Two Races In - What Have We Learned?

We're officially into F1 2012. Having broken the skin with an exciting Australian Grand Prix, we pushed deeper into the veins of the season with last weekend's dramatic race in Malaysia. With a surreptitious and unrevealing testing period giving us little to go on, a lot has been revealed in the last two races. Here's what we have learned so far...


The McLarens have a headstart on the rest of the pack



There was a collective anxious sigh from the McLaren fanbase when the MP4-27 was unveiled and seemed very different to its competitors. The front noses of all the other cars included an aesthetically offensive crumpled feature, and there was fear that McLaren had missed a trick on this and were going to be left trailing in the first few races. Thankfully, this has clearly not been the case.


Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton have locked out the front row of the grid in two successive races, and though their races have been peppered with mistakes the two Brits seem to have the paciest cars on race day as well. Certainly in Australia the McLaren seemed to be in its element, with only a badly-timed safety car preventing the first 1-2 for Hamilton and Button since Canada 2010. The car looked to be perhaps more of a struggler in the difficult conditions of Malaysia, but any troubles were heavily exacerbated by collisions, bad pit-stops and tyre issues.

McLaren, without a doubt, have the advantage in terms of the package they have brought to this season. It's a shame they haven't capitalised upon this quite as much as they could have done, but if they can maintain their dominance on the field for the majority of this season it will be a very fruitful year for the Woking-based team. Given the natural determination of Ferrari and Red Bull though, it's hard not to imagine that this gap will close quickly.

Ferrari know how to make the best of a bad car


From the moment teams arrived in Melbourne for the opening Grand Prix, it was clear something was very wrong at Ferrari. Engineers and drivers were openly talking about the damage limitation approach they needed to take as the car wasn't fit to win races. There was an unnerving air of pessimism all over Scuderia, and it became apparent that this was founded in reality as their two cars were knocked out of Qualifying in Q2, with barely a whimper.

However, a driver with the calibre of Fernando Alonso refuses to let pesky machinery get in his way. A solid and complete performance from the Spaniard saw him shimmy his way into a respectable fifth place, picking up 10 vital points. More was to come the following weekend with Fernando Alonso holding firm in the changeable conditions. Combined with some excellent pitwork from the Ferrari mechanics and a bit of luck regarding Perez's late off, Alonso was able to send the Tifosi into raptures with a truly unexpected race victory. Damage limitation? Perhaps damage denial would be more befitting.

The downside for Ferrari is that Felipe Massa has been poor. Finishes in 15th a 16th could either show that Massa isn't skilful enough to make the car work, or that he truly has lost the motivation to drive for Ferrari. In either case, his prospects for staying in the team beyond 2012 look dim.

Red Bull won't dominate


Given Vettel's outright monopolization of the 2011 Grand Prix calender, arguably one of the worst things that could have happened this year is a repeat of last season's form for Red Bull. The term "Schumacher years" reverberated eerily amongst discussion of racing fans as Vettel geared up to his campaign for a third consecutive title.


However, the Red Bull car has not only lost it's massive lead on the rest of the pack, it has positively fallen behind. Both Mercedes and Lotus have managed to get cars in front of Red Bulls during qualifying, as well as the aforementioned front-row lockouts from the McLarens. In the race as well, we have seen that the Red Bull is nothing spectacular, and although Sebastian Vettel enjoyed a podium in Australia, it appears that Adrian Newey and Christian Horner have some work to do.

Given that Red Bull probably has the best development team in the sport, it is unlikely that Red Bull will struggle to win races throughout the season. That said, it is hard to see them finding a way to establish the command they had on the track in 2011, and that should be of massive benefit to the sport.

The Saubers look tasty... as does a lot of the midfield


I was absolutely gutted for Sergio Perez on Sunday. I genuinely felt like he was about to pull off a famous move on Alonso that would give him an absolutely amazing victory, but a mistake manufactured by the spoiling hands of pressure destroyed the potential triumph.


It is still remarkable that we almost saw a Sauber take victory though. From untroubling midfield grid-fillers, the team have clearly had an excellent Winter with all the progression necessary to give them a hatful of points this season. Perez was quicker than Alonso throughout the last half of the Malaysian Grand Prix, with a mis-timed pit-stop and a mistake meaning he managed to catch back up with Fernando twice. That aside, both Perez and Kobayashi scored decent points in the Australian Grand Prix. Sauber is definitely a team to watch this season.

In fact, the rest of the midfield looks pretty good this year, and the result of it is some very close racing. Force India, Mercedes, Toro Rosso, Lotus and Williams have all scored points in those first two races, meaning that only those three perennial backmarkers remain stuck on their marks (although I'm fairly sure - and I might have been dreaming here - that a HRT was in 10th at one stage). Everyone is perusing the points closely, and it means we are in for some really intriguing battles across the track.

This is all bloody exciting, isn't it?


One theme running through all of this the potential for great racing. I truly think we're in for one of the best F1 seasons in living memory. The action on the track has been very enjoyable so far, and though it's very early to comment upon the title race, there are early signs that this could be a close one.


Last season I though the racing was fantastic. The controversial new elements of KERS and DRS did, if nothing else, spice the game up a bit and it made for some absolutely tremendous Grands Prix. However, 2011 was ruined by a yawn-inducing Championship fight between Sebastian Vettel and Sebastian Vettel. Before that we had what was arguably the opposite - a spectacular title-battle between five drivers that came down to the final race. Despite this, the racing in 2010 was appalling, with overtaking a rare and treasured animal. But in 2012, I'm starting to think that we could get the best of both worlds.

Maybe I'm just an eternal optimist, but I can truly see this year being special. The pack is closer than ever, the amount of rivalries developing is phenomenal, and we've had two very entertaining races already. If there's one thing that we have learned so far, it is that all our excitement and hype in the build-up to F1 2012 is well and truly justifiable.