So after months of anticipation, we now know what the new Formula 1 regulations are all about. I found the Australian Grand Prix to be a mixture of a Boy's Own story, superb qualifying scenarios and a lot of excellent racing which was rather spoilt for me by some rather amateurish and contrived drama.
First there was the Ross Brawn fairy tale. If ever there was an example of Bernie Ecclestone writing the perfect script this was it. There wasn't a dry eye in the place! For years, if you ! wanted to win a Grand Prix, other than by default, you had to be in a silver or a red car. Suddenly we had the sight of not one, but two strange looking white and fluorescent yellow vehicles showing everyone else in the race just what it was all about. Incredible stuff! It reminded me of James Hunt's first ever Grand Prix victory in the 1970's in a team that had been set up almost for fun by the eccentric Lord Hesketh. Now we hear that F1's leading designer has quit Ferrari to team up again with Ross Brawn. The Brawn and Byrne Show It's all too much! Next thing we know Formula 1 will be run every evening as a TV sit-com! Fortunately it touned out to be an April fool hoax! I spoke to Rory personally to check this out, so you Ferrari fans can relax.It had to be the most unpredictable qualifying session for years. One minute we had Webber in top spot, then seconds later he was down in 12th place, then it was Massa, only to find himself on the edge of the non-qualif! ication cliff seconds later. Stunning! It's what's been missin! g for ye ars.
The cars look a bit of a handful, except for the Brawn (a team name surely designed with newspaper headline writers in mind), but despite all the doom and gloom merchants predicting how ugly they would look, I thought they looked the part. Amazing the difference big fat slicks make.
There were two areas that somewhat spoiled the show for me. One was the incredibly tedious maneuvering that went on behind the pace car. It seemed to go on and on, but more importantly what I couldn't handle was the fiasco over the performance of the softer compound tyres, I always thought F1 was about hard racing, with some pit stop strategies thrown in for good measure. To watch drivers battling to stay within two to three seconds a lap of rivals, who they could normally outdrive every day of the week, lacked all credibility. This was Mickey Mouse stuff and not what F1 should be about. Apart from the potential safety risk of a driver over-driving to remain competitive! , it created a farcical situation and it should be stopped without further ado.
Having said all that, I still think that Australia was a breath of fresh air for Formula 1. Will I still think that when the Court hearings start on the 14th April in Paris over the diffusers. I don't know. Quite frankly, who really cares except a bunch of anoraks who find that sort of stuff turns them on. The fact of the matter is that a few designers did a better job than the rest. It's up to the others to catch up.
F1 has made a rod for its own back. It's shown us how entertaining it can be. Now it has to deliver again in Malaysia. So what might we expect to see this weekend? How about Force India on pole, Barichello docked points for having too wide a smile and Raikkonen taking over the TV commentary…………..You never know in F1!!!
