Verdict on the start of F1’s new era: five talking points from the Australian GP

Mercedes’ flying start lives up to promise, but new regulations receive scathing reviews

Mercedes are on top

The pre-season favourites had done their level best to play down their expected advantage in the buildup to the Australian Grand Prix, but it was impossible to hide. A dominant one-two by the best part of a second for George Russell and Kimi Antonelli in qualifying was followed by a similarly assured one-two finish in the race.

Russell had to fight in the opening phases against Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, but once he had been extricated from that battle and could return to what engineers consider the “optimal” lap according to the new diktats of power deployment and recharging he had as much as 0.3sec to 0.4 on Ferrari. At which point the Merc was gone.

For the final third, Russell and Antonelli were not racing one another and had eased off, simply holding the gap to Leclerc at 15 seconds, indicating they have even more in the bank. They were perhaps conscious that putting a huge gap on the field would reinvigorate the debate over their claimed engine compression ratio advantage. Mercedes are going to be very hard to beat.

Ferrari’s opening credits

Lewis Hamilton and Leclerc made blisteringly quick starts, as they had demonstrated in testing, and in the opening part of the season this may well be their best shot at taking the fight to Mercedes. They were let down by a costly failure to react quickly to a virtual safety car, but in pace terms the Scuderia have made a strong start.

Mercedes have a clear advantage, but in a season that will be marked by a fierce development battle as the teams come to understand better how to bring more performance to their cars, Ferrari feel they have a chance to bridge that gap. They are on their own in being the second-fastest team so can go after Mercedes with little fear of having to cover off McLaren or Red Bull. Leclerc and Hamilton, third and fourth in Melbourne, have every reason to be optimistic.

New era compared to video games

There was no little sound and fury about how the new regulations have affected the racing, with the energy management aspect in particular taking a pasting. Not least from Lando Norris, who said it “sucks” and the cars were the worst he had driven, while warning the sport was in danger of having a major accident. Those feelings were echoed by Max Verstappen, who was scathing about the need for energy management techniques including having to come off the throttle in lift-and-coast procedures, which was as visually clear as it was unedifying. Post-race, there was plenty of criticism aimed at the artificial nature of all the overtaking, prompted by using the boost or overtake mode, after which the energy was so depleted that drivers were helpless to being repassed immediately afterwards.

“This is like the mushroom in Mario Kart,” said Leclerc, not the only driver to compare it to video games. F1 trumpeted the statistic that there were 120 passes compared with 45 last year, but the general feeling was that if said moves were a simple push-to-pass followed by a desperate hope of recharging enough energy to hold the place they were all but meaningless.

The Mercedes and Ferrari drivers were more conciliatory, but it was lost on no one that they have the two best cars. There was consensus a debate was required and the scrutiny will remain in these opening rounds. However, as Toto Wolff noted, what really counted was the view from the top. “Stefano [Domenicali, F1’s CEO] would say that the single metric that matters to him is whether the fans like it,” the Mercedes team principal said.

Lindblad makes striking debut

The only rookie this season, Arvid Lindblad would have been forgiven for keeping his head down and easing into his debut. But the 18-year-old Briton was having none of it. He nailed a superb qualifying session to claim ninth on the grid for Racing Bulls and from there, when the lights went out, hared off the line. He made a superb start and in a frenetic opening period at one point had moved to as high as third.

When Verstappen came up on him, he refused to simply roll over, making the four-time world champion fight for the place before claiming eighth place and four points. He finished one place behind Oliver Bearman, who did superbly in his second season, confirming that Haas have every chance to be in the mix at the front of the midfield.

Long haul in store for Aston Martin

No one in the paddock at Albert Park enjoyed witnessing the very public omnishambles with which Aston Martin opened the new season. That the team were under the cosh had been clear in pre-season testing, but the full extent of it was revealed in Melbourne, On Thursday, Adrian Newey conceded their Honda engine had such a severe vibration problem it risked causing permanent nerve damage to the drivers, an extraordinary admission from a team principal on the eve of the first race.

Two battery failures followed in Friday practice, leaving them with their last two replacement units, and then Lance Stroll could not take part in qualifying; mechanics worked until four o’clock on Sunday morning to try to solve problems. Come the race it was clear it would be little more than further testing and Fernando Alonso did two stints in between an inspection in the pits before the car was retired. Similarly, Stroll put in laps before an extended period in the pits. He did continue to the end, but was not classified after finishing 15 laps behind Russell.

The team are in a real bind. Quite apart from the vibration, the engine is unreliable and underpowered. Without the proper running of a fully functioning engine Aston cannot begin to assess how good their car may be or how to develop it. No quick fix is expected, with shades of Honda’s disastrous return with McLaren in 2015 impossible to ignore. Aston Martin will be more than aware it took the Japanese manufacturer four years to bring that engine to the sharp end of the grid and a further two before it won a title.