Originally Posted by
Fudd:
“This year's opener was a bit of a farce to be honest, not helped by Alonso's injury, Bottas' withdrawal and Magnussen/Kyvat failing to start. It's such a shame for Magnussen especially as goodness knows when he'll appear again. Maybe the truth is Alonso knew how rubbish the car was so said he didn't want to race!
”
FWIW, if you compare this year's results to last year's you'll find the following:-
Merc' finished the race in 1:31:54 this year and, given that Rosberg was only 1.5s behind Hamilton, you have to assume neither were "swinging the lead".
Last year Rosberg finished in 1:32:58 (almost exactly a minute slower) but Ricciardo/Magnussen were half a minute behind so it's
possible Rosberg was pacing himself.
Bottom line, however, is that Merc' were almost exactly 1s a lap faster than last year.
Last year DR finished in 1:33:20. This year he finished
roughly 100 seconds behind Hamilton, in around the same time as last year. No improvement at all.
Last year Alonso finished 35s behind Rosberg. This year Vettel finished 34s behind Hamilton, suggesting Ferrari have
also found around 1s a lap since last year.
Last year KMag finished in 1:33:22. This year Button finished roughly 2.5 laps down.
At 1:30 per lap, that's roughly 4 minutes behind Hamilton, making this year's car a whopping 3 seconds a lap slower than last year's.
Williams finished 47s behind the winner last year and almost exactly the same time behind this year, meaning they're also 1s a lap faster than they were last year.
Similar thing for ForceIndia.
Torro Rosso finished 1m behind the winner last year. This year, despite finishing in the same position, they were a whole lap down which suggests they've improved
slightly but not as much as some other teams.
Last year Sauber finished a lap down and this year they
barely avoided the same, by the skin of their teeth, suggesting they've also found around 1s per lap.
All rather speculative after only one race (especially given that Oz
does tend to throw up some strange results) but the trend seems to suggest that Merc' has found an extra second and that's roughly what most of the other teams have found as well so nobody's actually
catching Merc.
And then you've got RBR, who've found almost
no time at all, compared to last year, so they have, effectively, gone backwards by a second a lap.
Which leaves us with McLaren, who've gone backward by around 3s per lap compared to last year.
So, basically, it seems like most teams are "treading water", except RBR, who've gone backwards a bit, and McLaren, who've gone backwards a
lot, which suggests that it's going to be Ferrari and Williams who're taking the positions that RBR took last year and, erm,
everybody else is going to be moving up a place while McLaren bring up the rear.