Yes, after the delay due to political tensions in Bahrain , the 2011 F1 season has begun in earnest.
How has it panned out so far.
The reigning world champions Red Bull racing had by far the best winter testing, followed by Ferrari. Mclarens had their worst nightmares in the new MP4 car and Mercedes are plodding on from where they left off in 2010.
Ross Brawn says that he doesn't expect the car to be a championship winner but would fight for the podiums.
On the middle sector cars, Renault seem to have the best package however in the absence of Robert Kubica they might find it difficult to get the traction that they need from Vitaly Petrov and Nick Heidfield.
Force India seem to be decent and would like to improve on their seventh placed finish of last year, they do have new driver in Paul Di Resta who was the reserve driver last season.
Sauber petronas seem to have found some form , how they translate it in the season remains to be seen , Kaumi Kobayashi probably would shoulder big responsibility for them.
As far as Williams go , i might expect them to be somewhere between grid 4-6 , what seem to be seen is how rookie Paul Maldonando keeps up with the experience of Rubens Barichello.
As for the rest of the teams , except Red Bull Toro Rosso , i would consider them pure back markers and no real expectations of surprises.
For Toro Rosso, they have a Renault engine and a Red Bull steering & brakes, would be interesting to see how it goes for them.
The real heroes are not the drivers or the cars but this year it could be one of the three new factors for 2011 season .
1 DRS - Drag Reduction System
2 KERS - Kinetic Energy Recovery System
3 Pirelli Tyres ( After departure of long standing Bridgestone tyres , Italian company Pireli has become defacto tyre supplier)
Lots has been spoken about the new tyre component and expectations are that there would be a lot of pit stops this year and it would be impossible for any car to do a one pit stop strategy.
What remains to be seen is how these would affect the strategy and how teams cope with changing conditions.
Am very excited to see the start of 2011 season. With this , am also kick starting my blogging after a three week hiatus.
May the best team win.
