In the best possible result for Formula One fans, the deck of cars in the running for podiums and points has been well and truly shuffled.
As the first race of the season, Albert Park is always a little bit different. None of the teams are quite sure who the rivals they should be trying to race are, how the cars will perform, or how the tyres will behave.
Put this on a tight, twisty track with heavy braking zones, and the race is rarely boring.
Give the teams entirely new technical regulations and this creates uncertainty of outcome. Congratulations Formula One management – you’ve given the people a spectacle they can’t take their eyes off.
After many people complained about the ‘predictable’ outcome of races towards the end of last year, those fans would have enjoyed the refreshment of the first race in 2014 more than a dip in Albert Park lake.
We saw after this initial outing on Sunday some of the changes spectators will have to get used to for the coming year.
Firstly, the McLarens are back. Kevin Magnussen recovered from a very near collision at the start to finish third on track, second officially, in his debut race.
While never really challenging the leaders, he stayed out of trouble and showed consistent pace – a cool head in a car much more reliable than last year’s MP4-28.
Jenson Button also drove with outstanding determination to come home just behind his teammate from an initial tenth on the grid.
A McLaren pit stop strategy that showed real initiative gave Button the room on a track he’s done so well at in the past, showing that the speed which deserted his car last year has returned to challenge for championship wins once more.
Secondly, watch out for Williams. While Felipe Massa was the unfortunate bystander in a first corner melee, Valtteri Bottas climbed through the pack from 15th on the grid to as high as sixth before a collision with the wall forced him into an extra pit stop.
He still managed to manoeuvre his way back through the field to finish sixth and was eventually reclassified fifth, doubling Williams’ point scoring tally for a dismal 2013 season.
Bottas’ courage, clean racing and control of the car yesterday was obvious, and he looks to be very comfortable in his second – and much brighter – season with the team.
Force India and Toro Rosso both showed some potential across the weekend, with all four of the respective drivers finishing the race in the points after final classification.
Special mention must be made of Daniil Kvyat for shaking things up in his own way in his debut race, becoming the youngest driver ever to score a point.
Even Caterham looked at times to have improved on their lowly status from 2013, and there is nothing an Australian crowd likes more than an underdog.
Finally, there have been some teams who appear to haven’t quite got the hang of things yet.
Whether this is because they’ve had a bad weekend, or they are going to struggle all year long it’s probably too early to say. But Lotus, Ferrari and Red Bull had a race weekend they’d rather not remember.
These are teams who have been running near the top of the championship over the last three or four seasons, and their cars looked to be lacking driveability and/or reliability across the weekend.
If someone had said 12 months ago this is what would happen they’d have been looked at like they had three heads, but given the radical changes the sport has seen, it’s not that hard to believe.
Most fans who turned up in Melbourne on the weekend probably didn’t expect the race outcome they got. But more importantly than that, it entertained them because they got something they didn’t expect.
This uncertainty of outcome went missing from Formula One in the second half of 2013, but the technical and rule changes have returned it, and sport has struck gold with the first race of 2014.
Nico Rosberg might have stood on the top step of the podium, but the fans were the real winners.
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