A Commanding 2015 Formula 1 Debut Win for Hamilton and Mercedes in Australia

Photo Credit: Mercedes AMG

It has come to the time of the year where the competitors of the world's premier open wheel racing tour have begun lining up for the five red lights on race track starting grids. In a globe-trotting series involving visits to many exciting locales, the 20-race 2015 Formula 1 calendar opens in Australia on the Albert Park. A race track known with a reputation for punishing race cars, the brand-new machines of 2015 are subjected to a baptism by fire. Historically, cars and teams that have survived the opening Australian Grand Prix best would move on to enjoy a solid season.

The returning constructors' champion for 2014 that totaled to win 16 of 19 grand prix events, the early speed of Mercedes AMG was a scary sight for other teams who had been working to close in on the juggernaut of last season. Pole qualifying only added to the worries of everyone intent to catch Mercedes AMG's latest W06 Hybrid race car as defending World Drivers' Champion Lewis Hamilton convincingly took the Australian Grand Prix top spot. Beside Hamilton, Nico Rosberg insured the first race would have a full Mercedes AMG front row. 

A series of bizarre occurrences led to a multitude of withdrawals before the 58-lap race even started. The first incident involved the Manor Marussia team on Saturday. Neither one of the team cars driven by Roberto Merhi or Will Stevens completed a single lap in qualifying leading to the exclusion of the Manor Marussia organization. Further actions against the team from the Formula 1 sanctioning body is possible.

Facing a 18-car field within hours of the Australian Grand Prix start, Williams Martini Racing driver Valtteri Bottas was forced to withdraw from the race. Bottas suffered back pain that required medical attention following Saturday's qualifying. On Sunday, Bottas was ruled unfit to drive by the Formula 1 medical team. Respecting the decision, the sole Williams-Mercedes starting the season opener was the #19 car of Felipe Massa.

Photo Credit: Pirelli Photo Service

The Formula 1 field dropped to 16 starters when vehicles assembled on the grid Albert Park. Kevin Magnussen driving a McLaren-Honda race car in substitute for the injured Fernando Alonso suffered a terminal failure minutes before the formation lap as smoke bellowed from his vehicle. With the 2015 season marking the latest return for Honda to Formula 1, Magnussen's early retirement was not the sight the Japanese auto company was hoping to see in the opening race. The combined incidents of participants dropping out of the 2015 Australian Grand Prix resulted in one of the smallest Formula 1 starting grids since the 2005 United States Grand Prix when all but six cars drove the garage following the race's formation lap. Another mechanical problem cost Daniil Kyvat his first race start with Red Bull Racing when a gearbox problem caused him to lose power.

With only 15 cars set on the grid, the first start of the 2015 Formula 1 season would farther thin-out the vehicle count. While the Mercedes AMG cars of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg launched away from the field immediately as the first turn approached, action behind them resulted in the early retirement of the Lotus-Mercedes cars. Suffering a depletion of power on the formation lap, Romain Grosjean's Lotus E23 Hybrid abruptly fall down the running order. Grosjean retired after completing just one lap. The second Lotus F1 Team car of Pastor Maldonado had an even shorter Australian Grand Prix. In a chain reaction incident starting with the two Ferraris touching either other on the hustle into turn one on the first lap, the end result was Maldonado being tagged by one of the Saubers and colliding with a wall. Despite promise both Lotus-Mercedes cars ended the first race of the season at the back. Maldonado's crashed car and the debris related to the accident led to a safety car period.

At the end of lap three, the safety car returned to the paddock allowing the Mercedes AMG cars to resume their flight away from the rest of the Formula 1 field. Among the Silver Arrows, it was Hamilton that immediately pulled away from his teammate Rosberg. As the Mercedes AMG team were in a league of their own, the remaining competitors fought for the point-paying 3rd to 10th place positions. Due to only 13 cars left running after the safety car, the chances of scoring championship points was in their favour.

As the race transpired through 58 laps, most teams elected for a one pit stop strategy occurring between lap 21 and lap 27. Maybe the result of early season jitters, there were a few mistakes made in belting on new Pirelli tires. The Ferrari team struggled to attach a new left-rear wheel to the car of Kimi Raikkonen costing the Finnish driver several seconds on the track. On lap 40, the problem appeared to have been repeated and ultimately ended with Raikkonen retiring his Ferrari race car in turn five for the following lap.

Photo Credit: Ferrari S.p.A.

A similar problem also occurred with the Toro Rosso car driven by Carlos Sainz Jr. Sainz rejoined the race in 12th place after entering the pits in the top-10. Several laps after the pit road problems for one car, the other Toro Rosso stopped on track just ahead of the pit entrance. Max Verstappen retired from the race when smoke began to appear from the Toro Rosso-Renault.

Through the late stage of the 2015 Australian Grand Prix, the Mercedes AMG race cars were more than 30 seconds ahead of the third place runner. Crossing the finish line 1.3 seconds ahead of Nico Rosberg, Lewis Hamilton started his world drivers' title defense by winning the debut race of the season. "It’s quite unbelievable, really, what this team has done. It’s a great feeling to start off the season the way we finished the last and the car is just incredible, so thank you to the team." Hamilton also praised his teammate for applying a hard charge throughout the 58-lap grand prix. Last year, the Mercedes AMG team finished 1-2 on 11 occasions.

Photo Credit: Mercedes AMG

With several new drivers with new teams, the Australian Grand Prix consisted of several new relationships finding early success. Driving his first race for the Ferrari team, Sebastian Vettel finished on the podium after passing the Williams-Mercedes of Felipe Massa after mid-race pit stops. Despite Raikkonen's retirement, the new Ferrari SF15-T race car has determined much more performance for 2015 after a lot of struggles last season. The result was Ferrari's first podium since the late-July 2014 Hungarian Grand Prix.

Perhaps the best underdog story of the 2015 Australian Grand Prix was the Sauber F1 Team. Prior to the 2015 season opening race, Sauber was caught up in a legal dispute from 2014 Dutch test driver Giedo van der Garde. The driver filed legal action against the team when he was promised a spot in the 2015 driver line-up. Already committed to Felipe Nasr and Marcus Ericsson, Sauber could have had their plans thrown for a loop as a judge found in favour of van der Garde. However, just in time for the Australian Grand Prix, the Giedo van der Garde dropped his legal challenge allowing the intended driver line-up to remain. After going all of 2014 without scoring any championship points, Sauber placed two drivers in the top-10 for the first race of the 2015 season. Felipe Nasr performed an outstanding Formula 1 driving debut to finish fifth while Ericsson brought his Sauber-Ferrari across the line eighth. The last time two Sauber cars finished in the points was at the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix.

Photo Credit: Sauber Motorsport AG

With the first race of the 2015 Formula 1 season in the books, it's evident many of the challengers to Mercedes AMG have upped their games. However, it's also apparent that the Silver Arrows have potentially realized a new level of mastery in grand prix competition.

Next race for the 2015 Formula 1 tour is the March 29th Grand Prix of Malaysia.

2015 Formula 1

Australian Grand Prix

Race Results

Position #	Car #	Driver	Team	Engine
1	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes AMG	Mercedes-Benz
2	6	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes AMG	Mercedes-Benz
3	5	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	Ferrari
4	19	Felipe Massa	Williams	Mercedes-Benz
5	12	Felipe Nasr	Sauber	Ferrari
6	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	Renault
7	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	Mercedes-Benz
8	9	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	Ferrari
9	55	Carlos Sainz Jr	Scuderia Toro Rosso	Renault
10	11	Sergio Perez	Force India	Mercedes-Benz
11	22	Jenson Button	McLaren	Honda
12	7	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	Ferrari
13	33	Max Verstappen	Scuderia Toro Rosso	Renault
14	13	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus	Mercedes-Benz
15	26	Daniil Kvyat	Red Bull	Renault
16	8	Romain Grosjean	Lotus	Mercedes-Benz
17	20	Kevin Magnussen	McLaren	Honda
18	77	Valtteri Bottas	Williams F1	Renault