Australian Grand Prix Wrap

One down, 17 to go for the F1 boys. Unfortunately, it looks like if you are not Rubens or Michael Schumacher it is going to be a long season. Ferrari simply dominated the weekend at Melbourne.

Taking fast times in all of the practices and the front row in qualifying they backed it up with an impressive 1-2 finish in the Australian Grand Prix. Fernando Alonso managed to grab the final podium position. Ralfie was fourth and Juan fifth.

The biggest story other than the Scuderia domination was probably the outcry over the qualifying procedure. Nearly every team complained of the new rules and even Bernie himself thinks a change may have to take place to keep viewers. Most were unhappy about the fact they had to run two laps in 90 minutes and the first one really didn’t count and no changes could be made. However the Bernie has decided there will be no change until at least the fourth race at Imola.

So now it is back to the drawing board for everyone except Ferrari. Williams was never a factor, Renault probably had as good of a day as they could expect with their 3rd and seventh place finishes. Takuma Sato and Jensen Button brought the BAR’s home in ninth and sixth respectively, which should have made them happy. Coulthard was eighth and has been crying like a little baby since the weekend over the lack of car he perceives to have. His team mate Raikkonen failed to finish and ended up dead last.

No teams lost both of their cars in the race, although Minardi’s team of Baumgartner and Gimmi Bruni were close as Baumgartner went out and Bruni was down 15 laps after long delays in the pits.

Frankly it was a crappy race. Juan got punted early trying to hold of Alonso and with that the Ferrari’s took off. Next it is off to Kuala Lumpur and the Malaysian Grand Prix. It’s a fast track with three slow corners.

Temperatures are usually high and could play a part in engine reliability. However, unless the teams can figure out how to match Ferrari’s pace, it is going to be a long season.