After a long season break, Formula 1 has finally started: Kimi Raikkonen triumphed in the Australian Gp, ahead of Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel; I won’t be staying here explaining every lap of the race ( if you speak Italian you can see my review at www.motorsportrants.com ), I’ll focus on the impressions I’ve got today about the teams, the drivers and the Circus in general.
First of all, it was a real surprise to see Ferrari and Lotus being able to battle Red Bull: after winter tests I thought that the Milton Keynes team was going to beat everyone, and that was pretty much confirmed after Qualifying, seeing Vettel and Webber getting the first row. But Lotus showed a great speed and optimised the use of its tyres; add Kimi Raikkonen and the result will necessarily be successful. What I haven’t understood today is why Grosjean wasn’t as quick as team-mate, and finished the race at the edge of top ten, where another top team was relegated: McLaren. The result of today was very disappointing for the Woking team, especially because the didn’t have any particular problems; they were just slow. I hope they can fix their problem and join the battle soon, without switching back to the old car as they once supposed.
Ferrari was pleasantly fast too: thanks to a consistent team result – second and fourth place – they showed that they can battle for the championship too. But it’s too early to make predictions.
Lewis Hamilton can be quite happy with his Mercedes: it is not the fastest car but it is certantly in a better position that McLaren right now! His “ex-friend” Adrian Sutil, who skipped last year’s championship due to legal problems, after a row in a Chinese disco, where Lewis didn’t defend him from the police accuses (I’ll stop now with the gossip), started the season with a high, battling until the end of the race with the top racers.
A little bit further from the head of the race, Jules Bianchi got the 15th place for Marussia, beating his closest contender, Catherham, and the team-mate.
The biggest difference from last year, for me, has been having to watch the GP on a streaming: RAI, the Italian national channel, will show live only nine races, with SKY F1 having the whole championship live. I must admit it was a bit uncomfortable, especially for the continue advertising and the difficulties to connect, but eventually I became a real expert, and watching the race in English was enjoyable and very useful. I also read on Twitter that the Italian Sky has disappointed some of the subscribers, due to the commentators’ cheering for a specific team (guess who?) and the lack of contents: they should listen to the criticism and try to improve the channel, as they have resources to do it.
Anyway, next Sunday I will be here again in front of my computer, trying to connect to the right link, to understand what the commentators say and sitting on my “comfortable” computer chair. Oh, what we do for you… Welcome back F1!
IL PIT STOP 
This was a GREAT season opener! I was also watching the race via a stream and I agree with all the advertising. But it’s still great to see the real SkyF1 over the Swedish broadcast so I think that I’ll stick with the Internet option for the rest of the season.