Melbourne: The Drivers’ Perspective on the Race

The 2012 Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix is now in the record books, and as the F1 circus is already on its way to the second fixture on the calendar in Malaysia, Jenson Button is still revelling his first win of the season.

After an exciting race filled with action on various levels, the year ahead looks to be a promising and unpredictable one. Instead of analysing the race in the traditional fashion, let’s take a look at it from the driver and teams perspective this time.

McLaren Mercedes

Jenson Button, who finished in first place for McLaren, described his feelings after the race:

"It was very special," said Button. "Starting the year with a win is important. To come away with Lewis’s pole yesterday and victory today, I think it puts us in a great position for the next few races and on the right foot, so a big thank you to everyone in the team.

"I am very excited heading to Malaysia but not thinking about that now - I will enjoy this now with friends and family, and tomorrow turn my attention to Malaysia."

Interestingly though, Button’s teammate Lewis Hamilton, who qualified in pole position for today’s race, had a somewhat different take on his race after finishing in third position, still on the podium:

"I really don’t know, I just struggled out there," said Hamilton. "I got a shocking start which was really the beginning of it all.

"It was obviously a tough race, but congrats to Jenson it was great race for him. It would have been great to have had a one-two, but it just wasn’t a good day for me."

"[I will] just re-focus, get my head down and there’s lots of races ahead. In these championships it’s all about consistency so that is what I am going to focus on."

Red Bull Renault

Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull Racing’s back to back double World Champion, had a strong race moving from fifth at the start to second place on the podium. The highly competitive Vettel was full of praise for the race winner today, but stressed the importance of improvement for his team as a whole:

"Congratulations to McLaren and Jenson, he drove a fantastic race"

"He was unbeatable today but I am happy to come away with second. A lot of people did not expect it after yesterday.”

"It was a positive race for us, one we knew would be a difficult one. So, to finish in second place with a lot of points is important.”

"The car has a lot of potential," the reigning World Champion added. "I would have loved to be in a better position yesterday (in qualifying). Now we need to address problems and make sure that we give them a harder time next week."

Mark Webber, who placed fourth overall in his Red Bull Racing RB8 and battled Lewis Hamilton right to the chequered flag offered a truthful insight into the teams’ race weekend:

“There are some positives to take out of today. Qualifying was difficult for us, but the race pace was better today, it was just that we didn’t have track position. I had a poor start, so I need to see what happened there and then I got sandwiched at Turn 1”

“The car felt quite tricky on the options in the first stint and I wondered if I had some damage from the first corner, but then when I got the primes the race came alive for me. We had a bit of luck with the safety car and I was quicker than Lewis at the end, but it’s a difficult track to overtake here – in Malaysia it would have been a different story.”

“Today was a strong showing for us and it was a good day for Red Bull Racing given what we went to bed with last night, we had a bit on, but this was a good comeback. It was a strong start.”

Ferrari

Fernando Alonso, who struggled with the Ferrari F2012 all weekend failed to reach Qualifying 2 yesterday, was able to finish in fifth position today, scoring the only points for the Ferrari team today:

“We knew it would be a very complicated race and I am happy I managed to bring home a useful number of points. I got a great start and managed a few passing moves in the early stages and later, after the Safety Car, there was a tough fight with Maldonaldo: when I saw he’d gone off the track I breathed a sigh, because he had been really close to me for quite a few laps up until then. I was slower than him and all I could do was defend my position, using the KERS at a few specific points. I am sorry for him, because it’s a real shame to finish a race like that.”

“Today the car was better than yesterday and we were closer to the leaders. However, we still have a lot of work to do to reach those who are ahead of us in terms of performance; not just McLaren and Red Bull, but also Mercedes and Lotus. We are probably a second off pole and there are seven or eight teams who are all very close to one another. In one sense, that’s good news because if we can improve by a few tenths, then we can make up a few places. Next week in Malaysia will be a trial by fire, because Sepang is a very demanding circuit, for the cars and the tyres.”

Felipe Massa’s 2012 campaign got off to a somewhat different start this weekend when a collision with William’s Bruno Senna forced him to retire his Ferrari F2012 on lap 47:

“This has been a really poor weekend for me. Already yesterday I suffered because the car was badly balanced and today, it was probably even worse, because after a few laps I was struggling with the tyres.”

“We must work to understand why we could not reproduce the right balance on the car, as we had for example at the Barcelona tests. As for the contact with Senna, I think we can consider it a racing incident. A Toro Rosso tried to pass me on the outside of Turn 3 and Bruno had better traction on the inside, so we went into Turn 4 side by side: that where we tangled and it ended as you saw it did.”

Toro Rosso Ferrari

Daniel Ricciardo, competing in his first race with the Red Bull Racing sister team, finished in ninth position, attained two valuable points for the team:

“It’s good to finish ninth, but I think I could have done better because the car was very strong, given how fast it was even with the damage I had to carry, with the car pulling to one side," he added. "It was not easy to come back, but I never gave up, pushing all the time.

“I’m extremely happy and it’s great to score my first F1 points here at home in Australia, where the crowd has been just fantastic all weekend long.”

Rookie Formula 1 driver and teammate Jean-Eric Vergne also had a strong race, finishing eleventh overall, just one place shy of racing points:

“I got a super start and I had moved up a few places, but then Webber touched my right rear and I went straight on, losing a lot of time. After that, it was complicated as I was stuck behind cars I could not pass, even if they were considerable slower than me”

“I learned a lot on my first Formula 1 weekend and there are still nineteen races in which I can score points. The car seems to be working well and we were competitive all weekend, so I’m looking forward to getting back on track in Malaysia in a few days.”

Lotus Renault

After a positive start to the season and placing third in Qualifying yesterday, Romain Grosjean was forced to retire on only the third lap of the day after a collision with William’s Pastor Maldonado:

“I think we could have achieved a great result today. It’s frustrating as I really wanted to make the chequered flag and even the podium, but on the positive side the car is performing very well. I was keeping pace with the guys in front of me and everything was looking good.”

“My start wasn’t great so we’ll need to have a look at the data. Then of course there was the collision with Pastor (Maldonado). From what I saw he braked far too late and hit my right front wheel which broke the steering and that was it; my race was over. The team deserved better because they have been working very hard, but by tomorrow morning it will all be a memory. We’ll move on to Malaysia now which is one of my favourite circuits and focus on getting a result there.”

Romain’s teammate and returning Formula 1 World Champion Kimi Raikkonen had a somewhat different race, finishing seventh overall for the day and scoring valuable points for the team:

“It feels like I’ve never been away. Yesterday we made some mistakes which cost us quite badly so it could easily have been better in the race. I made a good start but then there was an accident in front of me at the first turn, so we lost a few places there as I had to almost stop and move onto the grass to avoid it. That made the race harder again as we had the speed, but a lot of traffic to get through. When you look at all these things we could have finished in a much better position. We had the safety car which I think actually hurt us a bit as well. Overall the weekend was far from ideal, but the car feels good and to come back to 7th means we at least come away with some points.”

Williams Renault

Pastor Maldonado, who had a strong race with the Williams F1 team, showed excellent pace throughout the day. Challenging for a sixth place finish, he would crash just a lap short of the chequered flag:

“The car looked good today. Our pace was quick and consistent and we were looking competitive right up until the moment I had on the last lap, which is very important. Unfortunately, I just lost the back of the car while pushing Alonso and I had nowhere to go.”

Maldonado’s teammate Bruno Senna retired his Williams FW34 on lap 53 after making contact with the Ferrari of Felipe Massa. He was classified 16th overall in the race:

“I had a great start, but I tried to take the outside line at the first corner and I felt someone make contact with me. I then had to do an extra pit stop which made things difficult. My race was looking better but then I had a tangle with Massa so luck wasn’t on our side today. That’s racing though, and we now look forward to making up for it in Malaysia next weekend.”

Force India Mercedes

Paul Di Resta, who finished in tenth place after Pastor Maldonado crashed his car on the final laps of the race, scored one point for Force India in Melbourne:

“It’s always nice to start the season with a point, but it was not looking too promising until the last few laps when my engineer told me that I was catching the cars ahead of me,” the Scot admitted.

“Fortunately I had saved quite a bit of KERS for the last corner, which helped me get a good run on Vergne and beat him to the line. So it was a pretty exciting final lap. It’s a good way to start the season, but it’s clear we have a lot of work to do because we were struggling for pace at the start of each stint, which hurt my overall race pace.”

Nico Hulkenberg was not as lucky though, and was the first to retire from the race:

“I don’t seem to have much luck at Albert Park. My first race here in 2010 was less than a lap and today was a repeat of that. I’m still not really sure what happened, but I got hit when I turned into the first corner on lap one.”

“The good thing is that I will be back in the car in five days’ time, which is the best way to bounce back and get over the disappointment.”

Mercedes AMG

Mercedes AMG F1 Team, who had a strong start to the season in all three Free Practice’s, and showed strong pace throughout Qualifying, had a disappointing race day.

Michael Schumacher retired his Mercedes with a gearbox problem after just eleven laps:
"It was an unfortunate end to my race when I lost drive going into Turn 1,” said Schumacher. “I was trying different gears and occasionally the drive came back, but in the end, I had to go onto the grass to avoid the risk of the car being forced into a spin.

“It was especially unfortunate as we have not had this problem during the winter tests and were very reliable. This is why I am not concerned, as I know things like this happen in racing, and our reliability is not in question.”

“I believe I could have had a good race, and I can still take some positives out of the weekend as we have seen our car was confirming our feelings, and is definitely a clear step forward,” he added. “We can now build on that and start improving further."

Nico Rosberg looked as though he would finish within the points, but a run in with Sergio Perez late in the afternoon mean an overall place of just twelfth:

“We have a lot of work to do to understand what went wrong, and how we can use the full potential which our car definitely shows. I’m still positive as Malaysia is a completely different track so I’m looking ahead to next weekend now.”

Sauber Ferrari

Kamui Kobayashi finished sixth today after a strong race from the reliable Sauber Ferrari C31:

“I am very happy – for the team and myself. Finishing sixth is a great start to the season. After the start I nearly crashed into Bruno (Senna) who spun in front of me. I was lucky to avoid hitting him, but at the same time Sergio could not avoid touching me and then I had to do the whole race with a damaged rear wing. This was very difficult and for sure cost car performance. However, after the first lap I had improved two positions.

"I was on a two stop strategy, with two sets of softs in the beginning and the medium compound for the last stint. With my second pit stop I had bad luck with the timing because the safety car came out just after I had pitted. Then I was running in ninth position until the ultimate lap when Pastor (Maldonado) crashed and Sergio had a battle with Nico[Rosberg]. I went past and finished sixth.”

Sergio Pérez, despite a run in with Nico Rosberg in the dying minutes of the race, also finished in the points, eighth overall:

“After I had to start last on the grid because of changing the gear box I knew I had to try everything to gain positions right after the start. I managed to get into 12th behind Kamui and touched his car while he had to avoid crashing into the Williams car in front of him. My front wing was then damaged and this was only one of the difficulties I had today during the race. I also had to save tyres, also for some time fuel, and I had to fight to defend my position. It really was a tough race for me. Then on the very last lap Pastor (Maldonado) crashed and I backed off because of the debris. But then Nico (Rosberg) overtook me, our cars touched and I had to finish the race with tyres that were completely gone.”

“Of course I’m not happy to have lost my position on the final lap, but I am very happy for the team because finishing sixth and eight is a good start to the season.“

Team Principle Peter Sauber offered a short and positive reflection on the afternoon:

“Both drivers delivered a fantastic race, especially Sergio, starting from last and finishing eighth. However, this is only possible with a fast car. I’m very happy that we were able to fight back after a difficult qualifying. A big thank you to the team at the track and also the people back in Hinwil for designing a great car. We went into this season with high expectations and were able to deliver today.”

Caterham Renault

Despite the fact that neither car in the Caterham F1 team would finish the race, both drivers had an overall positive attitude and felt a lot was achieved in Melbourne this weekend.

Heikki Kovalainen:

"Both Vitaly and I had to avoid the problems in turn one at the start and then I lost a bit of time behind Glock, but got past him quickly and then started to show good pace, enough the close the gap to the cars ahead.”

“But then I felt the car starting to pull left under braking so we brought the car in to take a look and it seems like a front left suspension problem was causing the handling imbalance I’d felt for a few laps before we had to retire. I’m sure we can fix both problems for next week and we have shown today what a step forward we’ve taken, so it’s not bad news, it’s just one of those days."

Vitaly Petrov:

"I was having a fantastic race and it’s such a shame we had to retire the car. Until that point everything was going exactly to plan. The team did a great to job to help me pass Heikki in the first stop, I was catching Senna and Massa ahead and the car felt really well balanced. I was managing the tyres well and we definitely showed the sort of pace that can bring rewards this season, so while it’s obviously not how we wanted the first race with my new team to go we can take a lot of positives from this and move on to Malaysia where we know we can put in a strong performance."

Marussia Cosworth

Marussia had a successful opening campaign to the 2012 Formula 1 season with both cars being classified in the final results:

Timo Glock, who celebrated his 30th birthday today, finished just one lap down on the leader, fourteenth overall:

“A great race for the team and a huge reward for all the hard work and pressure over the last few months. It’s important to remember that we came here with no real running with the new car. Add the potential for reliability problems – because they always happen with every team in pre-season testing – and it has been quite a special weekend to get the car home in the first race with no issues.”

“The car was very consistent and in the end, to finish 14th, I have to be happy with that and so do the team, as it is an important start for position in the Constructors’ Championship. The car gave me a birthday present for sure and I will enjoy that for now but tomorrow the hard work starts again as we have a lot to do to improve the car. I’ve said it before but my thanks again to the team. A great start.”

Rookie driver and teammate Charles Pic finished fifteenth in Melbourne, 5 laps down:
“I am quite happy with my first race and very pleased for the team to have such a good debut for the car also. Everything was quite positive during the race…”

“There is still so much work for us and more to come from me and the car but we have a lot of information from the weekend to help us prepare for this and for Malaysia next weekend.”

HRT Cosworth

HRT Formula 1 team did not take place in the 2012 Australian Grand Prix. After failing to Qualify within the 107% time allowance, stewards opted to not allow them to race today.

The Formula 1 calendar will resume on the weekend of March 23 – 25 for the 2012 Formula 1 Petronas Malaysia Grand Prix in Kuala Lumpur.

Follow me on Twitter - @IrvineF1