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Ferrari and McLaren will fight for the win and perhaps the world title in Melbourne, with Mercedes scrapping for the final few points, according to the preseason time sheets – and everyone knows they mean nothing.
Four months after the chequered flag fell in Abu Dhabi, Formula One is set to return to the competitive arena with the season-opening Australian Grand Prix on Sunday.
Swapping the snow from Spanish testing for the baking sun in Melbourne, the blistering quick hypersofts for the ultrasofts, and going from practice games to business, Formula One is about to get serious.
Based on the preseason time sheets, Ferrari fans may be buoyed ahead of this campaign, but those in the know fear there may not be that much to cheer about.
The Scuderia’s race-pace in Spain was lacking by as much as half a second compared with Mercedes, but it is that way for most teams.
Throw in that Ferrari’s SF71H engine is an oil-guzzler, which at times lets out a breath of oil mist, and Sebastian Vettel’s chances of back-to-back Australian Grand Prix wins are not looking great – nor are Ferrari’s chances of a first Drivers’ title since Kimi Räikkönen won it in 2007.
As such, it could be an easy romp to the 1-2 for Mercedes, with Lewis Hamilton chasing his third win Down Under and a positive start to his quest for a fifth world title. That is unless Red Bull can upset the party.
Daniel Ricciardo was third-fastest in testing, with Max Verstappen saying that if Red Bull can get within 0.3 seconds of Mercedes in qualifying, they will be able to challenge in the races because that’s where they are a bit closer.
However, as Mercedes opted against doing glory runs in preseason, one can only base their qualifying form on previous seasons. And given that it was epic, there is no reason to believe that they have lost any of that ability in their W09 car.
But while it appears that Formula One’s top three will remain the same, albeit possibly in a different order, the midfield battle is where all the excitement will lie.
Renault, McLaren, Toro Rosso, Haas and last year’s “best of the rest” team, Force India, mixed it up in testing, with a resurgence from Renault and McLaren.
While Renault showed pace, their newest customer, McLaren, showed that – and very poor reliability.
A did not finish in Melbourne, could have Fernando Alonso downgrading his new Renault power unit to an F2, if not a GP3 unit. However, if Red Bull finish on the podium with that same power unit, the Spaniard may have to ask himself where the problem really lies.
As for Toro Rosso and Honda, they completed the final preseason test with just one engine, raising hopes that this year’s Red Bull junior team could be in the hunt and could open engine doors for Red Bull’s future.
For Williams and Sauber, though, this year could get off to a difficult start.
Williams were slowest of all throughout the final preseason test, but only marginally ahead of Sauber.
Unless some design guru has an epiphany ahead of Australia, there may be more pain than points for these two teams. – TEAMtalk Media
