A Wet and Wild Start
Australian Grand Prix

By Erik Nielsen
Photos courtesy and copyright Ferrari Media

The new rules actually affected the race. But it probably was not the same effect that the boffins at the FIA had envisioned. With heavy downpours during parts of Saturday's qualifying, pole position was more a matter of luck, than having the fastest car.

The driver with the most luck in the qualifying sessions was Italian Giancarlo Fisichella who managed to get the driest line on Saturday and just pushed hard on Sunday to find his blue Renault at the front of the grid come Sunday afternoon. And there he would stay the entire race. Actually, it was an all Italian front row at the beginning of the race with Jarno Trulli's Toyota in P2. But, it's still a Toyota. And, while throwing money at a problem can, but doesn't always, solve a problem, he would finish the day as an also-ran.

The tifosi were panicked to see Michael Schumacher starting from 19th due to the weather gods not cooperating on Saturday, but Rubens proved that he is a capable driver and grabbed the second spot on the podium, climbing up nine spots during the race. Who says there isn't passing in F1? By splitting the two Renaults with last year's car, there is hope in Maranello that some things haven't changed. Schumacher's day was done after tangling with Nick Heidfeld's BMW-Williams. There are going to be some angry Germans on both sides of that issue come Monday morning.

Fernando Alonso proved that Fisichella's ride wasn't a fluke and that the French team is competitive (meaning we'll probably have to deal with Flavio wanting as much camera time as possible; better get those wide angle lenses ready to be sure to get all of him).

The surprise of the race was the competitiveness of the Red Bull Racing cars, in particular the fourth place finish of David Coulthard. Hopefully, the team has found the proper motivation to get him to run at the front of the grid. Let's just hope he didn't make this one push as an effort to save his ride for now. His team mate, Christian Klien, would finish in seventh, and in the points, so it was a great debut for the new team. Remember, Stewart was successful before Ford tried to run this group as Jaguar; maybe large corporations aren't effective in this sport. Yes, I will start caring about the team again.

Mark Webber tried to push Coulthard, but the new BMW-Williams just wasn't up to the task, today, and Frank's boys looked pretty glum. But then again, they did last year, too. And the year before that.

The last point of the day went to Juan Pablo Montoya in the McLaren. Thirty-five seconds back wasn't a convincing performance from a team that was expected to dominate the season opener. The new wings on the sides of the car make Juan Pablo look like the devil and Kimi look like a Viking. It might make for interesting copy, but they didn't seem to make the cars go any quicker. The Iceman, who has tried to heat up his persona by the occasional lap dance in the off-season, would finish 4.6 seconds behind, indicating that the two are pretty evenly matched.

As for the rest of the field, the more things change, the more things stay the same.

Massa showed that the Sauber could climb eight places during the course of the race. Villeneuve, who started fourth helped by the weather, showed his true talent and finished 13th. Guess which one will get the pat on the back from Peter Sauber Sunday afternoon?

BAR-Honda was looking for a strong start to the season, but then it all seemed to go wrong. Sato-san managed to spin his car on the out lap during Saturday's qualifying session and would start from the back of the grid. Jenson Button was running 11th, before they withdrew. I wonder what changes they are planning on making to the cars before the next race that will get Paul Stoddard's panties in a knot.

Speaking of the guy who is contemplating changing his last name to Whinefield, he managed to pretty much tick off all of the Australian racing fans with actions that could result in F1 leaving the continent all in the hopes of getting more air time for his two moving chicanes. I think it is time that he goes back to his airplanes; if you can't run with the big boys, stay out of F1. His PR firm needs to tell him that he really is starting to make a fool of himself.

And finally, Jordan was there. Their drivers didn't do much, so I'm not going to bother to learn how to spell either one of them this early in the season.

The season is off and running, but it is still too early to make any predictions. The weather during qualifying did upset the grid to get an accurate head to head comparison on who has their act together and who does not. The next event is the Malaysian Grand Prix in two weeks; we'll be covering that one for you, too.