I think the Australian GP was a welcome start to the Formula One season. The qualifying format has changed now and the pole position goes to the driver with the lowest aggregate times from Saturday and Sunday. This move makes it more interesting to follow the qualifying portions, and also makes it possible for lesser known teams and drivers to bubble up the order.

Narain Karthikeyan was average, but considering that it was his first F-1 race ever, I think he did well to finish the race. I was telling someone, if he has less than 5 DNF’s this season, he will be good. Hopefully he’ll do better than just finishing a race. Maybe he’ll get some points.

I love this Renault team. I have said before the season began and even last season, that Renault is well-placed. They had some bad engine failures at critical points last season, otherwise they would have done better overall. They shouldn’t have dropped Trulli, but in any case, Fisichella is not a bad substitute. I used to like Fisichella from his Benetton days. And Fisi/Alonso is a good combination. I feel Toyotas are going to do well this year too, with Ralf and Trulli.

As for Schumey, well, sad. He did not get out early and that was a tactical mistake of the Ferrari team, on Saturday. As a result his first time was pathetic. Nothing he could do on Sunday to make it better. Plus, dammit Heidfeld. He bumped into Schumey and caused failure on his car. Smart move on Ferrari’s part to not finish the race, because as the commentators were saying, now they are allowed to change the engine because he went more than 50% of the race and did not compelete it. In all other circumstances, teams are not allowed to change engines for 2 races in a row!

Anyway, I think the rule changes (tires cannot be changed for an entire race weekend) are going to make this year’s championship difficult and even though we may not see a true 2 or 3 driver-rivalry, it will at least make the season less monotonous.

Cheers to that!