Above: Massa rammed by Kobayashi in turn 1, lap 1 (Photo from the excellent antfrench F1 blog)

Figuring you’ve all had the chance to properly watch the Oz Grand Prix, results of the exciting and unpredictable 2014 season opener are now below the fold…

Rosberg Wins Going Away for Mercedes After Hamilton Retires, Aussie Ricciardo Excluded for Rules Violations Despite Brilliant 2nd Place Drive

Photo by Peter J Fox/Getty Images via ESPN.com

Formula 1’s brave new world began on Sunday with the first true test of its radically new technical regulations in an eventful Australian Grand Prix that saw many preseason predictions validated. Mercedes does indeed have a jump on the field to start, as Nico Rosberg proved with a dominant drive. The German had a very Vettel-like performance, checking out early and finishing nearly half a minute ahead of his next pursuer, native Australian and crowd favorite Daniel Ricciardo. The new Red Bull pilot proved exceptionally capable in his redesigned RB10, coming home 2nd to deafening cheers in Melbourne. But Ricciardo was later excluded from the results due to the team’s bypassing a FIA mandated fuel sensor and allegedly exceeding the newly mandated fuel flow rate. Red Bull are appealing the ruling with team boss Christian Horner lashing out at the new fuel sensors as unreliable “immature technology”.

Ricciardo’s exclusion means that McLaren had an even better day than they originally thought, with rookie Kevin Magnussen now elevated to 2nd after originally coming home a very impressive 3rd and veteran champ Jenson Button now moved up to 3rd. McLaren can only be well pleased that their decision to focus on the future during last year’s disastrous season and Ron Dennis’ retaking of the reins have paid big dividends in the early going. Thus, despite Rosberg’s great drive for Mercedes, it is actually McLaren who come out of Australia looking the strongest because pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton’s F1 W05 was forced to retire 2 laps in with engine woes. So even with quick new designs, reliability will be key and hard to come by for the constructors, another preseason prediction that came true Sunday.

It wasn’t just Hamilton who learned that unhappy lesson in Melbourne. 4-time World Champion Sebastien Vettel, who has frankly been outperformed by his young teammate so far in 2014, was also forced to quit the race early with what was described as an engine mapping software issue. But the thought occurs that Red Bull had multiple issues with the KERS system on his former teammate Mark Webber’s car last year and judging by Vettel’s awful start from the grid in Australia that bugbear could well have bit him coming into this season. The extra horsepower supplied by the new duel ERS motors is now not just a nice little bonus boost that can be worked around if it fails but an absolute necessity for top line performance. I’m not saying that Vettel’s difficulties were ERS related but with Red Bull’s prior problems in that department, I wouldn’t be surprised if that was really the true source of the engine woes, software issues or no.

Other notables Down Under: Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso came home a solid 5th (now elevated to 4th after Ricciardo’s exclusion) with new teammate Kimi Raikkonen placing 8th (now 7th). While these results were not bad for the team from Maranello it is highly likely that once again Ferrari will be not quite good enough to compete for the Driver’s and Constructor’s Championships. But of course it’s hard to write off the legendary Prancing Horse after only one race. Williams looks poised for a bounce back year even after enduring some misfortune during the Grand Prix. Former Ferrari hot shoe Felipe Massa, who qualified 9th, was taken out by Kamui Kobayashi’s Caterham in what looked like a reckless first lap late-breaking maneuver (later put down to a fly-by-wire brake issue). But young Finnish teammate Valtteri Botas placed 6th (5th) despite clipping the wall in turn 9 while battling Alonso and puncturing his right rear tire. Even so, the resulting Safety Car period caused by his own debris allowed him to pit and still stay on the lead lap to salvage a very good points paying position for the rejuvenated Williams team.

Nico Hulkenberg once again proved himself a top pilot in any chassis, finishing 7th (6th) on his return to Force India. And Torro Rosso, Red Bull’s driver development team, had a very good day with Jean-Eric Vergne placing 9th (8th) and 19-year-old Russian rookie Daniil Kvyat taking 10th (9th). As they had in preseason, Lotus struggled with both Pastor Maldonado and Romain Grosjean forced to retire prematurely and finishing out of the points.

Official Top 10 for the Australian Grand Prix here:

Complete race results at Formula1.com.

The teams have a 2 week turnaround before Malaysia, March 28-30, where overheating could well be a major issue in the tropical heat of Sepang. It should be very interesting to see how things continue to develop so see you then!