GoJPM!
DVRed it. Watched it this afternoon. McLaren looked great. Jenson Button looked great. Red Bull's qualifying pace was a little baffling, seeing Sebastian Vettel scored 15 poles last season. Vettel did have the race pace but starting 6th made the mountain a little too tall to overcome. Going to be good battle between McLaren and Red Bull this season. McLaren, imo, has the stronger driver tandem of Button and Lewis Hamilton but will they steal point from each other all season and allow Vettel to claim his third straight World Championship?
After McLaren and Red Bull, who look heads and shoulders above the rest, it's tough to rank the other teams. Ferrari does not look too good and have been on a steady decline since the Michael Schumacher/Ross Brawn/Jean Todt regime ended after the '06 season. Fernando Alonso is a great driver but it may not be enough. Mercedes AMG, who now has Schumacher/Brawn, has a pretty good car but can the aging Schuey still wheel it? Teammate, Nico Rosberg, highest paid non-winner on the F1 grid has been around since '06 so he really needs to step it up and show the world he belongs in F1. Lotus, formerly Renault, has '07 World Champ, Kimi Raikkonen, who is back in F1 after a two-year sabbatical to do WRC and dabble in NASCAR last summer with Kyle Busch Motorsports. Force India could be a force. They have Mercedes power and some new cash infusion from Sahara. They also have a pretty young and promising driver line-up of Paul DiResta (Dario Franchitti's cousin) and German, Nico Hulkenberg. Mercedes loves Hulkenberg and is line to move up to Mercedes AMG when and if Michael Schumacher retires again or they get the memo that Rosberg isn't the bee's knees. Williams has Renault power and couple of pay drivers, Pastor Maldanado and Bruno Senna (nephew of the late Ayrton Senna who was killed in a Williams-Renault in '94). Caterham, formerly Team Lotus, is looking to improve this season. Toro Rosso, Red Bull's junior team, I like. They have two new drivers and showed some good speed at Melbourne. Sauber still has Kobyashi and Sergio Perez, kind of becoming the Mexican national team in F1, were pretty fast in winter testing. Marrussia, formerly Virgin, is in for a long season after failing to test after their car failed FIA-mandated crash tests. HRT is even more hopeless than Marrussia. HRT's cars both failed to qualify in Melbourne and are pretty bare of sponsorship. Not sure how long they will survive.
Anyone else staying up until 1:30 to watch the opening race of the F1 season?
No....gonna miss it
No.
Would rather watch cross country on TV
Sebring > F1