Mercedes are still clearly on top

For the fifth year in a row, Mercedes were still the force to be reckoned with in the opening round, with Hamilton claiming his fifth pole position in a row at Albert Park. Much like the 2017 race, luck would swing Ferrari’s way, with Vettel getting past Hamilton through the pit stops. Hamilton was able to stay within a second of the Number 5 Ferrari for the majority of the remainder of the race, though was unable to pass through the tight bends of the Melbourne circuit. The fact that he was able to stick so close to Vettel for so long goes to show the potential of the W09 – if Hamilton were to have kept the lead after the pitstops, the race would most likely have had a very different result.

Williams are struggling

In 2014, when downforce levels were cut dramatically and Williams were signed up with Mercedes power, Williams was able to climb right back up to the top of the pack, challenging for podiums consistently and even grabbing a Pole Position in Austria 2014. Since then, however, it’s been a steady decline for the plucky contenders, with fewer and fewer strong results each year. With two pay drivers in the team this year as well as a flawed chassis, it looks like good results are going to be few and far between for Claire Williams and her team. To add to their worries, Lance Stroll has been quoted this week as having said that Williams are focusing mainly on surviving at the moment rather than actually racing.

Honda hasn’t figured things out

Honda and Toro Rosso were looking surprisingly competitive in pre-season testing, but their apparent pace in Barcelona did not arrive with the team in Melbourne – which shows that they may have been pushing the power unit in testing beyond its ideal limits (remember, only 3 power units are allowed this season). Hartley and Gasly were both unable to progress beyond Q1, and the Toro Rosso actually posted slower times in this race than last season – worrying times for both Toro Rosso and Red Bull, which intends to switch to the Japanese supplier from 2019.

Red Bull aren’t quite there

The boys from Milton-Keynes have been quite bullish (no pun intended) during the lead-up to the season opener, with strong times in testing and quite a lot of impressive furniture being installed on the new car. Fans were expecting Red Bull to line up behind the Mercedes on Sunday, but there is still a noticeable gap in the performance of the Ferrari and the Red Bull, and Max and Daniel are going to have to work hard to challenge for victories.

The Halos could be worse

We’ve been dreading the halo’s arrival in F1 for some time now, and although it’s been quite an adjustment, it does not dramatically affect the viewing experience, and didn’t seem to cause any problems for the drivers in the race. Hopefully the outrage will die down soon, and fans can simply enjoy the racing again. They just desperately need to sort out the camera angles…