The Formula 1 season is underway, and what a way to start! It has been a long, dark, winter with the only brief spell of light being my trip to Valencia for the Formula 1 testing in January. It was clear from the two days I spent at Valencia that this year’s race is going to be between the Ferraris and the McLaren again, that the Honda is off the pace and the Red Bull still has reliability issues. The best part of the trip to Valencia was the team members and drivers that I met. I have to admit I was worried about meeting Lewis Hamilton again. I first met him in Jerez in December 2006, so before his first Grand Prix season. He was utterly charming, extremely excited about the challenge ahead and willing to stop and chat with my friends and I. I was concerned that a year in Grand Prix racing would have changed him and I am pleased to confirm that was not the case at all. A year on, Lewis was just as willing to stop and talk to us. This in stark contrast to Kimi who barely managed a grunt!

This time last year I was celebrating what I considered to be the best team partnership on the grid, Alonso and Lewis. How could I be so wrong? Who would have thought Alonso would throw his toys out of the pram in the way that he did? What is interesting, is it appears from the post race interviews he has given that he is not over his year at McLaren. I would have expected his approach to this current season to have included not only working on his physical fitness but also working on his psychology. If he is going to concentrate on gesturing at the McLaren crew, his race season is destroyed before it even starts. He showed last year that he does not have the ability that some of our best racing drivers have, to clear his mind and focus totally on the race ahead. It seems he has not learnt from his mistakes last year.

I had the opportunity of meeting Heikki Kovalainen who is also utterly charming. He and Lewis may not be the most experienced driver line up, but they have got to be the best looking! The two of them are going to break many girls’ hearts and, if that’s the way to get more women interested in motor racing then so be it!

The other driver pairing who spent a considerable amount of time with fans were the Williams drivers of Rosberg and Nakajima. They were happy to pose for photographs and on one occasion, I watched Nico move the photographer round so that the sun would not ruin the photographs! The rumour is that Ron Dennis offered Frank Williams £20,000,000 for Nico Rosberg and it was turned down. Frank is probably one of the most astute team owners there is and having a fantastic young driver is worth more to him than money in the bank right now. Some may see it as a gamble, but it is a gamble that paid off for him this weekend.

Is there a better way to start the season than with a Hamilton win? I suppose if I am going to be picky then a McLaren one-two would have been sweet. Heikki was unlucky not to have finished on the podium. Unlike Hamilton who qualified on pole and was able to lead the race, and was mostly unaffected by the three safety car incidents, Kovalainen came under attack a number of times and fought well for his position. He was unlucky with the final safety car incident which came at the wrong time for his pit stop and pushed him back into fifth. On the final lap he fought Alonso hard and passed him but then hit the pit lane speed limiter on his steering wheel enabling Alonso to re-pass him. He finished in fifth but, he had the fastest lap of the race. He and Hamilton are going to be a force to be reckoned with this year.

The Ferraris have shown considerable pace throughout winter testing yet this was a disastrous weekend for them. Kimi had problems in qualifying which saw him leave his car just outside of the pit lane meaning he started the race in sixteenth. The team said it was a fuel pick up problem but the rumour is he simply ran out of fuel. Raikonnen is known for his ability to work his way through the field and he was greatly helped by a first corner collision which saw his team mate Massa who started in fourth make a mistake, spin and need to pit for a new front wing. Kimi was doing well working through the field until he came across the Honda of Barrichello. He struggled to find a way past him and Barrichello did a good job of holding him up until lap 19. Kimi however did not seem to settle this weekend. With the loss of traction control, keeping the car on the track is now down to the driver. At times, Kimi drove like a maniac and was off more than once. He failed to finish the race retiring on lap 15 but was still classified as eighth due to the high number of retirements. Massa only completed 29 laps before his race was over, however, that was not before he ruined Coulthard’s race by driving into him. So, the Ferrari team scored no points on the opening race of the season, but I do not think this should be seen as a marker for the future. The team is strong and the loss of Jean Todt from the pit wall is not going to be the reason why they both failed to finish the race. As much as I hate to say it, Ferrari should not be written off.

Nick Heidfeld finished second in his BMW Sauber. The team are targeting podiums this year and I hope they are able to do that on merit rather than as a result of other drivers falling by the wayside. It was, however, his team mate Kubica who had a more stunning start to the season. He was unlucky not to have taken pole in qualifying and started the race in second whilst Heidfeld was in fifth. Kubica was forced to retire after a crash with Nakajima.

Nakajima was able to continue after his accident with Kubica, and finished sixth. This meant both Williams were in the points as his team mate Rosberg finished third. This is his first podium in Formula 1 and having had a brilliant season last year he thoroughly deserved it.

Alonso finished fourth in his Renault but little should be read into that result. The Renault is lacking in pace which is seen by the qualifying positions of Alonso in twelfth and team mate Nelson Piquet in twenty-first. Alonso managed to keep out of trouble and was not penalised too much by three safety car incidents. I would not expect to see him that high on a regular basis. It was a disastrous debut for his team mate Piquet. No explanation was given for his qualification in twenty-first and he obviously learnt that starting at the back can involve you in a nasty tangle. He was caught up in the first corner incident which saw Fisichella flying through the air. Piquet managed to continue but eventually retired after completing 30 laps. He blamed the incident at the start which damaged his car and ended his race.

Only six cars finished the race. Antony Davidson in his Super Aguri, who was lucky the team even made it to Melbourne, did not get past the first corner, and neither did Fisichella in his Force India, Mark Webber at his home Grand Prix, Jenson Button in his Honda and Sebastien Vettel in his Toro Rosso.

The Red Bull had been showing pace throughout the practice sessions and in qualifying and it was therefore disappointing that neither Red Bull finished the race. Mark Webber never manages to finish his home race so hopefully we will see more of him in Sepang next weekend. Coulthard argues he was run off the circuit by Massa. Massa says it was a racing incident.

Timo Glock, on his Toyota debut, had a massive accident on lap 43. He ran wide and onto the grass but the car hit a ridge causing it to fly in the air and spin violently on the track spraying debris all over the place. Until that point, he was looking strong and certainly better than his team mate, Trulli, who had already retired.

The surprise team of the weekend were the Toro Rossos. They are running a modified 2007 car which Vettel managed to qualify in tenth and Bourdais in his debut, in eighteenth. Bourdais however was having a fantastic race which was ruined by an engine failure just two laps from the finish.

The Melbourne race is hardly ever representative of the season as a whole as it is such a bizarre circuit. Sepang is not much better due to the incredible heat that the drivers and the cars have to endure during the race. However, it does appear we are going to have an exciting season and all in all this year’s Australian race, was well worth getting up at 4.30 am for!