Well folks, it's finally upon us. The months of waiting around and trying to glean every last tidbit of information from testing times, photographs, interviews, car launches to give is a clue as to what the season will have in store for us are finally over. This weekend all the rumour and speculation stops, and the action begins. Questions will be answered; yet more questions will be posed. The streets of Melbourne's Albert Park will once again reverberate to the sound of wailing V8 engines, roaring fans and, for the first time in many years, spinning rear tyres.
Eight months, eighteen races, seventeen nations and five continents await the drivers, teams and fans over the coming season, but for now all attention is focussed on Melbourne, Australia. The teams have been in Melbourne all week doing the obligatory press junkets and setting up their gear in the Albert Park pitlane, but Friday will see the engines fired up and the first wheels turned in anger. The weather is scorching hot in Melbourne, and is predicted to remain so throughout the whole weekend. This is likely to cause some anxiety in the pitlane as no-one will quite no for sure how the cars, and particularly the tyres, will cope in the heat after the comparatively Arctic conditions of European winter testing. The fact that the track is notorious for being one of the dirtiest and most bumpy due to the street track layout also throws a cat amongst the pigeons at least for the first couple of sessions as the track rubbers up. Nobody will be pushing too hard early on given the lack of traction control and low grip surface.
The early favourites are clearly in the red cars and the silver cars, hopefully things will remain as tight and competitive as they were last season between those two. If not, then at least we have the potential of a great battle in the midfield between three or four teams looking to challenge BMW for the "best of the rest" spot.
So, let the best man and the best team win, and may there be no repeat of last year's controversies. Let's hope that nobody gets hurt, and raise a glass to the drivers and marshalls who put their lives at risk for our entertainment. Let battle commence!
Reply With Quote