Australian Grand Prix Review

Before the race, the fighting talk from Juan-Pablo Montoya was that if Michael did not win one of the first few races, his appetite for this year's championship battle would be diminished. Instead, after the redwash, after an extraordinary weekend of Ferrari domination, it's just about everyone else who might feel as though they are already chasing a shadow. But was it really that bad? Was the 2004 World Championship as good as over before it has hardly begun?

Well, maybe. And maybe not. There were reasons to explain how the Ferraris could quite effortlessly dip into the low 1 minute 24s, whereas no-one else went more than 0.002s under 1 minute 25s. Albert Park has recently been a Ferrari-friendly circuit, hence four poles and four wins in the last five races there. The low temperatures all weekend were also not the hot conditions in which the Michelins thrived during 2003. Sepang, everyone said post-race, would be more representative of midsummer European climes.

These were consoling excuses, and who knows, they may be true. But the telling reality is that the tight struggle of 2003 woke up both Ferrari and Bridgestone, and destroyed any complacency that may have crept in. They redoubled their energies, avoiding direct comparisons over the off-season. In hindsight, you can just imagine Jean Todt and co laughing silently as grandiose predictions flew about Williams, Renault and even BAR, and saying a big "Take that!" as they packed up and left Melbourne.

Whilst it was Bridgestone that copped all the flack in 2003, and it was assumed by the pundits that it would be the tyre makers who needed to shape up, as it's turned out it's actually Ferrari themselves who have upped the ante. The F2004 is clearly an amazing machine, stable and well-handling, and by using it right from the start of the season it has consigned the F2003-GA to a life of only 12 races. In the search for reliability, the 053 engine has given away nothing in terms of horsepower.

And then there was Schumi himself. Last year in Melbourne, his ragged weekend set the tone for his season. This year, having not driven Albert Park in a year, having not sat in a racing car for a week, within minutes of free practice he had nailed his braking points and hit 95% of his and his car's capability, and by the end of Friday he had already found the remaining 5%. Mere mortals would spend at least a session if not more simply dialling themselves back in to some kind of three-quarter-pace rhythm.

That was the sign of a genius. Or a freak. Or a man who simply has his mind and body completely focussed and in tune with extracting the maximum and winning. All of this added up to give Ferrari as a whole but Michael in particular a sense of quiet, steely confidence throughout the weekend. That, and not the chest-beating type, is the confidence which instils the most fear in others. The 2004 championships may indeed be very, very far from over, but these initial signs are disturbingly ominous.

Ferrari's obliteration of the rest of the field took the discussion away from what was expected to be the major talking point of the weekend - the new rules for 2004. And in truth, the new rules deserve quite some comment, and critical ones at that. The much-vaunted one-engine rule for instance, designed to reduce costs, increase unreliability, and arbitrarily shuffle the grid, proved a damp squib. It did no more than to encourage super-reliability, and force everyone to step back from using their cars to the maximum.

Cars not being pushed to the limit is, frankly, not what F1's about. The number of retirements on Sunday - five in all, not counting Gianmaria Bruni who spent 14 laps in the pits and was not classified - was ridiculously low for a season opener, and for the purposes of this rule. Despite fears of a quiet Friday, the number of laps most cars did was a pleasant surprise, and while it was good that no-one had to take the ten grid spot drop, the level of super-reliability and cautiousness that was evident seems boring.

To think how little money has been saved as teams have worked to develop ultra-durable engines with the same power as before! Similarly, whilst banning fully automatic gearboxes and launch control placed some welcome emphasis back onto the driver, the Renaults were still conspicuously good off the line. Later, Pat Symonds unashamedly explained that this was to do with R&D in ignition and fuel supply management which the rules still allowed. So, no cost savings in banning launch control either!

A more pertinent criticism came from Bernie Ecclestone and Schumi himself, both of whom found the format boring. With two sessions back-to-back, it did indeed seem to drag. What's more, as we pointed out in the season preview, teams may have reason to run heavy on their first runs. They might do this if they wish to sandbag, if they don't think they will have much time to prepare for the second run, or if they simply want to get some practice of doing a hot lap on half-full tanks.

They can do this without much penalty, because to run first in the second session is not as greater a disadvantage compared to running last as it is in the first session. So, for instance, we suspect Jarno Trulli ran heavy first up, finished up a lowly 16th, and still bounced back to 9th on his second run. The double session, coupled with the one engine rule, mean that this year we will never see a flat-out hot lap comparison between all the cars on low fuel, as we did previously, including in 2003 on Fridays. That is a shame.

Also worthy of some criticism was the increased pit speed limit on race day, designed to encourage bolder multi-stop strategies. The end result was that all the main players three-stopped, breaking the race into small, ten to fifteen-lap, 20-minute blocks. To see the key contenders pitting with such regularity was not only confusing, it was downright monotonous. Sadly though, for the rest of the year it is hard to foresee the hoped-for variety in strategies. All the major teams will pit the same number of times, and often.

REJECT OF THE RACE
The new rules for 2004
Qualifying: a snore! One engine rule: counter-productive!

The week did not start well for Williams anyway, with Montoya walking out on a press conference when it was hijacked by some rather unfunny television comedians, leaving corporate guests somewhat stranded. In an age when Grand Prix drivers are increasingly being criticised for being dour, humourless, aloof and removed from the fans, that Formula One did not suffer more public relations damage from JPM's inability to take a joke was actually a lucky escape. Thank goodness the comedians really weren't funny.

On the track, the walrus FW26 looked much more of a handful than the Ferrari F2004. This year, without the benefit of seeing them live at the track, on television at least they seemed to understeer more, and be significantly less softly sprung, resulting in some dramatic footage of the car porpoising over the bumps under braking. Throughout the weekend, JPM generally had the wood over Ralf Schumacher, and was the only man to unseat Michael from the top of the timesheets when he went fastest in first qualifying.

The Colombian was the victim of Fernando Alonso's rather blatant weaving at the start, and then of his own impetuosity as he ran wide at turn one and dropped back, never really recovering thereafter to give his championship challenge an unsatisfying start, despite some excellent Williams pit work and some textbook moves into turn 13. Ralf's weekend was, well, typical Ralf - solid, bringing home points, but nothing to show that he was about to produce that something extra to genuinely campaign for the title.

Montoya, though, must be aghast that he is moving to McLaren next year, going by the silver and blacks' woeful performance in Melbourne. There is not much to say, except that while the MP4/19s looked to handle reasonably, as can be expected of a good aero car which it is meant to be, they simply did not have the speed nor, in Kimi Raikkonen's case, the reliability. Those putting money on the Finn to become World Champion this year might already have started to count their losses.

While Kimi might want to take heart from Williams' progress last year from being impotent early on to being the package to have by mid-season, his is a different situation. Last year, Williams' improvement was aerodynamic, where it is possible to make constant gains in the wind tunnel and by testing. McLaren's problem is with Mercedes, who have been chasing their engine competitors since 2001. Mercedes needs to find both horsepower and reliability. It could be a long season for Ron Dennis' men.

Before the season started, many expected Coulthard to have a good year, the Scot having nothing to lose knowing already that he will probably be the man to make way for JPM. But after a first qualifying lap that pretty much matched Raikkonen's, his multiple errors on his second lap brought back the horrors of 2003. Subsequently, a lonely race to 8th and only one point on an ineffective two-stop strategy would have been dispiriting. DC has quite a task on his hands simply to keep his head up.

Over a single lap they were not a match for Williams, but over a race distance they were equal with the BMW-powered cars, evidenced by Alonso's unchallenged drive to 3rd. How the Spaniard's aggression at the start has not been called into question is beyond me. He firstly went onto the grass to drive around JPM, then lurched to the right side of the track to block the Colombian, before swinging back left and almost putting his team-mate into the wall.

Indeed, one may argue that Alonso destroyed Trulli's race. Jarno was forced to lock up to avoid hitting the sister Renault, and in the ensuing concertina he was nudged up the back by Takuma Sato's BAR, damaging his diffuser and spoiling the rest of his day. Having said that, the Italian's weekend was not one to fulfil the expectations of those who said he would step up his game this season and steal some wins. No, his weekend was more of a typical Ralf Schumacher race meet, solid but thoroughly unspectacular.

BAR also lived up to their pre-season hype. Jenson Button was undeniably one of the non-Ferrari stars of the weekend, consistently in the top few during practice, and then in second qualifying going as fast as anyone else not in a red car did all weekend (his time was, of course, matched to the thousandth by Montoya). The only question mark over the Englishman was his long-term race pace, as he did conspicuously lose out to both Williams drivers on the track, but 6th and three points were a just reward.

Felipe Massa, though, almost seems beyond help. Unlike Sato, he never learnt during his debut season to keep his car on the road, and he still has little idea. He provided most of the wilder moments during an otherwise uneventful weekend (including, mind you, his wonderfully opportunistic pass on Raikkonen early in the race), and was lucky not to give his mechanics a large repair job. But, ironically, it was Giancarlo Fisichella who went off on his 2nd qualifying lap, in an average debut drive for his new team.

As a result, Massa found himself with better track position, and with Fisichella held up by Nick Heidfeld's Jordan - until a sensational move around the outside at turn 3, which will surely be one of the passes of 2004 - and Massa eventually retiring, we never saw how the two really matched up, although one expects Fisi to have an edge. Overall though, we might have anticipated a little more from Sauber considering their ties with Ferrari, and the general impression was one of disappointing mediocrity. Once again.

Mark Webber continued his form from 2003, all the more remarkable considering the pressure he was under from media, fans, and sponsors alike, here at his home race. Throughout the weekend he was almost mistake-free, and his times had his Jaguar snapping at the heels of Williams, Renault and BAR on a constant basis. At this rate he will surely be in a top team next year. He would surely have scored a point for 8th had his car not let him down.

Speaking of ordinary debuts, Giorgio Pantano in the Jordan was disappointing for a man of his experience. Though he said he would take his first few races easily as he got into the F1 groove, that doesn't give him a licence to underperform. In the other car, Heidfeld was obviously giving it his all, but as expected the EJ14 is not one he can do much with. Meanwhile, the team's sponsorlessness has to be a continuing worry. Currently the main backing is from the Bahrain GP - which is over in a month's time!

Also in the disappointing and worrying category has to be Toyota. Their weekend was little better than McLaren's. The cars were unreliable and obviously edgy to handle, evidenced by Cristiano da Matta's numerous spins, and just plain slow. Olivier Panis, gridding up 18th after not being able to start his car for 2nd qualifying, seemed understandably uninterested as he languished at the tail of the field on race day. The most dynamic thing about his weekend was his new, flashier helmet design!

And finally, Minardi had little to take away from their opening weekend of the season. Apart from the cars being plain slow, both drivers had much difficulty finding the limit, either underdriving or overdriving, both Bruni and Zsolt Baumgartner doing the latter in qualifying. Bruni's early race pace, though, suggested that he is not without promise, while Baumgartner was frankly embarrassing all weekend. His times were poor, and the way he dropped back early in the race revived bad memories of the mid-90s pay drivers.