Australian GP - Early surprises in Albert Park
Melbourne, 26 March
Since winter testing ended, all the talk has been about how the first race of the season would be a step into the unknown because of all the rule changes introduced for this year. However, it’s fair to say that for Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro, the surprises arrived one day earlier than expected, in this afternoon’s qualifying and they were not particularly pleasant ones, with Fernando Alonso setting the fifth fastest time and Felipe Massa only eighth, both performances failing to live up to expectations.
The actual positions are not that bad, especially when one considers Fernando’s earlier prediction that this year, an excellent grid position would be less important than in the past, given the expected need for more pit stops. However, what is astonishing is the fact that pole position was set in a time of 1.23.529, while our Spanish driver’s best lap was a 1. 24.974, almost one and a half seconds slower, which in Formula 1 terms is a very substantial gap. Less surprising is the fact that pole went to reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel, given that the Red Bulls have shown great pace throughout the winter tests. The German shares the front row with Lewis Hamilton’s McLaren, while Mark Webber starts behind his team-mate in third and Jenson Button is behind his team-mate in fourth. Fernando shares the third row with sixth place Vitaly Petrov for Renault and Felipe finds himself on the outside of Nico Rosberg, seventh for Mercedes.
The Australian Grand Prix always produces plenty of excitement and, assuming you keep out of trouble in the mad dash that is the opening lap at Albert Park, a driver’s next priority is getting his car to the finish, which means having good reliability. Will the new rules make a big difference tomorrow? Maybe less so than expected: KERS was already used and perfected in 2009, the moveable rear wing, which is used constantly in free practice and qualifying, can only be used in certain situations and once a lap in the race and the Pirelli tyres appear to be showing lower levels of degradation than had been expected. As team principal Stefano Domenicali said this evening in Melbourne, there is no point getting in a state about the result of qualifying. Tomorrow is what counts and fifth and eighth places should allow Fernando and Felipe to bring home points, which is the key to success in what is going to be yet another very long season.
Since winter testing ended, all the talk has been about how the first race of the season would be a step into the unknown because of all the rule changes introduced for this year. However, it’s fair to say that for Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro, the surprises arrived one day earlier than expected, in this afternoon’s qualifying and they were not particularly pleasant ones, with Fernando Alonso setting the fifth fastest time and Felipe Massa only eighth, both performances failing to live up to expectations.
The actual positions are not that bad, especially when one considers Fernando’s earlier prediction that this year, an excellent grid position would be less important than in the past, given the expected need for more pit stops. However, what is astonishing is the fact that pole position was set in a time of 1.23.529, while our Spanish driver’s best lap was a 1. 24.974, almost one and a half seconds slower, which in Formula 1 terms is a very substantial gap. Less surprising is the fact that pole went to reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel, given that the Red Bulls have shown great pace throughout the winter tests. The German shares the front row with Lewis Hamilton’s McLaren, while Mark Webber starts behind his team-mate in third and Jenson Button is behind his team-mate in fourth. Fernando shares the third row with sixth place Vitaly Petrov for Renault and Felipe finds himself on the outside of Nico Rosberg, seventh for Mercedes.
The Australian Grand Prix always produces plenty of excitement and, assuming you keep out of trouble in the mad dash that is the opening lap at Albert Park, a driver’s next priority is getting his car to the finish, which means having good reliability. Will the new rules make a big difference tomorrow? Maybe less so than expected: KERS was already used and perfected in 2009, the moveable rear wing, which is used constantly in free practice and qualifying, can only be used in certain situations and once a lap in the race and the Pirelli tyres appear to be showing lower levels of degradation than had been expected. As team principal Stefano Domenicali said this evening in Melbourne, there is no point getting in a state about the result of qualifying. Tomorrow is what counts and fifth and eighth places should allow Fernando and Felipe to bring home points, which is the key to success in what is going to be yet another very long season.
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