A cool man in a hot country: Kimi and his easygoing attitude

Source: motorsport.com

Well, there we have it. The first race of the 2013 Formula 1 season has come and gone. Despite perhaps not being the most epic of races in recent memory, it certainly served to confirm what we have all come to realise: expect the unexpected. Kimi Raikkonen's win didn't exactly come out of nowhere considering the pace the Lotus Renault E21 showed in winter testing, but the likes of Red Bull, Ferrari and even Mercedes had the benefit of qualifying to boost their prospects, with those teams occupying the first three rows on the grid. Red Bull even managed to lock out the front row and did so by a worryingly significant margin, with Sebastian Vettel securing his place at the very front by an eye-watering six tenths (in front of the next non-Red Bull).

In true 2013 fashion, the race did not conform to the order established by qualifying. The Red Bull of Sebastian Vettel bolted off the line and built the customary two-second lead, but came to be hunted down by the Ferraris of Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso and eventually the Lotus of Kimi Raikkonen in the early stages of the race. Raikkonen bailed out and pitted on only lap seven following an even earlier pitstop from Mark Webber, who suffered a horrendous start as a consequence of what appeared to be a failure of the onboard ECU (which interestingly is produced by McLaren Electronics... damage limitation at it's most desperate?). This apparent lack of race pace of the Red Bull was further underlined by the fact that Vettel could not find a way past the Force India of Adrian Sutil for ten laps, who took the lead on lap fifteen having been able to exploit the friendliness with which his car used its tyres. Bearing in mind that Di Resta managed to make his way through the field on a similar (but ultimately better-executed) strategy to Sutil, one could say that it was the inherent ability of the Force India to preserve its tyres very well in conjunction with its astonishing straight-line speed that meant that Vettel couldn't get past. Whilst this may be true, there are more factors at work. Vettel had to react to Webber's pace on lap twenty two-incidentally at the same time as Sutil's first stop-as a consequence of the new mediums that he had acquired on lap nineteen, underlining the fact that the car could not perform on tyres that were more than twelve or thirteen or so laps old. The fact that these were medium tyres is particularly worrying for the team, with Horner blaming the unexpectedly-cool track temperatures causing the tyres to work improperly. Is this cause for concern? Yes. But, if any team can get on top of it quickly, it's Red Bull.

What is more concerning for Red Bull is the superior ability of the Lotus and to a lesser extent the Ferrari to manage their tyres. Kimi Raikkonen was the only one of the front-runners able to pull off a two-stop strategy, with the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg both failing rather spectacularly: the number 10 car wrecked its mediums in a lock-up on lap thirty one following a tussle with the charging Ferrari of Alonso, and Rosberg made an unfortunate exit on lap twenty seven. Having failed to note the fact that their cars couldn't last as long on the super-softs as the Lotus and Ferrari in the first stint, Mercedes mucked-up their strategy-something they'll need to look at by the time the F1 circus arrives in Malaysia. Anyway, back to Lotus/Ferrari. Raikkonen made a storming start from P7 on the grid, pitting on lap ten at the same time as Alonso (whose tyres looked in noticeably worse condition than the Flying Finn's) and continued to go from strength to strength, eventually taking the lead on the twenty-third lap and re-taking it again from the impressive Adrian Sutil ten laps from the end. The constant swapping of leaders up to this point indicated that both Lotus and Ferrari were capable of winning, but after Alonso overtook the struggling Sutil on lap forty six, he couldn't keep up with Raikkonen, who seemed to be able to set blisteringly-fast lap times and even pull out a lead without damaging his tyres too much-no wonder he said it was an 'easy' win. Alonso said he was 'worried' by the pace of the Lotus. Considering the fact that they now have Red Bull know-how in the form of Mark Webber's former race engineer Ciaran Pilbeam, I think he certainly should be.

Despite this, the Ferraris did look very quick in their own right, as demonstrated by both the cars' ability to rein in Vettel at the beginning of the race due to better tyre management. Alonso set a series of fastest laps before and even after Raikkonen's last stop on lap thirty four, and was only prevented from maintaining the lead by his third and final stop in the closing stages of the race. Even though they ultimately couldn't manage their tyres as well as Raikkonen in his Lotus, Ferrari have much to be pleased about. Last year they were nowhere despite their shock win at a drenched Malaysia. They have come on leaps and bounds since then, and have maintained the amazing form they showed in the latter parts of the 2012 season by giving both Alonso and Massa the chance to challenge for wins from the off. The warmer temperatures at Sepang could shift around the order and allow the Prancing Horse to gain a slight advantage, seeing as they had been suffering from understeer at testing. However, the Red Bull seems to love warmer temperatures, so Ferrari could slip back all the same.

McLaren are the ones who have to worry. They need to take a long, good look at themselves and think hard about what on earth they have done to their car. It's a car far removed from the MP4-27 of last season, with the introduction of a higher chassis, new rear suspension, and a very highly downforce-oriented rear end. All of that should have improved the car, but it hasn't. Something is holding it back. Perhaps it's the simplified approach to the front wing, being a three-element one instead of the more aerodynamically-efficient five-element? I don't know, and I'm not sure McLaren does either. I think it's probably a case of untapped potential, with performance ready to be accessed once all the radical changes can work in harmony. At the moment they all seem to be slightly out of sync, which means that the car is inconsistent and highly unpredictable. Did I mention the fact that it was three seconds off the pace in the dry in Q3? That's worse than the MP4-24 in 2009, and we all remember how awful that was. But, perhaps McLaren can find solace in the fact that they have been in this situation before, and they have bounced back to produce race-winning cars. They're renowned for being able to do this, so I don't see why they shouldn't be able to get on it sooner rather than later.

So, the grand prix down in Oz seems to have told us that tyre management will be a key factor in winning this championship. It's all about getting exactly the right set-up for specific conditions, especially now the tyres are so susceptible to graining. In this light, Lotus seem to be one step ahead of the others. It's a high-quality team with an intelligent bunch of people making sure they get the car set up in exactly the right way. The only thing that might hold them back is a slightly smaller budget. Mind you, one only has to look at McLaren and Force India to see that a big budget doesn't always correlate to the speed of the car. There's hope for Lotus and their easy-going Flying Finn yet.