Australian Grand Prix: Ferrari are back as title contenders with Mercedes

Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel beat Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes in a straight fight as Formula 1’s new era started at the Australian Grand Prix. Vettel’s first win since the Singapore GP in September 2015 was final proof Mercedes’ domination is over after the introduction of faster cars. Hamilton started in pole but Vettel had an advantage on pace and tyre wear. The German pressured Mercedes into an early pit stop and benefited when Hamilton was held up by Max Verstappen.

Ferrari were simply quicker in Melbourne and the world champions were forced into a position where they had to make a decision that did not work out. Mercedes were telling Hamilton he needed to up his pace to build a gap before his pit stop. The Briton was complaining his tyres were going off and he had no more pace. Mercedes had the choice of leaving him out and risking Vettel passing him by and stopping earlier, or bringing him in and hoping Red Bull’s Verstappen would stop soon afterwards or that Hamilton could pass him. Hamilton returned to the track 1.7 seconds behind Verstappen. He soon caught him and was told by his engineer Peter Bonnington: “This is race-critical – you need to pass Verstappen.”

Hamilton replied: “I don’t know how you expect me to do that.”

The leaders might have made only one pit stop, which some might not like, but the intensity of the fights created by cars that test drivers to their limits for the first time in years made for a compelling afternoon.

Sebastian Vettel was doing his best to play it down but the message from his victory in the Australian Grand Prix was clear – Ferrari are back and the Formula 1 fans can look forward to a close battle between them and Mercedes for the world title this year.

Vettel had talked about Mercedes having “no weak link”, adding that “they will be the ones to beat”. But make no mistake, this was an emphatic victory and Mercedes are well aware that. After three years of almost total domination, they finally have a fight on their hands.

All in all, the race in Melbourne’s Albert Park was exactly what F1 needed, and what the sport should be. Huge names – both in the cockpits and the cars themselves – locked in an intense and closely matched tussle for victory. It could have gone either way, but the reality is that the Ferrari was probably the quicker car and Vettel pressured Mercedes into making a decision. People will blame Mercedes’ strategy, but this was not an error per se; it was a call that just turned out the wrong way.

The Ferrari’s pace advantage in the first part of the race was clear from the way Vettel could stay within about 1.5 seconds of Hamilton and not fall back. All the drivers talked about how the increased aerodynamic downforce of these cars made it harder to follow a rival. Hamilton said that last year the average distance where turbulence started to affect a car behind was about a second; this year it is double that. And yet Vettel was able to stick right with the Briton.

Ferrari’s lucky charm ? Nicole Kidman in Ferrari garage.

The evidence of the weekend overall is that Mercedes and Ferrari are pretty much neck and neck in terms of pace. Hamilton took pole by nearly 0.3 seconds but the feeling was that a fair chunk of that margin – if not all of it – may well have been the driver, on a track on which the Englishman has always excelled, rather than the car. In that sense, the true outright pace of the Mercedes was probably shown by team-mate Valtteri Bottas, who was within a few hundredths of Vettel in third place.

Here is a quick recap of Australian GP results.

26-Mar – Albert Park – 58 laps – 191 miles

Leaderboard – Final		Points	Time/Lag	Avg. mph

1	Sebastian Vettel – Ferrari	25	1:24:11.672	215.408

2	Lewis Hamilton – Mercedes	18	+9.975 Sec	214.984

3	Valtteri Bottas – Mercedes	15	+11.250 Sec	214.93

4	Kimi Raikkonen – Ferrari	12	+22.393 Sec	214.458

5	Max Verstappen – Red Bull	10	+28.827 Sec	214.186

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