivabene post-race.

A German driving a Red 5...
Source: Scuderia Ferrari

5. Felipe Massa

Good weekend for Massa, if a touch disappointing to lose out to Vettel in the battle for the podium. The intra-team Williams battle will be fascinating this year and it’s first blood to the Brazilian as he edged a scruffy Bottas on Saturday – with the Finn having to sit the race out as a result.

Massa and Vettel fought to be best-of-the-rest
Source: Williams F1 Team

6. Max Verstappen

Verstappen has the honour of being the top ‘second driver’ in this year’s first F1 Power Rankings. A mistake in quali saw him exit in Q2 but he avoided the first corner melee and ran strongly inside the top ten all day long until his car ground to a halt in the second half of the race. It’s a question of ‘when’, not ‘if’, he’ll become the youngest ever points-scorer.

The 17-year-old discusses with his team what stopped him scoring debut points
Source: Toro Rosso

7. Nico Hülkenberg

The Hulk wins the award for most anonymous driver of the weekend. Force India start the new season with a launch-spec car after various issues during the off-season and Hülkenberg edged out Sergio Pérez by 0.001secs in qualifying – suggesting both drivers extracted the maximum from the car. Sunday was a different story as the German put in a controlled, if rather lonely, drive en route to seventh.

8. Jenson Button

JB finds himself a rather astonishing eighth in this week’s F1 Power Rankings, mainly thanks to a fine defensive performance against Pérez in the first half of the race. The pressure was also on to beat Kevin Magnussen in quali – which he did – before the team surprised themselves in finishing the race (and only two laps down!).

McLaren probably thought they wouldn't have a meaningful pit-stop
Source: McLaren

9. Kimi Räikkönen

It was good to see the 2007 Champ seemingly back on form after a dismal 2014 campaign, although he was outperformed by his new team-mate. He was unlucky not to claim a top-five finish as he had a three-wheels-on-my-wagon moment with another malfunctioning traffic light. Equally, he was lucky to avoid a grid drop for Malaysia; sure, the wheel didn’t fly off, but then it’s not exactly a deterrent for future races, is it? Uncompromising approach to tyre safety is normally one of the few things the FIA get spot on.

10. Daniel Ricciardo

With Lotus out of the picture, the idea was that Renault would forge even closer ties with the Red Bull family. Instead, relations seem to be at an all-time low with the Aussie the only one of the Renault quartet not to have any troubles on Sunday. Ricciardo assumed the de-facto role of team leader but could only muster a sixth-place finish – behind Nasr and light years away from Ferrari and Williams. So bad is their situation that rumours are swirling about their continued involvement in the sport…

Smiling even through a tough weekend
Source: Infiniti Red Bull Racing

11. Valtteri Bottas

One of the more difficult drivers to place in this week’s F1 Power Rankings, Bottas leaves Melbourne with a DNS after an error-strewn Q3 saw him pick up a back injury that forced him out of the race. Several podiums must be the realistic target this season – and perhaps steal that maiden win.

12. Nico Rosberg

If you’ve not read the F1 Power Rankings before, you might be stunned to see Rosberg so low on the list. Quite frankly, he was blown away by Hamilton when it mattered this weekend; and he simply hasn’t been the same since that opening lap in Belgium.

13. Marcus Ericsson

First of all, massive congratulations to the Swede for picking up his first points in F1 after such a tumultuous week. Now for the bad news… he was outclassed by debutant Nasr on both Saturday and Sunday. He also had a rather scruffy race but, worst of all, he’s made himself the sitting duck should Giedo van der Garde get a drive in Malaysia (and beyond).

14. Daniil Kvyat

The last of the five drivers to fail to make the grid, Kvyat did a solid job on Saturday to keep his head amidst a problematic quali that saw him have one-shot in Q1.

15. Romain Grosjean & 16. Pastor Maldonado

The Lotus duo find themselves in similar positions as last year in the first of this year’s F1 Power Rankings. Clearly, they have taken a giant step forward thanks to the Mercedes switch (both cars in Q3!) but Grosjean suffered teething problems as the lights went out and Maldonado was an innocent victim in the first corner incident. It was a shame to see the Pastor-haters out in force again as his race ended in the barriers – it’s as if people deliberately choose to forget his stunning 2012 Spanish GP win; something that the likes of Bottas, Hulk, Grosjean and Pérez have yet to achieve. 

The only photo of both Lotus cars on Sunday... on the parade lap
Source: Lotus F1 Team

...as Pastor was spun into the barriers
Source: El Nacional (Venezuela) / EFE

17. Sergio Pérez

And speaking of the Mexican, he props up this week’s rankings after a disastrous race – despite claiming a point thanks to the attrition. As mentioned earlier, quali was almost a dead-heat between the two Force Indias but Checo had a mare in the race as he just couldn’t clear the woeful McLaren-Honda.

Initially well matched, The Hulk ran away with team honours
Source: Sahara Force India

Not ranked: Kevin Magnussen, Will Stevens, Roberto Merhi, Fernando Alonso (and Giedo van der Garde)

It was great to see Manor in Melbourne after all their woes but I just hope they can survive the season. We wish Alonso well in his recovery from his testing crash, and hope to see him in Melbourne. Magnussen, meanwhile, had a dreadful weekend; he crashed in practice and was set to bring up the rear on the grid before his Honda failed on the installation lap – and that’s one of Alonso’s three engines gone.

I didn’t write a season preview as such (they’ve been done to death and, unlike 2014, it wasn’t that necessary), but only a comment piece on McLaren instead. There’s fundamentally no point in McLaren running their engines on full-lean. They may as well accept the fact that power unit penalties will happen in the second half of the season and see where they stand with their car operating much closer to its full potential. It’s their only chance of scoring points and we saw in 2014 how such penalties can be overcome.

The family photo (minus Bottas)
Source: Infiniti Red Bull Racing

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