Bottas victory in Australia: The end of the old order

Sebastian Vettel is not one of those people who can hide their feelings very well. So you could see the German immediately how frustrated and annoyed he was when he should explain in interviews the fourth place in the Australian Grand Prix. "If there is no grip, you can not do much," said Vettel. "The others obviously did not have the problem, so we missed something."

The anger is understandable. After the test drives in the run-up to the season, it seemed clear that Ferrari would initially have the fastest car. As in the past two years, when Vettel had won the inaugural Grand Prix in Australia and the World Cup was exciting until the summer. Only in the second half of the season, Mercedes sat down, and Lewis Hamilton could win his world title four and five.

But this year, Ferrari rode after the entire race weekend in Melbourne. In qualifying Vettel was 0.7 seconds slower than Hamilton - an eternity, considering that in Formula 1 ever milliseconds can decide. In the race it came even worse for the German. Not only did he have to watch helplessly as the Mercedes cars dropped second by second. In addition, Max Verstappen drove past him in the Red Bull on the open track.

A new challenger

At the finish, Vettel finished fourth, almost a minute behind the winner, who surprisingly was not Hamilton. That the Finn Valtteri Bottas duped the world champion at the start and had driven out at the end more than 20 seconds ahead of his Mercedes teammate, Vettel could look at the World Cup ranking as a small consolation. But that would be deceptive.

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For after the first race of the season does not seem to be sure that Mercedes will be fully on Hamilton this season. If Bottas confirms the outstanding performance from Melbourne in the coming weeks, maybe soon no one speaks of the big World Cup duel between Vettel and Hamilton. Instead, the biggest competitor of the world champion could come from their own stable.

Hamilton knows this situation. After all, was not the last to challenge him the title, not Vettel, but with Nico Rosberg 2016 also a Mercedes teammate. Reserved accordingly sounded his joy about the "good weekend for the team". Of course, Hamilton dutifully noted that he was happy for Bottas rather than getting annoyed with second place. But his looks at the award ceremony revealed that the British are well aware that a new challenger is growing up.

"Valtteri, it's James"

In the past two years, there was a clear ranking between Hamilton and Bottas. As early as 2017 Mercedes used the Finn again and again deliberately to slow down Vettel. At the 2018 Russian Grand Prix, the stall order reached its climax. In Sochi Bottas was by far the fastest man in the field. He secured the pole position, drove the fastest race lap and would have won the race if the Mercedes chief strategist James Vowles had not intervened and whistled the Finn back to Hamilton's favor.

The radio message Vowles used to deliver the message became the standard word in Formula One. For many fans, "Valtteri, it's James" stands for everything bad in racing. The action was as sensible as it was right from a team point of view: Hamilton needed the victory and the associated World Cup points in a duel with Vettel, and Bottas had after a mixed season no chance to intervene in the fight at the top.

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The first race of the year showed that things could be different this year. While Hamilton made a mistake at the start, Bottas drove a perfect race, took advantage of the mistake of the world champion and continued to build his lead in the sequence. The fact that he also secured the fastest lap and thus the bonus point introduced this season may be seen as another challenge. Especially Bottas was in the decisive penultimate round almost half a second faster than Hamilton, who would have liked to take the extra point.

"Something has changed"

If Bottas can establish itself permanently as a title contender, that would be good for the tension in Formula 1. Indoor duels have a special appeal, because the drivers can not rely so much on technical advantages as in the fight with other teams. But it would also be good news for Vettel and Verstappen, who also calculates World Cup chances when Bottas and Hamilton take each other points.

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You can not conclude from one of 21 races on the outcome of the World Cup. This is known by Hamilton, who finished second and then world champion in Australia in the last two years, as well as Vettel, who won twice in a row in Melbourne and then lost out in the fight for the World Cup. The season is long, the last race will take place this year on December 1st. But even the opening Grand Prix shows that it is not easy for Hamilton to defend his title again - also because of danger threatens from his own stable.

"It has definitely changed a bit," Bottas said, explaining his victory. It was "hard to explain what happened in my head in the winter," but he felt better now. "You learn something every year." Maybe this year he'll learn what it's like to be number one.