Race Report 1: Advance Australia Fair

When gallant Button from Albion sailed,

To trace wide oceans o'er,

True British courage bore him on,

Til he landed on our shore.

Then here he raised Old England's flag,

The standard of the brave;

"With all her faults we love her still"

"Britannia rules the wave."

In joyful strains then let us sing

Advance Australia fair

The words there of the original 1878 Australian national anthem adapted oh so subtlety to represent last weekends’ endeavours by a Mr Jenson Button.

The 2012 championship has got the green flag, the red lights have gone out and we have raced clear of the grid with an excellent first race. Australia has once again given us an entertaining opening to the season and provided further proof if it were required that Bernie doesn’t take race quality and levels of entertainment into account when considering which races will remain on future F1 calendars. Prior to the Grand Prix Mr Eccelstone was once again threatening certain circuits, cities and countries with the removal of their GP hosting rights. He went onto comment that Australia was most in threat of losing their GP, which is odd as he defends Bahrain so strongly. Clearly Bernie’s priority is the size of the brown envelope in his back pocket. Australia has always provided great racing where as there are at least 3 tracks on the calendar that offer us the viewer nothing for example Bahrain but offer Bernie a retirement fund.

Anyway all that aside it was an entertaining race and it’s great to have F1 back.

Thoughts:

A bad start from Hamilton. A good start from Button. Okay but how then was Button shortly 10 secs down the road?

Hopefully this race signifies a potentially competitive season with Red Bull not at their previously dominating best, Mercedes joining the party, Mclaren seemingly back on form, and Ferrari? Well who knows? It’s too early to tell but the midfield also seems to be very tight this year with Sauber, Lotus, Toro Rosso & joy of joys Williams looking quite strong. In the mean time Force India might be slipping back slightly.

The back three teams look as far off the pace as ever and one does start to wonder if it’s perhaps time to demand improvement or removal?

Kimi Raikkonen is back! That’s most likely more fanfare than we can expect from the man himself this season in interview at least. It seems he’s lost none of his abilities on the track and with a reasonably good car it’s exciting anticipating future races with him back in the field. Belgium leaps to mind as a potential moment for a Raikkonen podium appearance.

In regards to the broadcasting of the race I have to say despite my pre season fears I couldn’t spot the edits in the racing and enjoyed the 2 hours of coverage.

The main commentator Ben Edwards wasn’t that bad really. He’s enthusiastic without being shouty. He seems to know the teams, drivers and corners. I just can’t remember whether I recognize his voice from Champions League Football, Transworld Sport or late night ITV Motor Racing. Overall, could have been worse. Although I can’t understand half of what the new pit expert guy Gary Anderson is talking about.

Mumble mumble tyres. Mumble mumble mumble pit crew mumble mumble.

Two final points both based on irritation inspired by the two pundits;

Irvine thought the Massa/Senna incident was the same as the Raikkonen /Kobayashi incident. Odd as Raikkonen went around the outside of Kobayashi without incident in a skillful maneuver. Senna attempted the same move and Massa forced Senna completely off the track. He pushed him so far in fact that Massa him self was more than half a cars width away from the edge of the track. The contact and sparks caused by the collision seemed to me to signify a more aggressive and possibly more punishable piece of driving from the increasingly desperate and pitiable Massa.

The second odd piece of “expert” observation from the BBC pundit geniuses was Coulthards statement that tyre wear was heavy when the cars are loaded down with fuel just before a Ferrari pit stop only to follow that only moments after the same pit stop by stating that tyre wear is of course heavy when the cars are lighter and thus going faster.

There’s logic n there somewhere but where? I don’t know.

Below the standings after race 1 and now onto Malaysia.

Race 1 Australia Melbourne

1 Jack                30

2 Alan D            25

3 Simon             23

= James             23

= Martin            23

6 Becx               21

7 Alan WA        20

= George           20

9 Alex               17