F1 season raises a few issues

The first race of the 2018 F1 season has certainly raised a few issues. Who is quickest, who has the upper hand?

Once again I have to admit I do not know – it will require a few more races to even attempt a prediction.

Certainly Lewis Hamilton’s excellent qualifying lap set a benchmark that must have concerned the other teams, but we have witnessed that situation many times.

The Mercedes pace in qualifying is almost always a demonstration of domination, but their actual race pace has been challenged regularly.

So what did we learn from last weekend’s season opener in Melbourne?

Hamilton was definitely the man to beat, with behind him the Ferraris of Kimi Raikkonen and Vettel, with the Red Bull of Max Verstappen out to keep them all honest.

Mercedes were in a difficult position right from the start following Valtteri Bottas’s crash into the wall which red flagged the session and meant the team had a lot of work ahead of them.

Requiring a new gearbox, the Finn received a five-grid position penalty moving him to 15th spot.

Another to suffer a penalty was local hero Daniel Ricciardo, with a three-position demotion to eighth place in the starting line – the Aussie was not happy.

He was penalised for not slowing enough under a red flag situation.

Though the stewards agreed that he had slowed dramatically they were left with no option other than to apply the law.

The reason for the red flag was reported as a piece of wire used by the official timing system that had fallen onto the track.

Odd, but rules are rules. Haas were jubilant when Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean took fifth and sixth on the grid.

They were set to prove that Mercedes team boss, Toto Wolff, had been right in his prediction following winter testing, that Haas would be the team to watch.

Hamilton was without his wingman but hung onto his position despite repeated attempts by Raikkonen to grab the lead.

Magnussen took an early opportunity and passed Verstappen for fourth place.

It looked good for the American team until the first round of pit stops when it all went pear shaped.

Magnussen pitted but was forced to stop and retire due to a loose wheel, the result of a cross threaded wheel nut on the left rear.

Incredibly, after Grosjean’s tyre change, he joined his teammate for an early shower when a loose wheel put paid to hopes of a good haul of points.

Believe it or not, the fault was traced to – you’ve guessed it – a cross threaded wheel nut, this time on the left front.

To increase the pain, the team was fined for an unsafe release, costing them R75 000 per wheel.

Meanwhile, Bottas was struggling to make up position.

The track does not offer many overtaking opportunities but he also believed he was hampered by what he referred to in an interview reported on Crash.net, as Mercedes having got its cooling estimations wrong.

He is reported as saying: “I think there was something wrong with the calculation for the cooling we estimated for today so I couldn’t really be close to other cars and couldn’t put pressure on other cars for long.

I could only do about two laps and then I had to back off and try again.” His team-mate was apparently instructed throughout the race to cool his power unit.

Temperatures were high but it certainly will not be the hottest of the season, so you can bet this is an area that will be urgently investigated back at Brackley.

Hamilton also fell foul of an unexpected technical glitch, not with the W09 but rather the team’s strategy software.

During the Virtual Safety Car period, caused by the Grosjean retirement, Hamilton believed he had enough of a lead once Vettel had pitted for a tyre change to retain his position, but was shocked when his rival appeared from the pit exit ahead of him.

He battled on closing down the gap to the now leading Vettel, but could not pass him, so finally decided to preserve his engine for another race.

With just three engines allowed per annum, it seems a sensible decision, but should such a choice even exist?

A driver is there to race – not to worry about possible future penalties impeding his results for the rest of the season.

Former top of the mid field run ners, Force India, have a serious battle on their hands if Haas can perform as well as we saw prior to their unfortunate retirements, Certainly a lot more work is the scenario for Alfa Romeo Sauber, Williams and Toro Rosso before the next race in Bahrain.

But for Mercedes and Ferrari it is business as usual and with a very confidant Ricciardo believing that Red Bull is now able to match Ferrari’s pace.

I cannot wait for round two.