Australian GP – Drivers’ Scorecard

Leaving the first GP of the season behind, still with some echoes of debate and controversies – see the exclusion of Daniel Ricciardo – we are ready to give the first marks.

Nico Rosberg – 9,5 He managed the whole weekend very well, considering this was the kick-start of the season with a Gran Prix full of surprises and uncertainty. Just one flaw in Q3, where he lost just those two seconds to be able to score the fastest lap, which maybe cost him the pole position.

Daniel Ricciardo – 9 Despite the pressures arising from the “home” GP and the kick-off with the colours of Red Bull Racing, he made a very good race with no mistakes.

Kevin Magnussen e Daniil Kvyat – 9 These rookies, at their debut with McLaren and Toro Rosso, showed us excellent results. Perhaps Magnussen deserves even something more, but we need to recall that he’s driving a car that has gained respect since the first collective tests. Another story for the young Daniil, who is getting his hands on Faenza’s car – a car that was experiencing loads of problems until just some days ago.

Fernando Alonso – 8 Once again the Spanish driver was able to conceal the limits of Ferrari. His qualities played a substantial role in the fifth place of Q3 and in the fourth place at finish.

Nico Hulkenberg – 8 Nico has proven himself to be a great pilot, fighting until the end of the race, whereas in the first part he engaged a correct face-off with Alonso, causing some problems to the Spanish driver.

Jenson Button – 7,5 With the fourth place – eventually turned out in a podium – he gave his contribution to score important points for McLaren. Good job with the team as it regards the strategies, being the first to stop at his box after the Safety Car left the track.

Valtteri Bottas – 6 The mistake during the race compromised his final result. Otherwise, he could have even been able to create problems to Alonso and score more points.

Kimi Raikkonen – 5.5 He didn’t match the expectations for the whole weekend: as a World Champion, he should at least been able to make the difference, that – on the other side – was actually made by his team mate.

Sebastian Vettel – 5 Honestly, too nervous. The strength and the character of a World Champion have to be shown even when things go wrong: he needs to react in a better way, to be able to make the difference.

Mercedes – 8 The reliability issue with Lewis Hamilton’s car cost them some points.

McLaren – 7 They fought with both cars hitting the targets of podium and zone points with the two drivers.

Ferrari – 6 An encouraging mark to Maranello’s team, that was able to have both F14-T finishing the race at the chequered flag.

Red Bull – 5 The exclusion from the race results of Daniel Ricciardo arrived for the violation of both the Technical Regulations (article 5.1.4) and the Sporting Regulations (article 3.2). On the Sporting side, Red Bull ignored the warnings of FIA’s technical representatives, whilst from a Technical point of view, during the race the fuel flow on Ricciardo’s car was too high (over 100kg/h).

And now… We look ahead to what will happen in Malaysia in two weeks, with an eye focused on the developments and evolutions that will be studied and carried out by F1 teams.