F1 2012 — A Retrospective Part 2: Australia
Qualifying
The season opener threw up the first surprise of the year. After dominating the front row in 2011, Red Bull only qualified as high up as fifth and sixth. Significantly, Mark Webber, at his home Grand Prix, was quicker than the 2010 & 2011 champion Sebastian Vettel. This was a feat he managed only three times in the previous year.
But more importantly, it was the McLarens of Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button that secured a front-row lockout. Hamilton was only one tenth quicker than his teammate, but was eight tenths quicker than Vettel.
The McLarens seemingly delivered on their pre-season pace. This laid down the marker that the British team wouldn’t go down without a fight if Red Bull were to retain their crown.
Lotus-Renault and Mercedes both showed that they too have the pace to keep up with last year’s champions. Romain Grosjean qualified a career high third place and Michael Schumacher completed the second row of the grid.
Grosjean’s teammate Kimi Raikkonen struggled to put a lap together and was knocked out in the first round of qualifying, finishing 18th. Meanwhile, Nico Rosberg in the other Mercedes qualified in seventh.
Pastor Maldonado (Williams), Nico Hulkenberg (Force India) and Daniel Ricciardo (Toro Rosso) rounded out the top 10 places.
Ferrari’s pre-season woes came to a head as Fernando Alonso qualified 12th after having to retire from round two when he spun his car into the gravel at Turn One. Felipe Massa could only manage 16th in the other Scuderia. A disappointing session that confirmed just how off the pace they were from their rivals. A championship battle looked very far away.
Following qualifying, Red Bull and Lotus both approached the race stewards with the claim that the front wing on the Mercedes was illegal and requested a review of the car. This came just two days after the FIA deemed their rear wing concept to be legal. The claim would later be rejected by the FIA at a later date.
Pre-Race
In the moments before lights out, Sky Sports’ Martin Brundle claimed that up to a dozen drivers are in with a chance at snagging a podium. There were only five DRS zone overtakes in 2011, but more were expected in the lead up to 2012’s race due to the addition of a second DRS zone after the first corner.
Red Bull were confident that they had better race pace to fight with the McLarens. Brundle also highlighted Kamui Kobayashi in the Sauber, who missed out on Q3 due to a mistake on his final run but looked pacey.
David “Crofty” Croft also teed up the race quite nicely. This was a big moment in his broadcasting career as it was the first time he led Sky’s new coverage of F1 following on from their deal to share the rights with the BBC for the 2012 season. He previously covered F1 for BBC radio, and this was his chance to commentate on the sport for TV.
“Drivers out of position, Red Bull thinking that they’ve got better race pace, Jenson Button a man who nurses his tyres, Lewis Hamilton a man who goes out for all aggression, the two McLarens out in front. And it’s difficult to pick which story to follow and who is going to create the most drama,” said Croft in his pre-race monologue.
As the drivers took off on the formation lap, Sky showed interview clips over the footage which really stood out because this was not something the BBC were doing at the time but it’s also something Sky themselves aren’t doing now.
Because the archive of the race that I watched only began only moments before the formation lap started, this was actually a much needed bit of context to hear what the front running drivers made of the opening weekend up to that point. It’s curious why this is no longer done, and when it was that they stopped doing this and why.
Either way, those interviews showed a very happy Hamilton. Martin Whitmarsh, the McLaren team principal, was also shown saying that his two drivers will be allowed to fight each other, so no team orders at McLaren this season which is always good news.
“It is not the easiest car I drove, for sure, but it is something that we are working with. We are trying to improve the car, to be happier with the car, the handling of the car and also the speed of the car,” said Alonso. Was there anything right with this Ferrari at all?
Jean-Eric Verge (Toro Rosso), Vitaly Petrov (Caterham) and Sergio Perez (Sauber) all started on the medium tyres with everyone else starting on the soft compound, they were 11th, 19th and 22nd on the grid respectively.
For 2012, there were only two race tyres available at any given weekend, as opposed to the three that we now see in F1. And while there were 24 cars in qualifying, only 22 started the race as the HRTs were not permitted entry for falling foul of the 107% rule — that rule stating that you must qualify within 107% of the fastest time to be allowed automatic entry into the race.
Race
It’s our first “lights out and away they go” of the season and it was Button who made the most of the run into the first corner. He got ahead of Hamilton due to the pole sitter suffering from wheel spin in the second phase of the start.
Grosjean slipped down from third to sixth on the opening lap, behind Maldonado, with Schumacher, Rosberg and Vettel all jumping the Frenchman.
“Probably, for me, we’ve got now the five fastest cars in the race are in the top five,” said Brundle at the end of an exciting opening lap.
The other significant winner of the start was Alonso, who overtook four cars to move from 12th place into eighth by the end of lap one. Webber being one of the biggest losers, he dropped down to ninth in the Red Bull.
On lap two, Vettel moved up into fourth place by overtaking Rosberg on the outside of the run into Turn Ten. “That’s the man they said can’t race!” proclaimed Brundle following the move.
Later in the second lap, Grosjean’s bad start turned into a nightmare start as Maldonado went down the inside of Turn 13 only to clip the Lotus on the way around which left Grosjean stranded in the gravel with suspension damage and thus ending his race.
Alonso was able to take advantage of the contact and passed Maldonado into sixth place.
Looking back on the replays of the opening lap, Brundle’s analysis came to the conclusion that Hamilton “lost traction as he got 20–30m off the line” which caused Button to gain and ultimately pass him into Turn One.
He also claimed that Webber was “very cautious” into the first corner which was why he lost so much ground, and at this point was in seventh place after passing Maldonado. Brundle also put full blame on Maldonado for the incident with Grosjean.
On lap five, Maldonado had another incident — get used to hearing those words — as he ran wide at Turn Seven and Eight which allowed Massa through into eighth place. Perez at this point was right behind the Venezuelan in the final points position in tenth.
Meanwhile, onto lap six, Button stretched his lead on his teammate. The gap being 3.5s at this stage of the race. Further back, Vettel ran wide into Turn One trying to apply pressure onto the Mercedes of Schumacher.
Vettel got away with, however, and kept his fourth place. According to Ted Kravitz in the paddock, Red Bull were confident that Vettel was going to be quick enough to catch and pass Schumacher for third.
But it didn’t matter what Red Bull thought as Schumacher ran wide into Turn One at the start of lap 11, allowing Vettel through into third. Turns out Schumacher had a problem!
His gearbox broke down and he is out of this race from third place. A very unfortunate moment for the seven time world champion who looked to have re-found some of his pace that had been missing in the last two seasons.
On lap 12, Massa became the first of the front running cars to go in for his pit stop. The Ferrari apparently had a problem chewing through the tyres according to Brundle which explained why they were the first car to come in for a fresh set.
Rosberg came in on the next lap, with a train of three cars bearing down on him. Vettel also had gained on Hamilton now that he was in clean air and could push properly.
Over the course of the next few laps, all of the front runners came in for their first stop which meant that they were expecting a three stop strategy for the race. The only drivers not to come in were Perez and Raikkonen who moved into second and third place as a result.
The pit stop phase also allowed Alonso to catch up to Vettel, the gap down now to within just a couple of seconds. But Vettel is the only one to remain on the soft tyre, with everyone else choosing to do their second stint on the mediums.
Raikkonen came in on lap 20, but Hamilton was being held up by Perez. Being stuck behind the Mexican cost Hamilton dearly, the gap to Button at this stage jumped up to 8s.
It wasn’t until lap 21 that Hamilton eventually overtook Perez, and by lap 23 most of the front runners had all got by the Sauber. Perez came in on lap 25.
The second stint didn’t bring as much action as the first, but there was a three-way tussle between Massa, Kobayashi and Raikkonen for eighth. On lap 27, Massa was passed by both to drop into 10th place.
Two laps later, he once again was the first of the front runners to head into the pit lane for his second stop of the race. Meanwhile, his teammate opened up the gap to Rosberg and Webber by 3.7s as they all turned into the pits over the next few laps.
Most notably, on lap 37, McLaren double stacked their two cars in the pits. This coincided with one of the Caterham cars breaking down on the main straight, which brought out the first safety car (SC) of the season.
Because Vettel had yet to stop, he gained time by pitting under the SC which allowed him to pass Hamilton into second place. The same was true of Webber, who gained on Rosberg and Alonso to move into fourth place.
While waiting for the SC to come in, another new rule for the season got its first run out. Lapped cars were allowed to overtake the SC and un-lap themselves. Brundle declared himself not a fan of this rule, as he considered it to be time-wasting. He wanted the show to get back on the road as quickly as possible.
The SC came in on lap 41, Button got a good run out of the first straight on what was a pretty tame restart.
Button went on to extend his lead on the front and held an unassailable advantage over Vettel and Hamilton to win the first Grand Prix of the season! Webber brought the car home in fourth, with Alonso fending off Maldonado for fifth.
Hang on, Maldondo crashed on the final lap! This put him out of the race from sixth position. It was a chaotic final lap that saw four cars on a drag race to the finish for the last available points.
Rosberg suffered an issue right at the end and finished out of the top ten.
The broadcast struggled to keep up with the ending there, such was the chaos. Brundle said he’d never seen someone crash into the wall that Maldonado hit.
Paul Di Resta went from 13th to 10th on that final lap to get the final points position. Perez lost seventh due to being tagged by a slowing down Rosberg that left both cars worse off, which allowed Raikkonen through.
The final standings were as follows:
“This car is beautiful and she’s quick,” said a jubilant Button on the post-race radio.
This was his third win in Australia and it was a victory that his performance deserved. The McLaren looked quick and competitive at Albert Park, setting up a tight battle with Red Bull for the coming races.
Post-race
We have to wait for the post-race press conference to hear from the drivers. This was the traditional method up until very recently. Interestingly, they switched to interviewing them on the podium after the anthems at some stage before then immediately interviewing the top three once they got out of the car. It shows how far post-race coverage has come in the Sky Sports era.
Button was obviously very happy with the victory, he mimicked Vettel’s notorious “index finger” celebration that Button claimed he was sick of seeing in 2011.
Vettel said in his post-race interview that he thought they would have passed Hamilton regardless of the SC, but said that Button was “unbeatable today”.
“There are plenty of races ahead so just have to keep my head down,” was the assessment of Hamilton’s race as he dropped from first to third over the course of 58 laps.
Outside of the top three, the Ferrari of Alonso was optimistic following a decent amount of points considering the difficulties they faced with the car.
“Obviously it was a tough race for us, some good battles. We had a good start so we recovered some positions and after yesterday’s qualifying to be fifth is a pretty good result in terms of points,” reflected Alonso.
“But our priority is to improve the car. Today we fight with the Williams and not at the top, so to improve our position in the next race will be our goal.”
Driver in Focus
(This is a section where I will focus on one aspect of the race, whether it be a driver, an overtake, a strategy decision, etc. Basically, it’s my personal version of picking a moment of the day.)
Sebastian Vettel should be happiest with this weekend. His overtaking maneuver on Rosberg on lap two was the highlight of the race. The entirety of the 2011 season was built on the narrative that Vettel was only good at qualifying first and coasting off in the quickest car for the race.
Here, Vettel showed those people that he was more than capable of mixing it up with the rest of the chasing pack. The Mercedes itself showed great race pace and Webber struggled to overtake Rosberg on track, needing the advantage of a SC timing to get ahead.
“That’s the man they said can’t race in Formula One, Sebastian Vettel, he can only win from the front! I don’t think so, that’s amazing!” was Brundle’s reaction to the pass. He later reflected on it saying it was “one of the best moves I’ve seen in a long time.”
Brundle’s enthusiasm was funny considering he was a part of the naysayers who doubted Vettel’s overtaking ability. When he claims “they” said it, he suddenly disassociated from his own mind because he was a part of the media that peddled that narrative.
In the years since, Vettel has proven time and again his quality as a driver but even now at the end of 2020, there are still people out there who question his talent. Considering the success he has had over the course of his career thus far it is weird to see him still be doubted. It remains to be seen how he will do at Aston Martin, but overtakes like this show his worth to any team.
Race Verdict
The race as a whole was enjoyable, there were battles across the track and a lot of very good performances from various drivers. A lot of the teams showed good pace, Button was clearly supreme. Once he got out in front he controlled the race from there and his victory never looked in doubt.
Hamilton dropping from first to third was quite interesting, given the state of the sport now and his level of dominance, it’s almost alien to see him struggle to keep up with his teammate like this.
Alonso, Raikkonen and Perez all had great drives too. Alonso had a level of control with the car that Massa simply didn’t, and the gap between them was telling. Raikkonen and Perez showed their skills at tyre management and also showed just how valuable that skill was at the time.
It was disappointing to see Schumacher break down in third place, the Mercedes was definitely an improvement on last year and he was holding his own, keeping Vettel behind him. It’s unclear whether he had the pace to hold on, he probably would have lost out to the Red Bull, but a very good fourth or fifth place was almost certainly left on the table regardless.
Result: 4/5
Next up: MALAYSIA
Author’s Note: This ended up being way way longer than I thought it would be, but I hope you enjoyed it nonetheless! If you did, or even if you didn’t, please share it with the F1 fan in your life, or just anyone really!
If you haven’t already, please follow for more as this series continues. My plan will now have to slightly change considering the length that these are ending up.
So, from next Tuesday onwards both newsletters will be of one race each, instead of two races every Friday. But don’t fear, Malaysia will still go up later today as planned.
This allows me to go in-depth on the topic in a way that should be fun to read and informative without having to think about removing some of the intriguing subplots that pop up during this series.
Previous parts can be found here:
