Australian Grand Prix Review

Well what an opening race! Excellent new BBC coverage. Although the pit girl was pretty monosyllabic and bordering on curt with the drivers. Not to mention asking the bleeding obvious. They would have been better off having Louise Goodman take the role.
As for the new commentator, Jonathon Legard, he was fairly well informed and seemed pretty good. Except from over describing what was going on and making a couple of simple mistakes. However that probably stems from his nervousness and previously being the five live radio commentator.
The most abysmall person on the team though has to be David Coulthard... God that guy is dull. He may be Mr nice guy but he dosen't bring anything to the broadcast... Just as he never brought anything to F1. I can only think and hope he is more interesting in real life.
Here are some thoughts on the teams and their drivers:

Williams
They had the pace in practice but as they always seem to do they failed to convert that into qualifying or the race. Nakajima had his customary accident all on his own in the race. Rosberg tried hard and had some limited success… Like fathers like sons.

McLaren
Quite simply they got their heads down and did the best they could. As Ron would say ‘damage limitation’. That’s exactly what they did.
If it hadn’t of been for a gearbox failure for Hamilton in qualifying they would of faired even better. Hamilton would of probably been just outside the top ten in qualifying. His excellent drive in the race went largely unnoticed from 18th on the grid. However if it hadn’t been for the crazy antics in front of him he would of come sixth. Look out for the FIA ruling on April the 14th. If the Brawns are deemed illegal he could even take the race win!
Heikki Kovalainen didn’t get very far with his first corner shunt and subsequent retirement. Barrichello firmly believes he was pushed by Kovalainen on the first corner but the TV pictures failed to show that clearly. Either way he stuffed it.

Renault
Fernando Alonso did well but was not as high up as anticipated and certainly didn’t shine as well as expected. However I think this is more to do with the car than anything else. It never looked quick and Alonso was doing the best he could with what he had. All in all I don’t think he can be too disappointed with a 5th place. But deep down he must realise he won’t be getting that position in a normal race and will be fighting for the last couple of points at races unless the Renault improves.
Nelson Piquet might as well of not turned up. Poor qualifying and a spin early on. The race is on to see how quickly he gets kicked out of his Renault race seat. Especially if the Renault improves and he is still putting in awful performances… Perhaps Bruno Senna is already eyeing up the seat.

Brawn
Simply fairy tale stuff. What can you say? Jenson Button was almost faultless and Rubens Barrichello did his usual best to throw away his opportunity. He selected anti stall at the beginning of the race and then went on to tangle with any car within striking distance. But through luck he managed to get his still deserved second place.
Jenson did his bit almost faultlessly. There was a moment in the pits when it looked like it was going to go all horribly wrong with a stuck tyre but he got out just in time to re take first. It would have been a fascinating last couple of laps had Kubica got past Vettel and challenged for the lead but alas it was not to be so we don’t know if Kubica could have done the biz. No doubt Brawn is the car to beat. However will they be deemed illegal at the FIA meeting on the 14th of April? We will have to wait and see.

Ferrari
Nothing seems to change in a year. Ferrari had almost the same race they had the year previously. Kimi Raikkonen’s spin was due to a broken differential and Massa went out with suspected hydraulic failure. There is no doubt they have the pace however. With Kimi looking quite ominous until his spin and retirement. He would of taken second and maybe pushed for the win. But we will never know.
Massa seemed solid but not quite the ‘on it’. The class act we saw at the end of last year was absent. It will probably be a race or two before we see the Brazillian back to himself as he seemed to struggle a little with the Ferrari. He would of maybe scrapped a podium if it hadn’t been for the mechanical fault.

Red Bull
Oh Mark Webber! At your home grand prix… How sad. Trailing nowhere. Not a good day and as always no luck for the plucky Australian.
Sebastien Vettel did an amazing job in the other Red Bull. Fighting hard and consistently. Apparently consistently the only person in any sort of contention with the Brawn. However unable to not tangle with Kubica. But the Kubica incident was not his fault in my opinion and why he was apologising for it I don’t know! It was a 50/50 racing accident the pair of them were to blame. The fact he got a 10 place grid penalty for Malaysia begs belief. As a friend of mine said “I thought they were encouraging racing this season!” This is exactly how I felt. It’s stupid to improve the overtaking opportunities and then to punish them for trying to overtake. Kubica was just as much at fault as Vettel yet he doesn’t receive any punishment. Red Bull also received a £35000 fine for instructing Vettel to drive around with three wheels to try and pick up some
points. That is fair enough… dangerous and pointless. It did remind me of Villeneuve (Gilles) however. This put a smile on my face.

BMW Sauber
Did a good solid job and seemed to pick up where they left off. Nick Heidfeld did his usual uninspiring drive to tenth. The sort of drive which usually puts him in one of the last few points scoring places had it not been for being a little unlucky on his strategy.
Kubica on the other hand did a sterling job as we have grown to expect. Although he should of given Vettel more room to avoid the accident. He could of got third or fourth had he not chucked it off at the following corner too. No doubt Kubica must be annoyed as he would of definitely pushed for the win in the last couple of laps against Button.

Toyota
Toyota were demoted to the pit lane for their rear wing infringement (it was too flexible). However they did well with their strategy and with Trulli driving brilliantly to work his way up through the grid. It was only what appears to be a miss understanding between Trulli and Hamilton which caused Trulli to get a 25 second penalty which demoted him to 12th from his excellent 3rd. Handing Hamilton the 3rd place instead.
Glock did an excellent job to snatch a 4th place too. Putting behind him his serious accident in Australia last year. No doubt we will see more of the Toyotas this season and Glock as they seem to of improved With their budget hopefully they will be able to develop the car to such an extent as to not drop behind the others as they have in other years.

Force India
They did far better than anticipated and didn’t trail around the back of the pack. It will be left to see if they continue to improve but seem to of taken a first step up the field.

Toro Rosso
With the two Sebastiens, Bourdais and Buemi respectively putting in a good performance They must fancy their chances for more points this season quite regularly. Also it would seem that Buemi is a man to watch. Putting in an excellent drive on his debut taking 7th and beating his team mate in 8th.


I hope we have more of the same in the season to come and we don’t have to wait long to find out with Malaysia this coming weekend. It is an interesting fact that in the previous three years the person who has won the opening round in Australia has gone on to win the world championship. A lot of British fans will be hoping this is the case this year. I don’t see it happening myself but it looks like it’s going to be fun seeing if it does.