Qualy disaster proves change isn't always good, Merc disguised true pace, McLaren make big progress, Palmer impresses, and...
Sunday 20 March 2016 10:11, UK
Change isn't always a good idea
If there was one part of a race weekend that most would suggest didn't need changing, it was qualifying. The new format confused drivers, teams and fans alike. Simply, it did not work.
The first 16 minutes of qualifying provided brief excitement as the clock counted out the Manors, Romain Grosjean and the like, while Daniil Kvyat's early exit was a surprise. But as the session progressed we saw drivers sitting in the pits rather than looking to better their time while the pit wall seemed to be puzzled by the fact they could be eliminated midway through a lap.
The final eight minutes was as big an anti-climax as you could expect from the first qualifying of the season with barely any cars out on track. The 'big four' advanced to the final shootout but again, the Albert Park circuit was empty as Ferrari opted not to send Sebastian Vettel or Kimi Raikkonen out. The Mercedes duo? They were on the weighing scales the moment the clock was ticking down, sealing Lewis Hamilton's pole.
The FIA introduced the revamped qualifying just three weeks ago in a bid to spice up the grid for a Sunday but as Sky F1 pundit Martin Brundle put it: "It needs putting in the skip and it has to go before Bahrain."
Have Mercedes been sandbagging all winter?
While the Silver Arrows were always going to be favourites for the new season talk was rife that Ferrari could put up much more of a fight this season. The other teams wanted it, the spectators wanted it, even Bernie Ecclestone wanted it.
Pre-season testing and a solitary dry practice before qualifying gave them hope but as soon as Q3 started it was clear that the W07, and Lewis Hamilton, had been holding something back. "Breaking news: Mercedes have been sandbagging all winter," declared a shocked Brundle as Hamilton went one second quicker than Ferrari during Q2.
The world champion's final time of 1:23.837, three tenths faster than team-mate Nico Rosberg, was staggering.
Finally some signs of life at McLaren
In the words of Jenson Button, McLaren finished the first qualifying session of the year "positively surprised" about how close they were to Williams and Force India.
Fernando Alonso, who beat Button by two tenths, sounded almost giddy as he reported "The car was fantastic today." The punctuation mark to this outpouring of relief and celebration was that McLaren remained a speck in Mercedes' rear-mirror: Alonso's best time was still over two seconds shy of Hamilton's
But nevertheless 12th and 13th amounted to a serious step forward for a team which started last year's curtain-raiser on the back row of the grid. Roll on twelve months and McLaren have climbed into the midfield, ahead of Renault and only a tenth or two behind Williams and Force India. Progress? Absolutely.
There's a long way still to go but McLaren-Honda finally appear to have gone a long way forwards. In March 2015, the team's best lap time in qualifying was a 1:31.4. This Saturday, it was a 1:26.125 - a five-second improvement for which the use of supersoft tyres was probably accountable for less than half.
Verstappen taking it to the big boys again
As the clock counted out driver after driver in Q3 you could be forgiven for missing who had made their way onto the third row of the grid.
Just 0.301seconds behind Raikkonen, Max Verstappen again proved what an outstanding young talent he is with a lap of 1:25:434 to cement P5.
Last season's rookie of the year out-qualified his Toro Rosso team-mate Carlos Sainz and even more impressively, Red Bull duo Daniel Ricciardo and Daniil Kvyat at Albert Park.
Sitting just ahead of Felipe Massa, the 18-year-old will be in prime position to attack the Ferraris come lights out.
Palmer steps up when it matters most
It was just a detail in the qualifying hour, and a relatively minor event in the midst of F1's latest self-inflicted mini-crisis, but the performance of Jolyon Palmer was one of the day's bright spots.
Every driver will feel the pressure to perform in the season's first qualifying session but none more so than a rookie making his debut who had spent the previous year on the sidelines. Better still, Palmer was arguably the only driver who performed within the hoped-for parameters and spirit of the new qualifying format, beating the clock in the nick of time at the end of Q3 to leapfrog the Sauber of Marcus Ericsson and avoid the drop.
"He's a very, cool customer and I was very impressed with that," enthused Sky F1's Damon Hill. There was more to come, too, with Palmer edging out Renault team-mate by a tenth of a second.
"That was beautiful driving under pressure," added Johnny Herbert. 1-0 and a point proved for the new Brit on the grid.
The first race of the 2016 F1 season, the Australian GP, is exclusively live on Sky Sports F1. The race in Melbourne starts at 5am on Sunday.
