Seabastian Vettel, more like sailed away in the distance while Lewis Hamilton held together a crumbling car and a steely Vitaly Petrov brought up the rear ahead of the rest of the field, on Sunday. Alonso and Webber mystified one another with varying tyre strategies while Button and Massa fought it out with Jenson receiving a drive-thru penalty and 6th place for his troubles and Felipe sliding down the order to 9th with one tyre stop too many. Rooking Perez finished 7th in the points for Sauber ahead of his team-mate Kobayashi, while Schumacher and Rosberg were both punted out and their cars damaged. The other Seb Buemi put in a strong drive too and grabbed the last point in 10th ahead of Sutil, Di Resta, Alguersauri, Heidfeld, Trulli and D'Ambrosio.

www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2011/03/27/2011-aust...

A good first outing in 2011 and an enjoyable event. Really looking forward to Malaysia and more performance being extracted from the cars, as only the Red Bull looked hooked up, even without KERS. McLaren had flashes as did Mercedes and Ferrari and who can not notice the Lotus Renault. Nevertheless, Malaysia will challenge the teams in new dimensions and the racing will evolve. Early days, yet DRS and KERS looked pretty solid and useful. Interesting to watch and certainly exciting for the drivers and with plenty of permeatations and application points.

Great job again in Australia, and hopefully, they will continue with the wonderful race they host. Congratulations to Seb Vettel and Red Bull Racing for the commanding win. An ominous sign? And to Vitaly Petrov drive of the day, stepping up in the absence of Robert Kubica. Great morale booster for all around. Good hustle from both Jenson and Lewis, and Michael and Nico, as well. Competitive driver pairings that will spur the competition all year long. Plus, the cars sound great too!! To more excitement upcoming in Malaysia. Bring on the heat!!

Indeed, thank you denny, and to all then. Well, Bahrain, what can we say? We'll see. Off to Oz for the opener instead. So, goes the lucky seven over to the nine, and who drives car nine, eek, Robert Kubica, well did, and now Nick Heidlfeld -- and who both had strong moments in testing. As did Rubes, Vettel, Massa and Schumi too. As well the Pirelli tyres are clearly different from the Bridgestone's and there is also a definite engineering challenge at adapting and maximizing the characterstics of the tyre. 

That's quite a lot to figure before adding the moveable rear wing, FIA prescribed usage zones, the return of KERS, and almost maybe more races then ever in a season, all promising to make F1 2011, the Year of the Ultimate Multi-Tasker.

Which also, in purely unscientific terms throws all past certainty to the stars and the lucky shining brightly dimming cosmos of it all. Favouring the veterans would seem natural especially multi-pitstop legends, Reubens and Schumacher. Massa as well, as we have seen, who is very fast and "coachable" by his engineer Rob Smedley. Not to mention, long-run specialista Jenson Button and even Adrian Sutil. (???)

As well, dark horse fave Nick Heidfeld sitting in for Robert Kubica. LRGP may have something with their blown floor, a la Brawn in 2009, and could bag a bunch of points before anyone can make any significant improvements to their own rides.

Fact is, all teams are in the same predicament, due to the flyaway races at the start of the season before returning back home to Europe. Another test session slotted in before Australia will help everyone get their package just right for Melbourne.

Then it will be time to see what it all really means when it matters most. Until then, who do you think is going to be a contender this year for race wins and the title?

Look forward to your thoughts and feedback.

F1 2011 is going to be interesting, without doubt.

Stars of F1 with video message to Robert Kubica: www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2011/3/1...