FORMULA 1 - 2016

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Nasr: Money woes could impact Sauber development

Felipe Nasr fears Sauber's financial troubles could hurt the team's progress this season.

Last month it emerged that Sauber had failed to pay their full February wage bill, which team boss Monisha Kaltenborn blamed on "remittance technical problems" with the "transfer of a large amount sponsorship from abroad."

Days later Sauber found a solution that meant all salaries were paid in full.

However with the team's money woes on-going, Nasr fears it could have an impact on Sauber's season and the development of their C35.

"You guys can see. It is a difficult situation at the moment," the Brazilian told Autosport.

"But the good thing is the car is here, the team is here and we are ready to race. That’s what we have in our hands now.

"Hopefully, things will improve and we can ship in developments and start upgrading our car. There are still a lot of things to be done.

"So, let’s hope things can get better and we can add some more performance to the car."

Last season Sauber rebounded from a point-less 2014 to score 36 points on their way to eighth place.

This year Nasr is hoping for more regular top-ten results but admits that will defend on finances.

He added: "Hopefully, we can get things more steady.

"But this depends a lot on the financial side of the team. We do have things planned. I’m sure there will be great additions on the car.

"Let’s take it step-by-step. Initially, this is what we are facing."

[MIKA27]

Hamilton heads rain-affected first practice session

Lewis Hamilton began the 2016 season on top of the times sheets as occasional showers kept drivers on their toes during the first practice session for the Australian Grand Prix.

The Mercedes driver exploited one of the best opportunities to set a time on dry-weather tyres to set a 1’29.725. The less than ideal conditions meant lap times were slightly down on the same session from 12 months earlier.

Team mate Nico Rosberg ended the session two second adrift with four cars separating him from his team mate. The two Red Bull drivers were closest to Hamilton, Daniiil Kvyat the only driver to get within half a second of the number 44 car.

Daniel Ricciardo was third fastest but ended the session in the gravel trap at turn 12 after another late rain shower. The slippery track also caught out Valtteri Bottas and Rio Haryanto, though both were able to continue.

Sebastian Vettel, who was the first driver to take to the track when the session began, aborted his final attempt to set a time when the conditions deteriorated. He therefore failed to set a time as did Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz Jnr, who was delayed by a technical problem during the session.

The team’s other car appeared inside the top five courtesy of Max Verstappen, who was three-tenths of a second off Nico Hulkenerg.

The top ten was completed by the McLaren pair plus the second Force India of Sergio Perez and Kevin Magnussen’s Renault.

[MIKA27]

Australian GP - Sebastian Vettel

Around the time Europe is waking up, the Australian paddock is already buzzing. It was twenty years ago that Melbourne’s Albert Park first hosted a Formula 1 Grand Prix. Since then, many things have changed, but the atmosphere “Down Under” is still special: curiosity, excitement and the desire to do well.

Australian GP - Simone Resta

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Raikkonen keen to let the racing do the talking

Kimi Raikkonen is refusing to make any predictions about whether Ferrari could have the might to challenge Mercedes for the 2016 Formula 1 World Championship, despite Sebastian Vettel's assertion the Scuderia is closing the gap.

After a positive pre-season testing with the new SF16-H, Raikkonen has suggested the car represents an improvement over its race winning predecessor but declined to pare it down into a firm prediction of whether it is enough to challenge Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton.

It is a view he maintains ahead of the Australian Grand Prix, saying he cannot say where Ferrari is until the lights go out come Sunday.

“We don't know where we are. People keep asking where we are but it hasn't changed at all since testing, nobody really knows. We will have an idea this weekend but hopefully we are strong than the last couple of years. Time will tell.”

Similarly, Raikkonen says he will reserve judgement on the new qualifying format and the move to ban radio communications during races.

“Is it going to be more difficult or more different, I don't know how it will work out. If there are no issues with anything it shouldn't be a lot different but if there are a lot of things going on in the race itself, it can make it quite complicated.

“It is one of those things that we don't know how it will pan out. Qualifying, no idea. I know as much as other people. We have to see how it pans out and what the difference is. I expect less cars at the end of qualifying, but the first few minutes there will be more cars on the circuit. But whether it's going to be worse or better, we will have to see.”

[MIKA27]

Haas tight on spare parts for F1 debut in Australian GP

Haas heads into its Formula 1 debut tight on spare parts, according to Romain Grosjean.

The American team goes into this weekend's season-opening Australian Grand Prix running two cars for the first time, off the back of a troublesome second test at Barcelona.

Assessing the difference between starting this year with Haas and a year ago at Lotus, Grosjean said: "We don't have many spare parts, but it's a different problem.

"We didn't have time to build them [this year], and we didn't get them last year [at Lotus]."

Following a solid first test, with only a front-wing failure on the opening morning blighting the team's running, throughout the course of the second test Haas then suffered a fuel system issue, turbocharger problem and a brake-by-wire fault.

Grosjean added: "There will be problems, there always have been in Formula 1 through a season.

"We will probably discover more than other teams, but from what we have learned through testing, it should help us get a lot more knowledge and be ready for being here."

Team principal Gunther Steiner has confirmed the car specification is relatively unchanged from testing other than "heat protection in certain areas".

The main focus has instead been on ensuring both Grosjean and team-mate Esteban Gutierrez each have a car ready and set-up well for this weekend.

Steiner said: "The biggest thing has been building the second car.

"One car to go testing is one thing, but building a second car, all within a week, it wasn't easy.

"The lessons we have taken is what we learned, not to get too clever, get the second car ready for the race and keep working at it.

"We didn't invent anything new, just the engineers looking at the data, studying everything, to come up with a set up for this first race."

Steiner recognises without the set-up work that would have been the focus in week two of testing, but was compromised by a lack of running, scoring points on the team's debut is now highly unlikely.

"If all the stars are aligned, it's realistic, but a lot of stars need to line up," he said.

"The car is a good platform, but now we have to hit the right set up.

"The other people here are not stupid, they have done more work than us so they will improve.

"If we hit the set up right and we build some confidence it's possible, but the stars need to line up."

[MIKA27]

McLaren in 'better position than most' after first F1 practice day

Jenson Button believes McLaren had a better first day of Formula 1 practice than most of its rivals in tricky conditions ahead of the Australian Grand Prix.

Both free practice sessions at the Albert Park circuit were affected by showers and high winds, making it difficult for teams to get much useful running.

But Button feels McLaren had a productive day, which has put it in good shape heading into the rest of the race weekend.

"We did what we could in the conditions, and we are probably in a better position than most for tomorrow," said the 2009 world champion.

"There's a lot of testing you can do - we'd obviously like to do more but there's no point in these conditions.

"We made the best of today, probably better than some teams, so we'll see what we can do tomorrow."

Button's first victory for McLaren came in changeable conditions in the 2010 Australian Grand Prix, but he accepts that even on a good day the Honda-powered MP4-31 would not be in a position to capitalise on a similar situation this year.

"The problem is, even if we make the right calls, and I'm in the lead, we're probably not going to win!" he said.

"It it's mixed conditions, we've done our homework with the new regulations and how the tyres are working, so maybe it would make a small difference to our end result.

"We're in a much better position than last year as a whole.

"The car is reliable which is great, so you can actually do the set-up work before qualifying.

"It's not going to be two seconds quicker than last year, so we're not going to be fighting at the front just yet, but there are definite improvements and today was a good day."

Team-mate Fernando Alonso said he was pleased to try the 2016 McLaren on another circuit after all of the pre-season running took place at Barcelona.

"Sometimes you get to another circuit and have a nice surprise or a bad surprise," said the Spaniard.

"We had a nice surprise, so I'm happy for that.

"We completed more or less the programme, just some normal tests that we missed [because of the weather]."

[MIKA27]

Not Just Haas: Spares shortages limited F1 teams' Australian GP practice running

Formula 1 teams' spare parts shortages were a major factor in the lack of running in Australian Grand Prix Friday practice, drivers have admitted.

The Williams team was particularly low-key on day one of the 2016 F1 season, with Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas completing just six laps each in the morning session, then waiting until the final moments of the wetter second practice before venturing out for two-lap installation runs and pitstop practice.

Asked by Autosport if a shortage of spare components had prompted Williams to steer clear of the wet track, Massa replied: "Yeah, we're quite short on parts, that's why we didn't run.

"We saw other teams not running as well, so maybe they had similar issues to us."

Nico Rosberg destroyed one of the limited supply of Mercedes' latest front wing when he aquaplaned into the wall on an early run in afternoon practice.

Massa said that situation proved Williams had made the right call.

"That's why we decided to stay in the garage because if you crash it would be very tricky for us looking at the parts we have for the car to get the best out of the weekend," he said.

Williams's chief technical officer Pat Symonds had warned on Thursday that a wet track would be unnerving for teams as the late change to the 2016 calendar had put pressure on production schedules.

"I think a lot of people haven't realised the significance of moving this race forward two weeks," he explained.

"When you're designing a Formula 1 car, it's quite a long project so you start it off with a date in mind.

"When everything came forward by two weeks, we were well into the project so you can't suddenly just sort of invent two weeks from nowhere.

"I honestly think everyone is behind where they want to be.

"I'm sure there are plenty of people here who are not looking forward to running in the wet with walls next to the track because they haven't got the level of spares that they'd wish they had."

Sauber also sat out the afternoon session, with Renault another team that limited its running.

Drivers from both confirmed that spares shortages were an issue.

Sauber's Marcus Ericsson said: "It's the beginning of the year and like a lot of people on the grid you don't have a massive amount of spares.

"Not that we are super-tight, but it's always a calculation of how much risk you want to take and how much you can learn.

"But tomorrow in FP3 if we have dry weather conditions we need to get out there and drive."

Asked by Autosport if Renault's stance was similar, Kevin Magnussen replied: "We don't have that many front wings.

"If we felt we would learn something, we'd go.

"We're not that tight on parts, but it's just not worth the risk."

[MIKA27]

Mercedes reshuffles Rosberg and Hamilton's crews for F1 2016

Nico Rosberg has praised moves by his Mercedes Formula 1 team to swap mechanics between his and team-mate Lewis Hamilton's cars for this season.

Mercedes bosses have decided to swap several members of Rosberg's 2015 F1 crew to Hamilton's car for '16 and visa versa.

There are five differences on each car for this season, which Mercedes describes as being partially made up of swaps, and partly new personnel coming in as the result of normal staff turnover.

Mercedes has not altered the engineering roster, but confirmed the number one mechanics on each car have swapped for this year.

Rosberg told Autosport: "I think this is a positive move.

"The title battles have been intense for the past two seasons and it's good for the wider strength of the team to move people around and not have them become focused on a single car or driver."

The tension in the championship fights between Rosberg and Hamilton has escalated at times over the past two seasons, but Mercedes said diffusing this atmosphere was not the main reason for the crew changes.

A Mercedes spokesman said: "We've handled that for the past two years. It's not the main driver [behind these changes].

"It's just to mix things up and keep things fresh. You need to do that because you don't want people doing the same thing for 15 years."

[MIKA27]

No leeway for drivers stymied by red flags in new F1 qualifying

FIA race director Charlie Whiting says it will simply be "bad luck" if a driver gets eliminated from qualifying by red flag timing in Formula 1's new 2016 system.

The new knockout system will be introduced at this weekend's Australian Grand Prix, with drivers getting eliminated at 90-second intervals during the second-half of each qualifying segment.

While the clock will stop when a red flag is brought out, it will resume from the same point when the session resumes - meaning there will not be enough time for drivers to complete out-laps and set another laptime before the next elimination point.

"It's just bad luck," said Whiting. "The difference between previous qualifying sessions and this is you have to finish the lap before the timer goes.

"You can't finish the lap unless the chequered flag is out, in which case the cars on track can do that.

"It is no different to before other than normally you could restart the session and drivers could have another go, but unfortunately, that is not possible anymore."

Third practice will take on extra significance this season as the results will be used to define who gets knocked out if multiple drivers cannot complete flying laps in the first part of qualifying.

"When we start qualifying, the drivers are arranged in P3 order," said Whiting.

"Whoever is at the bottom of the list at the seven-minute point, whether they have set a time or not, will go."

Should a number of drivers not set a time in Q2, eliminations will be based on where they finished in Q1. The same applies for Q3.

If a driver does not set a laptime at any point during qualifying, they will be outside the 107 per cent cut-off.

The previous rule over this remains, with the decision left up to the stewards as to whether a driver outside the mark is allowed to take part in the race.

Whiting said the software system required for the new format "looks good".

There will be a normal countdown clock, counting down the total time of the qualifying segment, and a secondary clock in a different colour, counting down to zero for each elimination segment.

When a driver is eliminated, their name will be greyed out in timing graphics.

[MIKA27]

Ferrari spent most engine tokens

The FIA has revealed that Ferrari spent the most engine development tokens over the winter, 23 compared to Mercedes' 19.

This year, in what is expected to be the last season under the token system, Formula 1's engine manufacturers were once again granted 32 tokens to use to develop their engines.

Ferrari made the biggest changes to their power unit over the winter, spending 23 of those tokens whereas reigning World Champions Mercedes used just 19.

Honda reportedly used 18 of their 32 while Renault, despite their troubles last season, only used seven.

That does, however, mean the French manufacturer, who this seaosn returned to F1 as a works team, have more scope to develop their engine as the season progresses.

[MIKA27]

MELBOURNE QUALIFYING: HAMILTON ON POLE BUT NEW FORMAT FLOPS

Reigning world champion Lewis Hamilton ridiculed any doubts he lost form during his party-filled off season, as he hammered home the fastest lap in qualifying to claim a pole position start for the 2016 Formula 1 world championship season opening Australian Grand Prix.

However it is the failure of the new qualifying format, introduced to spice up the show which will capture the headlines.

The confusing new system was a resounding flop with track action down to the bare minimum and drivers eliminated without being able to set representative lap times. This coupled to a damp squib Q3 is sure to capture the wrath of F1 fans, teams and drivers – watch this space…

When he was on track, Hamilton was the only driver to dip into the 63 seconds zone around Albert Park with his best lap time of 1:23.837, set on his final run enough to annex the top spot start for the 50th time in his career.

“I really have to take my hat off to this team. To raise the bar once more in our third year inspires and motivates me. I enjoyed driving the car today in qualifying. There were some sexy laps, they felt so good, that is all you can hope for as a driver,” said Hamilton afterwards

Teammate Nico Rosberg had an error strewn qualifying starting with his first flyer, and simply did not have an answer to his teammate. He had to settle for second place with his final flying lap of the day.

Nevertheless with it he did enough to leapfrog the Ferrari pair of Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen, who up to that point were the meat in the Mercedes sandwich.

Rosberg said, “The last lap was good in Q3, just Lewis did a better job. It is impressive to see how the team, in the third year running now, appears to be the quickest out there by a good margin. It is amazing to see that. The risk is when you are dominating you start to become complacent but we were able to push through. Of course, not happy with second but lots of opportunities from that position tomorrow.”

Oddly, or perhaps not, neither Ferrari driver opted to do a run in the final stages of Q3 and will thus both start from row two, behind the all Silver Arrows front row.

Vettel was 0.8 of a second down on the top time and although he may have gone a tad quicker, had he made another run, it appears that Ferrari are about half a second adrift of Mercedes – in qualifying at least…

The Ferrari driver summed up his afternoon, “I believe we have made a step forward, especially tomorrow we should be closer. We expected Mercedes to be quick in qualifying. I was very happy to set the lap time I did and we decided to save a set of tyres for tomorrow.”

“We have high hopes for the race, it’s a long year and the car has a lot of potential. Second row is a good achievement and the team’s been pushing hard,” added Vettel.

Albert Park qualifying blow-by blow

The new format qualifying hour began with a steady stream of cars flowing onto the circuit from the pit lane as drivers sought to get in a solid lap in advance of the first elimination, which would take place seven minutes into the segment.

And when that came the first out was Manor’s Pascal Wehrlein, followed 90 seconds later by team-mate Rio Haryanto.

The big casualty of the first segment was Red Bull Racing’s Daniil Kvyat. After the Haas cars of Esteban Gutierrez and Romain Grosjean had dropped out, Kvyat appeared to get his timing wrong and with no chance of another flying lap the Russian, who last year qualified 12th, was ruled out in P18.

The final two to be ruled out of Q2 were Sauber’s Felipe Nasr in P17 and team-mate Marcus Ericsson in P16.

The Swede looked like he might scrape through, but Renault’s Jolyon Palmer timed his running well and his final lap won him a Q2 berth at the expense of the Sauber man.

Fifteen drivers went into Q2 in search of eight Q3 slots but the eliminations this time began after six minutes. First out was Renault’s Kevin Magnussen and he was soon followed by Palmer, McLaren’s Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso.

In the unfamiliar environment of the countdown a number of teams were caught out by poor timing and Williams’ Valterri Bottas and Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Pérez were left to retire early to the garage with too little time left to them to start and complete another lap.

Q3 arrived and after five minutes, Daniel Ricciardo was the first to be ruled out, the Aussie unable to replicate the kind of lap that saw him make it through to the final segment in P5. He was followed by Sainz and Williams’ Felipe Massa. Ahead of them was the main mover of the final phase – Verstappen.

The Toro Rosso driver made it through to the final segment in P7 but jumped to P5 in the final classification thanks to an excellent lap of 1:25.434, just four tenths adrift of Räikkönen. The grid slot is the best of the Dutch driver’s career to date.

Utlimately though the battle for the top spots was always going to be between Mercedes and Ferrari. Rosberg set the first time and took P1 but wqas quickly beaten by Vettel and then by Hamilton.

With Raikkonen fourth and time running out Ferrari then elected to forego any more running leaving the field clear for Rosberg to challenge Hamilton.

The German couldn’t find the pace necessary and Robserg’s run of pole stretching back to last season’s Japanese Grand Prix was ended by Hamilton.

[MIKA27]

Mercedes chiefs say 'rubbish' F1 qualifying format has to change

Leading Formula 1 teams are adamant the 2016 qualifying format must be changed at the earliest opportunity after its underwhelming debut at the Australian Grand Prix.

Though the new elimination system prompted an eventful start to Q1 as cars tried to get laps in quickly, later segments featured drivers sitting in the pits as the clock ticked down to eliminate them.

In Q3, most settled for the times from their first runs, with only the Mercedes coming out again, and the track was completely empty for the final two minutes once it was clear Nico Rosberg was not going to beat Lewis Hamilton to pole.

Mercedes team bosses Toto Wolff and Niki Lauda were among the most vociferous critics of the format.

"This is the biggest nonsense I have ever seen," said Lauda.

"I was not even sure if I should congratulate Toto and our drivers on our front row.

"We have to call a team principal meeting and ask the FIA to change the format with immediate effect. For Bahrain [the next race] already.

"To introduce this was totally wrong. It was like digging in the toilet."

Wolff said there could be no doubt after Melbourne that the system was a failure.

"I'm the first person to say that we shouldn't talk the sport down but when the evidence is there before your eyes, you cannot shut them and deny reality," he said.

"The new format is pretty rubbish - much too complicated to follow and a damp squib at the end with nobody running.

"These were the downsides that we expected to see - and they outweigh the upsides, that much is clear now.

"We wanted to listen to the promoters who were calling for a change - but my personal opinion is that we have found the wrong solution and we need to think carefully about what we do next."

F1 commercial chief Bernie Ecclestone told Autosport he was certain changes could be made in time for the next race in Bahrain in a fortnight.

McLaren racing director Eric Boullier said that would only be possible if there was unanimous agreement.

"Technically you need only a couple of days to change whatever you want," he said.

"You just need to have an e-vote and the F1 Commission members can give an opinion.

"If everyone agrees then it could be done, but obviously I don't know if it's going to be unanimous or if some people want to give this qualifying format a chance.

"If there won't be unanimity then we can't change anything."

Boullier said McLaren's position was "it's worth rethinking this format", and admitted he could not understand why the objections that arose after it was announced were not heeded.

He said: "There were discussions between the teams, and the team managers clearly spotted that running from flag to flag in Q3 will not work, but we are not the governing body, so..."

[MIKA27]

Sebastian Vettel leads drivers' criticism of F1 qualifying revamp

Formula 1 drivers have strongly criticised the new elimination qualifying format introduced for the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.

The new knockout system involves drivers being eliminated at 90-second intervals during the second half of each qualifying segment.

While the opening parts of Q1 and Q2 were frantic, Q3 was a disappointment with only Mercedes choosing to do two runs and Lewis Hamilton confirmed on pole with several minutes of the session remaining.

Vettel was particularly scathing, saying F1's bosses should not be surprised by the criticism because the drivers had already voiced their concerns that it would not work.

"I don't see the point why everyone is surprised," said Vettel. "We all said what is going to happen. It happened.

"We were told to wait and see. Now we saw and I don't think it was very exciting.

"It was a bit crazy in the beginning with all the cars pushing and trying to do a lap before they get kicked out so managing traffic is busy but for no reason because the time is there in the session to do it.

"For the people in the grandstands, I don't feel it is right way to go as there are no cars to watch.

"They want to see Lewis, Nico, Kimi whoever pushing to limit at the end of the session when the track is supposed to be at its best.

"I don't think we need the criticism now, we had the criticism already but surely it is wrong way to go. That is what we said."

Hamilton felt F1 was right to experiment but that it was now clear the format was wrong.

"Ultimately it is a good step that we tried something new but it's trial and error," he said. "Maybe not just go back to the old way."

Vettel responded: "They have a certain responsibility as well, you can't just try things that many of us criticise, us included.

"You can't just turn around and say that was the wrong thing. We need to be sensible and do the right changes."

Nico Rosberg favours the compromise proposal of using the old system for Q3 only.

"It's good F1 tries [ideas] but we have to go back, for the last one [Q3] especially," he said.

McLaren's Fernando Alonso feels the new format favours the leading teams.

"The rules are a little bit unfair for the smaller or less competitive teams because we finished all our sets [of tyres] in Q1 and in Q2 you have one chance," he said.

[MIKA27]

Ricciardo feels they should be quicker than Toro Rosso

Ahead of the Australian Grand Prix, Daniel Ricciardo has expressed his disappointment that the Toro Rosso duo Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz placed ahead of him in the qualifiers.

The Australian, who will start in P8 on Sunday, revealed that their Red Bull should be faster than their sister car after Verstappen and Sainz placed in P5 and P7 respectively.

"I would like to say it should be a little bit better than Toro Rosso," he told sportsfan.com.au.

"It's just a case of whether we jump them at the start. Obviously they've got a bit more power this year with the engine they've got so we'll have to work out a good strategy to get around it.

"Raw pace, I think we should maybe surprise a few people and become a top six car."

Adding to the backlash the new qualifying format received, the Perth-born racer said that it was an anti-climax by the way it ended, with Lewis Hamilton claiming pole with four minutes to spare.

"It was clear in my mind what needed to be done, but probably for a spectator with most guys out of their car before the session was actually over it was probably a bit of an anti-climax," he said.

[MIKA27]

Haryanto slapped with three-place grid penalty

Rio Haryanto’s Formula 1 career is not off to the best start after he was hit with a three-place grid penalty for the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.

The Manor driver was involved in an FP3 crash with Romain Grosjean as both drivers tried to exit the pits at the start of final practice.

With Grosjean already in the pit lane, Haryanto was deemed to be the guilty part as he crashed into the side of the Haas car.

Both cars suffered damage in the incident.

The stewards have ruled that Haryanto was to blame for breaching Article 31.5 of the Sporting Regulations.

“The driver of car 88 left the team garage and did not pay attention to the approaching car which was in the fast lane,” the FIA statement read.

As such the Indonesian driver will start Sunday’s grand prix three places down from where he qualified, which was P21 so he will start P22.

He also has two penalty points.

[MIKA27]

Rosberg: Lewis did a better job

As the qualifying rounds of the Australian Grand Prix came to a conclusion, Nico Rosberg has expressed his delight that Mercedes were able to produce another world-beater of a car for a third year in a row.

Rosberg, who finished in P2 behind his teammate and rival Lewis Hamilton, has said that although he is not happy with his starting position tomorrow, there is still ample chance to get the first win of 2016.

The German also added that Mercedes cannot become complacent as teams will be looking at every opportunity to pounce on their mistakes.

"The last lap was good in Q3, just Lewis did a better job," the 30-year-old admitted.

"It is impressive to see how the team, in the third year running now, appears to be the quickest out there by a good margin.

"It is amazing to see that. The risk is when you are dominating you start to become complacent but we were able to push through.

"Of course, not happy with second but lots of opportunities from that position tomorrow."

[skalls]

I thought it was a fairly entertaining race. McLaren had some speed, Alonso would would've been a p7 or 8 had he not had that horrific crash. Renault engines, when the work, look to have decent pace because Riccardo had a great race. Kimi still has no luck. Hamilton had an absolutely awful start compared to Vettel, and then did a good job fighting back, but aside from a couple good passes, he only moved ahead because of pitting.

Torro Rosso is going to be on the podium a couple times this year I think. Sainz is a bit more level headed than Max, but they both are aggressive. I think that aggressiveness is going to pay off. And I think it's going to cause a few crashes too.

Loved seeing an American (go 'Murica!) team, and have an amazing finish as well in their first race.

The biggest WTF of the day was Ferrari's post red flag strategy. I want to know why they didn't try a 0 pit strategy. They had to assume Mercedes was going to do that, and there was no way they were opening up 20 seconds on them on super softs.

[mgravito]

I have to say, I love Verstappen as a driver but he can be a real petulant a$$ and that really rubs me the wrong way.

As an RBR fan, it was nice to see a somewhat competitive at times although I'm sure the red flag played quite a bit in to his finish. Shame about Kvyat, but it feels like he's been a mix of bad luck and less talent the Ricciardo. I don't think he's long for this team.

The Ferrari looks mighty strong and I hope they mix things up with the Mercs the rest of the year.

[capitalpg]

What an exciting start of the season for Ferrari as they look strong. Damn shame tire strategy appears to be an afterthought!

Couldn't be happier for Team Haas that showed some patience in this process of joint the elite or elite in auto racing.

Still LOL at the passing comments above when comparing the minor leagues to F1;)

[capitalpg]

"joining the elite of elite in auto racing"

[Baldy]

OMG someone get Max a pacifier! How dare people are not letting him pass. How dare! Spoiled teenager.

Instead of relying on team orders why don't he simply pass his teammate if he's that much faster.

[capitalpg]

Couldn't agree more about Max just crying. Talented driver, but his attitude prevents me from wishing him any success...

[Hypersomniac]

I thought it was a pretty exciting race. Glad to see Alonso walk away so easily after that crash.

Nice work for Haas in their debut! USA! USA!

[MIKA27]

Great race indeed!!

From Start (Look at Ferrari go!) to finish, completely mixed grid, massive battles between the midfielders and was really pleased to see Haas score some points, Grosjean (As I said from the very beginning) has the talent to do well and do it well in this new team.

I really loved watching Jolyon Palmer keep Torro Rosso at bay until his tyres started wearing to keep them at the back, only to see both Torros clash. Surely they'd be getting their butts kicked by Tost. Verstappen seems like a real brat on track, surprising because he seems so humble off track. Let's not forget, Lewis Hamilton when he started was so level headed, polite and well mannered when he first started out also. Perhaps it's the hype and celebrity after the first season that get's to their heads?

Glad to see Alonso safe and well, what a shunt! McLaren seem like they can do well this season, at least scoring points on a regular basis.

Overall, I am stoked Rosberg won the race, well deserved and for once, was equally pleased to see Hamilton humbled in front of cameras and congratulate Rosberg.

[MIKA27]

AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX: ROSBERG STRIKES FIRST AS FERRARI FUMBLE

Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg won the Formula 1 season opening Australian Grand Prix after a red flag stoppage, caused by a vicious collision between McLaren’s Fernando Alonso and Haas driver Esteban Gutierrez, ultimately played in favour of the German.

Pole winner Lewis Hamilton finished second, recovering from a poor start which saw him drop down the order forcing him to chase all afternoon, with Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel finishing third despite leading early on in the race.

Both Rosberg and Hamilton were slow off the line, the world champion slowing visibly in the second phase of his getaway from pole position on the Albert Park grid.

Vettel, on the other hand, launched well and as he exited Turn 1 (right-left complex) was in command with Ferrari teammate Kimi Raikkonen tucked into second place as Rosberg emerged third from the first turn melee, with Hamilton down in sixth and behind the Williams of Felipe Massa and Max Verstappen in the Toro Rosso.

At the front Vettel was in control until, on lap 17, Alonso’s McLaren rammed into the back of Gutierrez’s Haas, causing the Spanish driver’s car to flip over twice at high speed, before ending upside down in a crumpled wreck against the tyre barriers.

Alonso was out quickly, limping away initially but in the end both drivers walked away unscathed. The incident triggered a red flag which saw the rest of the field line up at the pitlane exit while the wrecked cars were removed and the tracked cleared of substantial debris.

“It was a scary moment. I feel lucky to be here. It’s because of our safety standards that I am still alive,” said the Spaniard.

The stoppage which lasted 22 minutes proved to be the turning point of the race as tyre choices were made by teams and drivers that impacted how the race panned out thereafter.

Surprisingly Ferrari bolted on another set of red band supersofts to both the cars of Vettel, the leader, and Raikkonen in third, while Mercedes with Rosberg second and Hamilton down in seventh opted for a set of white band medium tyres on both the silver cars – the same ones they had used almost exclusively, and to great effect, throughout preseason testing.

It was clear that at that point Ferrari believed they had enough pace on the supersofts to get away from the chasing Mercedes duo to make an extra pitstop later in the race – they were wrong and what was a potential win thus turned into third pace for the Vettel.

Raikkonen’s charge ended shortly after the restart as he parked his Ferrari in the pitlane, got out of the car nonchalantly as it belched flames from the airbox.

When Vettel pitted in for new yellow band soft tyres, Rosberg – who was in his slipstream, took the lead where he stayed to the end of the race. The gap between him and second place remained around ten seconds to the end of the race.

Rosberg said after his victory, “It’s been a great weekend. Thank you to the team they’ve done an incredible job. We loved it and I’m super excited. It’s early days but it’s the perfect start. We have to keep an eye on the red guys.”

Hamilton finished second, fending off Vettel in the final stages and turning what could have been a big disappointment into second place. Also refreshing to see the body language between the two Silver Arrows driver after the race. Things appear cool, at least for now…

Hamilton reflected,”It was a great race. I loved the fact we had to come from far behind. I’m glad no-one was injured in the shunt and after that it was about trying to get up the field and it’s impossible to follow out there. I’ve had much worse in the first race and I’ll take it as a real bonus to come back from seventh.”

Vettel gave it his best shot in his final stint, but it was a case of a bridge too far and what Ferrari team principal Maurizio Arrivabene termed an “aggressive strategy” may well have cost the reds a victory.

Vettel said afterwards, “I went for it so obviously the start was mega. I was very happy. It reminded me of Hungary last year. We settled into a rhythm nicely. You can argue the red flag didn’t help us. We tried to go more aggressive, maybe it didn’t work but ultimately I’m very happy with third.”

Daniel Ricciardo had the home crowd on their feet on a number of occasions as he stalked the top three, ending fourth for Red Bull ahead of fifth placed Felipe Massa in the Williams.

Ricciardo said, “Fourth is great but I’m probably more happy with the pace we had. We finished a fair step ahead of Williams and our competitors.”

Big story for the sport was Romain Grosjean finishing sixth and scoring points for the all new Haas F1 team in their debut.

The Frenchman delightfully declaring on his cool down lap, “This is a win for us! A win for us! Unbelievable… I don’t even know where we finished.”

Grosjean added later, “It feels like standing on the top step of the podium. From day one I told these guys the car has huge potential. We have plenty of areas where we can improve but the result is a massive boost for everyone.”

Nico Hulkenberg finished seventh in the Force India, ahead of Williams driver Valtteri Bottas in eighth.

A big highlight of the race was the battle between Toro Rosso duo Carlos Sainz and Max Verstappen. The pair slugged it out for the final points, young Verstappen letting his feelings be known after the team messed up his pitstop.

At one point the eighteen year old Dutchman yelled into the team radio: “I wanted to pit first for f*ck sake!”

At the same time Sainz stubbornly defended his teammates relentless attacks. In the end sainz was ninth and Verstappen took home the final point – this is one to watch all year long!

In the end an entertaining grand prix, however the script remains similar to last year: Mercedes ahead with Ferrari chasing hard. How close are Ferrari? Hard to tell, but Bahrain will surely reveal more.