| On paper, Ferrari and Sebastian Vettel’s win in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix is a harbinger of a promising year, a precursor to the battle royal between the Scuderia and Mercedes which everyone aspires to see, with Red Bull enlaced in between.
In reality, it doesn’t take any forensic study to realise the Prancing Horse’s out-of-the-gate win was rooted in luck induced by a marginal math error on the part of its arch-rival which likely won’t repeat itself anytime soon.
Before the pit stop rotations and the activation of the Virtual Safety Car in last Sunday’s race, Lewis Hamilton wasn’t exactly leading Vettel by a country mile, but the Brit was clearly in control of proceedings, slowly but surely walking away with his 63rd Grand Prix win.
His pace and relative dominance was the logical follow-up act to the jaw-dropping supremacy displayed the day before in qualifying.
Vettel scored the 25 points, but Ham confirmed the widespread pre-race view of the paddock pundits: barring any unforeseen circumstances, Mercedes is unassailable, with or without party mode.
So, after just one race, how do things evolve from here? Red Bull’s Helmut Marko actually doesn’t believe they will.
“Mercedes is playing with everyone,” contends the grim manager. “They can decide with their power modes how far ahead they are. But this time they apparently got it wrong and are too far ahead. I said to Ferrari: Mercedes is five tenths ahead and they said no. But everyone has been asleep,” he added.
“With that engine, no one can beat Mercedes,” Marko insisted. “They’re in a different world. We have a very good car and that’s why we’re close. But with these engine regulations, it will be the same until 2021.”
As a remedy to Mercedes’ superiority, which Marko stopped short of calling ‘unfair’, the Austrian urges Formula One and the FIA to engineer power unit parity between the sport’s manufacturers, and to do it ASAP, or risk watching Mercedes race off into the sunset for the next three seasons, the present one included.
One simple fact appears to be lost on the pragmatic Mr. Marko: two other teams – Williams and Force India – are powered by the exact same engine which sits in the back of the Silver Arrows. Granted they don’t have the same budget as the German squad, but they do race to the same rules and regulations, therefore are awarded an equal opportunity to create, design, innovate and perform. At least at the outset, before the in-season development craze takes hold.
Engine parity among F1 manufacturers is an illusion, or a fantasy, promoted by losers to undermine the merits of the winner. Get over it Helmut, and tell Renault – and Honda – to work harder!
Phillip van Osten
Editor of F1i.com |
