1. Ferrari are riding their luck but good fortune does not favour Kimi. Vettel’s two victories lend something to luck, with the perfect timing of the Virtual Safety Car in Melbourne and the fact that Hamilton suffered a 5 place penalty in Bahrain, although Seb’s drive in the desert was a beautifully judged mix of pace and protection that relied upon both sheer driving skill and smart thinking. But Kimi’s season is not so blessed; the VSC dropped him from 2nd to 3rd place in Australia, and that awful pit stop in Bahrain cost him any result at all. His pace has been strong but he’s already 35 points behind Vettel which kind of settles his role for the year already. Perhaps if he’d won the opening two races, Ferrari would have had to think carefully about team orders going forward, but not now. It’s a straightforward decision to focus on Vettel from here on in.
2. There isn’t a real laggard amongst the constructors, and therefore the battle not to be last is going to be intense. Williams were poor in Bahrain but Stroll was 13th on the grid in Melbourne and there are some real racers on the engineering side of the team who will find a way to improve what is a completely new philosophy aerodynamically with the car. Sauber delivered a worthy points finish with Ericsson’s 9th place, and correspondingly there are some very smart people being shipped across from Audi’s successful sportscar campaigns of recent years to help further improve the car. Toro Rosso and Honda have clearly made great strides and while they may not always have the speed shown in Sakhir, they are a strong midfield team. Where’s the weak link? Is it in Williams developing their car with two relatively inexperienced drivers? Time will tell.
3. The battle between McLaren and Toro Rosso is going to be very intriguing. Both have double World Champions, although Hartley’s titles came in a different branch of the sport. Both have exciting fresh talents in Vandoorne and Gasly. The fact that they have swapped power units just adds to the fun, but despite Gasly’s amazing performance in Bahrain, I would imagine that McLaren are going to fight back and that in reality McLaren’s chief rivals over the course of the season are going to be Renault and Haas. The American outfit has certainly produced a good car (with some help) but will it be developed at the same rate as the others? I rather doubt it, meaning Renault and McLaren will in effect be fighting for 4th in the Constructors. More of Alonso and Sainz running wheel to wheel? Let’s hope so.
4. Red Bull will definitely be a factor in this year’s championship. We have not seen the best of them as yet, and that double DNF in Bahrain was downright painful. But the car is a jewel and once they get up and running they are going to be a major thorn for both Ferrari and Mercedes. The danger in terms of a good championship is that they will alternate with Ferrari in being closest challenger to Mercedes at certain tracks and that Hamilton will be up there near the front every time. Even somewhere like China, with that hugely long straight, they can be a threat. After all, Daniel was on the front row two years ago and led before suffering a puncture, and Max came from 16th on the grid last year to run 2nd before dropping to 3rd. They’ll be in the game, that’s for sure.
5. There’s a new style to F1’s TV output. Under Liberty’s stewardship there have been quite a few changes to the TV ‘look’ this year; the new logo, a longer more dramatic ‘sting’ at the start of the race coverage with block-buster Hollywood style music, and new graphics to deliver information during each session. The opener works well for me and helps ramp up the atmosphere before the start, the scene-setting allows a bit more time to explain where we are, but I miss the global map which reminded us all how expansive the Championship is. Using the green and purple sector colours to indicate fast laps is useful, but sometimes the lower graphic can take up a lot of available screen and I’m not convinced about the ‘speedometer’ that tells us in kph what a particular car is doing at any point around the track. The trouble with F1 cars is that the speed changes so fast, you can barely register what it’s telling you. It's all still a work in progress and I look forward to seeing how it develops over the season.
2. There isn’t a real laggard amongst the constructors, and therefore the battle not to be last is going to be intense. Williams were poor in Bahrain but Stroll was 13th on the grid in Melbourne and there are some real racers on the engineering side of the team who will find a way to improve what is a completely new philosophy aerodynamically with the car. Sauber delivered a worthy points finish with Ericsson’s 9th place, and correspondingly there are some very smart people being shipped across from Audi’s successful sportscar campaigns of recent years to help further improve the car. Toro Rosso and Honda have clearly made great strides and while they may not always have the speed shown in Sakhir, they are a strong midfield team. Where’s the weak link? Is it in Williams developing their car with two relatively inexperienced drivers? Time will tell.
3. The battle between McLaren and Toro Rosso is going to be very intriguing. Both have double World Champions, although Hartley’s titles came in a different branch of the sport. Both have exciting fresh talents in Vandoorne and Gasly. The fact that they have swapped power units just adds to the fun, but despite Gasly’s amazing performance in Bahrain, I would imagine that McLaren are going to fight back and that in reality McLaren’s chief rivals over the course of the season are going to be Renault and Haas. The American outfit has certainly produced a good car (with some help) but will it be developed at the same rate as the others? I rather doubt it, meaning Renault and McLaren will in effect be fighting for 4th in the Constructors. More of Alonso and Sainz running wheel to wheel? Let’s hope so.
4. Red Bull will definitely be a factor in this year’s championship. We have not seen the best of them as yet, and that double DNF in Bahrain was downright painful. But the car is a jewel and once they get up and running they are going to be a major thorn for both Ferrari and Mercedes. The danger in terms of a good championship is that they will alternate with Ferrari in being closest challenger to Mercedes at certain tracks and that Hamilton will be up there near the front every time. Even somewhere like China, with that hugely long straight, they can be a threat. After all, Daniel was on the front row two years ago and led before suffering a puncture, and Max came from 16th on the grid last year to run 2nd before dropping to 3rd. They’ll be in the game, that’s for sure.
5. There’s a new style to F1’s TV output. Under Liberty’s stewardship there have been quite a few changes to the TV ‘look’ this year; the new logo, a longer more dramatic ‘sting’ at the start of the race coverage with block-buster Hollywood style music, and new graphics to deliver information during each session. The opener works well for me and helps ramp up the atmosphere before the start, the scene-setting allows a bit more time to explain where we are, but I miss the global map which reminded us all how expansive the Championship is. Using the green and purple sector colours to indicate fast laps is useful, but sometimes the lower graphic can take up a lot of available screen and I’m not convinced about the ‘speedometer’ that tells us in kph what a particular car is doing at any point around the track. The trouble with F1 cars is that the speed changes so fast, you can barely register what it’s telling you. It's all still a work in progress and I look forward to seeing how it develops over the season.