Just how fast is the Red Bull? And other points of interest from OZ 2011.

Firstly I must say sorry for the late post. I have been at my laptop properly since I watched the Grand Prix. I have no excuse.

The Race:

The Australian Grand Prix happened on the weekend. It was not the most spectacular race in the history of the world but it definitely was not dull. It had a lot of intriguing elements, some real surprises, some big battles, especially between Button/Massa, Webber/Alonso/Petrov and Buemi/Force India, and a sign of things to come in the season. It showed that there are good things to come this season, many things including some unexpectedly quick cars and some equally unexpectedly talented rookies, which really does make me optimistic for the next 18 races. However the main question the F1 world is asking is just how dominant the RB7 actually is?

The Front Runners:

Vettel won the race comfortably without his KERS system. That much is perfectly clear it is just about the fastest car on the grid. But Vettel's dominance was not a simple as it ended up. Hamilton got an appalling start and lost a few seconds to Vettel in the opening lap after having to deal with Webber's car. Once Hamilton was safe from Webber he would go on to reel Vettel in, sometimes at over a second a lap till he was about 1.8 behind the Red Bull, just highlighting how much of a miracle the revised Mclaren is. After Hamilton damaged his floor after the first stop the result from second position back was not really in doubt (apart from him leaving the track but I will speak about that piece of controversy later on).

But the interesting thing about the question I posed earlier is the performance of Webber. He was not very fast all day, would have lost out to Jenson if it were not for his (unfortunately deserved) drive-through and did lose out not only to Fernando Alonso's Ferrari but more outrageously, Vitaly Petrov's Renault. Petrov and Alonso both drove great races, Petrov after a grest start, Alonso after a terrible one and making a 3 stop strategy work to is advantage. They both were faster than Webber for the best part of the race and those two and Button were both faster at any point in the race then Webber in the sister Red Bull.

For Webber, Button, Massa and Petrov's team-mate Heidfeld and to a certain extent it was humiliating, as they were all battered in relative terms by their team-mates. However the humiliation was worse for Webber as not only did Webber take one more pit-stop than his team-mate who was a second a lap faster than him all day but he was beaten not only by the Ferrari and the Renault but was not as fast as a car that, until Sunday in any form, had not completed a race distance.

So really all I can give as an answer to this question is: In the hands of Vettel the Red Bull is scary fast, the fastest car in the grid and it puts him in a great position in a potential championship fight with Hamilton in that revised Mclaren. However so far the Red Bull is not even as theoretically fast as the Ferrari in Webber's hand and that can only mean than Webber's career could have peaked and therefore he is not going to challenge for the Drivers crown.

It does genuinely seem to me that in terms of front runners Vettel, Hamilton and Alonso are on another level in terms of their ability to drive their cars quickly and not just quickly, more quickly than their team mates. I am seriously thinking that is going to be a 3 way fight for the championship much like the fight between Piquet, Prost and Mansell in 1986.

The Midfield Runners:

Now it is not just those three and the coming of age for Russian Vitaly Petrov who deserve praise from that race. Aside from the disqualification Sauber had an awesome race. Kobayashi was quick and made a 2 stop race work really well from and I (as most of the other F1 fans) is looking forward to what he can do this season. But the real star of the whole race (in my opinion) was Mexican Sergio Perez. Not only did he get to overtake Vettel during the race but he also managed to do something which even Pirelli thought to be impossible: Start the race on hard tires, and finish on the super softs and make only the one tire stop. I'm not sure if the probably illegal rear wing had anything to do with that but that has to be one of the best debut races since Jacques Villeneuve in 1996 or Lewis Hamilton in 2007.

Other good races came from Buemi in the much improved Toro Rosso and both Sutil and Di Resta doing well in the not particularly fast Force India. I expect a big battle between Sauber, Toro Rosso, Williams, Force India and the Green Lotus if that gets it's reliability sorted out.

Mercedes were not as fast as I had expected them to be but in terms of the race they did not receive a fair crack. After Algersuari hit the back of Schumacher damaging his suspension and Barrichello hit the side of Rosberg possibly damaging something in the engine the car did not really get a chance to shine and it amazingly puts Mercedes 11th in the constructors championship as they were the first team to have a double retirement. I do not doubt that they will get more luck in Malaysia and the long side by side straights will show the hand of the fastest car in a straight line on the grid.

Barrichello seemed to behave more like a rookie than the most experienced driver in history all throughout the weekend. He spent almost as much time in the gravel trap as he did on track and in the race attempted what can only be described as an overly ambitious overtaking move on Rosberg and eventually both drivers paid the price for Barrichello's blind ambition. The Williams does not look a fast car so maybe him and Maldonado will have to work hard in order to get that Williams ahead in the midfield scrap but I think the team would rather score points through attrition than see the teams lead driver attempt to race into the points and the wreck the car scoring no points and racking up repair bills, which is what it appeared to be all he was doing.

...And Bringing up the rear:

I was willing to give them the benefit of doubt that last season was just unlucky at that they could pull themselves together and prove that they deserved to be in F1...that is until I saw the joke of a driver line up, the fact I don't think the Car is any different to last year's just with a new paint job, the fact that despite the season starting two weeks late the first anybody saw of the car properly was with 3 minutes left of Friday Practise to the fact that Liuzzi was 1.5 seconds of the 107% time and his team mate was a full 5 seconds slower than the 107% time which all drivers, even rookie D'Ambrosio in the Virgin managed to qualify under and the fact that they were rightfully told that they would not be allowed to race as they would just get in everyone else way. I want to see all the teams race in F1 but not all teams race where it does genuinely seem that one team is just taking the piss out of the sport. They should be shown the F1 door and then we can have a grid of cars and drivers who all deserve to race.

The drivers championship looks as such:

1. Vettel. 25

2. Hamilton. 18

3. Petrov. 15

4. Alonso. 12

5. Webber. 10

6. Button. 8

7. Massa. 6

8. Buemi. 4

9. Sutil. 2

10. Di Resta. 1

And the constructors championship looks as such:

1. Red Bull Infiniti. 35

2. Mclaren Mercedes. 26

3. Ferrari. 18

4. Renault. 15

5. Toro Rosso Ferrari. 4

6. Force India Mercedes. 3

Next up there is Malaysia. Despite it's tough corners I believe this to be a power circuit and it should be interesting to see the following aspects:

1) Will Red Bull use KERS?

2) Will Sauber be re-instated into the Australian Grand Prix results?

3) Can Mercedes get themselves into the points fights?

4) Can Petrov keep his form up?

5) Will Hispania get into the race?

I shall be discussing this and other points of interest in a couple of weeks.

Signing off,

Nick

Quick Edit: Sauber have unfortunately decided not to appeal their DQ which is a shame for the great drives they both put in.