The gloves are off. We have finally seen what (most) of the 2015 Formula 1 teams are capable of. There are plenty of rookies in the field who have shown what they can do when they stretch their legs. In a race which boasted a meagre fifteen starters, there were a few stand-out performances, but there were some drivers who performed excellently last season who were rather anonymous come both qualifying and race day. Today was very much the day of the rookie and the World Champion.
2015 Australian Grand Prix Driver Ratings
Lewis Hamilton
Hamilton picked up where he left off from in 2014, but with one notable difference: he routed Nico Rosberg in qualifying by a massive margin of over half a second after a mistake by the German in qualifying saw him take his first pole for a while. He was largely unchallenged in the race, but Rosberg kept relatively close, despite Hamilton’s messy pit stop. Hamilton was able to resist anything his team mate could throw at him. It appeared to be a very good performance, and it didn’t even seem like he was breaking much of a sweat.
Rating: 8/10
Nico Rosberg
Rosberg was simply outclassed by Hamilton all weekend, sending an ominous signal to last season’s runner-up. He tried to push Hamilton, but the Brit was unfathomed. It was a somewhat anonymous weekend for him.
Rating: 5/10
Daniel Ricciardo
Ricciardo placed his Red Bull in seventh on the grid, which is roughly its correct position at the moment. In stark contrast to last season, the Australian had a pretty dull race day, which was not helped by his underpowered Red Bull. He was complaining of drive-ability issues, the same as his former team mate Sebastian Vettel did last year.
Rating: 6/10
Daniil Kvyat
Daniil Kvyat’s Red Bull debut got off to a terrible start. He was knocked out in Q2 and the car gave way en route to the grid.
Rating: N/A
Felipe Massa
Massa performed well in qualifying to place his Williams third on the grid ahead of his team mate and the Ferraris. He started strongly and resisted Sebastian Vettel until the first pit stops. He came out behind the German and remained there and that’s where he finished. He probably maximised his car’s potential here.
Rating: 7/10
Valtteri Bottas
Bottas struggled in qualifying after a back problem arose. He withdrew from the race after qualifying.
Rating: N/A
Sebastian Vettel
Sebastian Vettel admitted that he left a fair few tenths on the table in qualifying, despite beating his team mate. He squeezed said team-mate at the start and did benefit as a result. He remained in fourth place until he passed Massa in the pitstops, netting a podium on his Ferrari debut.
Rating: 7/10
Kimi Raikkonen
Raikkonen also admitted to a few errors during qualifying, justifying the pace of the Ferrari. He had a race which was largely out of his control. He was forced wide by Vettel at the start, before being tapped by Carlos Sainz and then Felipe Nasr. He then battled his way back through the field after two poor pit stops before coming to a halt after a wheel nut failed. It was a much better performance than much of last year however.
Rating: 6/10
Kevin Magnussen
A crash in qualifying did not help McLaren’s terrible 2015. To give credit to Magnussen, he did fill the reserve driver role pretty well. His race ended before he even reached the grid.
Rating: N/A
Jenson Button
Button was knocked out in Q1 for the first time since 2012, but he somehow dragged the McLaren to the finish line, albeit two laps down. He even had a little bit of fun in it, as he battled with the significantly faster Force India of former team-mate Sergio Perez. It was a tough performance to judge for Button, but simply bringing the car home was the sign of a strong drive.
Rating: 7/10
Sergio Perez
The two Force Indias were very closely matched in qualifying. After being separated by one thousandth of a second, with Perez being on the worse end, it was shaping up to be a good race between the two. That wasn’t the case. Perez overtook under the safety car, managed to spin whilst battling Button, and generally had a very poor race day. He picked up a point at least.
Rating: 3/10
Nico Hulkenberg
The Hulk did a near-identical job to his team mate in qualifying, and was knocked out in Q2. He had a slightly better race pace, but he too was rather anonymous, and was the last of the finishers who had a clean run. A worrying sight for the Silverstone team.
Rating: 5/10
Max Verstappen
There was a lot of hype and pressure surrounding the 17-year old at this event as he became by far the youngest ever F1 driver. He was pretty well beaten by his team-mate in qualifying and didn’t feature a massive amount in the race before his car gave up. It was a largely unexciting debut, but he did a solid job.
Rating: 4/10
Carlos Sainz
Sainz managed to out-qualify one of the Red Bulls and nearly both of them, as he lined up against Ricciardo. He made a very strong start, and was running very well until he lost half a minute in the pit stops. Despite being passed by Marcus Ericsson in a Sauber which is probably quicker than the Toro Rosso, he picked up his first points.
Rating: 8/10
Romain Grosjean
Grosjean managed to get the car into Q3 for the first time in a very, very long time, but was eliminated after the first lap with engine trouble.
Rating: N/A
Pastor Maldonado
Maldonado also got into Q3 (his first appearance in an extremely long time) but was eliminated by Felipe Nasr at the first corner.
Rating: N/A
Will Stevens
Stevens didn’t even turn a wheel as Manor tried their hardest to get the car to work, but failed.
Rating: N/A
Roberto Merhi
Merhi did just as much running as Stevens did.
Rating: N/A
Marcus Ericsson
Ericsson was the first big scalp, as they say, as he was eliminated in Q1 with the McLarens and the Manors. He did, however, put right all of the wrongs of qualifying and raced very well. He ditched the medium tyre after the first lap and from then on worked his way through the field, putting a sweet pass on Perez en route to his first points in F1.
Rating: 6/10
Felipe Nasr
Star of the Weekend. I’ve been critical of Nasr in the past but he definitely was the star in Melbourne. He narrowly missed out on a Q3 run on his debut, and he did take Maldonado out at the first corner but from then on he was supreme. He was involved in a battle with some big names for much of the race and managed to come out on top of the lot of them. He delivered Sauber’s best ever result for a rookie on his debut and delivered ten very important points for the team.
Rating: 9/10
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