F1 blog.

An international Grand Prix was something we factored into our trip very early on. In fact, large chunks of the trip were fitted snuggly around being in Melbourne for a certain weekend. Obviously, we were extremely excited, but as it was the start of the season there was a huge amount of unknown surrounding the weekend. Who would be quick, which cars would look the best and would Anna get over the fact that Schumi wasn't going to be there this year?

Unusually, the Aussie GP weekend runs for 4 days. Thursday only has demonstrations and practices for some of the support categories so we chose to miss that and make the most of Melbourne's other sites but we could hear the noise of race engines as we went about being tourists.

We'd got general admission tickets for the whole event which cost $140 which is about 2/3 of the cost of attending the British race. Take note Silverstone!

The city put on free trams from the centre to the track, a few km's away. Albert Park is in a lovely setting, the lake in the centre of the track is quite large and the surroundings were parks and a golf course (closed). It was surreal to be walking around the famous lake with the iconic palm trees around the edge. To the north were the impressive high rise buildings of central Melbourne and not very far to the south was the sea. The lake is home to lots of black swans, moorhens, gulls and the occasional pelican which adds interest during times of inactivity on track.

The best general access seating was on mounds in the golf course. We watched practice 1 near corner 12 but then found a better viewing spot where we sat for the rest of the weekend by corners 9 and 10.

The entire event had a much more inclusive and clubby feel than the British race. Car owners clubs had displays of cars around the track and we found one car with a DJ wing on! It had a newer design of bracket than was used when Josh worked there so he couldn't have made it but it was nice to see nevertheless.

Supporting the F1 cars were classic sportcars, Porsche 911s, V8 supercars and a celebrity Mazda 6 challenge.
The classic sports cars were things like can-am's and old Le-Mans cars from the 60's and 70's. They sounded amazing - what's not to like about 8 litre V8 engines?! - but the racing was not very close.
The Porsche racing was just as dull as it is in the UK where they go around with the touring cars. On the Sunday Josh dozed through their race, which he felt was an apt reflection of the level of excitement and interest they provide.
The V8 supercars are the most high profile national race series in Australia. They are quite like UK touring cars, but bigger because well... everything is bigger in Australia. They provided good, close and enjoyable racing and we were glad to have seen them. It was something we'd wanted to do before we came out here.

The Mazda 6 celebrity challenge was the most enjoyable support race though. It was designed to advertise the new Mazda 6 and they took a range of celebrities including an Aussie chef, Holly Valance and Sir Chris Hoy, gave them a few days training and let them loose on a track. There was lots of bumping and people going off but it was fun to watch, Chris Hoy is fast in a car as well as on a bike.

Practice 1 and 2 were on Friday and we enjoyed sitting in the sun watching it sparkle on the surface of the lake. The on-site commentary provided on radio and through a tannoy was good and informative (take note again Silverstone).

Some initial observations about the cars:

• The Ferrari looks really good, really really good. The colour and decals this year are spot on, Anna reckons it's the best looking one since the F2004.
• The Renault engine sounds very rough off throttle
• The slightly dropped noses with the 'vanity' panel make the cars generally look really nice
• A change in colours makes it even harder to spot which driver is which, as the cameras that were red on the cars last year are now black. It was made especially difficult by both Mercedes drivers having yellow helmets, and by Vettel changing his helmet halfway through the weekend!

During the practice sessions, the commentators kept telling us about how useless winter testing was as it was cold and wet, oh how ironic...
We passed an enjoyable day soaking up the sun and atmosphere and getting ever-more excited about the race.

Saturday started slightly damp, it was dry when we got to the circuit but during practice 3 it started to rain. This lead to a period when there were no cars on the track, which was boring. We did the British thing and discussed the weather with the local race fans, donned our waterproofs and got on with it. It became clear though that the rain was set in so eventually all but 2 teams did some serious running. The Torro Rossos were the first cars out and were greeted with cheers from the crowd.

From then on the rain continued all day, sometimes easing and sometimes getting worse. We sat in our water proofs and under Anna's umbrella trying to stay dry. Although we'd seen the forecast which said rain and cold it was a rather unpleasant shock, surely Australia is always meant to be warm and sunny? To put 'cold' into perspective (and so you don't think we've gone soft) cold means 13 degrees, a full 25 degree drop from earlier in the week!

Qualifying was due to start at 5pm but was postponed 20 minutes because of a short bust of heavier rain. Marshals were out on the track sweeping water away and the safety car kept doing exploratory laps. Q1 started, it was damp but not raining much and by the end of the session cars were onto the inter tyre rather than the rain tyre. A number of cars went off but it was really good to see the drivers have to really work to get a fast time. Rather than carry on with the program as planned, they decided to delay the start of Q2. The rain started falling again and the track was getting wetter but, unlike before, there were no efforts to clear the water. The start of Q2 kept getting further delayed and the fans were patronisingly told that 'the cars are too sensitive to cope with the rain'. This really riled Josh who asked why would you design a car for use outside that cannot cope with a normal wet day? If you design a dry weather only car then it should be your problem if its wet, let the cars that can cope with rain run. The other argument about it not being safe concerns the knowledge of how the new car and tyres would react in a 'new situation', as this was the first race of the season. However this is nonsense because, as we were repeatedly told he previous day, winter testing had been cold and wet, exactly like the conditions in Australia.

We were faced with a difficult decision; did we leave and head back to a hot dinner and a hot shower but risk missing the rest of qualifying, or stay, freezing cold and soaked through every layer but see the session? The start kept getting delayed and eventually, after we'd got some hot and free chips from a friendly and sympathetic stall holder, the remainder of qualifying was postponed until Sunday morning. Although disappointing at the time, in hindsight is meant there was a LOT more action on Sunday than there otherwise would have been. We got the tram back to the hostel, getting further drenched on the walk from the tram stop. We got some looks of 'you must be mad' and some of pure pity as we puddled back to the dorm.

Sunday started damp again and we queued at the gate to get in and find a good seat. As an armchair race fan you hope for rain, as it definitely makes for some awesome racing, but my god does it make spectating rubbish! We got to our mound in good time to get a decent spot, and sat on Anna's inflatable bodyboard for a bit of comfort. Qualifying was the first thing up and when the cars came out there was a loud cheer. It remained dry during Q2 and by the end the cars threatened with dropping out were trying their luck on the soft tyres, which was amusing to watch. Good grief it was cold! 4 layers and still we were freezing!

Q3 was all on slicks and about who was feeling brave in their new wheels. Vettel did an amazing lap 3 seconds faster than anyone else had done at that point and went on to get a well-deserved pole from Webber.

Mercifully the sun came out in the afternoon and there were cheers from the crowd. Between the support races and the main event there was a lot of faffing about with driver parades and various fly-pasts and rich people walking around the cars. Max Chiltern looked very bored on the drivers parade despite it being his first race but Webber and Ricciardo, the 2 Australians, got good cheers.

Gradually the temperature climbed, we had the customary fly-past of the Qantas jet and then at last the formation lap. It's always a great, tense and exciting moment waiting for those red lights to go out but there is something amazing about hearing the scream of the engines at 18,000rpm as they pile into the first corner towards you.

Webber got a slow start while the Ferraris were liked greased whippets; Alonso even seemed taken aback by his own speed off the start. Very shortly there were lots of pit stops as the super soft tyre died, Button lasted just 4 laps. Oddly only Sutil had started on the harder tyre and he inherited the lead for a while. During the race rain kept threatening but when it did it was only very light and the track stayed dry. Kimi caught up with Alonso and Vettel and when they both had to make an extra pit stop he took over the lead of the race. On fresher tyres Alonso threatened to catch him but was never going consistently fast enough to reel him in despite cheers from Anna and the rest of the Tifosi. Sutil ended up in 7th just ahead of his teammate Di Resta and Vettel finished 3rd, the Red Bull being quite hard on its tyres. Kimi was a popular winner, especially with the small group of Finnish fans to our right.

After the slowing down lap the track was opened and we picked up some tyre rubber and got some photos. It was too far to walk around to the pits unfortunately, so we set off back to the hostel having enjoyed a great weekend of racing.