Event Features
Speed Arena Australia GP Preview
By
Apr 1, 2006, 18:13

Renault seems to have started the season where they left off, with their dominating performance in Malaysia resulting in a Renault 1-2 finish. Fisichella finally got redemption after his incident-filled 2005 season by dominating the race from pole. Alonso drove a superb race to finish 2nd, never really challenging Fisichella during the race. Bad luck seemed to have followed Kimi into the 2006 season, with his suspension failure during qualifying in Bahrain and his race-ending incident with Klien in Malaysia.

Australia will bring interesting results. It will be nice to see who is fastest in "normal" conditions after the two hot races that saw multiple engine failures from many teams. Surprisingly, it was McLaren who did not face any engine failures in the two races, although there was an engine mapping problem with Montoya's car in Bahrain. The advantage seems to be with the Michelin-shod teams as the Bridgestone rubber doesn't work as well in the colder climate; Toyota will probably face a disappointing weekend as they still struggle with putting heat into their Bridgestone tyres.

McLaren is rumoured to have engine and aero updates for Australia in a bid to catch up to Renault as they seriously need to collect points if they want to keep the fight alive. Expect Kimi and JPM to be fighting for the top step of the podium barring any of the unfortunate incidents that seem to haunt them.

Williams seem to have found pace in Malaysia, especially with rookie Nico Rosberg's stunning qualifying performance that placed him in 3rd position. Unfortunately both Williams did not finish the race due to failures, hydraulic for Webber and an engine failure for Rosberg. No doubt they will be aggressive in Melbourne, especially with Webber wanting to please his home crowd with a podium position.

Ruben Barrichello is still trying to get grips with his new Honda, especially in the braking department. He's been trying hard to adapt to the Honda, hopefully he finds the pace to match Jenson Button. Honda hasn't brought any updates to Melbourne so they may be a dis-advantage and will probably finish behind Renault and McLaren.

Ferrari has shown pace in Bahrain and Malaysia, Massa proving to be faster than M. Schumacher at the latter race. They claim to have gotten to the bottom of their engine problems, so expect them to be competitive. Schumacher has always done well at Australia (apart from last year of course), so expect his experience and skill to help him fight for the win.

The dark horse of Australia will be JV in his BMW-Sauber, who claims this is one of his favorite tracks. Remember he got pole on his F1 debut here in Australia and if his Free Practice times on Friday are any indication, he may have a great race; slotting just behind the big four (Honda, Renault, McLaren, and Ferrari). Nick showed great pace in Malaysia until his engine got the better of him, so expect him to be fast as well. The JV – NH battle will be the most interesting of the mid-field. JV seems to have gotten his old race-craft back, so expect some excellent showing from the Canadian driver.

All in all, expect the pecking order to be slightly re-shuffled this time around. McLaren may get the upper hand with their new developments and expect certain drivers (Barrichello for example) to gain some ground. It should be an interesting race, keep a close eye on the engines that are on their second race after the stressful heat of Malaysia. We'll also find out if Alonso can hold on to his WDC lead and McLaren can close the gap!

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