Only the bravest of punters would’ve tipped Valtteri Bottas to romp into the setting Melbourne sun at such a convincing canter at the first race of the season.
As far as Australian grands prix go, the 2019 edition was an intriguing one. When the flag drops, the bullshit stops, and in the warm light of Albert Park in March preseason expectations were shredded, with Bottas’ powerful resurgence after his morale-killing 2018 season chief among the surprises.
“After a winless 2018 it feels even better.” said Bottas, who now sits atop the championship standings for the first time in his career. “Obviously for winning you need a quick car, and as a team we’ve been able to get that, even after quite a difficult winter testing.”
Indeed preseason testing suggested Mercedes would start the season on the back foot, but upgrades brought to the second half of preseason testing, the dramatically different conditions of autumnal Melbourne compared to wintery Barcelona and perhaps a Ferrari misstep delivered a performance advantage that caught the entire paddock off guard.
Race winner Valtteri Bottas of Finland and Mercedes GP celebrates on the podium during the F1 Grand Prix of Australia at Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit on March 17, 2019 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images)
The Silver Arrows bested Ferrari by 0.704 seconds in qualifying, and the Scuderia’s weekend only unravelled from there. Vettel finished off the podium and almost an entire minute behind Bottas and in so doing asked some serious questions of Maranello’s pre-race, post-preseason expectations.
“Why are we so slow?” Vettel asked helplessly deep in the second stint of the race, only to be told, “We don’t know at the moment” by his engineer.
Team principal Mattia Binotto admitted he was aiming for a great deal more from his disappointing weekend in Melbourne.
“It’s not what we were expecting,” Binotto said. “Do we understand that yet? Probably not. That’s something we need to go back and analyse.”
A wide-ranging post-mortem must be on the cards, because in neither qualifying nor the race did the Scuderia stack up to the reigning titleholder Mercedes, and with the German marque off to a flying one-two start, every race spent searching for the SF90’s hidden performance will be costly.
If there was a bright spot in Ferrari’s weekend, it was Charles Leclerc. The Monegasque wasn’t at his sparkling best in his new all-red overalls, but his pace came good on Sunday afternoon enough to be issued his first team order of the season to hold station behind the struggling Vettel late in the race despite being on the faster strategy.
It was a minor headache, but already the 21-year-old is delivering as expected.
Charles Leclerc. (Photo by Marco Canoniero/LightRocket via Getty Images)
The third season of Mercedes vs Ferrari got off to an unexpected start, but sandwiched between the two in Australia and tentatively promising to make it a three-way championship fight was Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen, whose Honda-powered RB15 finished third to score the Japanese motor manufacturer’s first podium of the turbo-hybrid era and its first since 2008.
The result validated Red Bull Racing’s switch from Renault with the expectation it would be no worse off performance-wise in exchange for works support. Just how close Honda is to Ferrari and Mercedes is difficult to read given Albert Park isn’t a particularly stern test of car or engine, but the signs are positive regardless.
Red Bull Racing would’ve been doubly pleased given its estranged partner experienced its first power unit failure just nine laps into the season when Carlos Sainz’s Renault-powered McLaren lit itself on fire with an apparent MGU-K problem.
The works Renault team’s fortunes were mixed at best. It couldn’t qualify in the top 10 and had only one car finish in the points after new signing and home hero Daniel Ricciardo succumbed to a clumsy off-track crash with a gutter seconds after lights-out.
Despite aiming to lead the midfield and score podiums this season, the team was comfortably behind Haas all weekend. It’s a blow for a manufacturer that should be achieving more.
The rookies impressed early in the weekend but struggled over a full race distance. All bar Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi outqualified their experienced teammates on Saturday, but both Alexander Albon and Lando Norris struggled to negotiate the traffic generated by Giovinazzi’s damaged car. The less said about George Russell’s Williams plight, the better. None scored points.
The race was positive news for the health of Formula One in general. Though the hoped-for shrinking of the gap between the top three teams and the midfield was only partially realised — last year’s 2.175-second gap shrunk by around 0.8 seconds — there were seven drivers who finished within 1.5 seconds of another car, suggesting following has been made at least slightly easier by the aero regulation changes made for this season.
Albert Park remains a difficult track for passing, though, so the real test will come at the wider permanent circuits coming up on the calendar.
Finally, the 2018 Australian Grand Prix was the first since the 1950s to award a point for the fastest lap, which winner Bottas duly swept despite some late-race competition from Max Verstappen.
Most drivers were indifferent about the new bonus point rule, which is available only to those in the top 10 to avoid distorting race results further down the field, but the eagerness with which so many attempted to win it late in the race suggested different feelings altogether.
It may be worth only a single championship point and is therefore unlikely to make a difference to the final title picture, but the provision of additional intrigue in the dying stages of a race when the classification tends to be settled seems set to add an extra element to the sport this season.
After a long off-season Formula One roared back to life in Australia, and though the race mightn’t have been an all-time classic, it sets us up nicely for what should be a fascinating year. So long as you’re not a Williams fan.
Jamie Mills
Roar Rookie
Nice summary Michael. There were plenty of positives that came out of the weekend as you outlined. Williams were obviously not one of them. Hopefully they can start closing the gap and getting more competitive over the next few grands prix.
Connor Bennett
Editor
Particularly after Baku last season Bottas just looked really dejected, as if he didn't have the motivation anymore to keep the fight up but like you say, a real killer instinct came out in Melbourne. He blitzed everyone off the line, it wasn't even a challenge going into the first corner! "Playing the political long game" looks exactly like what he's doing. Especially in his comments before qualifying about being a No. 2 driver and knowing his place as the rookie driver and team orders etc. spoke volumes of his maturity and understanding of the politics in the sport and the Ferrari garage, something I don't think Vettel (fighting Webber) and Verstappen (fighting Ricciardo) really had at the same age... even though had at the very early stages of their career, a kind of level of respect for where they sit in the team and how they need to develop as a team player as well as their own driver. Obviously as an Aussie I hope Ricciardo heads up the midfield, but Hulkenberg can really fly under the radar as he has the last few seasons and Haas are on for a big season if they can maintain early signs. Kimi hitting Q3 and a top 10 was beautiful to watch, he's such a good driver regardless of car or race situation.
Michael Lamonato
Expert
I'm loving this all-new Bottas! It feels like he's developed a real killer instinct that has perhaps been missing in recent years. Is it the threat of Esteban Ocon in his garage that's activated him? It's hard to say, but I very much hope we see him contending all season long. It won't be so easy in future races, though — Hamilton had some car damage that will have accounted for some of that difference, so the next challenge is to withstand what will be a mighty fightback from the reigning champion. Ferrari is a real mystery. I was a bit disappointed Leclerc didn't have a crack at Vettel before asking permission, but I suppose he's playing the political long game and keeping everyone onside until he's fully comfortable. It'd be good if the team can get its act together soon enough to give him a shot at the title. The midfield looks fantastically close — way too close to call right now! Haas looks like it's having a quick start, similar to last year. The rest of the teams left a bit on the table through error and strategy, so we'll see how it shakes out in the next few weekends.
Michael Lamonato
Expert
There's definitely still a long way to go, but it's far from the start Renault needs. The team is aiming to be a step beyond the midfield and close enough to the top three to pick off an occasional podium this season; buried in the grid after qualifying and finishing behind Haas means they've essentially made no progress. That said, Haas has always been competitive at Albert Park, which itself is a bit of a weird circuit. I think a fair few teams and drivers will have felt they didn't execute a perfect weekend, so we'll wait and see what the field looks like once the European season rolls around. As for Ricciardo, this is absolutely a risk. Hopefully it comes good for him, or good enough that his stock remains high if he has to abandon ship somewhere down the line. Assuming he beats Hulkenberg, of course!
Connor Bennett
Editor
Stunning drive from Bottas! He made Hamilton look second rate, and it's not like Lewis had a bad race, he still finished second, but Bottas was SO dominant he made everyone look average. I hope for his sake he can genuinely challenge for the title. It would be nice to see another Rosberg-esque charge at Hamilton's reign from within the team. I loved the intensity and strategy around the fastest lap extra point. Bottas saying repeatedly "I want 26 points today" on the team radio was great to hear, the extra point will hopefully add a lot of extra excitement, tension and strategy at the end of races. I think it has the potential to add a lot to any given race. Ferrari was pretty disappointing, although Leclerc showed very good signs later in the race, it's a pity he had to back off Vettel despite him comfortably cruising (what should have been) past him but that's just the way of the sport, he made a point that he can and will keep up with the preferred driver which is all he needed to do. Haas looking very much improved from seasons gone by, could be a contender to lead the midfield in a nice battle with Renault if they can avoid more speed bumps.
freddieeffer
Roar Rookie
Thanks Michael. Great summary. I know its a long way to go, but Renault/Riccardo will either have put the worst behind them with the first race, or it's going to be a long season of being in the mirrors of the big boys and then getting lapped or having dnf's. This could be a big career blunder for Riccardo. Sad if that's the case by season's end. It's no surprise to me that Honda clearly won the engine battle over Renault. I'm sure too their executives were having a satisfying chuckle to themselves with their painful and ugly 2018 divorce over, and with moving onwards and upwards; most likely to be serious contenders in 2019.