The ‘waiting game’ is a funny phenomenon. Firstly, as die-hard F1 fans, enduring the break between seasons is no fun and games. It is a tedious and lengthy process that tests even the most patient.
Logic suggests that as the start of the season draws closer the restlessness should begin to ebb away and be replaced by a growing anticipation. This is an attractive thought but it doesn’t have much truth to it. What does happen is that the closer that first free practice session in Australia gets the more the levels of anxious excitement seem to amplify. And with less than one week to go the expectation and sheer excitement will surely reach fever pitch.
All that happened in Barcelona is not an absolute predictor of things to come. Nevertheless, the final pre-season test at last gave some indication about what to expect in Australia. Lewis Hamilton’s impression after the first test at Jerez was that his new team would struggle to win a race this season. Since then some things have changed, for the better. A real sense of optimism has replaced the doubt in Hamilton’s mind and the Brit now believes that the Silver Arrows has a real shot at winning some races. The change of heart came after Hamilton ended one Saturday’s running on top of the timing sheets seven tenths clear of second-placed Felipe Massa. LH may have been up to some good old mind games in Jerez but he seems genuinely excited about the Mercedes’ ‘turnaround.’ “I think we definitely will be able to win a race at some point during the season,” said Hamilton.
After signing with Marussia just one month ago Luiz Razia would have been dreaming of sitting on the grid in Australia among twenty-one of the world’s best drivers. However the Brazilian racer lost his drive after a sponsor failed to make scheduled payment to the team. In his place Marussia opted for Ferrari Academy driver Jules Bianchi. The Frenchman is untried but has potential and his link to Ferrari as Formula 1 stands on the cusp of massive engine changes could see Marussia aligning itself to be a customer of the Italian team in 2014.
With Bianchi climbing into the Marussia cockpit, Adrian Sutil will partner Paul di Resta at Force India for the 2013 season. The German left the F1 paddock under controversial circumstances at the end of 2011 and will have to step up his performances if he wants a future in the sport beyond this season. Sutil, who snatched the drive from Jules Bianchi, will be seen as a conservative choice but the team know exactly what they are getting in the German -a proven record of scoring minor points relatively consistently, meaning solid but unspectacular.
The general feeling in the paddock is that Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull should be favourites to win in Australia but the defending champion doesn’t share the same view. “We didn’t tick all the boxes that we would have liked to and the last two days were not as good as we would have expected,” said Vettel.
As the paddock leans toward favouring Red Bull, Ferrari thinks that there will be some shocks in Australia. The reason for Ferrari’s prediction has to do with several teams’ difficulty in managing the tyres and the high rate of degradation that has already been experienced by a variety of drivers. It is interesting and telling that Ferrari is the first team to deliberately raise the issue of tyre wear.
The final day of testing concluded with Nico Rosberg heading the log as most other teams focused on high fuel running. The next time the cars fire up will be in Australia. The wait is nearly over.
Follow @F1_Madness on Twitter for live commentary on race weekends and like our Facebook page to join SA’s awesome F1 fan community.
