The new Formula One season is finally underway. The new season did start on a slightly bad note with a team going to the court. The qualifying was disappointing for two reasons. First Michael Schumacher was out at the worst possible time during qualifying and was in a position he could not improve.:-) Second the Sunday qualifying was a total waste. MS did not run the top positions did not change. Maybe it was all because of the weather but I don’t think it is going to be interesting in future too. Most TV channels don’t show both the sessions. I prefer the original (?) one hour 12 lap shoot out. None of the qualifying formats after that have been interesting to watch. I blame this on Paul Stoddart and his want for TV coverage. I wonder how he will get his TV coverage if none of the channels air the session?
Talking of Paul Stoddart, here his how his little scheme with the “Group of Nine” backfired on him. Minardi came to Australia with their old car which did not conform to the new aerodynamic specifications. They claimed to have the signatures of the “Group of Nine” (all the teams other than Ferrari who recently are united against the team in red) on a no objection certificate to run the old cars. Paul publicly bad mouthed Ferrari saying it did not sign the letter and were bullying the poor team. The press sides with Paul. Ferrari had maintained that it was not up to them to decide that and it was FIA’s matter.
Finally Ferrari did sign the NOC but a couple of other teams did publicly complain saying rules are rules and it applies to Minardi too. In fact Minardi was present when the 2005 rules were agreed upon unanimously. In the end Minardi were not allowed to run on Friday. The stewards stated that the rules can not be overlooked just because all the teams are OK with it! Paul goes to court. Minardi team also fits the cars with new aerodynamic components they were hiding. The components that conform to 2005 regulations!!! But they claim they were untested. 
Paul withdraws the court petition just hours before the qualifying. Minardi runs in the qualifying with 2005 spec car. Finally the press sees the little game Paul played on them. But what was the consequence of the little game? The Australian GP is almost lost as FIA gets mad. There is still some doubt over it. Australians are angry with Paul for spoiling the party. Poor Paul.
The race started with the usual, a McLaren stalling on the grid. Yes, it was Kimi again. He later started from the pits. Michael started from the back of the grid after a very very slow Saturday qualifying time and not running on Sunday morning. Ferrari also changed his engine. Fisichella made a clean get away and lead the race from pole to checkered flag to claim his second and well deserved victory.
Michael did a good start and quickly overtook the Minardis and the Jordans. But then he was stuck behind Sato till the first round of pit stops. Kimi was stuck behind Michael. Michael did manage to overtake a bunch of guys during the pit stops by stopping later than most but did loose out to Kimi. After the second stop he was running as high as eight but his race ended when Nick Heidfeld’s Williams torpedoed into the Ferrari. Nick blames Michael for the incident saying he did not leave him room. Michael first said it was a racing incident but after Nick pointed fingers he said Nick was over ambitious and was not in control once he was in the grass. He implied that Nick should have slowed when he was not in control of his car.
Rubens drove a quite race starting in 11th and sneaked to the second step of the podium. This proved that the Ferrari’s modified old car still had some pace. Alonso showed that the Renault’s testing times were no fluke by claiming the last podium position. He started from 13th.
The Red Bull team was the big surprise. DC and Klein qualified fifth and sixth and finished fourth and seventh! DC had a very good race running as high as second for a major portion of the race. The Cosworth engines seems to be the best ever by the company. Now I can hear the grumbling going on in the Ford top management. 
McLaren though they had the pace finished 6th and 8th. Kimi did well for his 8th position coming from back of the grid. Montoya did a few mistakes like running of the track at times. Ron was not happy with the performance of either of the drivers saying they made too many errors.
Mark was Williams’ lone finisher and equaled the feat he accomplished with Minardi on his debut. He finished fifth. He was stuck behind DC throughout the race. The BAR’s had no pace and retired on the last lap as they were running a lowly 11th and 14th. They did exploit the rules by coming into the pits in the last lap and retiring. Now they get to install brand new engines on their cars with out any penalty.
Trulli almost made us believe that Toyota got it right this time by running second during the first stint but then faded away to finish ninth and Ralf finished 12th. Jacques Villeneuve too faded away to 13th starting from 4th on the grid. Massa finished 10th.
Narain the first Indian Formula One made a reasonable debut. He made a bad start with his teammate overtaking him. He took back the position immediately but could not do nothing else. His car was about three seconds off the pace. The Jordan’s were lapped twice. I hope they improve the car quickly. The Minardis were even slower about 7 seconds off the pace!
The race was a bit boring with not many willing to take risks due to the single tire rule and the two race engines. And they blame Ferrari for making the sport boring. 
Now the F1 circus is off to Malaysia. Hope the qualifying is better there.
Related posts:
- Worst start to the Formula 1 season by Ferrari
- The Formula One season is Go!!
- Micheal’s progress stopped by tire failure
- Spanish GP 2009: More mistakes from Ferrari
- The 2006 Formula 1 Season