Formula 1: Looking Back at the Season so Far

After three brilliant races, the new rules—KERS, DRS and Pirelli—have made strategy much more important in Formula 1 proving that it is a team sport. Shanghai particularly turned out to be a classic and showed that Red Bull can be beaten.

Red Bull had a great start to the season despite the contrast in fortunes of Webber and Vettel.  Vettel had a particularly impressive start with two wins and another podium opening up a lead of 21 points.

Webber, however, had a dodgy shock absorber in Australia and no KERS in Malaysia. But what a race he had in Shanghai, brilliantly managing his tyres to drive from 18^th to third  and setting a fastest lap time 1.5 seconds faster than his teammate.  But Red Bull still have reliability issues with KERS not working in China.

McLaren have made a great turnaround from preseason testing and look the closest challengers to Red Bull. Button had problems with a penalty in Australia and a dodgy pit stop in China. He had a solid race in Malaysia to finish just three seconds behind Vettel.

Meanwhile, Hamilton had a broken floor in Australia and suffered from tyre problems in Malaysia. But he drove to a stunning win in China with a series of breathtaking overtakes made possible by an excellent three-stop strategy.

McLaren are the best car developer and Red Bull’s 20-point lead can be cut off in just one single race.

Ferrari have less than half of Red Bull’s points at the moment. They had strategy problems in Australia and rear wing problems in Malaysia. Most worryingly, however, they just aren’t on the pace with China their worst finish.

One positive though is that Massa is in great form finishing ahead of Alonso in two races and even managed to stay with Vettel for some time in Shanghai.  The prancing horse has its work cut out in the three-week break until Turkey

Renault have showed a lot of promise in the opening races despite losing their main driver Kubica due to a car crash. Vitaly Petrov had an amazing first race becoming the first Russian to finish on the podium, a result Heidfeld matched in Malaysia.

Renault have a innovative forward-facing exhaust and are very quick off the line. It certainly looks like there is a lot to come from them yet.

Mercedes, meanwhile, are slowly but surely getting there after failing to finish in Australia. Nico Rosberg had a good race in Shanghai leading the race for quite some time. Schumacher rolled back the years in Shanghai defending excellently from Alonso for eight laps.

With Ross Brawn at the helm, Mercedes will surely improve.

Looking back at other things, Paul di Resta looked impressive finishing above Sutil twice. Williams had a disastrous opening to the season with Team Lotus finishing ahead of them in Shanghai. All in all, this season has showed that it can be as good as the last one and that says it all.