Formula One accelerated into its new era at the season opening Australian Grand Prix and despite all the excitement surrounding the latest regulation upheaval, the reception from most was lukewarm at best.
Whilst the 57-lap race delivered a result that pleased the masses, with the long overdue victory for Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari – the overall grand prix itself failed to wow spectators.
The faster, more aggressive looking and wider cars with their added aerodynamics, suffered immensely when having to follow other cars – particularly in a racing situation.
One of the few overtakes that did occur during the grand prix involved a two-pronged assault on Fernando Alonso, who had admirably been defending tenth for most of the race in his maligned McLaren.
Esteban Ocon in the Force India had hounded the Spaniard for several laps and eventually the Renault of Nico Hulkenberg had joined the train. It wasn’t until Lap 52 where the chasing pair had launched themselves three-abreast into Turn 1, relegating Alonso to twelfth.
As spectacular as it may have seemed, on the following lap the McLaren driver pulled into the garage to retire from the race with a broken floor – which was the reason believed to have allowed Ocon and Hulkenberg pass.
The notion of cars having record-breaking pace was also disproven, with the fastest lap set during the race by Kimi Räikkönen falling two seconds behind the Albert Park record of 1:24.125, set by Michael Schumacher in 2004.
As deriding as this may all sound about Formula One’s new direction, it was ultimately what was on show for the curtain raising event of 2017.
However there are some, including this writer that call for patience and a larger sample size, before truly writing off this latest formula.
2007-world champion Räikkönen, who has driven a variety of cars across his 250+ grand prix starts, had a similar perspective and stated that “it was never going to be easy,” to overtake, urging that “some circuits will be more easy and some more harder.”
Should perhaps the question be posed, whether this formula is being interpreted the wrong way?
Perhaps the intended outcome of making the drivers work harder behind the wheel to earn their plaudits, is to truly grind and lie in wait for the ultimate opportunity.
Vettel bided his time behind Hamilton in the opening stint, whilst pushing his car and the more durable Pirelli tyres to their limits to match the Mercedes AMG on pace, it was the pit-stops that yielded the lead to the German.
Another classic example of building to such a crescendo comes from the era of racing to which most reminisce as the ‘golden period’, even though overtaking was just as difficult. The infamous, title-deciding affair at the 1989 Japanese Grand Prix saw Ayrton Senna relentlessly pursue his McLaren teammate Alain Prost, before the climax on Lap 46 which saw the two collide.
The contention here is that the great battles in Formula One are perhaps the slow burning ones, that often yield a more satisfying result.
If a race with umpteen position changes within one lap is what viewers desire, then there was little to fault in the previous set of regulations – apart from the disparity between the top teams, which another year of development could have seen Mercedes AMG rivalled anyway.
But such is the fickle nature of the sport and its followers, where dissatisfaction is always rife despite the efforts to appease the majority.
To conclude then, if by chance this new formula is ostensibly written off following the 2017 season, let it be said that the latest iteration of FOM (in conjunction directly with the FIA) take charge of the decision making in lieu of the self-centred Strategy Group – whose sole aim is to benefit individual teams of whom are represented on the board, rather than address the concerns of the sport at large.
Poacher, turned gamekeeper Ross Brawn is qualified enough to identify and address areas of the sport that need overhauling. Along with his band of boffins and the marketing nous at the disposal of Liberty Media, Formula One will be in safe hands going into the future.
However, after one race it is too early to adopt the ‘sharpen the pitchforks and cry blood’ mentality – because if the Silver Arrows and the Prancing Horse lock horns for the remainder of the season, we’ll have the makings of a modern classic.
And that would be a strange epitaph for this new era of the world’s premier motorsport.
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