Formula 1: is this Vettel’s season?
“If you thought Lewis Hamilton was going to have it all his own way this season, think again,” said Rebecca Clancy in The Times. In Sunday’s Australian Grand Prix, he played second fiddle to Sebastian Vettel; the German driver dominated on the track, finishing almost ten seconds ahead of Hamilton. It was his first victory in 18 months, and Ferrari’s first win in the opening race of the season for seven years. After three years of dominance by Hamilton’s team, Mercedes, who have won the last three constructors’ and drivers’ championships, the sport now seems to have a two-way battle: “Ferrari vs. Mercedes, Vettel vs. Hamilton”.
The race was a “proper slugfest between two of the biggest hitters of their generation”, said Giles Richards in The Guardian. Once the boy wonder of Formula 1, Vettel won four championships in a row between 2010 and 2013; but in recent seasons he has lagged behind Hamilton. In the past, he has been let down by poor teamwork; on this occasion, however, Ferrari “executed everything without a hitch”. The team benefitted, too, from the sport’s new regulations. The cars this season are more aerodynamic, which makes them faster; it also means they produce more turbulent air in their wake, which makes overtaking more difficult – as Hamilton found on Sunday. If the regulations have chipped away at Mercedes’ advantage, so much the better, said Oliver Brown in The Daily Telegraph. It’s not “healthy” to have a single team dominate the sport. It has been almost a decade since Ferrari last won the championship, but Vettel’s “Melbourne masterclass has revived confidence in F1’s most fabled marque”. And if Vettel keeps up this form, he will win a fifth title – a feat achieved by only two drivers before him. It’s early days, but this race may just have heralded a “changing of the guard”.