Formula 1: Mid Term 1 Report Card

[Polaroid]

After Sunday's Australian Grand Prix we are now two races into the 2010 Formula 1 season and even at this early stage, we can deduce a number of things.

• F1 currently both sucks and blows. Whether it's the new rules, whether it's the double diffusers or whether the planets are incorrectly aligned it just plain stinks. Lewis Hamilton was two seconds a lap quicker than Fernando Alonso but couldn't overtake him if even it was a 500 lap race.

• The new rules aren't working (see above).

• The only saving grace for the viewers of this race was the rain at the start. Rain always makes for interesting tactics as drivers make a mad scramble for a tire change. If anyone from F1 is listening, how about having water jets all round the track which are turned on/off at random intervals during the race. Don't laugh it's better than the idea to introduce short cuts.

• The 2010 safety car is a thing of beauty and I want one. If anyone from Mercedes is reading this, please hook me up.
  
  
  

• After leading two races but missing out on both by mechanical malfunctions, Seb Vettel could do with a dose of good luck. Or rather Red Bull could do with a reliable car. You see it might not just be Vettel; after team-mate Mark Webber's technical issues last Friday the most likely cause is the car rather than the driver. Red Bull appear to have the fastest car but an unreliable car will never win you a F1 Drivers Championship.

• McClaren should listen to their drivers. After Jenson Button called himself into the pits for the tire change which ended up being the winning move of the race, McClaren decided to make the decision themselves for his team mate Hamilton in the latter stages of the race. In what was the biggest WTF????? moment of the season so far, Hamilton was called in for a tire change when his lap times were good and most importantly no-one else was changing their tires. And with that, a podium finish disappeared faster than this season's F1 armchair audience.

• The Malaysian Grand Prix is a week away. Please make it rain.

 

[RogueScholar]

I agree with you, the racing so far has been mediocre. There aren't any overt incidents yet where the new rules have watered down a race, but it seems all too evident in the conservative strategies being employed. Any chance they adjust anything mid-season or will we roll with it good, bad or ugly?

 

[Polaroid]

Malaysia is next week, then China a fortnight later - nothing is going to happen for those. If anything is going to change it will be at the Spanish GP at the earliest since there is a 3 week gap between China and Spain. Anything entertaining in the meantime will be more good luck than good judgement.

 

[Dunder]

The race in Melbourne made for fantastic viewing but, yes this was 100% due to the track being wet at the start of the race.

I wrote more or less exactly what you did in the Australian GP thread, albeit you were far more eloquent. The simple truth is that without something that drastically reduces the turbulent wake coming from a car in front, overtaking will remain nigh on impossible. This cannot be addressed this season unless they decide to radically change the diffusers.

I am not in favour of any changes that look to mix up the grid order or somehow allow cars to get by artificially.

In hindsight pitting Hamilton (and Rosberg) was a mistake but it is worth bearing in mind that at no point in winter testing did anyone do a run anywhere near as long as 51 laps on a single set of soft tyres. To me it is incredible that the net time loss for running a set of tyres which have ran for that long is ONLY two seconds. The tyres are simply too good for the teams to do anything other than one stop strategies.