FORMULA 1 - 2016

[Squarehead]

Good point there Mika but the arrogance starts at the top.I was a few times at the Indycar Race in Toronto and there's no problem to talk to the Drivers and or touch their cars as well taking pictures with them

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MERCEDES VERSUS FERRARI IT’S GAME ON!

“Game on!” declared a smiling world champion Lewis Hamilton after the Australian grand prix, as he finished second behind teammate Nico Rosberg.

The Briton was notably – and oddly – upbeat in the face of defeat to his Mercedes teammate, but Hamilton insisted he has had much worse starts to title campaigns.

“The longer the season, the less important the first race is,” Hamilton is quoted by Bild newspaper at the start of the unprecedentedly-long 21-race calendar.

But Hamilton and Rosberg may also have listened to their boss Toto Wolff, who warned late last year that if the severest of the heat did not go out of their off-track battle, Mercedes may need to consider a new lineup.

Rosberg even apologised for touching Hamilton in the first corner, but Wolff also promised to ease the restrictions on the pair, telling Welt am Sonntag newspaper: “We will not intervene between them, or at least we will try not to.

“This may actually be helped by the reduced radio communications, which gives greater scope for the drivers to make autonomous decisions,” he added.

Hamilton’s post-Melbourne mood may also be explained by the fact that, following his late-2015 performance dip, he actually set the pace all weekend.

“Rosberg, although he won, will realise that he has to find another couple of tenths,” agrees former F1 driver Robert Doornbos.

“I also expect a lot from Ferrari next weekend in Bahrain with the higher temperatures,” he told Ziggo Sport Totaal.

Indeed, many believe Sebastian Vettel only failed to win on Sunday because of the red flag, and a strategy blunder by Ferrari regarding tyre compound choice.

“I was surprised and glad when I saw Sebastian was on the red (super soft) tyres,” said Rosberg, “and I thought ‘This is my chance’.”

Corriere dello Sport surmised: “The wind has turned and Ferrari has made a significant step forward. But the gap to Mercedes is still far from overcome.”

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ALONSO: I KNEW MY MUM WOULD BE WATCHING ON TV

Fernando Alonso was wearing a bandage on his knee and a grimace on Monday when he bumped into Blick correspondent Roger Benoit at a Melbourne beach.

“I slept badly and have sore ribs,” said the Spaniard, who had flipped and rolled his McLaren-Honda a day earlier after running into Esteban Gutierrez at 300kph.

The entire sporting world and beyond was relieved to see Alonso otherwise unscathed, and pondering what next step F1 needs to make to improve safety.

For instance, as the smashed remains of the car had landed upside-down, Alonso was able to quickly climb out of the open cockpit “as I knew my Mum would be watching on TV”.

But if his car had the FIA-supported ‘halo’ device fitted, as the entire field might in 2017, would Alonso have been able to get out quite so quickly?

“It’s an interesting question that we will have to consider,” Alonso admitted, according to Auto Motor und Sport.

Nevertheless he did acknowledge, “It was a scary moment and I’m happy that I can stand here. I am very grateful and would like to express my gratitude to the FIA for the safety standards. It’s the only reason I’m still alive.”

“I feel fine physically but everything hurts a little because you move around so much at those speeds. The knee is what bothers me most as it hit the steering column but I feel very lucky,” added the two times F1 world champion.

But Alonso’s teammate Jenson Button says what happened on Sunday, and the fact that ‘halo’ might have prevented such a quick escape, is in fact no argument against the concept.

“People talk about fire, but how many fires because of accidents have we seen in recent years?” the Briton is quoted by Speed Week.

“Ok, in an accident like Fernando’s it would have taken a little longer for him to get out, but the most important thing is that Alonso is ok and the much greater risk is a driver being hit on the head. All other discussions are pretty irrelevant,” Button added.

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SAINZ: TORO ROSSO NOW BEST OF THE REST

In the aftermath of the Australian Grand Prix weekend, Toro Rosso appears to have emerged the third-best team in Formula 1 behind grandees Mercedes and Ferrari.

That is despite the fact that driver Carlo Sainz only recently ruled out podiums in 2016, suggesting parent team Red Bull and Williams are further ahead.

But teammate Max Verstappen qualified fifth in Melbourne, saying he was ‘best of the rest’.

“Yes, it is true that we are,” Spaniard Sainz now agrees, according to Marca sports newspaper. “It’s amazing and I’m very happy. I have to congratulate everyone because the work now has its reward.”

Red Bull official Helmut Marko agrees, telling Kleine Zeitung newspaper: “Yes, that’s right. Their Ferrari engine has more power (than Red Bull’s Renault).

“On the simulation it is nearly eight tenths of a second, in qualifying especially. In the race it is not so much,” he added.

Sainz acknowledged, however, that the situation may only be temporary for Toro Rosso, as its 2015-specification Ferrari engine will not be developed this year, “I would rather take it as an opportunity rather than an added pressure.”

The young Spaniard also played down the post-race controversy stirred by teammate Verstappen, who raged on the radio and even tapped the rear of the sister car.

“Max complained a lot?” the 21-year-old told Spanish reporters in Melbourne. “What can I do?”

Former F1 driver Robert Doornbos, however, thinks that rivalry will only intensify in 2016 andhe told Ziggo Sport Totaal, “Helmut Marko is putting the pressure on them as they both chase one spot at Red Bull.”

[MIKA27]

MIKA HAKKINEN: LONG CALENDAR LEADS TO RISK MINIMISING BY F1 TEAMS

The unprecedented length of the 2016 Formula 1 calendar is further limiting the aggression with which teams and drivers can tackle individual races.

That is the view of Mika Hakkinen, when asked by Tagesspiegel newspaper about what he regards as the current state of Formula 1.

“Already drivers are having to conserve the car,” he said, “taking care of the tyres, engine, brakes, but that’s not what a racer wants.”

He thinks that in earlier eras, and also those with calendars notably shorter than the unprecedented 21-race schedule of 2016, were more about how “aggressive” a driver can race.

“But a driver today knows very well that he has a very, very long season in front of him,” said the Finn. “Many teams enter a race with the goal of minimising risk and finishing the race in order to take as many points as possible.”

Hakkinen acknowledged that the same is true in any series, but “the hunger of the driver is given more free space” in many categories outside of today’s F1.

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IMOLA IS PLAN-B TO REPLACE MONZA AS ITALIAN GP HOST

The death knell is nearing for historic Monza’s place on the Formula 1 calendar, according to the latest reports from Italy.

Il Fatto Quotidiano reports that 2016 will be the last Italian grand prix to be held at the fabled Autodromo Nazionale, after negotiations with Bernie Ecclestone broke down terminally.

“There is no more room for negotiating,” Italian automobile club (Aci) chief Angelo Sticchi Damiani is quoted as saying.

He added that “personal interests have prevailed”, amid suggestions the F1 supremo fell out with the circuit operator Sias and demanded that Monza choose ‘F1 or MotoGP’ over ambitions to make modifications for motorcycle racing.

So the report said Ecclestone rejected Aci’s final race fee offer of EUR 19 million, with Imola and Mugello now in the frame to take over the Italian grand prix.

But Sticchi Damiani was subsequently quoted by Correre della Sera newspaper as rejecting the suggestion that Monza’s hopes are now definitely over.

“The negotiations on the future of the Italian grand prix continue,” he said. “Monza is option A, although there are great difficulties.”

‘Option B’, it seems, is a return to Imola, the popular Italian circuit that last hosted the San Marino grand prix in 2006.

“I have a clear mandate that the grand prix be in Italy, preferably in Monza,” said Sticchi Damiani. “But if we cannot solve that, we have to do it a different way.”

[MIKA27]

Romain Grosjean wins first ever Driver of the Day award

Romain Grosjean has become the first driver to win the 'Driver of the Day' award - a new initiative launched by Formula 1 for the 2016 season.

A public vote takes place after each race and can be found on the official Formula 1 website. It's hoped the vote will increase fan engagement, particularly on social media.

The Haas driver finished sixth and scored eight points for the new American team on their debut in Australia.

Grosjean reacted to the news on Twitter: "WOWWW!!! Thanks everyone for your vote. Very honoured to be the first driver to get the Driver of the Day prize!"

The poll didn't reveal a breakdown of votes, but however stated that "in the interests of fairness, multiple votes identified as originating from the same source were not counted."

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Sebastian Vettel says he was kept in the dark over Kimi Raikkonen's retirement

Sebastian Vettel was kept in the dark over why team-mate Kimi Raikkonen retired from the Australian Grand Prix, with Formula 1's strict new radio regulations preventing Ferrari from informing their driver.

Raikkonen was forced to retire from the race on Lap 21 due to a mechanical issue on his car which resulted in a fire in the air-box as the car came to a halt in the pits.

The Finn had been running at the sharp end of the order throughout the early stages of the race after enjoying a tremendous start along with team-mate Vettel, leading a handful of laps prior to his first scheduled pit-stop.

Vettel did not find out the reason for his team-mate’s retirement until the post-race press conference, when he admitted that the new radio regulations prevented the team from informing him mid-race.

Despite the stringent clampdown on what can and can’t be discussed via the pit-wall and the drivers, the rules were relaxed to certain extent only several hours prior to the start of the race.

“Until now, I don’t know what is the problem,” said Vettel after finishing third.

“In the past we had a radio so it was nice to hear what was the problem but I was only informed that he had to retire.

“I don’t know why [Raikkonen retired].”

The German was then informed that Raikkonen’s car suffered a fire in the air-box following a mechanical failure.

“Thank you very much,” replied Vettel. “I was not allowed to get that message.”

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'Normally I would be miles ahead of Carlos Sainz' - Max Verstappen

Max Verstappen says he 'doesn't care' what Toro Rosso do about team orders in the future because on a normal weekend he wouldn't be racing his team-mate Carlos Sainz.

The Dutch youngster found himself in fourth at the start of the Australian Grand Prix and asked to pit for new tyres on lap eight as he began to struggle for grip, however the team chose to pit Sainz instead and leave Verstappen out.

Verstappen disagreed with the move and came in on his own accord, which led to a slow stop and dropped him down the order behind his team-mate. Although faster, he couldn't get past and demanded the team swap him and Sainz, something they refused to do.

When asked after the race what he thought about the teams stance on team orders and whether they would use them in future, he said: "To be honest I don't know and I don't care," he is quoted by Motorsport. "Normally I should be miles ahead [of Sainz]. It should be fine [in future]."

Verstappen eventually finished tenth, a result which he believes could have been far better had the team not thrown opportunities away.

"I think we should have been close to [Daniel] Ricciardo if we had the right pit stops and stuff. To finish tenth is of course really disappointing."

"I knew I was much faster [than Sainz] today," he added. "To be honest for me it's fine. I feel I have everything under control. I don't feel the pressure of him. I'm focussing ahead, that's my competition."

MIKA: Someone should call a Doctor, I think this is a strong case of "Hamilton-itis"

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Steiner: Beyond our expectations

Haas team principal Guenther Steiner concedes his team's incredible Formula 1 debut would not have been possible without Ferrari's help.

Haas entered Formula 1 this season with the assistance from Ferrari, with whom they have a technical partnership.

Not only is the VF-16 powered the Ferrari but the car also carries the Italian stable's suspension and other parts.

It all went towards a memorable debut in which Romain Grosjean raced his Haas from P19 on the grid to sixth at the chequered flag.

"You aim high and you want points, but after qualifying we didn't expect to finish sixth," Steiner stated.

"A deserved sixth, on merit, because the speed is there, it is pretty cool.

"This is beyond our expectations. Being competitive with the other cars is more satisfying than taking points."

The team boss admitted that Haas' partnership with Ferrari played a role in helping the team make their impressive debut.

"Without the help from Ferrari, this wouldn't have happened. It cannot happen," he said.

"That's what we said we are not going to do it like the other [new teams] because it's more of the same. We'd be five or six years without points. And then anybody would run out of enthusiasm and money.

"I'm cautious to say it's working, because we still have to repeat this. It's just one race. But the car is there, in the midfield, and that's already positive."

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Senna had no desire to become F1 team owner, claims biographer

The late, great Ayrton Senna’s biographer, Ernesto Rodrigues, believes that the three-time World Champion would still be involved in motorsport today had he lived – but not as an F1 team boss.

Senna would have been 56-years old on Monday, had he survived his crash in the San Marino Grand Prix in 1994.

Senna’s birthday is still celebrated by his legion of fans, many of whom wonder what he would have gone on to achieve after his driving career.

Motorsport.com Brazil spoke with Ernesto Rodrigues, author of the book Ayrton: The Hero Revealed and the director of the documentary film Ayrton: Pictures and Memories.

“I couldn’t see Ayrton becoming a team owner or someone who became a director or executive of a team,” said Rodrigues, which is in stark contrast to the post-driving career of Senna's great rival Alain Prost.

“His personality was defined like: ‘Oh, I’m getting out of here and people will miss me’ – unlike others who are still there, such as Niki Lauda for example.”

When asked what he would likely have been doing instead, Rodrigues – who interviewed 240 people for his book and film – said: “Making money. He was very efficient at that.

“I believe that he would not be with a racing team, but would still be involved with motorsport.

“Maybe some big deal involving a brand. I believe he would've been involved with something like this today.”

[MIKA27]

New tyre regulations "fantastic" for F1 - Lowe

Mercedes technical boss Paddy Lowe says that the decision to give teams the choice of three Pirelli tyre compounds made a big contribution to an exciting Australian GP.

Mediums, supersofts and softs were available in Melbourne, and eight drivers used all three during the race. Five different strategies were used by the top six drivers.

“Having three compounds in the race, which was a change we promoted from the middle of last year as being something that would add uncertainty and excitement to the race, I think we've seen that play out really well,” Lowe told Motorsport.com.

“You've got somebody on an old medium, and someone else on a brand new supersoft. It's fantastic. And we've also pushed the spectacle of qualifying up, because we're effectively a compound softer for qualifying.

"As we saw on Saturday we were 2.5s quicker, some of that's development, some of that's the tyre.”

Team forced to focus on mediums in Barcelona

Mercedes raised a few eyebrows by focussing on the medium tyre during Barcelona testing, and it was therefore somewhat ironic that the team finished one-two in Australia after a crucial decision to use it in the race.

Lowe says there was good reason for that testing plan.

“It was simply mileage. We had a target to do 6000kms, on a medium you can get about 100kms, on a soft you get about 30km. With the fixed quota we were given we had to take all mediums, apart from four sets of softs and three sets of wets.

“We'd rather have had more tyres from Pirelli, and then we would have added a lot more softs into the mix. We were getting seven or eight sets a day - if you want to do 800kms, you need eight mediums.”

The test schedule meant that Mercedes didn't run the supersoft on the W07 until Saturday in Australia, so the team and drivers had very little experience of it going into qualifying.

"We first ran the supersoft in P3, that's the first-ever run of it on this car. The times weren't startling, but they picked up when we got into qualifying.”

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Analysis: How Mercedes turned the tables on Ferrari

Formula 1 kicked off its 2016 season with a bang in Melbourne. Adam Cooper takes us inside the Australian Grand Prix.

The Australian GP proved to be a thoroughly entertaining race, one that the sport badly needed after the farce that was qualifying.

Fortunately, other 2016 F1 rule changes or clarifications played a more successful role in how Sunday played out, and in the end we saw a fascinating strategic contest unfold between Mercedes and Ferrari, with fortune seemingly favouring one then the other from the very start of the race.

New rules for this year require one rather than two clutch paddles, and with radio chat also cut back these days, drivers have to manage these revised systems on their own.

Things were further complicated in Melbourne when Dany Kvyat triggered an aborted start, so everyone had to go around again and manage temperatures and settings and so on.

From pole Hamilton got away badly. "There's not some single disaster that went on that we need to go analyse,” Paddy Lowe told Motorsport.com.

“I think it was probably a number of things combining to create some fairly poor starts. You have to say the objective of the regulation change, or reinterpretation in fact, is to make the starts more variable.

"And that's what we've seen [in the race]. So that was something that was well considered in advance.”

“In the way we measure [Lewis'] was a couple of metres worse than Nico after 100 metres,” said Toto Wolff.

“I'm not quite sure whether it was a software problem or hardware problem or a slow reaction, we just have to look into things. Yesterday our practice starts weren't very good. So we were not quite sure whether this would cause a problem in the race or not.

“[The radio ban] certainly plays a role because in the past if you would have a bad start off the line for the formation lap you can see how much the slip was, and if you can't adjust it makes a difference.”

Rosberg had no complaints about his own start – he passed Lewis after all – and yet ultimately he lost out to both Vettel and Raikkonen. One Ferrari source told me that the Italian team knows it has very effective start procedure for this year's single paddle rules.

Indeed, that may help to explain what happened in qualifying, when both drivers opted to save a set of supersoft tyres by not going for a second run in Q3.

In other words it could be that the team was confident that from the second row it still had a pretty good chance of getting in front, so rather than throw away a set of tyres trying to beat out the Mercs in qualifying, it was worth holding on to them.

Thereafter the red cars led in confident style, helped by the fact that Hamilton has lost out to a couple of other cars at the start, and got bogged down. Then at the stops Rosberg got ahead of Raikkonen for second, and gave himself a clear shot at Vettel.

Nevertheless a third of the way into the race it looked as though Seb, now four second ahead, really could win it. “The start was super,” said Maurizio Arrivabene.

“I have to say both of the drivers, they start like two rockets and after that they were able to take an advantage, and that was good for us.

"This is the reason why at a certain point we were looking at the gap, looking at our strategy prediction, and looking quite comfortable...”

Red flag stoppage

Then Fernando Alonso's accident brought out a red flag. It's something of an anomaly in the rules that under a race suspension drivers are allowed to make a free tyre change.

It's logical under safety grounds, given that by definition a red flag probably means that cars have passed through a debris field, but it can turn races around – in the case of the 2011 Monaco GP it completely ruined what was going to be a grandstand finish between cars on different strategies.

This time around it didn't do that, but it certainly turned things on their head. Rather handily we were now in the window to put on mediums and get to the flag without a further stop.

Indeed the first man to indicate that it was possible was none other than Hamilton, who came in on lap 16. It was a logical move for him given that he was out of position and had lost time getting past other cars.

Others to make the same move just before the stoppage were Nico Hulkenberg, Sergio Perez, Valtteri Bottas and Kevin Magnussen, so four teams figured it was possible.

Thus going to mediums under the red flag seemed like an entirely logical choice, unless there were specific strategic reasons to do something else. As always its much harder to get it right if you are at the sharp end and fighting for the win.

The other thing to remember is that you don't know what rivals are going to do – you only find out when the blankets come off just before the race resumes, and it's too late to react.

Mercedes decided to leave Hamilton on his nearly new mediums and give Rosberg the new set he had on hand. With Friday's rain restricting dry running and three tyres in play this year the team didn't know quite what to expect.

“With the one-stop [from the red flag] strategy we knew that it could come towards us,” said Wolff.

“We didn't have a lot of information about the medium, relying on last year's assumptions and what we've seen at the test, so it was good that we ran the medium a lot. It looked like it could last, we could survive, we could make it last.”

As Wolff notes Mercedes spent the vast majority of the Barcelona test on the medium, and was not short of data about how it might behave, even it wasn't specific to Melbourne 2016.

Lowe acknowledged that the testing had helped: “A little bit, yeah, and just general knowledge from running the medium last year. You wouldn't expect that data to be wrong a year later.”

Tyre poker

What Mercedes didn't know until others revealed their hands was what rivals would do. And when the blankets came off the Ferraris, both drivers were still on supersofts, and thus clearly committed to doing another stop.

Daniel Ricciardo and the two Toro Rosso drivers also ignored the medium to go with new softs. “Potentially the red flag was a real disaster for us,” said Lowe.

“Because it locked in a certain order from our position, that in our view you could finish on a single medium.

"Of course, it wasn't a complete no-brainer decision, but we thought that all the cars around us would go that way. We'd seen in the early part of the race that it was very, very difficult to overtake, even with a pace advantage," he continued.

“We were quite pleasantly surprised to see all the softs around us, and all the mediums behind, when the blankets came off. Not that it said that we were immediately going to drop into a one-two, but at least it gave us some hope, rather than no hope!”

So did the Ferrari choice come as a total surprise?: “We hadn't ruled it out, but it wasn't what we thought they would do...”

“The easier call was for Lewis,” said Wolff. “Because we knew the cars in front of him, Sainz, Verstappen and Ricciardo, that he wouldn't be able to overtake them on track. We saw how difficult it was with Verstappen before, so the one-stop was pretty obvious.

“Even though that's not the race that suits Lewis best, he likes to attack and have a tyre that makes it possible.

"For Nico it was the more difficult call up front, to decide do we want to make it a defensive strategy, and stick on the one-stop, or make him compete with the other guys in front on the same tyre.”

Rosberg agreed that as the team at the head of the field, Ferrari had a difficult decision to make when it came to rejecting mediums.

“It was the plan for him [Lewis] and it was the plan for me, in that sense as in where we were for that time in the race – because we had prepared those sorts of scenarios. But definitely the red flag, we used that perfectly going onto the medium," the German said.

“And the challenge is you don't know what the others are putting on, and Ferrari doesn't know what I'm putting on. I could've been putting on supersofts and just trying to attack, to overtake them.

"So they need to defend that a little with supersofts. It was a little bit of a gamble, a poker game. And we came out on top...”

Indeed one of the driving factors for Ferrari could have been exactly that, the fear that on mediums Vettel would have been vulnerable to attack either if a) Mercedes started on supersofts or both teams started on mediums and Mercedes didn't take as long to warm the tyres up.

Equally once the divergent tyre choice was clear Mercedes was concerned that Rosberg on mediums would struggle to get up to speed, and be jumped by Raikkonen.

That didn't happen, and against expectations he also managed to keep in touch with Vettel up ahead. “We thought the big fear would be the warm-up on the first lap,” said Lowe.

“And therefore once we got Nico through that first lap without losing a position to Raikkonen, we were very happy with that. And also that Nico could broadly maintain position with Sebastian.”

After the headache of the red flag Ferrari's day became a little worse when Kimi retired, and it was soon apparent that Vettel did not have the pace to open up a big enough gap to threaten Mercedes.

Even with a stop the final 39 laps split between his already used supersofts and a new set of softs for the run to the flag was a bit of a stretch, and he had to manage his pace.

“I was surprised, yes, but it was easy to explain,” said Rosberg. “He needed to get to the end of the race with just one more pit stop with 40-odd laps with supersoft and soft.

"He was managing his pace, he wasn't pushing on the supersoft. And I could push on the medium because I know that it would last.

"He needed to have a decent stint length, you can't push flat out, you need to manage it with the supersoft, so that's the explanation for that. But yes, I was surprised at the time.”

It wasn't all that straightforward for the Brackley camp either as the drivers still had to keep their mediums in good shape.

“It was just the unknown,” says Lowe. “Would the medium go that long? Because they were clearly pushing as hard as they could.”

Rosberg's brake issue

Then just to add to the challenge Rosberg hit some brake problems. “We suffered some little drama as well,” said Wolff.

“We had a problem on Nico's car with brake caliper temperatures which kept creeping up, almost to a stage where we thought about retiring the car.

"That was two-thirds into the race, and then it stabilised at maximum value. It was debris we caught in the caliper. And then it started to creep down again, very slowly, and recovered.

"At a certain stage it was very difficult for the team to handle. [Nico] didn't know. You can't tell him.”

There was no radio chat, but Rosberg did get a warning on his dash. He'd done his homework and was able to react to it.

As Lowe noted: “He just had one of his rear callipers that got a little bit out of control, but he did the right things to save the brakes with how it works now.”

The drama wasn't over, because in the late stages those medium tyres became an issue. Getting them to the flag while running flat out wasn't so straightforward after all.

“Fifteen laps to the end, our calculations showed that the tyre wouldn't last,” said Wolff. “And that around five laps to the end, the left rear could fall off the cliff.

"And the temperatures kept dropping and dropping and dropping every single lap. Our tyre guy said, 'Five laps to the end, that's it'.

“And you couldn't really stop them or tell them to go slower, because then that would have made the tyre temperatures fall even more.

"We lost a lot of grip on the rear left, but it is just one of four tyres, and we made it survive, made it last, until the end. It was really difficult, because we couldn't tell him to look after the left rear.

"If after all these years you're used to transmitting all this information to the driver, and optimise the car and also make the car survive, that lack of communication is definitely going to lead to situations which are beyond the engineer's control.

“We can tell them to push or not push,” says Lowe. “But as you saw it was not a situation to tell them to not push, particularly on Lewis's side!”

Hamilton did well to keep Vettel behind, and the situation resolved itself when the German ran wide at the penultimate corner with a couple of laps to go, as Paddy admits: “The tension went out of it at that point...”

Wrong call from Ferrari?

Would Vettel have won had he too gone onto mediums at the red flag? It's a debate that started even before the chequered flag.

“In front of everybody that we were showing a very, very good pace,” said Arrivabene. “We were quite comfortable and after the red flag, we took a decision. A certain decision that can be right or wrong...”

The consensus is that Ferrari did indeed miss a trick, but there is no definitive answer. As we've seen when you don't know what your rival will do the choice is not easy.

It could well be that if both teams took the restart on mediums they would have proved better suited to Mercedes, at the start and end of the stint for example, and Rosberg would have won anyway.

The more intriguing question is what might have happened without the red flag, and that's also far from clear. “I don't know,” Wolff admitted.

“Clearly the medium tyre after the restart was the key to the victory. We were actually quite surprised about the tyre choices of the others, and I must say that [strategy expert] James [Vowles] and his team have done a really awesome job of making the right calls at the right time.”

One thing is clear. The powers that be may have screwed up qualifying, but the decision to bring three compounds to each race has added an extra dimension.

One that could make many of this year's races far more interesting than they have been in the past. Lowe certainly believes that will be the case.

“Having three compounds in the race, which was a change we promoted from the middle of last year as being something that would add uncertainty and excitement to the race, I think we've seen that play out really well.”

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Horner glows on positives in Australia

Christian Horner says F1 has shown itself in a positive light after a difficult few weeks and was also pleased with Red Bull's performance at the Australian Grand Prix despite Daniil Kvyat's failure on the formation lap.

After the shambles which became the new qualifying format, which has already been binned, Horner says he's happy the sport could put on a show on race day with competitive battles throughout the grid and Fernando Alonso being able to walk away from his huge shunt which forced a red flag.

Horner struggled to hide his disappointment at Kvyat's second straight luckless race in Australia, with the Russian failing to make the start with a CU-H electronics failure on his power unit, but was pleased by Daniel Ricciardo's race pace to take fourth place at his home event.

“Fundamentally the chassis is working very well,” Horner said. “The degradation on the tyres has been very good. Our stint lengths seemed as long as the best, and we were competitive. When Ricciardo was in clear air on the same tyre he was doing the same times as Vettel. So I think some real encouraging facts. I think we got the strategy right today, and good pit stops, so it was a solid performance.

“I think it's been a good race for Formula 1 today. It was competitive, fights going on throughout the field, some great racing.

“The best result about today was Fernando emerging unscathed from that accident. It was a horrifying-looking accident but the car, safety wise, circuit safety wise, everything did exactly as it should and it was a relief to see him get out unscathed because there was a huge amount of energy in that shunt. I think we put on a good race today. It was a big crowd and hopefully a big audience, and I think that was Formula 1 at its best and as it should be.”

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Bottas: Williams welcomes points but not satisfied

Valtteri Bottas says Williams welcomes a double points finish in Australia but feels he wasn't able to extract the maximum around Albert Park.

The Finnish driver, who missed last year's race through injury, suffered more misfortune in Melbourne by losing out in the elimination qualifying format and also picked up a five-place grid penalty for a gearbox change.

Despite a less advantageous starting position on the eighth row of the grid Bottas battled through the pack to take eighth place in the middle of the tight midfield pack.

Bottas says he accepts picking up four championship points but is confident he could have challenged for more with a bit of fortune.

“It's good to get some points. Obviously starting from 16th place it's always tricky to move up, so it was good to get some points with both cars,” Bottas said. “The grid penalty made it more difficult, of course, but step-by-step we managed to get closer to the top ten and, at the end, there was a small reward.”

Having only just pitted before the red flag stoppage for the spectacular Fernando Alonso and Esteban Gutierrez crash, the Williams driver felt it also hampered his progress and ended the race stuck behind Nico Hulkenberg and Romain Grosjean.

“The red flag came at the wrong time for me as it was a shame I got stuck behind the Force India and the Haas,” he explained. “I felt I had quite a bit more pace than them and maybe it would have been possible to score more points, but that's how it is.

“We got points with both cars and that's good but obviously 8th place is not satisfying, but points are points and they can be very important at the end of the season.”

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WOLFF: IT WOULD BE STUPID NOT TO CONSIDER MAX

In the aftermath of an action packed Australian Grand Prix weekend, Mercedes chief Toto Wolff has admitted Max Verstappen is on the Silver Arrows radar for the future.

Jos Verstappen, the F1 teen sensation’s father, is openly confirming that while Toro Rosso was the right move for Max initially, he wants his son to be in a “top car” for 2017.

The 18-year-old made his mark on the sport with his audacious overtakes last year, and on Saturday got his 2016 campaign off to an impressive start by qualifying fifth.

“Mercedes and Ferrari are far ahead but I think you can call us ‘best of the rest’,” Max said.

Olav Mol, the well-known Dutch television commentator, told Ziggo Sport Totaal that “Max made a huge point to the team bosses” with his pace in Australia.

Wolff, the team boss at Mercedes where Nico Rosberg is out of contract at the end of the year, is openly impressed.

“It is clear that he (Verstappen) has a great future in F1. It would be stupid not to consider him as the opportunity arises. But at the moment this is not an issue,” said Wolff.

That is because Red Bull beat Wolff to putting Verstappen under long-term contract for 2015 and beyond.

“Max did not surprise me in his first year,” the Austrian said. “I knew how good he was.

“Now he is clearly ready for the next step,” added Wolff. “I know that Red Bull has high expectations for him so I would be very, very surprised if Max is not driving a Red Bull in 2017.”

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MARKO: FERRARI AND MERCEDES INTERESTED IN RICCIARDO

The 2017 formula 1 ‘silly season’ appears to already be underway, with several top drivers out of contract at the end of the year, including Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg and Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen.

And both of those teams are interested in Daniel Ricciardo, the smiling Australian’s Red Bull chief Helmut Marko revealed on Tuesday.

“Ferrari are much more interested in Ricciardo than Verstappen,” he is quoted by Auto Motor und Sport.

And Marko also told the Austrian broadcaster Servus TV: “The red and the silver teams are knocking.”

But he says Ricciardo is firmly under a “long-term” contract with Red Bull. And Marko also said Red Bull is set to rise back to the very top of the sport.

“We believe we can provide a really competitive car next year,” he insisted. “Not only the chassis but also on the engine side.”

Ricciardo finished fourth in Melbourne at the 2016 Formula 1 world championship season opener, at one point even looking like a podium contender.

“In race trim we lack 2 tenths on Ferrari,” team boss Christian Horner claimed, admitting he is really looking forward to a major step by engine supplier Renault in Montreal.

“On one lap the power deficit punishes us,” he said. “But Renault has greatly improved the racing mode of the engine over the winter. And the driveability is worlds better.”

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FORMULA 1 2016: ALL THE DRIVERS’ HELMETS

All the drivers’ helmets for the 2016 Formula 1 world championship season. Drivers will war the same helmet design throughout the season. Click on thumbnail to enlarge

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MOSLEY: ALONSO WOULD NOT HAVE SURVIVED 20 YEARS AGO

A crash like the one suffered by Fernando Alonso in the Australian Grand Prix would have been fatal in a previous era, former FIA president Max Mosley told reporters.

Alonso’s McLaren was sent into a terrifying barrel roll after he clipped Esteban Gutierrez’s Haas at close to 200mph, but the two-time champion crawled from the wreckage before walking away.

Since Ayrton Senna’s death at Imola in 1994 prompted tightened security measures, Frenchman Jules Bianchi, who died at the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix, is the only F1 driver to have lost his life in a race.

Asked if Alonso would have survived a similar accident 20 years ago, Mosley told British newspapers: “I don’t think he would have.

“You wouldn’t know for sure without a detailed analysis, but generally speaking those sorts of accidents resulted in serious injury or death.

“Happily that seems to have stopped. There are still freak accidents, like Jules, but those sort of serious racing accidents, you do expect the driver to walk away. That wouldn’t have been the case 20 years ago.

“This was thanks to (former FIA chief medical officer) Sid Watkins and a team of really competent people and the teams themselves.

“It needed to be looked at scientifically and that was the big change after Ayrton Senna’s death at Imola in 1994.

“It’s very satisfying to see Alonso walk away. You work hard and it’s very satisfying when you see the results. It was quite an impressive crash.”

Mosley’s reign as FIA (International Federation of Automobiles) chief between 1993 and 2009 coincided with a big safety push that continues today, with the planned introduction of the Halo device to protect drivers’ heads.

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VERSTAPPEN CRITICISED FOR MELBOURNE TEMPER TANTRUM

Formula 1 teen sensation Max Verstappen has been roundly criticised for his behaviour at the Australian Grand Prix.

While tipped for greatness by most pundits, the 18-year-old “showed his age” at the 2016 season opener as he lost his cool with Toro Rosso and teammate Carlos Sainz, British commentator Martin Brundle said.

“These were the first signs of immaturity we have seen from Max,” 1996 world champion Damon Hill agreed.

Verstappen had raged repeatedly on the radio about the situation he called a “f*cking joke”, calling for teammate Carlos Sainz to be moved aside and even running into the back of the sister Toro Rosso.

“I was faster than Sainz all the time but nothing was done about it,” the young Dutchman raged, his anger still showing in the post-race media scrums.

But when asked if he would obey a similar order to pull over and let Sainz past, Verstappen answered: “To be honest, I don’t know and I don’t care. Normally I should be miles ahead.”

Well-known Spanish motor racing personality and former F1 driver Adrian Campos, however, said Verstappen was wrong to expect Sainz to be moved aside.

“I see some drivers today as sissies,” he told Cadena Ser radio. “You have to earn your place on the track. Team orders in the first race would be unfortunate but some have gotten used to it. I would tell Verstappen to stop asking for help and take his risks on the track.”

Another well-known racer and fellow Dutchman Tom Coronel, told De Telegraaf newspaper that the “anger” expressed by Verstappen in Melbourne was obvious in his driving.

“He was more aggressive than normal and he therefore made mistakes,” he said, before adding that Max’s anger may have been misplaced. “The team said he could overtake Sainz – it’s called racing!”

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IS THE MERCEDES PLAYGROUND IN F1 OVER?

Helmut Marko is not so sure Ferrari is really ready to challenge Mercedes in 2016, while media – particularly in Italy – are predicting the demise of the German team’s domination in Formula 1.

On the face of it, it might be said Sebastian Vettel only lost victory in Melbourne because of the red flag and a tyre choice blunder by the Maranello team.

“The Mercedes playground is over,” wrote La Gazzetta dello Sport, while Tuttosport agreed: “It is clear that Mercedes will not be the sole ruler this season.”

Corriere della Sera added: “Not all losses are the same. Mercedes won in Australia but only thanks to Ferrari’s mistakes.”

Red Bull’s Dr Marko, however, has a different theory, telling Kleine Zeitung newspaper that “Mercedes will be trying to conceal their (true) superiority” at races this year.

But Auto Motor und Sport claims Mercedes’ advantage in the twisty third sector in Melbourne was just 77 thousandths over Vettel.

“In qualifying they turn on the power and they are gone,” said the German. “But we can compete with them in the corners.”

No matter the real gap to Ferrari, teammates Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton at least look set for a close battle in 2016.

Mercedes team chairman Niki Lauda thinks an immediate win in 2016 was exactly what German Rosberg needed as he bids to break Hamilton’s run of titles.

“If it would have been the other way round and Lewis had won he (Rosberg) would have suffered because he always suffers when Lewis is there,” he is quoted by the Daily Mail. “So, for him this race is important to mentally stay strong and have a good baseline for the next one.”

The Austrian and F1 legend thinks part of Mercedes’ problem last Sunday was Vettel’s much better start as he leapfrogged the silver-clad pair to lead early.

“The race was half-decided on the start because Ferrari did an incredible start,” Lauda said. “We screwed up (and) we have to find out why”.

“I am afraid we see more of this because Ferrari is quick and there is no question about it. It is going to be exciting and I look forward to the next one.”

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WILLIAMS SET FASTEST PITSTOP TIME IN MELBOURNE

While it was Silver Arrows driver Nico Rosberg secured the first win of the new seasonat the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne, it was the Williams team who were the fastest in the pits.

A mere 2.35 seconds – no more than a brief moment in time. That’s all the Williams crew needed to turn around the FW38 of Valtteri Bottas, making the British team a split second faster than their Mercedes colleagues, who sent race winner Nico Rosberg on his way in 2.65 seconds during his race stop.

Williams also achieved the third-fastest stop of the race with a time of 2.72 seconds for Brazilian driver Felipe Massa, proving the Williams crew’s consistency.

There were a total of 26 pit stops during the 58 laps of the Australian Grand Prix. Pit crews beat the three-second benchmark in eleven of them.

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Mercedes and Ferrari select different tyres for Bahrain Grand Prix

Pirelli has revealed which tyre compounds each driver has chosen for the second round of the 2016 championship, the Bahrain Grand Prix.

Whilst team-mates Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg elected for different tyre approaches for the season opening Australian GP last weekend, they have converged on the same choice for Bahrain, with both selecting one set of medium tyres alongside six soft and six supersoft compounds.

However their nearest rival, Ferrari, have gone for a different approach with both of its drivers. Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen will have three sets of the medium, four of the soft and six of the supersoft at their disposal.

Ferrari's selection will likely see them opt for a longer stint during the race, possibly with the aim of one-stopping, whilst Mercedes will almost certainly have to two-stop at minimum.

Only three sets of team-mates have chosen differing strategies: Toro Rosso's Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz; Sauber's Marcus Ericsson and Felipe Nasr; and Haas' Romain Grosjean and Esteban Gutierrez.

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Pirelli could vote against reverting to old qualifying format

Pirelli's Paul Hembery is yet to be convinced that reverting to the old qualifying format is the best option for the sport, despite a vast majority of fans and team bosses criticising the new elimination-format.

Such was the negative reaction on Saturday, an urgent meeting was called for Sunday morning in which team bosses unanimously agreed to revert to the former system used between 2006-15 as early as the Bahrain Grand Prix in just under a fortnight.

That vote involved only team bosses. For the rule change to happen, it requires unanimous support from all memebrs of the F1 Commission which includes other stakeholders such as circuit promoters and tyre supplier Pirelli.

Pirelli's Hembery has made it clear that he isn't convinced that ditching the new format in its entirety is the right decision and could therefore vote against it, which would effectively block the change.

"We haven't heard all of the arguments," he said on the matter. "There were a number of positives and negatives from the qualifying."

Hembery believes Q1 and Q2 were a success in that they forced teams to use tyres they otherwise wouldn't, but agreed the anti-climatic Q3 needed tweaking.

"I think the one thing that did come from qualifying here was that it had an impact on the race, which was the original motive as explained to us as F1 Commission members.

"There were things like stopping maybe the top teams trying to qualify on what would have been the soft tyre here in Q2, which would then have allowed them to start on the soft tyre in the race," he explained.

"Having no elimination, they would probably have gone out on the soft tyre, tried to set a time and then evaluated whether that would be sufficient to get them through. So you have to be careful.

"I think Q3 needed improving – as not having cars running was unanimously seen by fans and the viewers as negative. But that could be easily be resolved by going back to last year's Q3 running, so there is no elimination process."