F1 2017: Australia GP Review

The first race of the 'new' Formula 1. New regulations came in and made sure that the order was changed only slightly. Who came out as winners of the race and who were the losers of todays race?

Winners:

Sebastian Vettel:

A very strong performance by the German, staying within striking distance of Lewis during the first stint. He could take advantage of Lewis stuck behind Max Verstappen and managed to create a good gap over the few laps that he could drive away of the pair. After Max made his stop, Sebastian still managed to drive away a bit, making sure he could take traffic in a fast way. A very solid drive, no real errors or complains on the radio. A class drive from him and the Ferrari team. 

Antonio Giovinazzi:

Alright, he did not score points or performed anything special, but the way he managed to do his job and be quite competitive with it, shows his true talent that he has. He hopped in as replacement for Wehrlein on Saturday and he was close to Ericsson, with the lack of knowledge of car and track. He did not take any risks in the opening laps and was very easy on the blue flags, but I did not expect anything different from someone who joined during the weekend.

McLaren-Honda:

Again, they did not score points whatsoever. But the fact they were able to run almost the entire race with both cars showed some huge improvements over the weekend compared to the 2 test weeks in Spain. Fernando was around the point-scoring positions for most of the race, Vandoorne had some issues during his first pitstop in which he lost much time. And even though I am still very careful with predicting the progress for McLaren, I'm pleased to see some reliability improvements; To finish first, you first have to finish ;)

Losers:

Daniel Ricciardo:

Made a mistake during qualifying, spinning off in Q3. Has issues driving towards the grid for his homerace, which he eventually started 2 laps down on the field. But that wasn't all his bad luck: He eventually had to retire the car and that way, his awful afternoon became even worst. A bad way to start the new season for him.

Kevin Magnussen:

The new Haas F1 recruit showed some decent things during the winter testing, but showed perfectly why I am still sceptical about him in Formula 1. He hasn't shown it that often, with a podium finish in his first race as best result so far. He needs to show his talent this year, otherwise it may be his last season in Formula 1.

Renault says it needs 5 years to return to the top

Source: Click here

Since it's return, they have only scored 8 points. The return to Formula 1 with a factory team hasn't been a great success, but there is no panic around. They were not expecting wonders and they still do not expect those. Renault has stated that the target is to get back to the top within 5 years, of which this one is the first one.

Even though Renault only scored 8 points, it's a great overall performance though. Renault took the unstable Lotus team late December over, so they has just over 2 months to get ready for Melbourne. In terms of development, they were quite a bit down on both the performance of the car and the power unit. The power unit seems to be quite competitive, as Red Bull is close to Mercedes and seems to be ahead of Ferrari, but the performance of the car is still a bit down.

Goal for the next couple of seasons is to slowly improve that performance. Next year is all about being in midfield and point-scoring positions. For 2018, podium finishes are expected to happen and in the further 2 years the team should be competitive enough to race for race wins and perhaps a world championship.

With the liking of Nico Hülkenberg, who is rumored to have interest from Renault, the Enstone-based team is making steps the right way. Although he has not yet scored a podium finish, his performance is the classes towards F1 showed this true talent. And of course, not to forget about his Le Mans win last year, in his first entry.

What are your expectations? Can Renault return to competitive form within the next 5 seasons? Leave it down in the comments!!