ITV Sport’s Ted Kravitz is back to give us his unique insight from behind the pit wall into what really went on over the Australian Grand Prix weekend.
In his first notebook of the season, Ted discusses McLaren's nifty pit lane positioning, Kimi's qualifying setback, Nelson Piquet's travails and much else besides...
McLaren
I’m indebted to reader Sally from Wimbledon who emails to ask why McLaren are in pit garage no. 5, not 11 according to their position in last year’s constructors’ championship.
Well, it’s like this. The garage and paddock positions are not allocated by the FIA, but by Formula One Management.
So McLaren spent the winter explaining to Bernie Ecclestone how they had too much kit to fit in the small garages down the ‘poor’ end, and how it wouldn’t look good for the sponsors, and any other reasons they could think of.
It’s like living in a big house. Once you’ve been in it for 30 years or so as McLaren have, you start to collect a lot of stuff. Then being forced to squeeze all your stuff into a two-bed flat might present a few problems.
So Bernie gave McLaren garage 5, next to fourth-placed Williams but ahead of fifth-placed Red Bull Racing – who were predictably furious, but will no doubt keep the peace and put this one into their Bernie favour bank.
Lewis Hamilton was surprisingly emotional after the race – close to tears, in fact.
This win shows how deeply he felt the loss of the 2007 championship, how much energy he’s been storing up in the winter in his determination to redeem himself this season.
And whatever happens in Malaysia this weekend, the Melbourne win must have helped erase the memories of China and Brazil.
Ferrari
My pre-season prediction that Kimi Raikkonen would adapt quickly to racing without traction control and engine braking was proved spectacularly wrong in Melbourne.
Kimi took a while to change his driving style to suit last year’s new tyre regulations. For his sake I hope this isn’t a case of history repeating.
New boss Stefano Domenicali left the pit wall before reporters could get to him at the end of qualifying, and I don’t blame him. He would have faced questions about why Kimi broke down and whether he actually ran out of fuel.
This was one of the conspiracy theories of the weekend, and I must say I struggle to understand how a broken fuel pump could’ve been fixed in the 12 minutes Ferrari had to get Raikkonen out for second qualifying.
Although maybe they would have just put an extra 10 kilos of fuel in, which would’ve negated the need for the fuel pump.
Whatever, it was a hammer blow for Raikkonen. We almost expected him to get out and push the Ferrari down the pit lane himself. That would’ve taken some explaining.
Renault
The reason Renault didn’t put Fernando Alonso onto a one-stop strategy at the second safety car was because they couldn’t make the soft tyre last the distance.
Friday practice showed that the tyre would grain and then wear out, which would’ve lost them more time than staying on a two-stopper.
The fact Ferrari managed to do half a race on the soft tyre suggests Renault have a lot of work to do in that area if they’re to avoid a world of pain during the long European summer races.
In the other Renault, Nelson Piquet had a shocker of a weekend, but I can’t help thinking he hasn’t been given every chance to do well by Renault.
It is understandable that they’re all keen to help a demanding Alonso out as much as possible, and no one would dispute that the Spaniard represents Renault’s best chance of scoring points, but that doesn’t have to be at the expense of Piquet.
Nelson had a few niggling problems with the front suspension that limited his practice time and then hit traffic during qualifying.
And as well as Melbourne being Piquet’s first F1 race, it was also first time in the post for his new race engineer, who had previously been a data engineer on Giancarlo Fisichella’s car.
Renault might have considered giving their rookie a more experienced hand to guide him through the weekend, but I guess Nelson just isn’t their focus at the moment.
Williams
It’s been two years since Williams have enjoyed a double points finish: the last time was the 2006 season-opener in Bahrain.
Nico Rosberg was calm and assured as usual, admitting that he’d told himself before the race to take it easy, reckoning on a few accidents. Clever boy.
Kazuki Nakajima didn’t show the pace first demonstrated in Brazil, his fastest race lap being some 1.5s slower than his team-mate’s.
It’s likely this was down to damage sustained at the start, and he blotted his copybook by picking up a 10-place grid penalty in Malaysia for causing an accident.
Honda Racing
Good lap times from Rubens Barrichello. He scored the eighth-fastest race lap, which must be the highest his car has managed for a while.
Rubens is in an interesting position. He’s effectively driving to keep his seat for next year, and as long as he keeps driving well, he’ll probably keep it. After all, who is there out there who looks better at the moment?
Honda don’t have a young test driver snapping at the drivers’ heels and Japan don’t seem to want anyone in particular – unless Fernando Alonso was interested, of course…