Australia provides an appetizer for the 2011 F1 season

Melbourne took on the task of staging the first GP of the 2011 season and did a pretty good job. Sure it’s a street circuit and doesn’t show up some of the real pace of the cars, and the new DRS systems couldn’t be used to their full potential but it was a good, interesting, and lively start to the year. I’m not sure that Bahrain would have offered the same experience.

So Vettel took his first win of the year and started his title defence in the best way possible, Hamilton showed that he’s not going to let Vettel get away if he can help it and Alonso showed that he is top dog at Ferrari. Button, Webber and Massa all had weekends that they would rather have gone differently but they all scored points which was important last year so they shouldn’t be as downhearted as guys like Kobayahsi who thought he had done so but then got disqualified.

The results showed that the Red Bull has massive raw pace and that without the mistakes and unreliability of last year they are going to be hard to peg back, McLaren did an amazing job at turning around a slow car in the pre-season testing and the Ferrari doesn’t seem to have that final edge that the others do. The Renault deserves a mention for the fact that it ran third for the entire race in the hands of Vitaly Petrov – it’s going to be such a shame that Robert Kubica is not in that car this year.

The reason that last year was so close at the end was that there were five guys all taking points off of each other – including Vettel and Webber so if Webber remains off the pace this year and Vettel has the full support of Red Bull it’s hard to see how McLaren or Ferrari can catch him. Vettel seems more mature so far so perhaps he can finally curb those costly errors that might so easily have seen him miss out on the championship last year. Alonso and the McLaren boys are going to have a tough year keeping up it seems – hopefully they get closer rather than farther away.

There is some reason for hope, the Red Bulls both had to stop before the McLarens because of tyre wear on Sunday, at tracks where the wear rate is higher that could carry a higher penalty and we might see the new tyres actually coming into play.

Bring on Malaysia

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Testing over, Australia is approaching

So testing for the 2011 season is done, the teams have their data and we have the times. There isn’t many surprises within the testing times though I would have expected more from McLaren – not another year spent catching up? If Red Bull stop throwing away points McLaren don’t have a chance. Ferrari should push them hard and expect Alonso to want that title.

Australia is an odd place, it doesn’t seem to be that indicative of the season and doesn’t always show the true pace of the cars. We also know that you can win by being clever here as Jenson Button has shown. Don’t expect the Red Bull to be off the pace though, or for the brakes to explode, they will be hard to beat.

The tyres will be the great unknown in Melbourne as there isn’t really anywhere to use the new rear wing or Drag reduction device, the teams have been saying that they don’t last as long as the Bridgestones and so we can expect more pit stops. That could be a good or a bad thing, with more stops comes more chance of something going wrong, but also more confusion about who is where on the track, though obviously the regulatory tyre change will still cause some of that. The key factor with the tyres will be not the wear rate or how many times you have to stop but the difference in speed on fresh and worn tyres. If there isn’t much difference then they won’t play much of a part but if there is a large difference then you’ll see some overtaking going on.

The battle for the midfield will be interesting this year with several of the teams showing promise, the lack of Kubica will hurt Renault here and gives Williams etc… the chance but ultimately it will depend on how the cars perform and there has been very little between them. The tyre wear rates will be more important to these teams who tend to have less downforce than the guys at the sharp end and so will see increased wear, is this enough to cause these teams to stop more? We’ll have to wait and see.

The battle for the back of the grid will again be contested by the new teams, can they improve on last year? Let’s hope so, let’s hope that they can start bothering the Toro Rosso’s and start troubling cars that fall out of position. Perhaps a point on those days where something has reduced the field? They can hope but I think it’s Lotus who stand the best chance.

All eyes look to Albert Part with anticipation – it’s good to start in Australia again, I’ve missed it starting there.

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Testing times in F1

Three tests down and the last about to start before the 2011 season kicks off two weeks late in Melbourne after the cancellation postponement of the Bahrain GP.

2011 looks to be a stellar season in F1 – did I just use the word ’stellar’? – with Red Bull continuing their position as the team to beat and Ferrari showing good form. McLaren will have a fast car too, they always do and they have a well earned reputation for improving their car throughout the season.

The tyres are likely to play a key role this year too with the Pirellis not lasting as long during testing as last years Bridgestones. It will be an interesting year as during the tyre war a few years back it took teams nearly a whole season to effectively make the switch from one supplier, now all the teams are doing it together but will that give teams that have made a switch in recent history an advantage?

A number of the teams have had their moments in testing but the major teams have all shown that they have the pace over longer runs too, most of the teams have put the mileage in as well, some doing several GPs worth in a day of testing to ensure that they gather the most information possible. but without the Bahrain test things may get interesting when we get to the hot countries and there hasn’t been any testing in those temperatures.

Only a few more weeks before everyone lines up on the grid for the first race.

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No Bahrain? Australia to start? What will Ferrari and Nico Rosberg do?

With the political unrest currently in the Middle East spreading into Bahrain over the past week the world of F1 seems set to end up making some sort of political statement. They have a scheduled test and then the first GP of the year both set to happen in the next month in a country that is beginning to show the same dissatisfaction as other Middle Eastern countries and bar Iran they have succumbed to the pressure and had to do something.

F1 will want to keep it’s hands clean in the political sphere to avoid harming and future deals with either the current or any future power holders in the country but without a swift end to the protests it can’t justify aligning itself with any faction that would be the case were the GP to be held. I suspect that the situation will have calmed down for the race though the test will be moved to Spain.

What would a cancellation mean for the season though? Well it would deny Ferrari the chance to run away with a victory like last year with a car that likes the Sakir circuit and Nico Rosberg would be denied the chance to trounce Michael Schumacher at one of his favourite tracks. But apart from that? Not much would change, we’d have one less race to watch, but it’s not the most exciting track of the year, Bernie’s pockets would probably be a little less full, but I’m sure he can cope (he’ll probably pass the loss on to the teams anyway).

So F1 don’t hold turn away and take the money, make the right decision based on what’s happening.

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