Mercedes AMG Petronas kicks off the 2015 season in style with a 1-2 finish at the Australian Grand Prix. Lewis Hamilton took his 34th career victory at Albert Park - his second in Australia and 13th for the Silver Arrows. Nico Rosberg took second position after a race-long chase, finishing just 1.3 seconds shy of his team-mate. The result marks the 30th Formula One victory for the Silver Arrows. Both drivers ran a one stop strategy, pitting for prime tyres on lap 25 (Lewis) and 26 (Nico).
Toto Wolff: We never expected a performance like this today. Winning in Formula One is never easy and never something you can take for granted. But today, the car and the drivers were faultless, so we must congratulate them and the team here on the track and back in the factories. Lewis got everything 100% right today - he grabbed every opportunity and drove a perfect race. Nico was right on his heels but never quite able to get close enough to really attack. Clearly, we have a great car and engine; we have made some good steps over the winter and done our homework right. But Ferrari have bounced back strongly, too, and it's good to have them back in the game - they have everything they need and they will be coming closer. Now we have to head home and focus on Malaysia.
Paddy Lowe: A terrific result and a great way to kick off the 2015 championship. It's particularly satisfying to get both cars home at the first race of the season, where reliability is always a key focus, and to do so with such a strong performance is a great achievement. All credit to the teams back at the factories for building a car that appears to be both quick and reliable. Hopefully this race will be a good indicator of what's to come throughout the year. Congratulations also to both Lewis and Nico, who drove faultlessly throughout the race. We now look forward to a very different challenge at the first of our home Grands Prix in the heat and humidity of Malaysia.
Christian Horner, Team Principal: "A frustrating grand prix for us. It was disappointing to lose Daniil before the race started with a gearbox problem. Daniel did everything he could with the tools that he had. It unfortunately demonstrates that there's a quite a lot of ground to make up, so sixth place was the best we could manage on a rather difficult day."
Thierry Salvi, Renault: "A very hard first race for the team. From the opening session of the weekend we've faced a number of issues, and for sure are not where we wanted to be in reliability and performance. This has cost lap time and points. The mapping and software need to be looked at in detail to give better driveability in the coming races. We've got to be realistic about what we can achieve but we can definitely move forward from what's been a frustrating weekend overall. We are as disappointed as anyone but also resolved to fix these issues in Malaysia."
Felipe Massa finished fourth in today's Australian Grand Prix. Starting in third and opting for a one-stop strategy, Felipe lost a place to the Ferrari of Vettel after being jumped at the first pitstop, but after that showed consistent pace to bring the car home with 12 points to start the 2015 season.
Valtteri Bottas was unable to race following a lower back injury sustained during qualifying. Following an evaluation by the FIA's medical team and following a series of tests the FIA Medical Delegate deemed him unfit to take part in today's race.
Rob Smedley, Head of Performance Engineering: It's always difficult to compete with only 50% of your armoury with Valtteri having to miss the race, so today was about damage limitation in the Constructors' Championship and we have managed to come away only a few points behind Ferrari which is a decent result. The team worked very well as a unit all weekend; the pitstop was good and so was the work on the pitwall. We made a decision to pit early because Vettel was a bit quicker behind us, but unfortunately this didn't pay off for us. We are in a really competitive battle with the teams around us so this race is a marker for the rest of the season. We need to continue improving the car and getting maximum performance from what is a strong package.
Maurizio Arrivabene: "I'm only half happy today, because the real joy comes when you win. I am happy about the podium and for Seb, but above all I am pleased for the team, because this is a good starting point, although it's definitely not the end of the road. I am sorry for Kimi, because everyone could see how strong he was in the race. But at the second pit stop, there was a problem with a wheelnut on which the threads had already been crossed during the first one. We realised there was a possible problem and we decided to stop the car immediately, because safety is the number one priority. Looking to Malaysia, we will keep our feet on the ground, because the Albert Park is a rather unusual track. If the second Williams had also been racing today, there would have been a clearer picture of the opposition we face. But now we have realised we can do well, we must begin to stop thinking about being "second best" and start aiming higher."
Eric Boullier, Racing director: "After a tremendously difficult weekend, it's not easy to find positives, but in fact there are some. First and foremost, we're pleased that Jenson's car was able to finish the race. He drove extremely well, keeping Checo behind him very adroitly for many laps, and garnering us a great deal of useful data in completing 56 laps.
"Having said that, he was lapped not once but twice by the race winner, Lewis [Hamilton], and we know we have a mountain to climb as far as performance is concerned. Nonetheless, our corner speeds were pretty decent, and there's definitely untapped potential in MP4-30 that both Honda and ourselves can unlock.
"As for Kevin, he was very unlucky to have his race ended by an as-yet-unspecified power unit glitch before it had even begun.
"Last but very far from least, I want to thank and pay tribute to our mechanics, who've worked hard, day after day. They're unsung heroes, every one of them, which is why I want to take this opportunity to sing their praises in no uncertain terms.
"In two weeks' time we'll be racing in Sepang [Malaysia], where the weather is bound to be extremely hot and humid. I'm not going to be rash enough to predict a form upswing in so short a time frame, but we'll be working flat-out between now and then to make performance and reliability gains in any and every way we can, of that you may be 100 per cent certain."
Yasuhisa Arai, Honda R&D senior managing officer - chief officer of motorsport: "The fact that Jenson was able to finish the race was a significant step forward for the whole team. Equally, today's performance clearly displays the task that lies ahead of us to reach our objectives of achieving full competitiveness.
"This was an important race for Kevin, and we feel deeply for him. It's a great pity that we weren't able to provide him with a driveable power unit for the race. We still need to fully investigate the source of Kevin's problem, and we won't be able to look into it until the car comes back to us and we're able to take off the engine cover.
"We now turn our attention to Malaysia - racing in such a hot and humid environment will not be easy, and our main objectives will be to tackle heat-mapping and taking a step forward with a more competitive data setting."
Sahara Force India scored seven points in today's season-opening Australian Grand Prix with Nico Hulkenberg racing to seventh place and Sergio Perez picking up the final point in tenth.
Vijay Mallya, Team Principal and Managing Director: "A double points finish is a positive way to start the season and a reward for all the hard work everyone in the team produced over the winter. In a race with high attrition, we made the most of the reliability of the VJM08, which at the moment is one of our strengths. Nico completed an excellent race, without putting a wheel wrong from lights to flag; he looked in control and we were never in doubt he would score well today. Sergio had an eventful race, recovering from contact and a spin early on: he made the most of his ability to manage the tyres with a very long stint and was able to score a point. Unfortunately, Sergio had to relinquish the positions he made at the start, otherwise he would have been very close to Nico. Still, it is always good to start a season with two cars in the points and we can leave Melbourne feeling positive."
Phil Charles (Chief Race Engineer): "It's been a very frustrating day for us today as we know we could have done much better. What could have been quite a good day has been unfortunately let down by a few problems on the team side which have cost us quite dearly. With Carlos, a software setting issue after the safety car cost him two places; a problematic wheel related pit-stop made him lose a considerable amount of time, and some other software and setting problems also compromised him when defending against the Sauber at the end of the race. So for him it was definitely far from a clean race but he still managed to score points, which has to be considered a positive factor. As for Max, it's a very disappointing day, as the strategy that he was on, starting on the prime tyre, meant that he would have most likely finished in the points. With all the issues we have had, we've given away what could have been a very positive day and it's a shame that both drivers haven't finished the race with the good point scores that they deserve. We know what we have to improve and in which direction we have to work in order to try and avoid that a day like this happens again."
Cedrik Staudohar (Renault Sport F1 track support leader): "We brought some updates to Australia to improve driveability and performance and some have worked. It has however been hidden by other issues. We've worked hard all weekend to improve, especially in driveability, to deliver something more consistent for the drivers. We moved forward in qualifying and the race and finished the race in the points with Carlos, even with a delayed pit-stop. For Max, we had to retire due to a problem with the ICE that will be investigated and fixed for next race. We are not where we would have hoped and obviously need to improve further for the next races; we will analyse everything closely and come back stronger in Malaysia."
The cruel hand of fate dealt a bitter blow for Lotus F1 Team at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix with both cars out of the race by the end of the first lap. Pastor Maldonado was pitched into a spin from behind, resulting in his car hitting the barriers, whilst Romain Grosjean suffered from a loss of power, and retired at the end of the first lap.
Romain started from P8 on the grid on his qualifying soft tyres, but suffered from an immediate loss of power, retiring at the end of the first lap. Pastor from P9 on the grid on his qualifying soft tyres, before being pitched into a spin and ending his race in the tyre barriers after the exit of turn 1.
Federico Gastaldi, Deputy Team Principal: "What a frustrating day! Pastor's race ended through no fault of his own and Romain's race was over at the end of the first lap too. This is not the way any team wants to start the season and there were a few choice words in the garage when we realised our race was over so soon. It was particularly frustrating as we had great potential to deliver very strong results today. The team is not downcast, however, and we have a lot of enthusiasm for the races ahead as we've seen what is possible from the season ahead. The whole vibe of the team is tremendously positive."
Nick Chester, Technical Director: "A very short race for us to end a weekend full of promise. Pastor was an innocent victim whilst Romain suffered from a loss of power which we are investigating. We ran very reliably in pre-season testing, but sometimes certain issues don't manifest themselves until the season starts. Everyone back in Enstone will get to the root of the issue and we'll come back fighting in Malaysia. Fortunately today was one race in twenty and we've demonstrated over the course of the weekend that the E23 Hybrid has tremendous potential. We can't wait to exploit this potential once we get to Sepang."
Fantastic start by the Sauber F1 Team into the new season: In the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne Felipe Nasr finished fifth, while his teammate Marcus Ericsson scrambled for eighth place. This result brought the team a total of 14 championship points.
Monisha Kaltenborn, Team Principal: "That was a great achievement by the whole team. We already saw during qualifying that we are competitive, but being able to achieve these positions by our own efforts is a bit of a surprise. It is a confirmation of our hard work and a great reward for the team that had to deal with unfavourable circumstances. This applies to the crew in Hinwil as well as to the team at the race track. It was an outstanding achievement which we have to be proud of. Obviously, I am very happy about our two drivers who both put in a great performance, and in the end they made this great result possible for us."
Giampaolo Dall'Ara, Head of Track Engineering: "It was definitely a great Sunday with a great result. We had a pretty troublefree race. With Felipe we stuck to the original strategy we had planned for him. I have to say that he did an excellent job making up places and keeping Daniel Ricciardo behind him. He drove a fantastic race all the way. Reaching P5 in his first Formula One race was an outstanding achievement. Marcus had to start from further behind and was on the medium tyres. Nevertheless he managed to make up a couple of places on lap one. Then we decided to bring him in during the safety car period and put him on the soft tyres to give him a boost. We gave up a couple of positions, which he was able to recover quickly. At some point we had to make the decision whether to leave him out or to go more aggressively and stop again. We went for the second option and asked him to push to the maximum. He did a very good job and was able to overtake Carlos Sainz Jr. and clinch eighth position. Everybody in the team did a fantastic job and I'm really happy about what we delivered today."
Reigning champion Lewis Hamilton made a perfect start to his title defence by beating his Mercedes team mate Nico Rosberg to record his second win in Australia and the 34th of his career. Both Mercedes drivers stopped once, starting on the soft tyre and then switching to the medium tyres on laps 25 and 26 respectively.
Hamilton started from pole position, having now converted his last seven pole positions into race victories, while Sebastian Vettel scored a podium on his Ferrari debut - also stopping once on lap 24 after starting on the soft tyre. The performance gains seen in Australia confirmed expectations for the 2015 season, for which Pirelli has developed a new rear tyre construction.
With wear and degradation extremely contained on the smooth Melbourne circuit, despite lap times that were in the region of two seconds faster than last year, most drivers adopted a one-stop strategy. This was prompted by an early safety car period that extended the length of the first stint, by minimising the energy going through the tyres, when the cars are at their heaviest.
Some drivers attempted a two-stop strategy, with the highest-placed two-stopper being Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson, who claimed eighth place in the closing stages. Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen was running close to the front on a two-stop strategy (which is theoretically about four seconds faster than a one-stop) before retiring from the race close to the finish.
Temperatures were cool (in the region of 20 degrees centigrade) with overcast conditions for the Australian Grand Prix, further extending tyre life and allowing the leaders to run within two seconds of each other for the majority of the race.
Paul Hembery: "As expected Australia was a tough race for the teams, but the tyres delivered everything that was asked. The cool conditions and early safety car period meant that the faster two-stop strategy turned into a one-stop for most of the competitors. As well as a top performance from the established frontrunners, we saw some extremely accomplished drives from the rookies this year, who have clearly got on top of the 2015 tyres and strategy options in a very short space of time."
Truth-O-Meter
We predicted a two-stopper as being the fastest strategy for the 58-lap race, but the early safety car period meant that most drivers converted to a one-stopper. We predicted the optimal time to change from soft to medium in this case as being lap 34. Hamilton made his sole pit stop on lap 24, able to benefit from the extra durability of the medium without compromising performance.
