Formula One 2018 Australian Grand Prix Review

On March 25, the 2018 Formula One season kicked off with their opening race in Melbourne, Australia at the Albert Park circuit. There was a packed crowd that literally saw a replay finish of last years season opener. This year has to be seen as the drive for title number five between the top two contenders for this year’s crown, with defending champion Lewis Hamilton driving for Mercedes, who won his fourth title at the end of the season last year. And four time champion Sebastian Vettel driving for Ferrari hopes to win his fifth championship.

The off season was notable for a couple of significant changes to the cars themselves. This year will mark the first year of the controversial Halo protection device mounted around the drivers cockpit. The Halo was specifically designed to protect the driver’s head from pieces of flying bodywork. The device has been met with much criticism from drivers and fans. The most notable of the outspoken drivers was Lewis Hamilton, who called the introduction of the Halo as, “the end of an era of F1 cars looking good.”

The other notable change this season is that for the whole season all teams will only be able to use three power units. Christian Horner, the team principal of Red Bull Racing slammed the new regulation calling the decision “nuts” to be expected of all F1 teams to run on a regulation of three engines over a 21 race season. “It would be horrible to see a championship decided on engine penalties,” Horner further went on to explain.

The season started off with a tremendous qualifying battle between Hamilton and Vettel, and Vettel’s teammate 2007 world champion, Kimi Raikkonen. Hamilton set the all time lap record at the end of qualifying with a lap of 1.22.185, to claim pole position. Raikkonen was second fastest with a time that was six tenths of a second slower than Hamilton’s. Vettel was third, while the Red Bull of Max Verstappen started from fourth on the grid.

The surprise of the day was American Haas team led Kevin Magnussen, who qualified 5th while his teammate Romain Grosjean was 6th behind him. The Renault of Nico Hulkenberg was also a surprise in seventh, out qualifying Aussie hometown hero Daniel Ricciardo in the second Red Bull in eighth.  Hulkenberg’s team mate Carlos Sainz was 9th while Fernando Alonso in the new McLaren-Renault was 10th. It was looking like the decision by McLaren to drop Honda and partner with Renault was paying dividends. As the newly badged Toro Rosso Honda team was well down the order in 16th and 20th respectively. Lewis Hamilton’s teammate Valtteri Bottas would have some work to do as he would be starting 15th because of a wreck in qualifying and then taking a five place grid penalty to replace his gear box as a result of the accident.    

The race got underway in a squeaky clean fashion with Hamilton leading while Raikkonen was nipping at his heels trying to make a pass into turn three. Hamilton fended off the Ferrari threat, while Max Verstappen was passed by the two Haas cars who made life hard for the Red Bull driver, especially when Verstappen lost control of his car under braking into the first corner trying to pass Magnussen on lap 10. He regained control of his car and was knocked down to eighth position after his spin.