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It’s a great relief that the old lion hasn’t just wandered back behind a wheel and found the whole thing a cakewalk. The opposite in fact, and the young guns are thrillingly keen to tweak his tail. Countryman Sebastian Vettel is streets ahead of course — if only he could find a car that can finish — and Schumacher spent most of the race trying to pass Toro Rosso’s Jaime Alguersuari, before the younger driver locked wheels with the former champion as he overtook. The Spaniard is half his rival’s age: he had just had his first birthday when Schumacher started in F1, but there wasn’t much forelock-tugging going on in Melbourne.
The Bahrain boo-boys said the race changes would make for boring racing. Not so: Jenson Button’s decision to come in before anyone else to change from wet weather tyres to dry weather slicks was inspired. His whole race was an outstanding piece of driving, and the battle between the two McLaren champions, Jenson and Lewis Hamilton, is coming along nicely. Hamilton’s Olympic-level petulance at the end was a real joy. Giving every impression of a 16-year-old schoolboy told to stay in on Friday night to do his homework, he said the decision to call him in for a second tyre change was ‘frickin’ stupid’. Lewis, just think: if Jenson, who has always been a highly intelligent driver, could decide when he wanted to come in, you could have told the team to just shove it. It’s rather endearing that such a gifted young man as Hamilton could be such a terrible loser.
Now the circus moves to Malaysia and, judging by Melbourne, this will be worth getting up for at 8 a.m on Easter Sunday. This time of year in Malaysia, thunderstorms are regular as clockwork round about 4.30 in the evening local time, or about half an hour into the race. The circuit is ideal for overtaking with lots of straights and fast, challenging corners. Tyre strategy will be crucial and anything can happen: look at Alonso, he went from third to last on the first corner at Melbourne after spinning and finding himself pointing the wrong way. So what a great performance to fight back through the field and nearly grab a podium finish.
It’s getting so feisty in F1 now that a good punch-up shouldn’t be long in coming. Let’s hope there’s more to it than the Moyes/Mancini bust-up the other day which, coming hot on the heels of ‘cakegate’ featuring Matthew Freud and Hugh Grant, proved that the noble art of pointless fisticuffs is still alive and well. Frankly Roberto Mancini doesn’t look like a brawler, more like a guy who’d nick your towel and chat up your girlfriend on a beach holiday in Rimini. And anyone who would voluntarily pick a fight with Glaswegian David Moyes should seek urgent psychiatric help.
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