Fresh approach for Lewis Hamilton as Ferrari throws down the challenge

The new F1 season got off to a promising start with a tense battle between Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel, which was resolved in Vettel’s favour, after Hamilton called for an early pit stop. Was this a taste of things to come?

There were positive signs from the way the pair raced each other, Vettel asking questions of Hamilton and the Englishman responding as it became clear that the Ferrari was a match for the Mercedes on pace and certainly better on the tyres, which could be a defining detail in this first phase of the championship.

Both men said that they had enjoyed their duel in the opening stint of the race, watching each other closely and probing each other’s weak points.

And there were some interesting signs through the weekend that Hamilton’s approach has changed after the bitter rivalry with Nico Rosberg; his attitude to what happened last year and to where he stands in relation to his team, has evolved.

One obvious example was his line, repeated a few times in interviews over the weekend, that his poor starts in several key races had cost him the championship last year. He did not mention the reliability issues around his engines, which were more of the focal point of blame during last year’s running narrative.

This is a more inclusive approach, rather than the ‘me and them’ approach he took last season. He has clearly gone away and had a good look at himself over the winter and there is more of a lightness about him this year.

It is what was called for; with Rosberg off the scene and a new team mate in Valtteri Bottas, Hamilton has had a reset in his relationship with Mercedes and also appears to have taken more responsibility. This can only be a positive for his hopes of regaining the world championship. With a strong adversary in Vettel and Ferrari, Lewis and the team need to be pulling 100% in the same direction.

Instead of an inward looking battle, as this has been for the last three seasons, this looks set to be an outward looking battle, against an experienced and motivated rival in Vettel and Ferrari and possibly the Red Bull drivers, if they stabilise their car soon.

Another change was Hamilton’s attitude in defeat. After the race he was light and upbeat, dished out compliments to Vettel and took full responsibility for the call to pit early, as he felt the tyres had gone off the boil. By pitting early without the ideal gap between cars to drop back into, his race was compromised. He soon came up behind Raikkonen and Verstappen, and couldn’t pass. He lost the victory to Vettel.

What everyone wants to see, including the two drivers themselves, is wheel to wheel racing between Hamilton and Vettel. The question is whether the new generation cars will make it harder to have such battles, as the cars behind are even more disturbed by the dirty air from the car in front than before. Bottas said that on this Melbourne track you need a pace advantage over the other car of over two seconds to be able to pass, more than last year.

Many commentators have inevitably jumped on the lack of overtaking in this opening race to criticize the sport for another botched set of rule changes.

Of course it would be ideal for F1 cars to be able to pass each other at every circuit they visit, but the reality is that Melbourne has always been a bit of an outlier of a circuit in the F1 calendar. A great place to start the season from the point of view of the scale, spectacle, colour and atmosphere, but not a race you can draw too many conclusions from about the season ahead.

It will be harder to overtake generally this season, but there will be plenty of tracks where overtaking will happen and we should probably wait until after China and Bahrain before drawing too many judgments.

The influence on the overtaking of the tyres going off is reduced this year, although again Melbourne is not a typical circuit as it takes little out of the tyres, compared to tracks with higher corner speeds and higher energy.

All of this is to say that Vettel and Hamilton have closely matched cars - with Mercedes still a sniff ahead in qualifying, but Ferrari ahead in races with better tyre performance – and so we are in for a good season.

What we have yet to see is the character of those races. Hamilton is the more sure footed in wheel to wheel action, Vettel can lock out races very effectively once he gets control at the front and is better at matching the pace to the tyres thus avoiding situations such as Hamilton experienced yesterday where he was questioning the tyres and made a decision to act, perhaps prematurely.

Although it’s harder to see into the machinations at Ferrari, Vettel has clearly overcome the stand-off with Maurizio Arrivabene over his comments that Vettel should just get on with driving the car and not try to manage aspects of the team.

It is impressive how Ferrari has turned it around both technically and at a managerial level since last year. The question is whether they can keep it going all year.

Red Bull are not in the battle yet as they have suffered from having to adapt their suspension after behind the scenes wrangles over legality during the winter. They will develop and come back, without doubt as they were not that far off in the end with Verstappen after a difficult weekend of adapting the car.

What did you make of the fight and the front during the Australian Grand Prix? Leave your thoughts in the comment section below or head over to the JA on F1 Facebook page for more discussion.