Formula One World Championship

ROUND 1 - australia

A NEW POWER IN FORMULA 1?
The Formula One World Championship kicked off Sunday, March 8 in Australia, and those, including myself, who were predicting the McLaren/Mercedes-Benz team to be the favourites for the season, were right on, as the pair of Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard toyed with the rest of the field to finish one-two, in the first victory for Bridgestone tires.

There was much uncertainty heading into this F1 season, as new regulations seeking to slow the cars down in the cause of safety resulted in their having to run with grooved tires for the first time in decades, and with a narrower track, the lateral distance between the tires.

In the end, the quickest lap at Melbourne was only about one second slower than the quickest one last year, hardly a big improvement in terms of safety, nor worth the enormous cost of teams having to develop mostly all-new cars. The television commentators were convinced that the cars were more entertaining to watch, but not that you could see on the tube.

There were other questions, too. With Goodyear having announced their intention to withdraw at the end of the season, partly in response to their being forced to develop the grooved tires, will they persevere with the development work needed to compete with newcomers Bridgestone?

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PHOTO: COURTESY MERCEDES-BENZ

And with the dominant Renault engines now being campaigned with considerably less budget by the independent company Mecachrome, will they be able to keep up with the likes of Mercedes-Benz, Ferrari and Peugeot?

The answers to these questions were partly answered in Australia, as World Champion Jacques Villeneuve, his Williams-Mecachrome equipped with Goodyears, was never in contention, being lapped on his way to fifth place. The good news for him was that his bitter rival Michael Schumacher’s Ferrari blew up early in the race.

It wouldn’t be Formula One without politics and controversy, and the officials were howling over the agreement within the McLaren team that stated that whoever led into the first turn would win the race, if both cars ran away with the race, as did happen. Thing is, Hakkinen led that first corner, but Coulthard led the race in the late stages.

The Scotsman moved over, and the Finn passed him and "won" the race. A pre-arranged finish is not exactly what most people want to see on the track. Nor, as it turned out, did the FIA, who took a stern view of the proceedings.

In any case, one race does not make a season, but the McLaren duo have certainly established themselves as the team to beat in ‘98.