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| Daniel Ricciardo starts his first race with Red Bull at his home Grand Prix. |
Ladies and gentlemen! Welcome to the first GP preview of the 2014 season. I can not even explain how exited I am right now! The first GP weekend starts in 3 days in Melbourne, Australia.
Some readers of this blog have told me that they are going to be at the event watching the first race live. That's great guys but I am so used to start the season by watching the first practice sessions at 3 o'clock in the morning in Finland. I don't mind waking up or staying up late. If it's because of Formula One then I absolutely love it! Of course it would be nice to be in Australia right now as well.
Because this is the first preview there is probably a lot I should talk about but I'll try to keep this as short as possible. Some fans prefer that I go straight to the point and don't ramble away for several pages.
Like I usually do I will start by talking about the track and the previous races in Melbourne.
The track is actually a street circuit around the Albert Park lake and it looks like this:
Melbourne - Albert Park has been a part of Formula One since the year 1996 when Damon Hill won the first ever race there. If we talk about the current drivers then the most successful driver at Albert Park is probably Jenson Button. Let's see...
Jenson Button has won there three times in 2009, 2010 and 2012. He has also taken his first pole position there with Honda in 2006.
Then there is Kimi Räikkönen who has won 2 races at Albert Park in 2007 and last year in 2013.
He started his career in 2001 by taking 6th place for Sauber at that same circuit. The following year he replaced the two time world champion Mika Häkkinen at McLaren and took his first podium in the first race at Melbourne. In 2006 he was 2nd right after Fernando Alonso who is the third best scoring driver at Melbourne (from the current drivers).
Alonso has won only one race there in 2006 but has been on the podium 4 times excluding the win.
Then there is Lewis Hamilton who has also won once there in 2008 and been on the podium 3 times excluding the win.
Oh and Sebastian Vettel has also won there once in 2011 but he has been on the podium only 2 times excluding the win.
So statistically the best drivers at the Australian GP are the world champions Button, Räikkönen, Alonso, Hamilton and Vettel in that order. Of course we have to keep in mind that Button has raced there the most, Räikkönen was away for two years and Hamilton+Vettel are younger drivers (and they started in F1 in 2007).
Both Button and Räikkönen won with two different teams. Button with Brawn and McLaren, Räikkönen with Ferrari and Lotus. This year Button drivers for McLaren and Räikkönen for Ferrari.
It is unlikely that Vettel will succeed in Melbourne because of all the problems that Red Bull has had.
Ferrari and McLaren will do good which gives Button, Räikkönen and Alonso a chance of succeeding. I think that Hamilton still has the best chances because Mercedes has shown very good pace in the winter testing. In fact all of the Mercedes powered cars have been great! Especially the Williams team.
The Ferrari powered cars are somewhere in the middle. Even Marussia's pace has been better than Caterham's. Marussia has Ferrari engines and Caterham has Renault engines.
All of the Renault cars have been having a lot of problems but I am still pretty sure that Red Bull will get their act together and fight for wins again at some point. That might be somewhere near the end of the season though.
It's very hard to guess anything at this point because of the new cars and possible rain on Sunday but I'll give it a try..
My guesses:
Pole position: Felipe Massa
The race:
- Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes
- Nico Rosberg, Mercedes
- Felipe Massa, Williams
Fastest lap: Kimi Räikkönen
Surprise: Marussia!
Enjoy the first Grand Prix weekend! I know I will ;)
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