A dominant victory for Valtteri Bottas in Sunday’s Australian Grand Prix has upset the predictions of many people inside Formula One. After a difficult 2018 he has pressed the reset button and come out fighting. Valtteri gave Lewis a proper fight for pole position on Saturday and then made a perfect start from the dirty side of the grid to take the lead and control the race from start to finish. What a perfect start to 2019 for him, and a massive boost to his confidence.
He also scored a World Championship point for setting the fastest lap, which is a new rule announced just before Melbourne.
Valtteri made it very clear on the team radio that he wanted that extra point and, although his new race engineer Riccardo Musconi told him to just take things easy, he went for it. So did the other main competitors, but Valtteri was the one who achieved it. Another psychological boost.
Bravo Bottas ! et bravo Red Bull … pic.twitter.com/ys8XA1Izsd
— Gianfranco Franz Francia (@GFranzFrancia) March 17, 2019
It was nice to hear the little radio message aimed at his critics after the race. He knows he has the talent, has focused himself on getting the season off to a strong start and turned all the negative energy from his critics into a powerful mindset.
It sometimes takes longer than many think possible before achieving your goals in Formula One. It took me seven years to win my first race, and this is Valtteri’s seventh season. However Valtteri had won three races before Sunday and that number would be five where it not for the puncture which last year robbed him of victory in Azerbaijan and the team orders which caused him to give up the win in Russia.
Talking to Mark Webber on the podium after the race Valtteri said this was one of the most straightforward wins of his life. I know that feeling. The success suddenly seems so easy, but it is only made possible by the lessons you learn along the way.
It will be interesting to see how Lewis Hamilton responds to this result because we know he is not interested in finishing second, especially to his team mate. Lewis will be hoping that Valtteri’s success is a one-off, but should this be repeated in Bahrain or China it will be fascinating to watch how the team dynamic changes. This battle is only just starting.
2019 Drivers Standings after Round One:
1️⃣ Bottas – 26 pts
2️⃣ Hamilton – 18 pts
3️⃣ Verstappen – 15 pts
4️⃣ Vettel – 12 pts
5️⃣ Leclerc – 10 pts
6️⃣ Magnussen – 8 pts
7️⃣ Hülkenberg – 6 pts
8️⃣ Räikkönen – 4 pts
9️⃣ Stroll – 2 pts
1️⃣0️⃣ Kvyat – 1 pts#AusGP pic.twitter.com/5RW5DLTrni— The Paddock Talk (@ThePaddockTalk) March 17, 2019
Someone else who knows how hard it is to be successful in Formula One is Honda, and they will be very happy to score a podium finish in their first race weekend with Red Bull Racing. It has taken four difficult years of development, and the fact that Max Verstappen was able to achieve it by overtaking the Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel was pretty special. It is clear that Red Bull Honda will be a force in this years world championship.
After appearing to dominate pre-season testing, Ferrari had a disappointing race in Australia. One of the problems with preseason testing in Barcelona is that this circuit has a unique mixture of high, low and medium speed corners, but not every track is like that. In Melbourne there are a several slower 90 degree corners, such as Turns 3, 13 and 15, and Ferrari seemed to struggle for grip. The track surface was also very different to Barcelona.
It was interesting that Charles Leclerc was faster than Sebastian Vettel in the closing stages of the race and could probably have overtaken him where it not for team orders. We expected Leclerc to challenge Vettel sometimes this year, but to have team ordered imposed in the first race was unexpected. Sebastian will recognise that more than anyone.
. @Charles_Leclerc Finished P5 in his debut for Ferrari at Australian GP
Leclerc: Not where we want to be. But we'll push massively to be back where we supposed to be #F1 #AusGP #Leclerc pic.twitter.com/jAODaOUGfp
— Charles Leclerc #16 (@LeclercNews16) March 17, 2019
The midfield battle looks very close, with Haas, Renault, Alfa Romeo, Racing Point and Toro Rosso all looking strong. Kevin Magnusson’s sixth place for Haas was an excellent performance but while Nico Hulkenberg was a solid seventh for Renault I am sure that Daniel Ricardo will already be reflecting on the wisdom of his move away from Red Bull. One lap after he retired into the pits, old team mate Verstappen was busy overtaking Vettel for third place.
It was great to see Kimi Raikkonen score four points in his first race for Alfa Romeo, and the team seems confident that there is more performance to come. His vast experience combined with the team’s strong technical package is already producing results.
Finally a quick mention of McLaren’s Lando Norris who qualified in eighth position in his first Grand Prix; a really strong performance from the young English driver and an important boost for McLaren. Although he dropped back at the start of the race, the weekend showed that McLaren has made a good step forward. They will be in the battle for points from now on.
