F1 – Australian Grand Prix Race Lowdown
Before you get charged up of assuming there is nothing wrong with the new rule, remember orange and apple are not the same fruit. Or wet and dry are not the same condition. Throw safety cars, rain and difficult circumstances into a race, needless to say, it will always end up with a great spectacle.
Magic Button!! Jenson drove one of his signature races yet again. With perfect strategy on his own call, he made Lewis eat some humble Australian pie in the race. With only two races under his belt in a McLaren, he managed to out qualify Lewis in qualifying and race. Summing up a perfect weekend for the reigning champion, Lewis burst out at the team and made a himself a bad loser.
The stop that shouldn’t be made in the first place. Lewis storming charge through the field was ended by this particular stop. To add up his misery, Mark Webber plunged into the back of his car, more on that later.
“All I know is the guys do, always, a fantastic job, but the strategy was not right,” he said after the race. “Everyone else in front of me did one stop and for some reason I did two.” – Lewis Hamilton
From Hamilton quote above, it seems he was suggesting that the Team preferred Button to win the race and therefore pit him one extra time. The phrase “some reason” is indeed a strong allegation towards the team, I agree with James Allen on this. I would thought any mechanics, engineers or team boss would definitely get what it mean straight away. Lewis has exceptional skill behind the wheel, but if he keeps threading on this path, he will suffer the wrath of the team. And when that happens, Lewis might suddenly look terrible at race weekend. Lewis has got to learn, mistakes occurred both ways. But humility in defeat is what makes a champion. Have McLaren ever said something bad in public about him when he crashed out of his stupidity before? You get my point. He needed to learn how to reciprocate. Recently, Lewis said he understood the team’s decision, however I’m not convinced that his statement was made with full honesty. But then again, this is just how I see it, only Lewis knows his heart.
Michael Schumacher has stepped into the point of no return in F1. It’s that period in a driver’s career when they suffer what initially looks like a dip in form, but as two races go by and there’s no sign of a turnaround, it becomes an indicator that perhaps the twilight of his racing career had passed. It’s evident that he had lost the effervescent spark on the track. And faced with faster, tougher, younger and hungrier competition, he has suddenly become the grandfathers of the game. What happened? Let’s face it, the bar on him was set too high.
Michael needs time, the old him is not easy to get back. Unlike many predicted, he is not there yet at the moment. But knowing his work rate, discipline, talent and perseverance, at one point later, if he keeps his chin up, he will be back. To be fair this time, he was pushed off the circuit by Fernando at the start and damaged his car. Otherwise he would be up there and perhaps challenging for the podium. Whatever it is, Lauda said he will be back in Malaysia remember? Let’s see if this legend knows what he’s talking about.
Robert Kubica underlines his talent in an inferior machinery. Hats off to a fantastic drive. 2nd place with an inferior Renault, you couldn’t asked more from him.
Felipe Massa despite his poor form in practice and qualifying, made the best of the race by visiting the final place on the podium. Felipe was never strong in the beginning of the season for some reason. Usually he runs into his best form when the European season starts. So watch out for him.
Fernando Alonso’s early spun after contact with Button meant spending most of his race looking at the gearbox of his teammate. He gave us tremendous show defending against Hamilton, as usual himself, never made situation easy for Lewis to have a go. Lewis can testify to that.
A mixed day for Lotus Racing at the Melbourne Grand Prix saw Heikki Kovalainen finished the race in 13th place, once again ahead of the other new teams, but Jarno Trulli failed to make the start due to a hydraulics issue on the grid.
Sebastian Vettel again had the pole, started the race well and comfortably leading it. However lady luck was not smiling again. The car suffered from brake failure. A cruel early season for him. The fastest man delivered every time but every time his team succumbed to some sort of failure. With the fastest car on the grid, Red Bull has done little for the championship title chase.
The home hero final charge ended up with a controversial incident with Lewis. Lewis called him “silly” after the race. Looking at the replay, he was trying to profit from Lewis overtaking move on Alonso. But since Alonso defended well, Lewis had to backed off. Webber predicting that Lewis had sealed off the move, was never off his throttle. Boom!! They collided. It was a case of misjudgement on Webber’s side.
To conclude, it was a breathtaking race. Lots of drama, lots of overtaking, the stuffs which Formula One was supposed to be built on. Fantastic weekend for the fans of Formula One finally.
Malaysian GP is a few days away, and looking at the weather outside my window these few days, it’s possible that rain race number 2 is imminent.
Editorial : Mu’az Zakaria
Image Source : f1fanatic, Mercedes GP, McLaren Mercedes, Lotus Racing, Renault F1
