A new F1 season has started and we already had many confirmations and few surprises. But nothing in the race was nearly as good as the post-race interview, where a joyful Hamilton said the following to the Terminator himself: “I thought you were taller!”. Joking aside, 2015 started with a bit of a low tone. 13 cars lined up on the grid (after losing 2 cars in the lap to preceding the formation lap) and only 11 saw the chequered flag.
Despite not having had many technical changes compared to last year, it’s already clear that reliability will play a big role in this season. Speaking of reliability, we have to mourns McLaren. Only Button made it to the initial grid (Magnussen’s engine exploded before he reached the grid) and he only managed to finish 11th out of 11 cars, having to deal with a new Honda engine only running at 40%. Everybody had massive hopes for the renewed partnership McLaren-Honda, but it yet has to show its real face (and it seems it won’t happen anytime soon).
Speaking of surprises, as I said at the beginning we had a few. First was Ferrari, with the surviving car of Sebastian Vettel achieving an impressing 3rd place that prompted him to salute his new team and fans with a surprisingly good Italian (he spoke more Italian in one race that what Schumacher did in his entire career with the Scuderia).
I also want to mention the new drivers, because they all provided great entertainment and showed once again what F1 has to do more of. Max Verstappen, Felipe Nasr and Carlos Sainz Jr. all showed great tenacity and fearless racing. They always “went for it” whenever there was an available space and the three of them I think overtook a lot, certainly more than what we have seen in recent years.
A very early take away from this first race is that Mercedes is going to dominate the entire season once again, while the real race will probably take place between Ferrari and Williams with than everybody else watching from a distance.
All in all a good start but the really important thing is that F1 is back and in a very good shape.