F1: The first two races

After the months of winter waiting, in the blink of an eye, we’re two rounds into the 2013 F1 season. And already it’s throwing a few surprises.

Let’s cast our minds back a week to:

Austraila

A few things stood out as surprising. Firstly McLarens pace. Or rather the lack of it.

McLaren finished 2012 with arguably the best car on the grid. And won the final race with Jenson Button. Then, on the second day of winter tests, JB’s time looked very fast considering the ‘green’ nature of the Jerez circuit. But we get to Melbourne and things have radically changed. I wonder if, in the current era of F1, McLaren’s approach to create a new car every year is slightly outdated. Most of the top teams now just evolve the previous car. Some solace can be taken from the Ferrari situation in 2012, where a bad car somehow challenged for the title. But, that car had Alonso at the wheel and while I’m a Button fan, he needs the car to be more to his liking.

Lotus won the race, and did so fairly easily. The car looks much easier on it’s tyres than most on the grid, and Kimi used it to his advantage nicely. A big contrast to Red Bull who in the race had no answer for the Lotus, nor the Ferrari of Alonso.

But the biggest surprise (thought it wasn’t actually that surprising in terms of strategy) was the performance of Adrian Sutil. We’ve seen cars from P11/P2 come through on strategy like this before, but what was especially impressive was there seemed to be little rust in the German’s race craft given his absence from the sport in 2012.

All round, a good first race – but still a few questions to be answered.

Malaysia

Then there was Malaysia yesterday, the race was pretty good, and with a very interesting under current.

A lot has already been written and broadcast of the actions of Sebastian Vettel in the race, and it shows a ruthless desire to win at all costs that highly Schumacher-esque.

“It puts a lot of heat on certain people for sure. Inevitably it does, because unfortunately there is no rewind button.” – Mark Webber

The thing is, there’s a bit of a catch 22 here. If, as Red Bull asked, Vettel had remained in position it would have robbed us of a great battle between the two team mates. And inter team racing is usually one the best dog fights F1 offers. We’ve seen it between Webber and Vettel before at Turkey in 2010. Then again in that race between Button and Hamilton. The latter partnership also going at it again in Canada in 2011. Two of those three examples ended with at least one DNF in the team, and history shows similar outcomes.

So, while I understand the Red Bull wish for a 1-2 finish, a part of me is glad Vettel ignored the team orders. Though, here comes the ‘but‘. F1 is, and has always been, a team sport. The drivers are employed by their teams to do a job, and if that job is to stay put, then that’s what the driver should do. Like Webber did at Silverstone in 2011, and like Rosberg did yesterday, but more on that one in a moment.

Vettel had already dropped in my estimations for a number of reasons, and, when you’re on top there’s already a target on you. As Martin Brundle pointed out in Sky’s  coverage, Vettel was booed in Austraila last week – an event I can see becoming more regular if Seb continues down the path of ‘win at all costs’.

Now, onto Rosberg. While that’s how it should be done, it was partly his own doing based on the race I saw. Twice Nico overtook Lewis on the back straight, only for Lewis to then get the DRS advantage on the pit straight. This could have be Rosberg trying to show his pace, granted, but also it could have just been him attempting the pass in the wrong place. Had he (again, if he was allowed) made the move down the pit straight, he’d possibly have been away from Lewis.

But, he didn’t, and he wasn’t. And far more importantly was the grace with which he took it after the race. Plus points for all involved, even if realistically, they could have switched them and let Rosberg head off after the Bulls.

The fallout from this will be one to watch with great interest.

As a quick finisher, I have to mention Hamilton going to the wrong pit, which was brilliant. Thanks for that one!