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Formula 1
HOBBS: No Quick Cure For Ferrari
It may take several races for Ferrari to make notable improvements on its F2012 car...
Fernando Alonso finished fifth in Melbourne. (Photo: Getty Images)
After a long off-season, the sound of Formula One engines roaring to life Sunday for the Australian Grand Prix was music to any race fan’s ears. As with any new season, some teams struck the right chord in Melbourne, while others hit deafeningly sour notes.
While pole sitter Lewis Hamilton had a bit of a lackluster race, his front-row companion and McLaren-Mercedes teammate Jenson Button drove an impeccable 58 laps to the win. Conversely, Ferrari drivers Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa produced poor practice and qualifying efforts. Alonso, though, redeemed himself. In typical fashion, he manhandled the car and brought it home fifth – an extraordinary achievement given the cards he was dealt.
Also on the upswing appears to be Williams-Renault. With Rubens Barrichello and Pastor Maldonado in 2011, Williams only got into the Q3 in qualifying three times, with Maldonado the driver on each occasion. But in Australia, he qualified eighth and ran an incredible race. Unfortunately, he crashed on the last lap while behind Alonso, surrendering what likely would have been a sixth-place finish. Williams, though, must be buoyed by the promise they showed. Their cars looked terrible the past two seasons, but both Maldonado and 2012 teammate Bruno Senna were good in practice and qualifying last weekend. That organization must be happy and looking forward to the season much more than they were this time last year.
The weekend wasn’t without its disappointments, though. In the Mercedes camp, Michael Schumacher qualified fourth and teammate Nico Rosberg seventh. Schumacher, however, drove off the road Sunday and knocked himself out of the race. Although he fared better than Schumacher, Rosberg’s 12th-place finish was quite dismal in my summation. Finally, Force India didn’t perform as well as I anticipated.
On a more positive note, Toro Rosso put on a pretty good race, especially Daniel Ricciardo of Australia, who was caught up in a first-lap crash in turn one but battled back to ninth. In turn, he scored two points toward the championship, which gave the hometown crowd something to celebrate.
Although we only have one race in the books, it’s never too early to commence discussion of which teams could be in trouble. The group most in distress is Ferrari, of which they are fully aware, but the question is precisely how dire the straits are in which they find themselves. Their off-season testing in the wind tunnel left something to be desired, to say the least, and their performance in Melbourne was rather poor excepting Alonso’s “Superman” show. Therefore, I don’t expect anything terrific from Ferrari for at least three or four more races.
Ferrari’s biggest problem seems to be a lack of grip caused primarily by insufficient aerodynamic downforce, the key derivative in today’s Formula One. Much homework is required of this team, but the schedule doesn’t play to their favor. Unfortunately, the first four races are “fly-aways,” meaning far from the teams’ home bases. With Malaysia this weekend, followed by a two-week break before the Chinese Grand Prix, opportunities to return to serious development work are scarce. With teams half a world away from home base, improving on their issues may be several weeks coming.
McLaren obviously has devoted more than a few weeks to raising the bar in 2012. My initial impressions are they are light years ahead of where they were in 2011, and I predict they’ll be a legitimate threat for both the drivers’ and constructors’ championships. We must keep Red Bull in this conversation, though, as they showed strength and qualified on the third row. With solid strategy and driving, Red Bull left Australia with second and fourth-place finishes. But Button drove away from everyone, hinting at the incredible speed McLaren appears to have.
Speed isn’t the only thing I’ll be watching for Sunday in Malaysia. The weather almost always plays a pivotal role there, with rain a near certainty at some point. Rain is so predictable in Malaysia that we’re usually left only to wonder how heavy it will be. Therefore, good wet-weather driving comes into play, as does a solid wet-weather setup.
Button runs well in Malaysia and has won there, as has Sebastian Vettel, who earned his first victory and pole at Monza in the wet. Lewis Hamilton absolutely decimated the field in a wet race at Silverstone in 2008, while Alonso and Button both are brilliant in the rain. Despite what the weather may hold for the Malaysian Grand Prix, you can expect the usual suspects to shine. Unfortunately for Ferrari, I don’t think they’ll be in that lineup.
The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEED.com, FOX, NewsCorp, or SPEED
While pole sitter Lewis Hamilton had a bit of a lackluster race, his front-row companion and McLaren-Mercedes teammate Jenson Button drove an impeccable 58 laps to the win. Conversely, Ferrari drivers Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa produced poor practice and qualifying efforts. Alonso, though, redeemed himself. In typical fashion, he manhandled the car and brought it home fifth – an extraordinary achievement given the cards he was dealt.
Also on the upswing appears to be Williams-Renault. With Rubens Barrichello and Pastor Maldonado in 2011, Williams only got into the Q3 in qualifying three times, with Maldonado the driver on each occasion. But in Australia, he qualified eighth and ran an incredible race. Unfortunately, he crashed on the last lap while behind Alonso, surrendering what likely would have been a sixth-place finish. Williams, though, must be buoyed by the promise they showed. Their cars looked terrible the past two seasons, but both Maldonado and 2012 teammate Bruno Senna were good in practice and qualifying last weekend. That organization must be happy and looking forward to the season much more than they were this time last year.
The weekend wasn’t without its disappointments, though. In the Mercedes camp, Michael Schumacher qualified fourth and teammate Nico Rosberg seventh. Schumacher, however, drove off the road Sunday and knocked himself out of the race. Although he fared better than Schumacher, Rosberg’s 12th-place finish was quite dismal in my summation. Finally, Force India didn’t perform as well as I anticipated.
On a more positive note, Toro Rosso put on a pretty good race, especially Daniel Ricciardo of Australia, who was caught up in a first-lap crash in turn one but battled back to ninth. In turn, he scored two points toward the championship, which gave the hometown crowd something to celebrate.
Although we only have one race in the books, it’s never too early to commence discussion of which teams could be in trouble. The group most in distress is Ferrari, of which they are fully aware, but the question is precisely how dire the straits are in which they find themselves. Their off-season testing in the wind tunnel left something to be desired, to say the least, and their performance in Melbourne was rather poor excepting Alonso’s “Superman” show. Therefore, I don’t expect anything terrific from Ferrari for at least three or four more races.
Ferrari’s biggest problem seems to be a lack of grip caused primarily by insufficient aerodynamic downforce, the key derivative in today’s Formula One. Much homework is required of this team, but the schedule doesn’t play to their favor. Unfortunately, the first four races are “fly-aways,” meaning far from the teams’ home bases. With Malaysia this weekend, followed by a two-week break before the Chinese Grand Prix, opportunities to return to serious development work are scarce. With teams half a world away from home base, improving on their issues may be several weeks coming.
McLaren obviously has devoted more than a few weeks to raising the bar in 2012. My initial impressions are they are light years ahead of where they were in 2011, and I predict they’ll be a legitimate threat for both the drivers’ and constructors’ championships. We must keep Red Bull in this conversation, though, as they showed strength and qualified on the third row. With solid strategy and driving, Red Bull left Australia with second and fourth-place finishes. But Button drove away from everyone, hinting at the incredible speed McLaren appears to have.
Speed isn’t the only thing I’ll be watching for Sunday in Malaysia. The weather almost always plays a pivotal role there, with rain a near certainty at some point. Rain is so predictable in Malaysia that we’re usually left only to wonder how heavy it will be. Therefore, good wet-weather driving comes into play, as does a solid wet-weather setup.
Button runs well in Malaysia and has won there, as has Sebastian Vettel, who earned his first victory and pole at Monza in the wet. Lewis Hamilton absolutely decimated the field in a wet race at Silverstone in 2008, while Alonso and Button both are brilliant in the rain. Despite what the weather may hold for the Malaysian Grand Prix, you can expect the usual suspects to shine. Unfortunately for Ferrari, I don’t think they’ll be in that lineup.
The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEED.com, FOX, NewsCorp, or SPEED
Spanish Grand Prix
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