2018 Australian F1 Grand Prix – The Good, Bad & Ugly

The 2018 F1 season got underway with Sebastian Vettel securing a somewhat fortuitous victory in Sunday’s Australian Grand Prix.

After Lewis Hamilton took pole the day before, and looked extremely comfortable in the early part of the race, it looked as if only the winning margin was going to be the question that needed answering for the Mercedes driver.

The turning point came coincidentally from the Ferrari powered Haas team, where they appeared to send out Romain Grosjean without a properly secured tyre, he lasted a few corners and his dangerously parked car brought out a Virtual and Proper Safety Car. That allowed Vettel to pit and come out ahead of an already pitted Lewis Hamilton.

Despite his best efforts, which led to a slight offtrack excursion, Hamilton was unable to steal the lead back and the Ferrari grabbed the season’s first victory.

Daniel Ricciardo finished fourth, pressuring Kimi Raikkonen throughout the second half of the race. His team mate Max Verstappen had an adventurous day and ultimately finished 6th.

As with the 2017 season, the Good, Bad and Ugly of each race will be offered up here for some short, sharp analysis of each GP, starting with the 2018 Australian Grand Prix.

THE GOOD

SEBASTIAN VETTEL

Sometimes it is better to be lucky than good, and whilst that is a little unfair on the Ferrari driver, it is still true that Vettel was probably not going to win the 2018 Australian Grand Prix if not for the Safety Car period brought out by Grosjean’s stricken Haas.

Vettel was outqualified by team mate Kimi Raikkonen on the Saturday, and was behind both the Finn and Lewis Hamilton in the race, but he waited longer for his only pitstop for tyres, and reaped the benefits of it.

His pace in the second half of the race was enough to keep Lewis Hamilton at bay, and indeed forced the Briton into a mistake which effectively killed the battle at the front. Whether the Ferrari is truly up for beating Mercedes every week we will find out over the next few races, for the meantime the history books will show a victory for Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari.

LEWIS HAMILTON

Did everything he could to win the first Grand Prix of the season, but suffered due to the timing of the Safety Car.

Took a great Pole position on the Saturday, and appeared to have everything under control for the race in the early parts. He even had the Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen between him and his likely natural challenger for the title Sebastian Vettel.

Victory should have been his, but for a second year in a row it wasn’t. But given the Mercedes form, there’s plenty of wins left in him.

KIMI RAIKKONEN

Like Lewis Hamilton, Kimi was dudded by the Safety Car period, but will probably take third in the end as he did well to hold off Daniel Ricciardo for the final podium spot. And he did out-qualify his team mate Vettel on the Saturday.

As a fan of Kimi’s work on and off track, it is good to see him competitive with Vettel, and hopefully capable of wins. Better than some of his near invisible Sunday from 2017.

DANIEL RICCIARDO

After copping the season’s first grid penalty for not slowing down enough during a Red Flagged session before qualifying, and being justifiably unhappy about it, a fourth place finish should be seen as a good result for the Red Bull driver.

Especially as it appears that the Red Bull’s pace doesn’t seem to far away from the Ferrari or Mercedes, and wins don’t seem out of the question in 2018.

HAAS

The question of who is best of the rest was emphatically answered over the weekend as the Haas was clearly the next best thing over the Australian Grand Prix weekend. They ran fourth and fifth before the pitstops, and were reasonably comfortable at keeping the Red Bulls behind them, after qualifying as best of the rest on the Saturday.

Eyebrows were raised and some even questioned how close their relationship was with Ferrari, with the hint that the Haas was essentially last year’s Ferrari. But however it has been done, the Haas looks very competitive in 2018.

Of course they were unable to take advantage as both cars retired after their pitstops, with an investigation pending into whether the retirements were caused by the wheels not being properly fastened, therefore being an unsafe release. Which is exactly how it appeared at first view.

They will hopefully learn from it, and look at the loss of valuable points as inspiration. Better though to sort out those kind of problems with a quick car, than the reverse.

FERNANDO ALONSO
Ironic that one of the most vocal about the Haas – Ferrari partnership over the weekend was McLaren driver Alonso, who benefitted greatly from their disappearance from the Australian Grand Prix.

The double World Champion finished fifth in the first race for the new McLaren-Renault combination, and while the result may not be totally down to outright speed, he must be thankful he has a car that can make it to the finish and be capable of collecting such a swag of points.

To keep Max Verstappen behind for the second half of the race shows that his McLaren is a decent match for the Red Bull given they share the same engine, and let’s hope it gets as close to the front as it can by the end of the season.

CARLOS SAINZ
For still finishing 10th despite having no drink on board during the race. He held off the Force India of Sergio Perez by around a second in the end to claim the final point.

CHARLES LECLERC
No points, but the F2 Champion from last season was best of the rookies at the Australian Grand Prix, just by finishing.

He was less than a tenth off his more experienced team mate in qualifying, ending up 18th, and the 13th placed finish shows he is capable of bringing a car home as was only 15 second off the pace of the Force India of Esteban Ocon at race end.

Just a pity the Sauber-Alfa Romeo is going to offer very few chances to let his significant talent shine.

MERCEDES / FERRARI

Look like they have sewn up the front of the grid in normal conditions for 2018, and with their constant threats to leave, as if F1 bosses will do anything to harm their dominance. All we can hope for is that the Red Bull will get better on other tracks.

THE BAD

VALTTERI BOTTAS
A crash in qualifying and an eighth place finish is not the return that his team would have been expecting, and puts him under immediate pressure for the rest of the season.

His plight from 15th on the grid highlights one worrying thing for the big teams. His inability to carve through the field shows the competitiveness of the midfield teams will make sure any error made in qualifying similar to Bottas’ will be punished even more so in 2018. Or engine/gearbox penalties, which are more likely given that three engines are to be used in 2018.

One bonus out of Bottas’ weekend could be that Daniel Ricciardo might look a more interesting prospect to Mercedes with each race for 2019.

FORCE INDIA
Last year’s clear winner of best of the rest look to have gone backwards in 2018 in comparison to the rest of their midfield opponents.

The team scored no points despite both cars finishing, and neither car made it into the final Q3 Qualifying session.

THE UGLY

MAX VERSTAPPEN
Max Verstappen qualified fourth on Saturday, and with a good margin to his team mate meant that he headed into Sunday’s race in reasonable shape.

Unfortunately the young Red Bull star dropped it at the first corner on Lap 10 chasing the Haas of Magnussen and losing a pile of places in the process. That meant he ended up 14th after his pitstop, which then led to him ending up behind Fernando Alonso after the safety car period.

The Dutchman actually got ahead of Alonso as the Spaniard came out of the pits, but as it appeared to be under Yellow flags he had to give the place back to Alonso, and he was to never regain it.

This is likely to be only a blip in his 2018 season. But not a great start.

WILLIAMS
Looks like another step backwards for the Williams team, and with a driver line up so inexperienced, there’s a real worry about how far back the popular team will slide.

THE MARTINI / MINARDI MEDAL AND CHAVES / COLONI PLATE RETURN

Back by popular demand as a way for Australian sporting fans to avoid reading anything more on the Australian Cricket team, it is our awards for the best F1 Driver / Team for the 2018 season.

After each race we will assign points for the Good, Bad, and Ugly described above, and some other useful tidbits of Grand Prix statistics like Overtaking, Fastest Laps, and Retirements.

With offering points for good, and taking them off for bad, we were accused of being a little too negative last year, given very few drivers and teams made it into positive territory. This season we have revamped all of our many reader and fan.

The Martini / Minardi Medal goes to the best Driver / Team for the season..
The Chaves / Life F1 Plate goes to the worst Driver / Team for the season.

THE POINTS EXPLAINED….

2 Points for featuring in the GOOD (Driver/Team)
-1 Point for BAD or UGLY (Driver/Team)
1 Point for Outqualifying Teammate (Driver)
1 Point for Pole Position (Driver/Team)
-1 Point for Last on Grid (Driver/Team)
-1 Point for Penalty Taken for Mechanical (Team)
1 Point for Top Non Big 3 Car in Top 6 in Qualifying (Driver/Team)
1 Point for Top Non Big 3 Car in Top 6 in Race (Driver/Team)
1 Point for Fastest Lap (Driver/Team)
1 Point for Most Places Gained on Lap One (Driver)
1 Point for Most Places Gained in Race (Driver)
1 Point/-1 Point for Best/Worst Pitstop (Team)
-1 Point for 1st Retirement (Driver/Team)
-1 Point for Avoidable Accident (Driver)

2018 AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX MARTINI MEDAL / CHAVES PLATE RESULTS

Here’s where we post the rolling results for the season. Note some will have zero points for being good and bad, others will not be named as they haven’t done anything good or bad.

MARTINI MEDAL / CHAVES PLATE

THE MINARDI MEDAL / COLONI PLATE