Many, many hours ago - there was a race, a race that the whole world had been waiting for during those long cold and quiet months over the winter. It race which was shrouded in mystery, intrigue and anticipation, and one that certainly delivered. Even after the flag dropped over half a day ago now the result has been taken apart and reconfigured - one of the consequences of the strange new world we now live in. All of the retirements today have been traced back to technical difficulties, even the ones that resulted in shattered carbon fibre down in turn one. In contrast to the fears over huge rates of attrition, today's race only saw a few more casualties than a conventional trip to Albert Park - although I get the feeling that Mr Horner intends to add to the retirement list when he visits the appeal panel later on.
At the completion of the first weekend of the season I can safely say that the worries about the sound the tiny little engines are unfounded - F1 is just is good as it was in the previous era if not better. Yes the cars are much quieter, but the engine note is far less whiney and piercing and you can hear so much more - brake lock-ups are audible and team radio is far clearer. Sacrificing a bit of volume for this clarity and a deeper growling sound was definitely worth it - and I suspect that the Renault engines in the Red Bull team may sound even more different once Horner has finished kicking it around the garage. A kicking that the entire Lotus team might well join in on after their disappointing afternoon. Overall there are some quite unhappy faces up and down the pit-lane... and some of those happened to be in the garage of the pre-season favourites. No-one is safe from little technical gremlins.
The Race
After the highly changeable conditions of qualifying, Sunday morning provided an air of stability leaving any unpredictability in the hands of the drivers and the fragile machinery they were sitting in. Grosjean opted to start in the pit lane, all by himself - it appeared his grumbling to the Lotus team might have influenced the decision to kick him out of the garage a little too early. However Max Chilton noticed that Romain was alone in the pit lane and wouldn't leave the grid on the formation lap, and thus was pushed into the queue behind the Lotus. This left Bianchi on the grid without a team-mate, so the actual start was aborted while his Marussia was also pushed into the pit-lane - but Jules' car was more broken than Max's was and wouldn't leave the pits until 7 laps into the race.
So one additional formation lap later, we had a proper start - all but one of Hamilton's six cylinders roared into action and were swiftly passed by both Rosberg and Ricciardo. Magnussen in 4th executed a powerslide in the middle of the straight which the Dane miraculously kept out of the wall, and out of Fernando Alonso's Ferrari. Down at turn one Kamui was having less of a near miss and more of an accident - a post race investigation showed that the Caterham encountered brake failure... which is considerably less than ideal. As a result he ploughed into the rear corner of Raikkonen's Ferrari (which somehow remained undamaged) and then creamed straight into the back of Massa's Williams wiping both cars out of the race. If that wasn't enough, down at turn three Esteban Gutierrez had more issues slowing down and span himself round after bouncing off the side of Perez's Force India. For now this brought an end to the melee... without needing to involve the safety car... for now...
It would be a bit silly if, in this very early stage if some championship contenders were to encounter some race ending technical difficulties - well the first to complain was a certain German Bloke pointing out that all of his electric boost had failed. Leaving the car powerless to out-pace even the slowest cars and therefore had to retire. Then there was Hamilton, in the supposed fastest and most reliable car on the grid - that final cylinder never recovered and he lost positions rapidly - this lead to a series of discussions with the team all of which were completely indecisive, but retirement was inevitable for the pole-sitter. With four cars down inside the first five laps, the projected attrition would see the entire field missing by lap 22. Fortunately there were some good news stories coming through the field.
Both our remaining champions starting outside the top ten had sneaked into the points by staying on the road and not getting involved in the early action - but the Williams that didn't have shards of Caterham sticking out of it was motoring forwards. Bottas had to start 15th due to a technical penalty, and now was duelling with the two Toro Rosso's. First he made a clean pass on Kyvat down the inside of turn 13 and followed that up with an even more impressive overtake round the outside of Vergne in turn three. His next target was Raikkonen's Ferrari with the invincible rear suspension - also the only man on grid who I suspect is immune to the Kvyat death stare. The Russian's face always seems angry - and I thought driving a fast car in the points would be a good thing, but what do I know, perhaps he is allergic to a certain Austrian energy drink. Anyway it is worth noting that both of the Lotus cars were still running, even if they were miles off the pace and away from the points. Even more impressive is that neither Maldonado or Grosjean had hit anyone or put it in the wall after the car looked impossible to control safely on Saturday.
Life was far more serene at the front - Rosberg became the leading Mercedes representative ahead of Ricciardo as their world champion team-mates watched on from the pitwall. Magnussen sat in a comfortable 3rd place and Hulkenberg was in a considerably less comfortable 4th place. Nico had collected a train of cars lead by Alonso - who undoubtedly was having flashbacks to Korea last year, and also contained Bottas, Kimi, Button and the Toro Rosso's. It was turning into an interesting battle, wouldn't it be shame if something was to freeze the race to cancel out this turbulent group of cars. Cue Bottas pushing a little too hard in trying to pass Fernando, and with a little wheelspin just drifted into the wall on the exit of turn 10 - cracking the rear wheel. This left Valtteri's tyre and half a rear wheel lying in the track bringing out the safety car.
This automatically instigated the first round of stops, which was timed brilliantly for Jenson who was able to jump both Kvyat and Vergne, while Kimi went the other way in order to keep the pits clear for Alonso - the joys of being a number two driver at Ferrari. Although it turned out that both Ferraris had electrical problems and were down on power anyway. This safety car also allowed Bottas, with a new rear wheel to join the queue in 15th and last (even though Bianchi was still running 8 laps down now and was technically last). But within two laps the Finn was back up to 11th - which highlighted the massive gulf of pace between Sauber and Lotus, and the rest of the field as they were so easily picked off by the Williams before the DRS had been re-activated. Both Grosjean and Maldonado were around five seconds per lap slower than Rosberg vanishing away out front.
As the field has started to thin out and spread out, the race dramatically calmed down, only Bottas was making waves, passing cars that he'd had to pass before he was caught out by those dangerously camouflaged green concrete walls. This time round the passes were a lot easier, other drivers seemed to jump out of the way - Raikkonen out-braked himself into turn 9, potentially a reflection of the electrical issues affecting the KERS brake recovery function. Daniil Kyvat held his ground - probably using the power of his steely glare alone - but Bottas used the DRS down the main straight to take the place.
At half distance, reliability started to look rather good - only three car failures taking four cars out of the race, none of which affected the least prepared team... until now. Maldonado's Lotus had given up, another ERS problem bringing the car to a halt on the inside of turn 12, safely out of the way. This was followed shortly by the retirement of Marcus Ericsson, pulling off before turn four - not surprisingly all but one of the mechanical dramas had taken place on Renault powered cars. Only Kvyat's car would be safe, it would be too scared to brake down - for fear of receiving the angry death stare. I think it is time for some new tyres - which for once no-one has actually complained about, though I reckon once the cars start functioning, the teams will need something else to shout about. Once more it was Jenson who gained the most from the second round of stops - jumping ahead of Alonso and Hulkenberg into 4th place. Not a bad day for McLaren considering how 2013 went.
Out at the front of the field, Rosberg was having a very easy time of it, over 20 seconds clear of Ricciardo - demonstrating that if the car is running, it runs fast - unstoppably fast, it is a little ominous. Fortunately we were distracted from thoughts of another season dominated by a German, a battle was brewing for second place as Magnussen had gained significantly on Ricciardo. Furthermore Button was easing closer to the pair of them as the laps started to run down. A little further back Bottas was still insisting on making progress racing up to the back Vergne's Toro Rosso. Vergne almost put the car in the wall getting out of the way in the final corner, being caught out by the sudden torque curve of these new engines. The same issue that nearly planted Magnussen in the wall at the very beginning (when we eventually got started). Valtteri has his sights firmly set on Hulkenberg as his next victim.
Despite Ricciardo and Magnussen trading lap times and getting rather close to each other, the likelihood of a pass seemed small - Red Bull reassured Daniel that he had plenty of fuel to push on which Kevin had to keep switching fuel modes. As a result the top five had settled into a consistent and stable position, only Hulkenberg and Vergne were under pressure by Bottas and Kimi respectively. In both cases it was the Finn that took the spoils - Bottas opened the DRS and passed the Hulk on the pit straight, while Vergne collected another bucket of oversteer in turn 9 handing Raikkonen the position. In other news we saw Romain Grosjean pulling the only remaining Lotus off the road with another electrical problem Meaning that 60% of the Renault powered cars had failed in some way or another (make that 80% but we'll get to that one later). In the final ten laps or so the remaining battles had cooled down and all the remaining cars made it home intact (Bianchi did finish but at 8 laps down didn't complete enough laps to be classified as a finisher).
Rosberg claimed what turned out to be an easy victory for Mercedes, and Ricciardo crossed the line in second place (but was disqualified a few hours later while I was watching the Lego movie - which is brilliant by the way). Magnssen equalled Hamilton's best finish for a rookie in his first race, and might be promoted to second if the Red Bull appeal fails. Jenson recovered from a poor qualifying to finish 4th (or 3rd depending), while Alonso weathered electrical dramas to finish 5th on the road ahead of Bottas on his second drive through the field. Hulkenberg had his team-mate considerably beaten to score points in 7th ahead of Raikkonen who also had electrical issues in the car. Toro Rosso rounded off the points as the only Renault team to be unscathed by technical issues with Vergne being stared across the line by Kyvat scoring points on his debut. And if Ricciardo is not reinstated the final point is passed onto Perez who survived an opening lap collision with Gutierrez on the opening lap.
Now, the business with Ricciardo after technical scrutineering post race it turned out that his Red Bull - at several stages during the race - had been consuming fuel too fast. As per the regulations the fastest rate at which the engine can consume fuel is 100kg per hour, which is obviously too fast to complete the race on the 100kg maximum. But it the injection rate can be turned up or down at any point i.e. on the McLaren G1-G10 steering wheel dial. It appears Ricciardo's was up too high at times and therefore had been booted out of the result.
The Bonus Points Championship
Well, that wasn't bad for a season opener, and was miles better than anything we had to put up with in the latter half of the previous season. Even though in the end of it all we still had Chilton at the very back of the classified finishers and there was a German standing on the top step of the podium - so within the most drastic technical rule modifications, some things never change. We even had a Red Bull on the podium - even if that result has since been removed.
- 25pts - Valtteri Bottas: Driving from 15th up into the points on two occasions, executing many brilliant passes along the way despite putting the thing in the wall early on.
- 18pts - Kevin Magnussen: For keeping it out of the wall after a mega slide at the start, and then for scoring a net second place finish on his début - one better than Hamilton, Mr Dennis does know how to pick them...
- 15pts - Daniel Ricciardo: Despite the disqualification the Australian had an amazing weekend, scoring a moral podium position. Can't compare the performance to Vettel as the German hasn't had a functioning car when it mattered
- 12pts - Jenson Button: From going out in Q2 to making it onto the podium through a very close pit entry at during the safety car and strong strategy work
- 10pts - Nico Hulkenberg - Missed out on the job at Lotus and still manages to put the car up the front end of the pack, if it wasn't for a strategy call he'd have fended off Alonso once more.
- 8pts - Nico Rosberg - A dominant win in a car that looked impervious to any challenge - so not too many points, but a win is a win nonetheless.
- 6pts - Daniil Kvyat - The Russian Rookie picks up a couple of points on his début, through the power of raw speed and a scarily aggressive facial expression.
- 4pts - Ferrari - For developing indestructible rear suspension, how that car still had all four wheels after Kobayashi's out of control Caterham crashed into it
- 2pts - Kamui Kobayashi - Gets two points for his car bowling escapades in turn one striking Kimi and Felipe after the brakes gave up.
- 1pt - Max Chilton - Scores a point for being the leading car of the bottom two teams, and for actually finishing the race keeping the streak alive... even if it was as the last classified finisher
This season there will be no penalties series, because in reality that is just a matter of record - and can be found anywhere on the internet and therefore adds no value to this corner of cyberspace. So we move onto the penalty points series, a concept that the FIA has decided to borrow this year, without any hint of credit. Anyway I have decided to be lenient in this opening race - I could have handed out a point to Massa for calling for Kamui to be banned for a race. But on the information he had, there was some logic in his reasoning, even if it did border on the excessive, referencing what Grosjean did in the 2012 Belgian GP. I could have penalised Grosjean, Vettel or Maldonado for having a go at their teams because all three of them have had terrible weekends and can justifiably vent their frustrations. Although we haven't head the same amount of complaints from Hamilton when he retired... but he knows that when his car does work it is very fast.
More Mercedes Domination in Malaysia?
Just because we've completed the first race... well some people have... it doesn't mean we are over the reliability hump - the two week interval is not enough time to correct everything that has gone wrong for several teams this far. Besides the conditions in Sepang are completely different from Melbourne - the climate is tropical, very hot and very humid, which may cause problems for those cars which are marginal on cooling. Yes that means you Red Bull, it is going to be a lot harder for you to get to the end of that race. On pace it definitely seems that anyone with a Mercedes engine could have a really good weekend, Hulkenberg proved that Force India are further forward than the Bahrain tests indicated and everyone from McLaren down to Toro Rosso are quite close. The problem is that all of them have some work to catch Mercedes.
Lotus, Sauber and the bottom two teams are blatantly struggling and have less pace than they wanted. Will a more aerodynamically dependant circuit change this balance, who knows - it is far too early to tell. We shall have to wait until the final lap next time out to gain another tiny piece of the puzzle that is F1 2014.
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