This new season started, quite frankly, in a sadly, desolating way. Too much drama is still monopolizing the attention around the circus, leaving little if no space to the passion and the entertainment that the top racing league in the world should be able to provide.
The head shaking starts on Friday when the Manor team realizes, after having shipped the whole team to Australia, not exactly around the corner from their headquarter, that all the data they were supposed to carry on their computer are gone, cleared after the team was ready for bankruptcy only a month ago. Hard to believe but hey, at least this is looking like is going to be a really funny season, at least. Yes cause the prank goes on with Sauber, with a plot that can be movie material: "two cars for three drivers". Van der Garde drives, Van der Garde doesn't drive, yes, no, yes....no.
Your getting ready for the race, expecting to see a very short grid with the Manors gone and Bottas out for injury, just to realize that we're missing some more people! How do you feel as a Team Manager when one of your cars can't even make it to the starting line? Well , ask Horner and Boullier, whose drivers Kvyat and Magnussen leave the garage in a F1 car and they return back a couple minutes later on their feet.
Sure these are just coincidences and obviously everybody worked really hard during the off-season. Proof of this is the improvement on the lap time with the fastest lap faster by 1.5 seconds from last year's and a race time shorter by a minute overall. Problem is that nobody really got closer to Mercedes and now, thanks to the newly restricted updating opportunities given to the teams from the 2015 rules, it will be a miracle if we won't follow a double race within the next 19 races.
Since everybody knows the obvious result of the race, it's time to evaluate teams and drivers on their first appearance in this season. Let's proceed rigorously by the standings:
Lewis Hamilton: 6. Let's be clear here: it will be an 8 based on the race performance: 6 tenths of a second on his teammate in qualifying, always first during the race, pushing when (rarely) needed and controlling when everything was going the right way (pretty much all the time)....but that bad joke on Schwarzenegger? (vote 10 to him for the counter-joke about the high heels!). But we said it before, funny season ahead.
Nico Rosberg: 7. It should be his year for redemption after that second place in last year season that only tastes like defeat. But he leaves Melbourne with 32 point less than last year on his teammate. The frustration is palpable on the podium, since he looks the same as he looked on the podium when he just lost his Championship last year. To cheer up invites his fella Vettel to visit the garage in Malaysia cause he thinks: lesser gap between teams, more spectacle on the track...and maybe more cars stealing points from his British teammate....
Mercedes: 9. No matter how the rules change or how well the other teams are working on their cars, it really seems that they jumped in this new era of F1 in the best way. Not only they lead but they keep doing it better and better.
Sebastian Vettel: 8. Third place in the first race with a car that last year even the mighty Alonso couldn't push that far? What better way to shake off the reputation that he was only fast with a fast car? He smiles and the team smiles back, he speaks Italian to them even though he probably spent the last couple months in the car 24/7 trying to get something out of it. There's to wonder if he's running a Rosetta Stone's program in the cockpit.
Ferrari: 8. There's light at the end of the tunnel. Finally a power unit worthy the Maranello's logo, finally the right strategy to move ahead of Massa through the pit stops. There's a different vibe in the paddock and everybody in benefiting from it, even the cold Raikkonen (7) who shows signs of the glorious days drive, even if he can't finish the race.
Felipe Massa: 6. He's the only Williams on track today and he has a chance to focus the team's attention on him to lead the team during the season. He tries to keep our hopes for somebody to be able to catch at least Rosberg high for a little bit but then he just can't.. He runs some fast laps and some slower one, almost to confuse the opponents on the strategy that his team is following but the latter ends up messing up on the strategy himself, losing the chances to grab the first podium of the season.
Williams: 6. They proof to be still the best of the rest even if Ferrari got very close, but they also proof to carry the same strategy black out that they were showing last year. There is definitely room for improvement.
Felipe Nasr: 8. First of the rookies. The youngster shows sign of pure talent, in a car that jumped ahead in performance just by sticking to the Ferrari engine. Aggressive when the fight requires it and relaxed when it's time to think clear. Right, not easy when the topic in the paddock is "who's not gonna race to leave a seat available for Van der Garde? Oh, ok, never mind."
Sauber: 7. As mentioned, the Ferrari power unit is a big upgrade this year, but you can't just drive an engine. The car seemed very well balanced and this first 14 points collected on Sunday can actually be the first of many. A little odd was the three stops strategy followed by Ericsson's (7) team but still, it will be an exciting season for the Suisse team.
Daniel Ricciardo: 6. Compared to last year he, at least, got some point out of the home Gran Prix. But be the first of the lapped cars can't be enough for a fast driver who's driving a car dominant just a couple years ago. He's surely blaming himself for some extent but it's really hard for now to know how bad this Red Bull looks like.
Red Bull: 5. If last year was a wet blanket for the Austrian team, this year looks even more concerning. If, then, the complaining against the regulament starts already just after the first Gran Prix it's not just sad but also a little embarrassing. They have the team, the resources and the drivers to be competitive. Just shake off the bad experience of last year and start fresh! Also getting two cars on the starting grid will also help.
Nico Hulkenberg: 6. It's not that bad of a race after all. On normal condition he will be fighting in the middle of the pack. Today, the middle of the pack is the bottom of the pack but seventh, after all, it's all right.
Force India: 6. Not a remarkable start of the season. The situation after the first race shows that no big improvements have been achieved. It will be hard to keep up with Sauber and with the company of good new drivers fighting for position. The new generation is approaching and the formerly new drivers risk to be engulfed and pushed back (see Perez: 5).
Carlos Sainz Jr.: 7. It's better to highlight that JR at the end of his name cause it's still kind of weird for whoever was following racing in the '80s and '90s to see that name during a F1 race. But the little Carlos is focused, he knows his business and he's all in. Even when he has to throw away 30 second during the pit stop he doesn't blink and he gets the ninth place and two points which are not a bad start.
Toro Rosso: 7. It could have been even a better start of the season if only Verstappen Jr (7) was able to finish the race. However the future looks bright for the Italian team who secured two of the fastest young drivers around and it's getting closer to the big Austrian brother.
Jenson Button: 6. Giving him less than 6 will be just disrespectful. Finishing out of the ten with only eleven cars to the finish it's pretty depressing but it doesn't look like you can blame him too much for it. He knows this will be a dirty job since the beginning and he actually has no problem to show some muscle when he's still fighting for position but this Mclaren just doesn't go and he, gloomily, like the captain of a sinking ship, gets his job done and saves his face and the face of the team.
Mclaren: 4. There's only to hope that this was a bad nightmare, that Magnussen's engine was the only flawed one they will receive from Honda this year, that Button and Alonso, with their experience and drive, will be able to change the course. If not, this can be the saddest year for the glorious team.
Appointment in two weeks in the usually pouring Malaysian track of Kuala Lumpur. Fingers crossed.
Picture from bleacherreport.com
