The opening race of Formula 1’s new era in Australia has prompted questions about the direction of the sport.
People in F1 went to Melbourne nervous about what the first race of the season would throw up.
Concerns Over New F1 Technology
There was concern about the new driving styles required with the new engines, with their 50-50 split between internal combustion and electrical power.
Anxiety surrounded the potential for danger at the start, with cars getting away at wildly different speeds. There were also worries about the risk of huge speed differentials in the race when one car was deploying all its electrical energy and another had gone into recovery mode.
The question was posed: Had F1 shot itself in the foot?
Debate: Racing or Computer Game?
The race largely looked like a race. George Russell and Charles Leclerc provided great entertainment as they swapped and re-swapped the lead over the opening 10 laps, each using their “boost” and “overtake” modes to pass.
This version of F1 provided 125 overtaking manoeuvres in a race in which there were 45 last year, according to F1’s own official statistics.
But more overtaking is not necessarily an entirely good thing – it depends on what makes the overtakes happen.
Was it racing, as it is generally understood, where one driver out-brakes another into a corner, or uses their skill to pass in another way, or something more like a computer game, with “nitro boost”, or something like it?
Driver Reactions to the New F1 Style
Russell said the new style of F1 had made his early battle with Leclerc “dicey”.
Leclerc, who finished third behind Russell and his Mercedes team-mate Kimi Antonelli, said the new requirement to constantly charge and deploy 350kw (470bhp) of electrical power “will definitely change the way we go about racing and overtaking”.
Lewis Hamilton, fourth behind Ferrari team-mate Leclerc, said he “loved it, the race was really fun to drive”.
World champion Lando Norris, who finished fifth, predicted that F1 was “just waiting for something to go horribly wrong” given the speed differentials involved.
And four-time champion Max Verstappen said he loved racing but not like this. “I do want it to be better than this,” he said.
Of the battle for the lead for the first 10 laps, Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur said: “I’m not sure that I saw something like this the last 10 years.”
Potential Rule Adjustments on the Horizon
Team bosses retain open minds about the potential that the rules might need to be tweaked after three races this year – a point at which all have agreed to take a pause and reflect.
The battle between Russell and Leclerc was a function of the new technology.
One would use the overtake o