10 Things We Learnt From: Australia

Number One Drivers Ruled
As you can see in the F1 Hub teammate battle tracker (see link below), the large majority who has the first number on the front of their car and are considered 'number one' driver outran their teammates. The noticeable expections being Sutil finishing ahead of di Resta (just), and Bottas overall performing better than Maldonado who had a poor weekend all-round. I'm sure these battles are just spicing up though!

http://f1-hub.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/f1hub-teammate-battle-tracker-australia.html


McLaren Have Swapped With Ferrari
Ferrari started with a dismal car at the start of last year, and McLaren have obviously being spying on them again as they have a terrible car to start the campaign with - between 2 and 3 seconds off the pace in dry one-lap pace. Malaysia will be interesting for them, with a better performance if it rains, but China and particularly will be key races to turning their year around before it's too late.


More Predictable Than We May Have Anticipated
After many mixed up results in the first half of the season last year, three tops teams, with Mercedes lurking behind dominated the weekend. It was nice not to see one team dominate the opening weekend, and 3 to 4 teams battle out qualifying and the race from the start. I won't be surprised if Lotus, Ferrari and Red Bull stay at the front permanently  with Mercedes and eventually McLaren mixing in top positions when the track suits them, leaving it harder for midfield teams to podium it up.


Marussia No.10 & Bianchi
Yes, Pic finished ahead of Chilton's Marussia, but due to his first lap incident resulting in a wing change. Max scrapped with van der Garde in the second Caterham, before overtaking and pulling away considerably. Meanwhile, Bianchi impressively was only 1 lap behind rather than 2 like the other back runners, and set the 11th fastest time of the race! I'm going to put it out there now just incase it happens, future world championship contender? Will be considering this over the course of the season..


Red Bull's Need To Be Careful Setting Up Their Race Car
Red Bull's high downforce, high drag setup may have cost them a lot of time, as Vettel was stuck behind Sutil for a number of laps as he had no straight line speed to overtake. It was only due to fresh tyres and a brave lunge down into turn 3 that he did it after they had both pitted. Whilst I don't think Red Bull had the pace to do better than 3rd anyway, it may cost them in future races. Perhaps they could loose a bit of downforce just so they have the ability to overtake as well.


2011 Style Tyres
After a slightly more conservative 2012, particularly in the last few races, we're back in Pirelli 2011 land. Marbles, chunking and particularly graining tyres galore. It won't be long till top drivers start to complain.. oh wait Vettel takes the first punt at the Italian manufacturer! As long as the races stay good, and pit stops stay at 2-3 per driver though, i'm not complaining.


Grosjean Didn't Crash But..
..where was he in comparison to Kimi who won the race! 10th! Over 80 seconds behind, on average 1.0-1.5 seconds a lap slower. Whichever way you look at it, and upgrade familiarisation aside, that is A LOT. Will need to have consistent good pace as the year progresses to keep his seat again.


Choosing Sutil For Force India Seems Like A Good Choice
Sutil had a screamer of a race thanks to strategy and solid, solid pace.. until he strapped on the super-softs. The Force India teammate battle could be one of the best again, with so much at stake for both.


Mercedes Tyres Are Touch And Go
Hamilton tried a two-stop in Melbourne, but had to change to a later three-stop race, as the tyres wouldn't have quite lasted. Their 2012 car was massively hard on it's tyres generally, but seemed to have improved this, and if can improve slightly more will join the top three teams in the race more easier.


Sauber & Hulkenberg Both Have No Luck In Melbourne
Hulkenberg's Australian races in 2010, 2012 and 2013 have had two first-lap collisions, and now a DNS (did not start). Sauber have had multiple crashes too, as well as being disqualified in 2011 from an excellent 7th and 8th. Looking forward to seeing what Hulkenberg can do the rest of the year though, with a possible top drive on the line in the next year or two..


Come back for our race report, teammate battle tracker and 10 things we learnt from articles, which will be posted after every race weekend!

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Nick, F1 Hub