So much for the wonder team of Lewis and Button .......

[VectraMan]

It's going to a rubbish F1 season. All down to the refuelling rule. A lack of overtaking yesterday is tantamount to this.

Because there was so much overtaking last year, and the years before that we've had refuelling?

I don't think yesterday's was exceptionally dull, just averagely dull. We'll see. The worrying thing was the way everybody was conserving tyres, engines, gearboxes etc. rather than going for it, but then that's a consequence of the cost cutting as much as anything else. It was also the first race where there's much more likely to be problems.

Was Alonso better than Massa? Massa got the edge in qualifying, lost out on the first corner, but then stayed with Alonso right through the race until the last part where he was having overheating problems and would have been stupid not to settle for second (if he'd been allowed to, Ferrari traditionally tell the drivers to not race for the last third).

[Moscow Mule]

It's going to a rubbish F1 season. All down to the refuelling rule. A lack of overtaking yesterday is tantamount to this.

Testament?

It was a bit processional. Primarily, IMO, due to a lack of risk taking among the teams with a lot to deal with.

I'm hoping that as the stakes get higher and people start to get used to the rules we'll see a few more risks, and a lot less of places being decided by who has the faster pit-stop.

I'm also hoping that Button can sort out his car, so that he can drive smooth & fast, rather than just the smooth he displayed yesterday.

[Flubster]

It's going to a rubbish F1 season. All down to the refuelling rule. A lack of overtaking yesterday is tantamount to this.

[SuperZ]

Yeah, one race where the drivers haven't even raced those cars ever before is definitely a good time to act like you know anything about it.

Different circuit, new cars, different drivers in new cars/different teams it doesn't matter. In fact the stronger team mates should do better in such conditions and will likely do better at the more established tracks in my opinion.

My predictions for the rest of the year:
Hamilton will walk all over Button.
Alonso will be ahead of Massa but I expect Massa to get closer to Alonso in the points than BUttom does to Hamilton.
Schumacher will probably excel too.
All this purely based on the result of the first race ....I'll probably be wrong though
Champ winner Alonso 80% chance, Vettel and Hamilton around 70%, Massa 60% and Schumacher 40%. So if Alonso doesn't win it it'll probably be Vettel or Hamilton. If not those two it'll probably be Massa. If not massa, Schumi (but unlikely)

ANd jokingly, 95%% sure at least 50% of races will be boooorrrrriiiing

[norrahe]

As they said in the pre-race commentary we have the luxury this year of having several good drivers and a lot more of the cars are up to speed this year.

What will be more interesting is to see how the new teams fare as they go along.

It will also be interesting to see if anyone really starts in to McLaren about the vent.

This was a difficult first race for many what with fuel and tyre rule changes as well as the fact the course isn't one of the easiest.

[d000hg]

Yeah, one race where the drivers haven't even raced those cars ever before is definitely a good time to act like you know anything about it.

All we've seen is that Ferrari, McLaren, Red Bull and Mercedes/Brawn/whoever they are seem to have decent cars, unlike last year where only Brawn & Red bull did to start with.

[SuperZ]

God loves a tryer though.

....and surprise surprise Button came out second of the two.
Nice to see Fernando stamp his authority down over his long term Ferrari team bud. Must be quite demoralising when someone new joins the team and walks all over ya at the first race. His dream must have been to stay ahead or at least easily keep up with the ex-world champ. As that annoying saying goes, "he's owned".

Oh, I do wonder why Button left the other team. Money, or afraid of Schumi owning him .
Predictable:
1. Hamilton would do better than Button.
2. Same as above for Alonso and Massa.
3. It was a borefest, the rules don't go far enough to improve things

[NeverBeenNorthOfTheM25]

God loves a tryer though.