"Cato Batista" 19/03/2016 17:12:10 ID #885

Ladies and Gentlemen,

When it really counts Lewis is miles ahead of Nico. The World Champion was on top form and delighted with the handling of his Benz. He’s got 50 poles, the 3rd all time mark, and I think we shall stop counting his records under risk to become boring, at least until the end of year.

For Mercedes it is another familiar front row, but the gap is definitely closer to Ferrari and the surprising Toro Rosso. I wonder what the Scuderia is thinking when a team with a third or less of their budget and with their old 2015-spec engines and 2 inexperienced drivers is less than 3 tenths behind…

But the headlines from Australia are the spectacular failure of the new QF system.

Its condemnation has been universal, “we knew it wasn’t going to work” -was the common voice from the drivers- our engineers told us that, but they don’t listen to us”. It became clear that except for the opening minutes of each session, the format deliver didn’t a better show. It was anti-climatic, the track was empty as time was running out, the drivers sat out in the pits saving sets of tyres for the race as the system basically allows for only one run. Alonso declared: “I think it favours the top teams because they don’t need to use so many sets of tyres in Q1”.

An emergency meeting before the race tomorrow by team principals will most likely see this new scheme scrapped immediately and to revert to the proven format that has been in place since 2006.

So much for unpredictability also, the same old HAM-ROS-VET earned the full 4 points for a third of our membership -Curro, Fernando, Manbos, Hector, Matias, Rocco/Joe Jr, Rodrigo, Cato-

The grid for tomorrow:

HAM ROS VET RAI VES MAS SAI RIC PER HUL

The strategy for tomorrow’s 58-lap distance could make this an interesting race since all the teams now have different sets of tyres (new or used) at their disposal. We know HAM didn’t even order mediums for this race, so he will have to do at least 2 stops and probably 3 if temperatures stay low (no rain in the forecast). Since there was not medium compound testing in the FP sessions their longevity is a mystery, which opens the possibility for the mid-grid teams, particularly Force India in 9th & 10th and out of Q3 in the new format to use the hardest compound option and try to do the distance in one stop. For the top 8 qualifiers it looks like a super-soft/soft/soft strategy, all depending on how many laps they get from the super-softs in the opening stint.

From the 21 GP’s held at Albert Park 18 were season openers. The winner in Melbourne has gone on to win the World Championship in the same year 12 of 20 times. The poleman has won 9 of the 21 events. The Safety Car has been deployed 7 of the last 8 races.

And here comes the first big test of the season. Will Ferrari challenge Mercedes? Toro Rosso really has the race pace and is the ‘best of the rest’? Are Red Bull and Williams struggling?

My ticket: Cato - HAM VET ROS RAI RIC VES

Good luck, and good race!

Cheers