Ross Brawn has stated that he intends to keep an eagle eye on how the 2017 season unfolds, as the year gets underway in Melbourne this weekend.
The Albert Park circuit has seen the all-new F1 cars enthral the crowds so far, although Lewis Hamilton has still managed to head the field, taking another pole position for Mercedes on Saturday.
Christian Horner, whose Red Bull team had been predicted to take perfect advantage of the new rules, had described him as the "favourite" following Friday practice.
Ferrari also seemed to be faster than the Silver Arrows during testing - and whilst they failed to clinch pole, Sebastian Vettel will start alongside Hamilton in second on Sunday.
Hamilton's new team-mate Valtteri Bottas will start third, with Niki Lauda stating that he has driven "well" on his debut for the team: "Nobody can expect that he straight away beats the world-world-world champion who has been in the team for years," he added.
The Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and home hero Daniel Ricciardo will line up in fifth and tenth respectively, following an accident in Q3 for the latter.
The proceedings are all being followed by Brawn, who has clarified that Liberty Media are now in an ideal position to improve F1 for everyone: "If we see things this year that we don't think are great for the sport, we'll be fighting our corner and we'll be fighting at every level.
"You can rest assured that we will be working with the teams, working with the FIA to find solutions if we don't think the racing is as good as it could be."
Mason Hawker
Local time
Local time
Bahrain International Circuit - Winter testing
Replies (0)
Login to reply